Stories by Nancy Weil

Baratz to leave Sun

Alan Baratz is leaving Sun Microsystems in a couple of weeks to join the private-equity investment firm Warburg, Pincus & Co as a managing director.

Study: Cable Modems Top 1M in North America

More than 1 million [M] households in North America now have cable-modem service, and researcher Kinetic Strategies Inc. expects that number to reach 1.6 million [M] by year's end.
The Phoenix-based broadband research firm tallied subscriber lists from seven major vendors in the cable-modem market and also added to the total those who subscribe with other, less well known service providers. About 70 percent of North American cable modem users are in the U.S., with the rest in Canada.

US plans $US40m Y2K database

The US government will create a massive database of information about global preparations for Y2K, with running updates from various countries and industries as the date rollover to January 1 happens in each time zone.
The project will cost an estimated $US40 million in taxpayer money.

AT&T Applauds San Francisco Access Decision

AT&T Corp. today applauded last night's vote by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which rejected a proposal to force the telecommunications giant to open its cable networks to rival ISPs (Internet service providers) if the city of Portland, Oregon, succeeds in its own attempts to open access.
"We think it was a fair outcome and one that really serves the best interest of the consumers in San Francisco," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T general counsel.

Nortel Networks' Q2 results beat expectations

Nortel Networks on Wednesday reported earnings of $US368 million, or 55 cents per share, for the second fiscal quarter, which blew past analysts' average estimate of 50 cents a share.
Twenty-three analysts polled by First Call predicted earnings per share of between 48 cents and 53 cents, so the actual results from the networking company also exceeded the highest estimate.

CA World: E-commerce focus sharpens

Computer Associates International (CA) is sharpening its e-commerce focus, announcing yesterday the extension of its integrated infrastructure approach to a product line aimed at companies that do business on the Internet.

Cable Companies Lose to ISPs in Florida Vote

Cable companies operating in some parts of Broward County, Florida, must open access to their high-speed Internet networks to competition, the county commission there decided yesterday.
The Broward commission is the second local governing body, after Portland, Oregon, to approve such an ordinance in the U.S.

Directory forum launched with open standard pledge

A group of top IT vendors, with a large supporting cast, yesterday launched the Directory Interoperability Forum, pledging to work on open standards leading to interoperability of directory-based applications -- a move they said will boost e-commerce and support for Internet applications.

Global Crossing completes C&W Global Marine deal

Global Crossing has completed its $US850 million acquisition of Cable & Wireless Global Marine, a submarine cable installation and maintenance venture that was purchased from Cable & Wireless.
Global Crossing's new unit will now be called Global Marine Systems, the company announced on Monday, saying that Global Marine is the largest company of its kind globally with 15 cable ships, 22 submersible vehicles and three installation barges, and maintains more than a third of the kilometres of undersea cable.

U.S. DOJ investigates undersea cable operators

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has confirmed it is investigating the undersea cable industry, which includes a number of the globe's largest telecommunications companies, for possible antitrust violations.

US govt Y2K grade improves to 'B-'

US government departments and agencies scored a "B-" in the latest quarterly report card assessing year-2000 preparations issued on Tuesday by a House of Representatives subcommittee, which found that 94 percent of mission-critical computer systems are ready for the date change.

Voice group to open development platform

An industry group working on voice-enabled Internet and corporate applications will officially launch on Monday a development platform including tools and interfaces needed for software incorporating speech technology.

FTC closes door on investigation into Cisco

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has closed its inquiry into partnership talks among Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks, and has decided not to investigate the matter further, according to Cisco.

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