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Eircom may return to the mobile market in 2004 | Dell raises its third-quarter revenue forecast
The Irish Independent reports that Irish e-learning company Riverdeep surprised the market on Tuesday by announcing its intention to de-list from the Nasdaq this week. Read the full story as reported by ElectricNews.net.
The same paper says that Eircom is to consider a return to the mobile phone market when its non-compete clause relating to the sale of Eircell ends in 18 months' time. "We would look at offering mobile services to our fixed-line customers when the non-compete clause ends," said company chief executive Philip Nolan. The three-year clause is due to end in early 2004. Nolan indicated that Eircom could examine the possibility of offering bundled services to customers in terms of pricing.
The paper also says that Meteor's new chief executive, Stewart Sherriff, has said he is committed to bringing the mobile operator into profitability. Sherriff said he had already implemented an initial three-month strategy to identify the direction Meteor needs to take and that he would introduce a longer-term strategy early next year. When asked, Sherriff denied that Meteor and Hutchison Whampoa, which was recently awarded a 3G licence in Ireland, had entered any discussions that might lead to a business agreement.
The paper also reports that mobile phone group mmO2 has said that the performance of O2 in Ireland is likely to be in line with expectations. In other news of O2, the Irish Times says the mobile phone operator is to launch a new multimedia messaging service here later this month. Read the details of both stories as reported by ElectricNews.net on Tuesday.
The Irish Times also reports that telecoms regulator Etain Doyle has warned cable firm NTL that she may impose regulatory sanctions unless the company rolls out a type of digital television. Read the full story as reported by ElectricNews.net on Tuesday.
According to the Financial Times, Dell has raised its third-quarter revenue forecast and predicted that earnings would come in at the high end of its previous guidance range. The company said it expects revenues for Q3, which ends 1 November, to reach USD9.1 billion, up from its previous forecast of USD8.9 billion. Earnings per share are expected to be USD0.21. Analysts had expected Dell to earn USD0.21 a share on revenues of USD8.9 billion. The company said the revision was due to growing shipments of servers and data storage equipment.
The paper also reports that Gary Winnick, chairman of bankrupt telecoms group Global Crossing, has said he will give USD25 million of his own money to employees who lost their investments in the group's retirement plan. He told a Congressional hearing that he and his family would "guarantee" the funds to those who lost their money in a pension plan that was heavily invested in Global Crossing stock when the group went bankrupt. His decision is likely to increase pressure on other executives to make good pension scheme losses from their own pockets.
According to the Wall Street Journal, WorldCom has won court approval to make severance payments totalling around USD36 million to thousands of laid-off workers whose termination benefits were cut off in July when the company filed for bankruptcy-court protection. Separately, the long-distance carrier has demoted chief operating officer Ronald Beaumont, whom federal investigators have interviewed as part of their inquiry into the company's USD7 billion accounting scandal. He will take on the newly created position of president of strategy and business development.
The paper also says that Nintendo has cut its group net profit outlook for the fiscal year ending March 2003 to YEN80 billion (USD657.1 million) because of a stronger yen and a slowdown in global sales of its video-game consoles. Nintendo had previously estimated a group net profit of YEN90 billion. Expecting to post a YEN29 billion foreign-exchange loss for the first half, Nintendo also cut its group pre-tax profit outlook for this fiscal year to YEN110 billion from the YEN150 billion it had previously projected.
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