FRAMINGHAM (04/10/2000) - An audit that McLean, Virginia-based KPMG Consulting LLC completed last month found that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) issued between 21,888 and 23,385 too many H-1B visas last year.
Congress had set the high-tech visa limit at 115,000 and is considering legislation that would erase the overage or apply it to this year's allotment.
The INS attributes the error to a systems problem.
Cambridge Technology Partners Inc. last week sued its founder, James Sims, claiming he violated a one-year noncompetitive clause and raided the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company for employees. Sims founded Boston-based Gen3 Partners Inc. in December, six months after quitting as CEO of Cambridge Technology. Sims admitted he hired 17 employees from his former company but dismissed the suit as being "completely without merit."
Dell Computer Corp. in Round Rock, Texas, just found 100,000 ready-made customers after signing a deal with American Airlines to provide discounted computers and Internet access for American's workforce. The $15 million contract will allow employees of the airline to buy computers with bundled computer services at below-market rates, giving Dell access to American's sizable job pool.
Short Takes
AT&T Corp. last week signed a $1 billion, seven-year outsourcing agreement to turn over certain information technology operations to El Segundo, California-based Computer Sciences Corp. as a cost-cutting move. ... Nortel Networks Corp. in Brampton, Ontario, has signed a deal with PricewaterhouseCoopers to provide the New York-based firm with business services such as payroll, accounts payable, employee training and employee expense reimbursement. ... A software glitch last week temporarily knocked out e-mail service for 2,000 users of Netscape Communications Corp.'s WebMail service.