News and Analysis to 26th April 2004
MS Law
Microsoft appears to be making amends with its legal
adversaries. Already this month Sun has received $2.5bn and InterTrust circa
$0.5bn. The latest settlement is with the state of Minnesota, figure
undisclosed, which is one of the 17 states that took class action lawsuits
against the software giant. 7 US states remain outstanding, and it is thought
that Microsoft should be budgeting for a further $1bn to remove these from its
‘to do’ list.
Governance CA style
The Computer Associates accounting scandal has been running
a while now. Most recently nine more employees from the Finance and Legal
departments were sacked, following the sacking of three finance executives last
year. CEO Sanjay Kumar has had to step down and now has the role of chief
software architect, which given CA’s random array of products seems rather a
harsh penalty.
Tech upturn on track
According to tech investors such as Firsthand Funds and
Munder Capital, the upturn is happening, albeit slowly. They claim unrealistic
expectations regarding the speed of recovery have led to market turbulence,
rather than intrinsic weaknesses in the Sector.
Happy Memories for Motorola
There were mixed fortunes in wireless. Motorola was up with
a 42% increase in revenue, whilst Nokia suffered a 16% drop in profits on their
most recent quarters. Apparently the difference appears to be down to handset
design. Apparently clamshells are in and Nokia doesn’t have one.
HP – Hollywood Productions
HP has ‘stars in its eyes’ by recognising the potential in
providing technology to digitally restore old films along with producing state
of the art animations along the lines of Finding Nemo and Shrek. So will HP’s
next generation of printers come with inbuilt DVDs?
Xerox prints computers
The document company Xerox believes it has ‘cracked the
code’ for printing computer chips using paper printer techniques. This will be
very useful for the high volume low value chip market, eg. RFID tags. Xerox has
an enviable reputation for developing innovative technologies, but an equally
unenviable one for failing to exploit them.
Sun down
Sun Microsystems’s latest quarter saw a loss of $760m, which
included a $203m restructuring charge. Hopefully the cessation of hostilities
with Microsoft will enable it to spend less time with lawyers and more with its
customers.
e-Britannia
Britain ranks number 2 in respect of e-government readiness
according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Denmark edged into first place
and US took third. This attests to the power of political will; the British
government has been making bold statements about digital Britain for the last 6
years.
