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The Irish Independent reports that the CEO of the .ie domain registry, Mike Fagan, has been suspended by the board. Read the full story as reported by ElectricNews.net on Wednesday.
The paper also reports that a newspaper journalist was dismissed from his job for downloading a cartoon onto a computer, an Irish employment tribunal has heard. Finian Coghlan was sacked last November when his employer at the Tallaght-based Echo was angered by the journalist's downloading of a "Dilbert" cartoon. The paper's news editor said there had been a deteriorating relationship between Coghlan and the newspaper, and that employees had been warned that the use of e-mail and the Internet for non-work-related matters was unacceptable. The tribunal reserved its judgment.
The same paper says that the managing director of Eircom retail, Cathal Magee, has warned that current policies and regulations in the telecoms industry are inhibiting investment, product innovation and development. Speaking to the Small Firm's Association, Magee said the telecoms regulator and the government's "fixation with price control" was threatening to kill off investment in infrastructure. He claimed the rates paid by other operators to use Eircom's core networks -- rates that are set by the regulator -- are too low, saying they are the lowest rates in Europe.
The paper also says that Dell Computer has raised its third-quarter revenue guidance to USD9.1 billion and now expects per-share earnings to come in at the higher end of a previous forecast. Full story to follow on ElectricNews.net.
The paper also notes that Gary Coburn has joined the board of Internet services company Horizon Technologies as an executive director.
According to the Irish Times, tech company 3Com, which employs 850 workers in Dublin, has put a 120,000-square-foot facility on the market and plans to sell up to 30 acres of land to raise cash for its US parent. The move to raise cash through a property sale comes in the wake of a global restructuring at the company, which earlier cut nearly 200 jobs at 3Com's facilities in Blanchardstown. The company said it had no plans to reduce its workforce further as a result of the assets sale.
The paper also reports that two telecommunications companies have announced plans to cut a total of 270 jobs. Nortel Networks said 200 jobs would go at its plant in County Antrim and 20 would be cut at its Galway operations, as reported by ElectricNews.net on Wednesday. Also in Galway, Silicon & Software Systems said 50 jobs would go as it closed a design facility in the city. Read the full story on ElectricNews.net.
The Financial Times reports that Hong Kong-based mobile operator Hutchison Whampoa has postponed a USD1.5 billion bond deal due to fading prospects for 3G mobile phone services in Europe. Hutchison said the planned USD960 million and USD470 million bond was postponed due to difficult market conditions. The fundraising would have bolstered the company, which has spent billions of pounds on its European 3G launch. Separately, Hutchison Whampoa announced that Japan's NEC has agreed to pay USD73 million for a 5 percent strategic stake in the Hong Kong company's domestic telecoms arm.
The paper also says that Electronic Data Systems, the embattled IT outsourcing company, could try to renegotiate the USD6.9 billion contract with the US Navy that has become such a drain on its cashflow. The contract, along with a USD2.5 billion deal to run part of the IT systems for the UK's Department for Work and Pensions, has exerted pressure on the company's finances at a difficult time. Although the deal was a coup for the company when it was agreed in October 2000, EDS has still not received any money from it, due to delays imposed by Congress.
According to the Wall Street Journal, five former Adelphia Communications executives have pleaded not guilty to charges of looting the company of hundreds of millions of dollars. A 24-count indictment filed last month accuses company founder John Rigas, two of his sons and two other executives of using more than USD250 million in company funds to meet margin calls on private stock holdings and of using USD12.8 million of company money to build a golf course. The accused executives entered a plea of not guilty at a hearing in front of US District Judge Leonard Sand in Manhattan.
The same paper reports that high-profile executives at 21 US companies personally received hot IPO shares from Goldman Sachs during the stock market boom of the late 1990s, according to Congressional investigators. Two executives of major Goldman clients -- eBay chief executive Margaret Whitman and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang -- each received shares in more than 100 IPOs of stock managed by Goldman and quickly resold many of the shares at a profit. Among others, executives or directors of WorldCom, Enron, eToys and Global Crossing also received IPO shares. Goldman Sachs received lucrative investment-banking fees from the companies at the time.
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