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The Irish Examiner reports that Qualtrace Solutions, the Cork-based software provider that has gone into liquidation, owes employees EUR345,000 in unsecured salaries and notice periods. Qualtrace, a provider of software to high-profile public and State organisations such as Glanbia and the Southern Health Board, used to share the same building as KPNQwest and Logica, both of whom have also ceased trading.
According to the Irish Independent, the ODTR has recommended that Eircom provide itemised billing to operators who request the service. Telecoms regulator Etain Doyle said she was disappointed that there was not greater support for the proposal to mandate the introduction of this service for inter-operator billing.
The Financial Times reports that KPNQwest and its auditor are embroiled in a dispute after accountants denied claims by the data carrier that a former Arthur Andersen executive had approved the now-bankrupt company's 2001 annual report. A KPNQwest official close to Jack McMaster, the company's CEO, said documentation existed to prove that Paul Ogden, a senior partner at Andersen who now works for Deloitte & Touche, signed off the annual report. However, Paul Vermeij, spokesman for Deloitte & Touche, which bought Andersen's Dutch operations earlier this month, said: "I have checked at the highest level and Andersen never signed off anything or even indicated that it was going to do so."
The same paper says that shares in chipmaking giant Micron Technology fell 9 percent on Tuesday after the company reported an unexpected third-quarter loss, caused by declining chip prices. The firm reported a loss of USD0.04 a share compared with Wall Street consensus estimates for a profit of USD0.06. CEO Steve Appleton blamed the decline in chip prices on a weak personal-computer market.
According to the Wall Street Journal, troubled cable company Adelphia Communications has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company has secured USD1.5 billion in financing, which will allow it to continue operating while under bankruptcy protection.
The paper also says that Palm reported a narrower-than-anticipated fiscal fourth-quarter net loss and said it expected the hand-held industry to return to double-digit growth rates next year. Palm had warned that it would miss earnings projections because of the continuing technology recession. For the quarter ended 31 May, the company posted a net loss of USD27.5 million, or USD0.05 a share, compared with a loss of USD392.1 million, or USD0.69 a share, for the same period a year ago.
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