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Parthus and Ceva have announced that the Irish High Court has approved the terms of their merger agreement, including the capital repayment scheme that will redistribute USD60 million to shareholders. The two groups are finalising approvals from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the UK Listing Authority, and they expect common stock in the newly formed ParthusCeva to begin trading on the Nasdaq and the LSE on receipt of these approvals. Parthus and Ceva will announce a date for the closing of the merger transaction as soon as it has been determined.
The Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation (ODTR) has set up a working group with Hutchison Whampoa, O2 and Vodafone for the development of a Code of Practice for the sharing of radio sites. The three mobile operators made commitments to assist in the development of the code when applying for their 3G licences. The aim of the code is to ensure that full consideration is given to the use of existing masts, buildings and other structures for the siting of new antennas. The guidelines will also encourage the sharing of masts and sites where beneficial for the environment.
Research company IDC has reported that PC shipments grew by 3.3 percent in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) in the third quarter 2002 compared with the same quarter last year. In line with forecasts, the market returned to moderate positive growth, against a fall of 9.4 percent recorded in the third quarter last year, IDC said. Demand for notebooks across all sectors, as well as demand from SMEs, boosted the numbers. The figures are somewhat more modest that what Gartner Dataquest issued last week in its EMEA PC report, which said the sector had growth of 7 percent in the third quarter.
ICT Ireland, the division of IBEC that represents the tech sector, has welcomed the outcome of the Nice referendum. ICT believes that new opportunities provided by an enlarged EU market will be a substantial advantage to Irish companies. Brendan Butler, ICT director, said the outcome of the referendum should reinforce Ireland's position as a location of choice for foreign direct investment.
Deutsche Telekom mobile phone unit T-Mobile has increased its lead over Vodafone in the German mobile market in the third quarter, according to the Financial Times Deutschland. T-Mobile Germany had 23.3 million customers in Q3, while Vodafone had 21.4 million. T-Mobile's average revenue per user (ARPU) figure for Germany is now at the same level as that of Vodafone, said Timotheus Hoettges, head of T-Mobile Germany.
The FT Deutschland also reported that German mobile phone operator E-Plus, a division of Dutch group KPN, is planning to buy the 3G networks of the beleaguered MobilCom. Last month MobilCom was to file for protection from creditors after former partner France Telecom abandoned it with EUR6.9 billion in debt, but the German government bailed out the company with EUR50 million while it negotiated refinancing with France Telecom. E-Plus said it wants to take over MobilCom's unfinished fast wireless network in exchange for forgiving some debt.
Mobile operator Celltel Lanka has chosen Network365 to introduce a secure mobile wallet in Sri Lanka. Network365, a specialist in secure mobile payments, personalisation and identification platforms, is deploying its "mzone avatar" for Celltel users who wish to make payments for goods and services through text-messaging. The "CellWallet" stores encrypted electronic information pertaining to a user's credit cards, debit cards and bank accounts, among other personal data, and allows the user to issue payment instructions from his or her mobile phone without transmitting sensitive data over the air.
Visa International is forming an alliance with Vocent Solutions for the development of voice authentication technology for use with Visa credit cards. Visa's role in the strategic partnership will be to develop standards for the use of Vocent's voice recognition technology and to create prototype solutions using the technology. The two companies will consider applications for the security measure in the areas of e-commerce, mobile commerce and risk management.
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