HP settles announces settlement of patent suit.
PALO ALTO: Hewlett-Packard Co. announced on Wednesday that it had settled inkjet
patent infringement lawsuit in Germany and France against International United
Technology Ltd. HP said the firm would make an undisclosed payment to it and
quit making inkjet cartridges that it had marketed as replacements for HP. It
gave no further details. HP launched the lawsuits in June 2000, and said it has
settled those and others started at the time. - Reuters Limited 2001.
EU approves IBM acquisition of Informix
BRUSSELS: The European Commission said on Wednesday that it approved plans
by US computer giant IBM to buy Informix Corp's database business for $1
billion. The Commission said in a statement that its investigation "has
shown that IBM's share of the (distributed database management systems) market
in Europe as well as worldwide does not cause any competition concerns".
Distributed database management systems are software packages designed to
operate databases for storage and handling of large banks of data, the
Commission said. - Reuters Limited 2001.
MeetVirtual to be adopted by six varsities
CHENNAI: The Chennai-based IT training and consulting firm, Kaashyap Radiant
Systems Ltd (KRSL) hopes to enable E-learning in six other universities using
MeetVirtual, a technology product developed by KRSL for the North Western
Oklahama University (NWOU). It is on the final stages of talks with the
University of Paisley, Scotland, University of East London, universities in the
US and Australia. MeetVirtual was developed to digitize, distribute and maintain
the university's course content for the fast track degree program it has with
NWOU. Built around XML and JAVA technology, it offers E-Learning Enterprise
Product that can support 250-500 users, E-Learning Professional Product that can
support 5-10 users, Learning Management Systems that manages and delivers
content, Course creator, Content Conversion, Hosting and Maintenance. — CNS
Softbank takes over ADSL venture
TOKYO: Japan's Softbank Corp said on Thursday that it had taken over a
struggling high-speed Internet access venture, a key stepping stone in its
ambition to become the nation's dominant broadband access provider. Internet
investor Softbank said that it had acquired over two-thirds of the shares of
Tokyo Metallic Communications Corp, a pioneer in Japan's fledgling ADSL
(asymmetric digital subscriber line) services which has been suffering a cash
squeeze and seeking a buyer. The deal would allow the Softbank group to quickly
gain Tokyo Metallic's ADSL networks, which can reach up to 500,000 subscribers
in Tokyo and other regional cities. The latest tie-up comes on the heels of
Softbank's announcement on Tuesday that it and subsidiary Yahoo Japan, Japan's
dominant Internet portal, will launch cut rate ADSL services in Japan in August
and aims to acquire one million subscribers by December. - Reuters
Omni defends handling of Celestica deal
SINGAPORE: Electronics contract manufacturer Omni Industries, responding to
a query from Singapore Exchange officials, said on Thursday it took extensive
measures to minimize leaks of its merger with Canada's Celestica Inc. In
response to the query on events surrounding the suspension of its shares on June
14 and the merger unveiled on June 15, Omni said it held meetings outside
Singapore, used code names and restricted merger information to top management.
The company also obtained confidentiality undertakings from the relevant
parties, it said in a statement. Under the S$1.6 billion ($884 million) deal,
Celestica is offering Omni shareholders a cash option valuing the stock at
S$4.25. The cash option is limited to S$860 million. Shareholders can also elect
to take 0.045 subordinate voting shares of Celestica for each Omni share. -
Reuters
Two Indian schools join BT’s global network program
BANGALORE: Two schools in India have joined the BT Global Schools Network
(BT GSN) program launched by British Telecommunications, as part of the company’s
‘Better World’ campaign. BT GSN aims to enable and encourage schools around
the world to benefit from new technologies to enhance teaching and learning and
to help develop communications skills among students and teachers. The schools
are St Thomas' School, Mandir Marg, New Delhi and Bluebells School
International, Kailash Colony, New Delhi. The initiative will help pupils in 12
schools across Europe and Asia to communicate with one another using facilities
provided by BT. These include a special Global Schools Network website, plus
e-mail services and ‘virtual `chatrooms’, as well as skills training. Pupils
involved in the program will then co-operate with one another to research and
produce project work on themes that could focus on a global issue or the future
of technology. Each BT GSN school will receive £4,000 over two stages of the
program to help finance technical needs, such as enhancing connectivity in
schools. — CIOL Bureau
Kshema signs MoU with for Bioinformatics curriculum
BANGALORE: Kshema Technologies has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with
BVB College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli to design the curriculum course
for bio-informatics department. The firm in association with BVBCET is planing
to develop quality human resources to cater to the needs of Bio Informatics and
in turn add value to the students passing out from the institution. Kshema along
with BVBCET will prepare the curriculum that will be offered to under-graduate
students in BVBCET. While the college provides necessary infrastructure for
conducting the course at their college premises, Kshema extends its expertise in
bioinformatics in constructing the IT-related course material whenever required
by the institute. The college will depute a section of its staff to Kshema for
specific training and take responsibility of monitoring the progress of students
periodically. — CIOL Bureau