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In the papers 29 May
Wednesday, May 29 2002
by Sylvia Leatham


Global Crossing plans restructuring | European Parliament to ban spam

The Irish Times reports that senior figures in law, education, business and the
public service are among the 100 or so men suspected of owning or distributing
child pornography whose homes were raided by Gardai on Monday. Computer equipment
was seized mostly in well-off suburbs around the country, with almost no raids in
working-class areas. So far, none of the suspects is known to have any criminal
record. All the suspects are thought to have used credit cards to buy
pornographic images from a Web site that was being monitored by the FBI over the
past two years.



The same paper says that Europe's telecoms stocks made a good start on Monday
after better than expected results from Vodafone and the France Telecom's
announcement of its debt-reduction plans. However, the sector shed gains and
ended in the red as doubt grew over Vodafone's growth prospects. France Telecom
remained in the black and was one of Europe's best blue-chip performers. 



The Irish Independent reports that Irish tech marketing firm Technology Sales
Leads (TSL) has formed a strategic alliance with Mobile Software, an Israeli
investment and sales acceleration company. Mobile Software will promote TSL's
sales-lead generation services to its client base of Israeli companies. 



The paper also reports that US Cellular, one of the largest wireless service
providers in the US, has chosen Norkom Technologies' Alchemist software to help
improve its customer acquisition and retention efforts. Alchemist is a marketing
tool that tries to predict customer and market behaviour.



The Financial Times says that mmO2's first full results have met analysts'
expectations. The UK-based mobile phone operator has reported earnings before
interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of STG433 million (USD632 million),
its first full-year results since it was spun off from BT Group in November 2001.
The company said total revenue grew by 11.5 percent to STG4.3 billion, led by a
12.2 percent rise in its active customer base to 17.5 million. Full story to
follow on ElectricNews.Net. 



The Wall Street Journal reports that factions in the European Parliament are
nearing a deal to ban spam. The two largest political organisations in the
European Parliament  reached a compromise on a bill to outlaw unsolicited
commercial e-mail and prevent the placement of files on computers without the
owner's explicit permission. The bill  also seeks to give law-enforcement
authorities greater access to electronic records of phone calls and Web surfing
by allowing the retention of data such as phone, fax and e-mail logs for a
limited period.



The WSJ also reports that Global Crossing said it will propose a stand-alone
restructuring plan to its creditors, in a move aimed at restoring confidence
after two Asian investors dropped a bid for the company. The fibre-optic carrier,
which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January, is reeling from the
collapse of a USD750 million preliminary bid by Hutchison Whampoa and Singapore
Technologies Telemedia. With their plan to restructure Global Crossing on their
own, executives hope to give the company a measure of flexibility as it
approaches a bidding deadline of 20 June. The plan has received tentative
approval from some creditors.