|
The Irish Times reports that unions at Eircom have told Denis O'Brien they will only support his bid for the company if they can more than double their 15 percent shareholding. The Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOT), which holds the shares on behalf of staff, made its position clear to the eIsland consortium in discussions over recent weeks. The businessman has yet to formally respond.
The same paper also reports that Erkki Liikanen, the European telecoms commissioner, will meet the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke, to discuss the Republic's poor record on unbundling the local loop. Liikanen described the price which Eircom is proposing to charge other operators to use its network as "not cheap".
The Irish Times also reports that Eircell will challenge the legal powers of the telecoms regulator by refusing a request to re-enter commercial discussions with Imagine over its bid to become a virtual operator. The refusal will increase the pressure on Imagine, which is seeking to access Eircell's network to offer mobile phone services to its customers as a means to stay in business. Imagine and Eircell have been in discussions since last September but negotiations recently broke down following a bitter court battle, prompting Imagine to ask the regulator to intervene. It is understood the regulator sent an official dispute resolution request to Eircell asking that it re-enter discussions with Imagine. But an Eircell spokeswoman confirmed that the firm would dismiss the request to restart negotiations because the regulator had "no legal mandate to intervene" in commercial discussions.
The same paper also reports that Nortel Networks said it would shed 20,000 jobs worldwide by midyear, up from 15,000 announced previously. The company said it lost USD385 million, or USD0.12 per share in the first quarter excluding onetime costs, compared with year earlier net earnings of USD347 million, or USD0.12 per share. Revenue fell to USD6.18 billion from USD6.32 billion a year earlier. Including charges, Nortel's loss amounted to USD2.58 billion, or USD0.82 a share.
The same paper reports that attempts are being made to assemble an Irish-led consortium to bid for the operation of the proposed European Union top-level domain registry. In a pre-emptive move, the IE Domain Registry (IEDR) and its chief executive, Michael Fagan, have been working on the formation of a consortium that would run the proposed central registry from an Irish base. The registry would control who uses the .eu domain registration.
Finally the Irish Times reports that Microsoft reported results ahead of Wall Street expectations but warned against unreasonable expectations going forward. The company attributed its robust figures to stronger-than-expected sales of its Windows 2000 software. The company said net profits in the three months to 31 March were USD2.45 billion, or USD0.44 a share, compared with USD2.39 billion, or USD0.43 a share a year earlier. Turnover grew to USD6.46 billion, diluted per-share earnings, including a penny-a-share charge related to its Great Plains Software acquisition, will be USD0.41 or USD0.42, or slightly less than the USD0.43 that Wall Street analysts had predicted.
The Irish Independent reports that Eircell increased its number of subscribers by almost 24 percent in the last six months, despite introducing tough new rules on accounting for subscribers. Eircell had 1,522,000 mobile subscribers at 31 March 2001, compared with 1,236,000 at 30 September 2000, according to figures contained in a circular published by Eircom earlier this week.
The same paper also reports that the 1,000 Irish workers at Celestica will not be affected by the company's decision to cut up to 10 percent of its worldwide workforce, as a result of a slowing in demand for its services. A spokesperson for Celestica, which bought out the Motorola plant in Swords last December, could not confirm the company's position on Ireland, but added that it is believed that there will not be any job losses either here or in the UK.
The Financial Times reports that four potential buyers are still in the running for Lucent's optical fibre division, which is for a sale with a likely price tag of USD5 billion-USD8 billion. Alcatel, JDS Uniphase, Corning and Pirelli are all participating in the auction, say people close to the process. Lucent put the business up for sale last month to concentrate on its core businesses. The company is also facing pressure to raise cash to reduce its debt load. The deadline for formal bids closed on Tuesday and a winner could be announced within the next month.
The same paper also reports that Sega plans to sell some of its 57 affiliated companies and cut 400 jobs in a bid to return to profitability next year. The company, which this year abandoned its loss-making Dreamcast console, will look at spinning off or selling some affiliates. The moves are designed to draw a line under what has been a turgid year for Sega - it was only saved from collapse by a USD680 million gift from Isao Okawa, its former president who died last month.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Gateway reported a USD502.9 million loss on a 15 percent decline in first-quarter sales, reflecting the costs of closing some retail outlets and layoffs, and writing off bad consumer loans. The personal-computer maker posted a loss of USD1.56 a share, contrasted with net income of USD119.6 million, or USD0.36 a diluted share, a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter fell to USD2.03 billion from USD2.39 billion a year earlier. Gateway said it shipped 1.1 million PCs, down from 1.3 million.
The same paper also reports that new figures show that the U.S. personal-computer market contracted in the first quarter of 2001 - the first time it has shrunk during the last seven years. According to preliminary numbers from Gartner Dataquest, the U.S. PC market contracted by 3.5 percent during the first quarter compared with the period a year earlier. The showing is the worst since Gartner started keeping records in 1993.
|
