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The main technology story in all the papers on Wednesday morning is the outcome of the Hewlett Packard proxy vote. Hewlett Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina claimed shareholder backing for the company's bid for Compaq Computer. She would not provide details on the preliminary margin of victory, other than to say that it was quite "slim but sufficient." However, as polling closed, sources suggested early returns indicated the vote was so close that neither side could be certain of victory implying that the margin would be within three percentage points. Michael Barbera, one of three partners of IVS Associates, which is counting the votes, said it would probably take several weeks to release final results.
The Irish Times continues the HP story reporting that limited job cuts are likely at Hewlett Packard and Compaq's Irish operations regardless of whether the merger goes ahead or not. Hewlett Packard and Compaq employ about 4,000 people in manufacturing, sales, finance, software development and technical support centres in Ireland. Both firms have indicated they would cut 15,000 jobs globally following a merger and some observers believe this figure may rise. Certain functions in the Republic, such as administration, management and finance, would be vulnerable should the merger go ahead, according to Barry Dixon, technology analyst with Davy's Stockbrokers.
The Irish Independent reports that Eircom has criticised the European Commission over its plans to launch a court action against Ireland for failing to open up fully the local loop to competition. In the initial legal proceedings, to be announced on Wednesday, the Commission will send a form notice to the Irish government concerning the ODTR for failing to implement fully the EU law. Although Eircom narrowly avoided separate proceedings late last year, the telecom regulator now faces this new action on a technical point, along with their counterparts in four other countries.
The Irish Examiner reports that one of the hits at CeBIT has been the fully functional virtual keyboard that can be projected and touched on any surface. The virtual keyboard from Developer VKB Inc from Jerusalem in Israel can be integrated in mobile phones, laptops, tablet PCs, or clean, sterile and medical environments and could revolutionise data entry for mini computers.
The Financial Times reports that Richard Green, a Sun Microsystems senior vice-president, was cross-examined by Microsoft attorneys as part of the remedy phase of the antitrust trial. The testimony exposed the internal workings of Sun as well as its fears and concerns. Under the disclosure rules, Sun was forced to release hundreds of documents to Microsoft. Some of these documents -- including internal memos, presentations and e-mails were presented on Tuesday. Many were marked "very Sun Confidential" and "Highly Confidential." The materials, which were filled with jargon and acronyms, show an organisation that appears to be completely obsessed by Microsoft and on the defensive.
The paper also reports that the terms of the Justice Department's proposed settlement with Microsoft would not have prevented the company illegally destroying the threat posed by Netscape, the browser group, said Jim Barksdale, its former chief executive. Barksdale said Microsoft's proposed settlement with the Justice Department and nine settling US States, would not restore the market conditions that would make competition possible. Microsoft had illegally destroyed the viability of Navigator as a cross-platform threat to Windows, the operating system, said Barksdale, while calling on the court to impose the strong set of remedies proposed by the nine non-settling States to prevent similar behaviour going forward.
The Wall Street Journal reports that one of the key findings from a survey by A.T, Kearney to be released Tuesday shows consumer enthusiasm for buying things on-line using mobile phones has dropped steadily since 2000. Only one percent of mobile users surveyed worldwide in January said they intended to use Internet-enabled mobile phones for any type of transaction, down from 12 percent a year earlier and 32 percent in June 2000. The survey of 5,600 wireless customers in the US, Europe, and Asia was done by Kearney, a subsidiary of Electronic Data Systems Corp., along with the Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University's business school. Forty-four percent of mobile users worldwide said they would be interested in using what is known as "m-cash."
The paper also reports that Net2Phone Inc., a provider of technology for sending phone calls over the Internet, filed suit against Cisco Systems, claiming the networking-technology company breached a contract with Net2Phone, stole trade secrets and engaged in unfair competition. Cisco denies the allegations and says Net2Phone is trying to blame the company for a product that flopped.
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