In celebration of Memorial day we decided to run a 2-for-1 special today
(we didn't want you to miss us TOO much during your Monday holiday...)
Mergers/Splits
Motorola to Take 26% Stake in Teledesic (WSJ)
Yahoo! Plans to Sever Most Ties to Netscape Due to Competition (WSJ)
Sprint and Three Cable Companies Plan Public Offering of 10% of
Sprint PCS (WSJ)
Zapata Makes Surprise Bid for Search Firm (WSJ)
Competition
The Power to Link Masses? (WP)
Antitrust
Microsoft Asks Judge to Delay Hearing (WP)
Politics/Technology
Gilmore Names First Technology Secretary (WP)
** Mergers/Splits **
Title: Motorola to Take 26% Stake in Teledesic
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Quentin Hardy
Issue: Partnership
Description: Motorola Inc. announced that it will join forces with Teledesic
LLC in a move that will likely push forward the design and construction of
the $9 billion satellite-based system for high-speed data and video. "Motorola
will take a 26 percent stake in Teledesic, which will use 288 low earth-orbit
satellites to create an 'Internet in the sky,' for a combination of cash and
design technology valued at $750 million."
Title: Yahoo! Plans to Sever Most Ties to Netscape Due to Competition
Source: Wall Street Journal (B5)
http://wsj.com/
Author: WSJ Staff Reporter
Issue: Corporate Split
Description: Yahoo! Inc., the No. 1 Internet navigation service, said that it
will sever most of its ties to Netscape Communications Corp. It cites the main
reason for its decision as increasing competition between the companies to
attract users to their Web sites. Yahoo! said it will "abandon" a directory
called "Netscape Guide by Yahoo" by July of this year. "We both had other cool
things we were working on and neither of us wanted to throw more resources to
the guide, so we thought it best to discontinue it," said Jeff Mallett, Yahoo's
chief operating officer. "And in the search area, we have been gradually
weaning
ourselves off of that as we got broader distribution." Netscape officials said
they did not expect the companies relationship to change as they began to
compete
more.
Title: Sprint and Three Cable Companies Plan Public Offering of 10% of
Sprint PCS
Source: Wall Street Journal (B6)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Leslie Cauley
Issue: Corporate Split/Wireless
Description: Sprint Corp. and its three cable partners -- Tele-Communications
Inc., Cox Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. -- are expected to announce
next
week plans to sell their joint wireless phone service (Sprint PCS) to the
public
for as much as $1 billion, said people familiar with the issue. The offering,
about 10 percent of Sprint PCS, will signal the end of the four-year wireless
partnership between the companies.
Title: Zapata Makes Surprise Bid for Search Firm
Source: Wall Street Journal (B1,B5)
http://wsj.com/
Author: Evan Ramstad and Robert Tomsho
Issue: Anti-Merger
Description: Zapata Corp., a company co-founded by George Bush in 1953, has had
a variety of focuses over the past 40 years, ranging from oil to fish protein
and sausage casing. Recently Zapata caught Internet fever. The company
announced
that it would delete the last three letters in its name, to become Zap, and
then
"shocked and baffled" the high-tech world by offering a bid of $1.7 billion for
the Web search firm Excite Inc. to be paid in "newly issued" Zapata stock. It
only took Excite officials a few minutes to reject the "unlikely barbarian at
the Web," calling the offer so flaky that it didn't even require board
consideration. "It seemed a little fishy, but this certainly opens a can of
worms
for us," joked Brett Bullington, executive vice president at Excite, "where a
series of puns about Zapata's fish-mean business quickly began circulating."
** Competition **
Title: The Power to Link Masses?
Source: Washington Post (D1,D4)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-05/22/085l-052298-idx.html
Author: Martha M. Hamilton
Issue: Competition
Description: In April, Starpower, a joint venture of Potomac Electric Power Co.
and phone company RCN Corp. of Princeton NJ, began offering Washington area
consumers Internet connections and local and long-distance telephone
service. The
new company could make it more difficult for local phone company Bell Atlantic
Corp. and local TV cable companies. Those companies, however, say they
welcome the
competition. By the end of 1998, Starpower hopes to have established a network
that will enable it to also offer cable and high-speed Internet connections.
** Antitrust **
Title: Microsoft Asks Judge to Delay Hearing
Source: Washington Post (D1,D4))
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-05/22/080l-052298-idx.html
Author: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Issue: Antitrust
Description: "Microsoft Corp. asked a federal judge yesterday to wait seven
months before convening a preliminary hearing into antitrust lawsuits files
by the
Justice Dept. and 20 state attorney's general. In a brief submitted to U.S.
District
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in Washington, Microsoft argued that it needs
time to
pore through the government's evidence, interview witnesses and prepare its
defense.
Government lawyers called the request a bid to stall the case so Microsoft
can sell
millions of copies of its upcoming Windows 98 software before the judge
decides the
cases' key issue of whether the software must be changed." [For the
journal's version
see: WSJ "Microsoft Requests Additional Time to Respond to Suit" (B6)]
** Politics/Technology **
Title: Gilmore Names First Technology Secretary
Source: Washington Post (B8)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-05/22/158l-052298-idx.html
Author: Michael D. Shear
Issue: Politics/Technology
Description: Virginia Governor James S. Gilmore yesterday named Don Upson, a
Fairfax
County business executive, the states first secretary of technology.
*********
...and we are (really) outta here...