China Mobile selects Nortel to expand wireless network
China Mobile, the world's largest GSM operator, has selected Nortel to expand its digital wireless network in six regions under a series of contracts awarded since January of this year and collectively estimated at US$150 million.
Nortel issued a statement saying that the contracts include network optimisation services from Nortel to streamline performance of the expanded infrastructure and enhance network productivity while allowing China Mobile to standardise service pricing across all regions.
Nortel also said that China Mobile's GSM network expansion in the six regions will increase subscriber capacity by 3.48 million to a total of approximately 18 million. It is expected to improve network coverage and services to remote areas while providing a smooth migration to future 3G services.
It also says that the expansion will support China Mobile's National Rural Network Project in the northern and western provinces of Hebei, Shaanxi and Liaoning, the municipality of Tianjin, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and the eastern province of Hunan.
'Nortel's wireless technology is playing a significant role in positioning China Mobile to bring advanced wireless broadband services to millions of people, and ensuring the world's largest GSM operator is well prepared to meet the stringent needs of China's 3G era,' said Robert Mao, chief executive officer, Greater China, Nortel.
Nortel said its end-to-end GSM/UMTS solution will provide network infrastructure, software upgrades and support services, positioning China Mobile to achieve operational efficiencies through reduced network complexity and operating expenses, as well as fast introduction of new, revenue-generating services.
Factiva upgrades mobile capability
News and sales leads delivered to on-the-go executives and sales professionals on mobile devices
Factiva®, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, has announced that its Wireless Beta program, "Factiva Mobile", is now available to all customers leveraging Factiva.com, Factiva SalesWorksSM and Factiva Companies & ExecutivesSM.
The company says it will provide time-pressed, mobile executives with access to business news and company information that will help them to more effectively prepare for sales calls, meetings, and business planning, anytime and anywhere.
"As Factiva continues to provide information where, when, and how our customers need it, mobile delivery has become an important part of our vision," said Alan Scott, chief marketing officer at Factiva. "The capabilities offered by Factiva truly gives executives a competitive edge by arming them with the most current facts about their customers, prospects, competitors and markets."
Compatible with BlackBerry® devices, Factiva Mobile for Factiva SalesWorks and Factiva Companies & Executives delivers snapshots of key information for more than 1.5 million companies worldwide, including company news, financials, contact details, executive lists, stock quotes, and more.
The company claims that sales executives using Factiva SalesWorks will be able to gain current information about a customer or a prospect up to the moment they enter their contact's office.
Factiva provides essential business news and information and the company says it has an unrivalled collection of more than 9,000 credentialed sources.
SSA Global Completes Acquisition of Epiphany
SSA Global, a leading provider of extended enterprise solutions and services, has announced the completion of its acquisition of E.piphany, a global customer relationship management (CRM) provider.
In a statement issued by the company, SSA Global announced that, as a result of the merger, Epiphany will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of SSA Global Technologies. All holders of Epiphany outstanding common stock will receive cash consideration totalling US$4.20 per share, to be distributed as a US$2.13 per share special distribution and US$2.07 per share as merger consideration.
The president, chairman and CEO of SSA Global, Mike Greenough, said "the addition of Epiphany is further confirmation of SSA Global's commitment to anticipate and address the demands of our customers'.
Greenough claimed that the Epiphany acquisition strengthens the company's position as a partner who offers proven enterprise extension solutions that create competitive differentiation and significant business value.
Gredenough also said that with the addition of Epiphany, SSA Global now provided a customer relationship management offering that included outbound and inbound marketing, sales, service, and CRM analytics, with applications based on a similar services-oriented architecture as SSA Open Architecture, built using Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) technology.
Gibson Guitar Partners with Intel, HP and Cakewalk
Worldwide music group, Gibson Guitar, has announced that it's partnering with Intel, HP and Cakewalk to bring a high-powered and innovative experience to the 119th Audioo Engineering Society (AES) convention to begin in New York in three days.
Gibson said in a statement issued in New York that Cakewalk's new SONAR 5 which presents a mix environment with true end-to-end 64 bit signal path and HP's xw 4300 workstation powered by Intel's latest dual core processors will be on display at the AES convention which will run from 7 to 10 October.
Gibson Guitar's own Bart Walsh will perform in the AES Pavilion #872 throughout the four day convention. Performances are scheduled daily at 11am, 1:30pm and 4pm. Guests will have the opportunity to rock to the sounds of a Gibson Les Paul.
Gibson says its Digital Guitar, which it claims is the most innovative change to the electric guitar in over 70 years, will also be on display and demonstrated at the Technology Rocks Pavilion throughout the conference.
The AES, now in its fifth decade, is the only professional society devoted exclusively to audio technology. Its membership of leading engineers, scientists and other authorities has increased throughout the world boosting the society's stature.
Gibson, founded in 1894, is known worldwide for producing classic models in every major style of fretted instrument, including acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins and banjos.
British cable provider,NTL, may buy rival
The British cable operator NTL plans to acquire Telewest, a counterpart, in a long-awaited deal that will create a US$10 billion company with more than seven million customers, two executives involved in the negotiations said on Sunday.
The New York Times reports (3 October) that NTL plans to offer stock and cash for all of Telewest, the executives said, including its programming division Flextech, which Telewest had planned to auction off. As part of the deal, NTL is expected to take on more than US$4 billion in Telewest debt.
According to the newspaper, NTL and Telewest are struggling to compete with pay television operators like British Sky Broadcasting, and have been discussing the possibility of a deal for most of this year.
NTL will make 70 percent of the offer in cash and 30 percent in its own stock. As part of the deal, NTL will combine Telewest's debt with its own, restructure it and add more than £1 billion (US$1.76 billion) in debt. NTL's total debt will be more than £5 billion (US$8.8 billion).
The NYT says that both companies expanded rapidly by acquiring smaller rivals over the past decade, a strategy that left them saddled with debt. Ultimately, both were forced to turn over control to their creditors.
In challenge to Google, Yahoo Will scan books
An unusual alliance of corporations, nonprofit groups and universities plans to announce today an ambitious plan to digitise hundreds of thousands of books over the next several years and put them on the internet, with the full text accessible to anyone.
The New York Times reports (3 October) that the effort is being led by Yahoo, which appears to be taking direct aim at a similar project announced by its archrival, Google, whose own program to create searchable digital copies of entire collections at leading research libraries has run into a series of challenges since it was announced nine months ago.
The newspaper says that the new project, called the Open Content Alliance, has the wide-ranging goal of digitising historical works of fiction along with specialised technical papers. In addition to Yahoo, its members include the Internet Archive, the University of California, and the University of Toronto, as well as the National Archive in England and others.
Although the new project will not be a direct source of revenue of Yahoo, it could give the company's search feature more visibility, reports the NYT., adding that the announcement also establishes a new round in the battle between Yahoo and Google over index size - the number of documents that can be found in a search engine's database.
The NYT says that in a departure from Google's approach, the Open Content Alliance will also make the books accessible to any search engine, including Google's. (Under Google's program, a digitised book would show up only through a Google search.) And by focusing at first on works that are in the public domain - such as thousands of volumes of early American fiction - the group is sidestepping the tricky question of copyright violation.
In DVD format split, Paramount goes 2 ways
Recognising that a split over the format of the next generation of digital video discs is deepening, Paramount Pictures said yesterday that it will make DVD movies in the Blu-ray format as well as in the HD DVD standard.
A report in The New York Times (3 October) says that Paramount is the first major studio to say publicly that it will produce DVD's in each of the two formats, which both promise high-definition pictures, enhanced audio and five or more times the storage space on a disc. Until now, the big Hollywood studios have supported one format or the other.
The newspaper says, however, the chance for an agreement to use one format dimmed earlier this year when negotiations stalled between Toshiba, which makes the HD DVD standard, and Sony, Panasonic and others in the Blu-ray group. Since then, companies on both sides have promised to start selling DVD players that use their respective formats as early as this winter.
Other studios may follow in Paramount's path, claims the NYT., reporting that in addition to Paramount, Warner Brothers and Universal have backed the HD DVD format, while Sony Pictures, Disney, 20th Century Fox and Lion's Gate have come out in favor of Blu-ray.
The plans to produce two types of machines and movies for both formats suggests that there may not be a clear resolution to the battle anytime soon, according to industry executives.
The newspaper reports that the president of Paramount Pictures, Thomas Lesinski, said in a statement that Sony's inclusion of Blu-ray technology in its PlayStation 3 videogame console when it is released next spring was an important factor in his studio's decision.
Google morphs into multifaceted juggernaut
In just seven years, Google has morphed from a bare-bones online search engine into a technological octopus that seems to sprout another intriguing tentacle every other week, reports The Associated Press in the New York Times (3 October).
The company, with US$7.1 billion to spend thanks to zealous shareholder support, is now positioned to head down a variety of different paths. And that's spurring an almost-daily guessing game about where Google's flurry of innovation might lead, reports AP.
According to the report, internet and software rivals like Yahoo and Microsoftaren't the only ones tracking Google. Big media and telecommunications companies also are on the lookout, realising they too may face a looming threat.
AP says that the theories about Google's next move are all over the map.Is Google cobbling together an internet-driven computing platform that would challenge Microsoft's stranglehold on the personal computer? Is the company preparing to build a wireless network that would provide free internet access nationwide? Will Google dip into its huge hoard of cash to pull off a blockbuster deal?
There's a consensus on one overarching point: ''Google wants to be everywhere that people are,'' said Danny Sullivan, who has followed the company closely as editor of the industry newsletter Search Engine Watch.
The AP/NYT report says that Google's long-range objectives remain obscure. Is the company simply exploring different ways to distribute the ads that generate virtually all of its revenue? Or is Google pursuing a much grander plan that ultimately will transform the way people work, communicate, shop, read and even watch TV, questions AP.
There's little doubt that Google is going to get much bigger, says AP., adding that the company made that clear last week when it announced plans to build a 1-million-square-foot campus just a few miles away from its 915,000-square-foot headquarters, known as the ''Googleplex,'' on the grounds of NASA's Ames Research Center. Google needs the space for thousands of new workers and plans to draw on the brain power of NASA's rocket scientists. The new hires will join a payroll that already has nearly tripled in the past two years to 4,200 employees.
But, says AP.,for all its growth, Google remains a relative midget alongside Microsoft, which employs 61,000 workers and holds nearly US$38 billion in cash.
Radio Shack to sell AMD's net appliance
AMD and Radio Shack have decided they're brave enough to give the fabled internet terminal another go. The vendors have teamed to sell a cheap, no frills box designed to function as an e-mail, word processor and internet workhorse, reports The Register (3 October).
According to The Register, Silicon Valley publication, The Mercury News seems to have the scoop on the US$299 Personal Internet Communicator (PIC). Neither Radio Shack nor AMD issued statements on their partnership, but the paper has the two companies putting devices soon in stores across the US.
The PICs run on humble 366MHz Geode GX processors from AMD. They are 5.5 inches wide, 8.5 inches deep and 2 inches high. Each unit also weighs just 3 pounds, reports the newspaper.
The Register says that AMD counts TATA, Microsoft and Samsung as PIC partners and has been pushing the cheap PC in Asia. Now it hopes Radio Shack will do its bidding in the US.
Both companies are hawking more of a real PC - or at least a super-bloated PDA - than the internet appliances that crashed during the dot-com boom, claims The Register.
AMD licenses chip tech, lawsuit dropped
AMD last week acquired a series of technology licences that grant it the right to use patents it was sued for allegedly infringing back in May.
The Register reports (3 October) that the financial terms underpinning the deal were not made public. The agreement was reached with the patents' owner, Computer Cache Coherency, a subsidiary of technology holding company Acacia Research. As the litigant's name suggests, the patents cover memory cache coherence, says the publication.
According to the publication, the deal involves the dissolution of a lawsuit brought in the US District Court of Northern California by the Acacia subsidiary last May. Intel was also sued at that time - both chip makers' names were added to an existing complaint made in December 2004 against VIA. All three companies offer system logic components that incorporate its technology, Acacia claimed in May.
Telefonica denies KPN merger talks
Telefonica today denied it is discussing a merger with Dutch telco KPN, reports The Register (3 October).
According to the publication, this weekend the Wall Street Journal reported that Telefonica is making a US$24billion bid for the Dutch company. Initially, both KPN and Telefonica declined to comment. Now, a Telefonica spokesman tells the financial news service AFX "that we want to deny that there have been talks with KPN".
The Register says that five years ago KPN and Telefonica discussed a merger, but Telefonica backed off because of concerns about the Dutch government's stake in KPN. At that time, the Dutch government owned about 43 per cent of KPN. Now it only holds a 20 per cent stake. Also, both companies were hit by the collapse of the tech bubble.
