The European Commission has confirmed that America Online and Time Warner have submitted concessions in an effort to win approval for their planned $183 billion merger. "Yesterday we received undertakings from the companies," Commission spokeswoman Amelia Torres said in a response to a question at the European Union executive's daily news briefing on Friday.
"I am not going to say anything on what the undertakings are about or whether they elaborate on previous undertakings. We will have to wait for the Commission to examine those proposals and we have to wait for the final decision which must be taken before October 24th," Torres said. Reuters have quoted a source as saying that AOL and Time Warner had offered four concessions to address concerns that they will come to dominate the market for the provision of content such as music over the Internet, particularly as Time Warner's music arm is planning a joint venture with EMI.
Intel In Slide: Intel stock plunged 19 per cent late last week after the chip maker said third-quarter revenues would fall below forecasts. The company, which employs 4,400 people at its operations in Leixlip, Co Kildare, cited weak European demand for its microprocessors. The warning dragged down other high-tech stocks on Friday. The announcement follows recent speculation in the market that global demand for micro processors and PCs is slipping.
No Waiting: Students in the Networks and Telecommunications Research Group at Trinity college are providing an useful and imaginative service for south-bound commuters. camera.ntrg.cs.tcd.ie is a webcam focused on the "next train" display at Pearse St Dart station. Apparently it was set up to allow Trinity researchers squeeze in that last few minutes of work time before haring across the street to catch the train. No sign of the North-bound train though.
Broadband Plans: The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms Mary O'Rourke, has promised that £700 million of broadband capacity will be rolled out to the regions as a result of the Government's package on promoting e-commerce. £150 million will be allocated by the Government but the Minister expressed her hope that this would rise to £700 million with the aid of private sector involvement
Plant Growth Stalls: As Stephen King prepares to post the third installment of his online serial novel The Plant, it appears fewer people fear his threat to pull the plug if they don't pay. Most fans are obeying the honour system and are sending King $1 for each installment downloaded. And some are sending in extra dollar bills to cover freeloaders. But the latest numbers showed that just under 70 per cent of those downloading The Plant paid for it. King has set 75 per cent as the minimum for him to continue after part three, which will be available on his site today.
Show Time: Trinity College's annual Multimedia student showcase takes place in the Douglas Hyde Gallery, TCD from this Thursday until Saturday October 7th. In its fourth year, the show has once more been put together by students of the MSc in Multimedia and combines technology and creativity in an effort to exploit the potential digital media offers for the convergence of the arts and sciences.
Business Access Up: The latest survey of the Irish business community by the Information Society Commission shows that 96 per cent of companies have access to the Internet, up from 85 per cent last year and 74 per cent in 1998. The survey, conducted by the MRBI, was carried out amongst 503 chief executives across four differing business size bands in Ireland. Eighty one per cent of those companies with access to the Internet provide access to employees either through all computers or separate shared computers.
Olympian Efforts: While the Irish Olympic team is hardly covering itself in glory, one Irish site is holding its own in the Olympic stakes. Nielsen//Netrating, who are tracking traffic to scores of Olympics sites all over the world, has ranked ireland.com's Olympics site, available from www.ireland.com, the 10th most popular site in Europe. The most popular Olympic URL in Europe is the Games official site, www.olympics.com.
No Net Tax: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder ruled out a tax on Internet use in a speech last week to business leaders. He quashed a new Finance Ministry rule floated last month to tax businesses every time employees use company computers for private surfing.
Penny Stocks Shock: A US teenager is to repay $285,00 that stock regulators said he made through illegal trading on the Internet. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Jonathan Lebed bought large blocks of penny stocks, hyped them on financial message boards and then dumped his shares after the price rose.
Bank Statement: The website of the London-based bank HSBC, was defaced last week although the bank assured its customers their records were secure. A picture of Prime Minister Tony Blair was posted on the home page alongside a statement supporting the recent crippling fuel protests by truckers and others demanding lower fuel prices.
An The Bidder Is: For the first time, an Academy Award will be auctioned online this week. The best-actor statuette belonged to James Cagney who won it for playing George M Cohan in the 1942 movie Yankee Doodle Dandy. People can put in their bids Ibidlive.tv. The auction begins on Wednesday at 11.00 p.m. Irish time.
Crazy Money: Global entertainment and media industry revenues will grow 7 per cent a year to nearly $1 trillion by 2004, driven by regulatory changes, technology and a robust economic climate, according to a report authored by consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The Internet market is expected to grow the fastest of all media categories, nearly tripling by 2004 globally to $75 billion and growing at a 22.3 per cent compounded annual rate.
In Brief...ChangingWorlds, a provider of "personalisation solutions" has won an award for innovation in artificial intelligence for its personalisation technology at the recent AAAI conference in Austin, Texas. . . Parthus Technologies has announced a new GPS licensing and royalty deal with semiconductor designer and manufacturer, Maxim Integrated Products. .