Western Australian wireless technology company Wavenet International has negotiated a $US5 million deal to sell its Palm wireless cradles to US company Motient, which will offer the products to users in the US. A spokesman said the cradles, which are built on Wavenet's Dualwave wireless technology, will allow users of Palm V handheld devices to access the Internet and corporate intranets over Motient's network. The companies expect to make the cradle's available in the third quarter of this year.
Solution 6 has been given a green light to proceed with its acquisition of IT services company XLON by acquiring its parent company Ceedata Holdings. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has approved the takeover, which will be financed by $A10 million in cash plus shares and options. XLON provides its services to professional services firms "including all five of the Big 5 accounting firms", according to a statement released by the company.
Telstra is backing the recently approved Co-operative Research Centre for Smart Internet Technology to the tune of more than $A6 million in cash and kind. The centre is undertaking a project that aims to make Internet-enabled devices and appliances easier to use through the development of intelligent software, and to improve the capability of switching systems that make up the backbone of the Internet.
Listed company Local Telecom & Internet has finalised its acquisition of IT security consulting company DeMorgan. The deal was financed through an exchange of four million shares valued at 25 cents each, with an options exchange to follow if certain revenue targets are met. DeMorgan will retain its name while operating as a subsidiary of Local Telecom & Internet. Its clients include the Australian Stock Exchange, News Limited and the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade.
Signs of the extent of the hard times in the US became clearly visible this week when Hewlett-Packard announced that it will retrench up to two per cent of its workforce - or 1770 staff - by the end of April. The move was announced after an ongoing restructuring cut the number of HP product lines from 83 to 16, and the number of major internal organisations to four. A spokesman said that as a result of those changes "some of the marketing was in the wrong places".