Handspring seals mobile pact
Handspring, the No 2 maker of hand held computers, said it has signed an agreement with British mobile phone group mm02 to distribute Handspring’s new Treo family of phones in Europe.

HP, Compaq to pay workers $634 mn
Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer would shell out $634 million in bonuses to key employees as an incentive to stay on if their merger goes through, both companies disclosed.

AOL urges Instant Messagers to upgrade
AOL urged users of older versions of its ICQ instant messaging program to upgrade to the latest version because of a new security hole that could leave computers vulnerable to hacking.

Nokia to take on Palm in US cell war
The rectangular-shaped Communicator, Nokia all-in-one personal data organiser and mobile phone from Finland, has surpassed Palm as the most popular handheld computer in Europe.

IBM, Steelcase form office alliance
IBM and office furniture giant Steelcase are collaborating to develop BlueSpace, an office system that weds IBM’s technological know-how to Steelcase’s workplace expertise.

Juniper posts loss, sees flat revenues
Juniper Networks posted a fourth-quarter net loss as spending on equipment by Internet service providers and telecom carriers tightened, and the No 2 maker of network routers forecast essentially flat revenues for the current quarter.

Marconi may cut 4,000 more jobs
Struggling telecommunications company, Marconi, plans to cut costs and may slash 4,000 more jobs, or 13.8 percent of its global work force, after its sales fell 38.7 percent in the last three months of 2001.

Intel’s revenues, profits top analyst forecasts
Intel reported a 77 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings on an extended drop in demand for personal computers, but both profits and revenues of the No 1 chipmaker topped analysts’ forecasts amid a bounce in PC sales over the holidays.

US services market to touch $276 bn in 2002: Gartner
US IT external services spending grew 5 percent in 2001, and in 2002 the industry will show a slight improvement as it’s projected to grow 8 percent, according to Dataquest, a unit of Gartner.

IN BRIEF