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Hewlett-Packard
sets March 19 for merger vote
Computer
and printer maker Hewlett-Packard said it has set a shareholder
vote for March 19 on its controversial plan to buy Compaq
Computer, in what would be the computer industry’s largest
merger. Compaq will hold its meeting a day later, the companies
said in regulatory filings.
The vote dates fit the timetable that Hewlett-Packard and
Compaq laid out when they announced the deal in September.
They said they expected it to close in the first half of 2002.
EU to drop complaint against Intel soon
The
European Commission plans to drop its anti-trust investigation
of chipmaker Intel, a source said, marking the second time
in recent days that European regulators have backed US technology
companies. “The European Commission will soon drop its
investigation against Intel,” the source told Reuters.
The comment followed similar remarks by European Competition
Commissioner Mario Monti reported from New York over the weekend.
Both chipset maker VIA Technologies and Advanced Micro Devices,
Intel’s principal rival in the market for microprocessors,
had filed complaints against Intel in September and October
2000, respectively.
Cray to sell Dell servers in clusters
Dell
Computer said it signed a three-year agreement for supercomputer
maker Cray to sell Dell computers in high-performance computing
clusters. The terms were not disclosed.
Cray had been selling computing clusters, in which many small
machines work simultaneously to create one computer with large
processing capabilities, based largely on proprietary technology.
Dell said that it expects demand for the computing clusters
from oil companies doing seismic exploration as well as from
academic institutions that are interested in the lower cost
associated with a standardised server.
Hynix still favours Micron, despite Infineon
Micron
Technology remains ahead in the race to buy the memory chip
unit of Hynix Semiconductor with a reported $3.8 billion offer,
despite speculation that rival Infineon Technologies had tabled
a better bid. “We will place priority on the Micron talks
as they started first,” a Hynix spokesman said.
The improved offer comes as South Korea’s Hynix also
talks with German chip maker Infineon over a possible deal
including equity swaps or product ventures with Korean media
claiming Infineon’s offer had topped Micron’s.
Verizon Wireless sues FCC
Verizon
Wireless sued the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
in an attempt to recoup a $1.74 billion deposit related to
the aborted auction of wireless licenses held by NextWave
Telecom. The suit, filed in the US Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia, comes more than a month after Verizon
Wireless unsuccessfully petitioned the FCC for the return
of its funds, carrier spokesman Jeffrey Nelson said.
With a successful $8.7 billion bid, Verizon won rights to
67 of 216 NextWave wireless spectrum licenses auctioned last
February. But the auction was nullified last June by a federal
appeals court, which ruled that the FCC violated bankruptcy
laws when it repossessed the licenses from NextWave and reauctioned
them.
Ciena to cut 400 jobs
Optical
networking equipment maker Ciena announced that it will cut
400 jobs, or 12 percent of its work force, and expects its
first-quarter loss to be nearly double what analysts had been
expecting. Excluding charges, Ciena said it expected to lose
between 19 and 22 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson
Financial/First Call had predicted Ciena would lose 11 cents
a share in the first quarter. Second-quarter revenue is also
expected to be flat or down compared with the first quarter,
said Gary Smith, Ciena’s president and CEO.
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