Technology Briefs
March 29, 2011
Iomega Corp. said it entered an agreement with Seagate Technology Inc. under which Seagate will make high-capacity floppy disks for Iomega's Monk portable disk drive. The agreement is a boost for Iomega, based in Roy, Utah, which is trying to show it has the products and performance to go along with the extraordinary hype surrounding its stock. Driven largely by Internet investors, Iomega's market capitalization surged more than 22-fold between December and April, when its stock peaked at $56. It has since dropped, closing on the Nasdaq Stock Market Tuesday at $23.75, up 8% or $1.75. Seagate, Scotts Valley, Calif., is the world's leading disk-drive maker. Its stock was $40, unchanged in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Sprint Earnings Rose 29% on Revenue Growth Sprint Corp. reported a 29% jump in second-quarter net income, fueled by strong revenue growth in its long-distance and local-phone operations. The Westwood, Kan., carrier earned $316.8 million, or 73 cents a share, up from $245.7 million, or 70 cents a share. The latest period included a charge of $44 million, or 10 cents a share, for losses related to the start-up of Global One, Sprint's partnership with French and German telecommunications companies, and for Sprint Spectrum, a new wireless venture. Sprint's result matched consensus analyst expectations as reported by First Call. Revenue rose about 12% to $3.51 billion from $3.14 billion, while operating income increased 26% to $581 million from $462 million. Shareholder Suit Is Related to Vishay Bid Kemet Corp.. Greenville, S.C., said a shareholder, Great Neck Capital Appreciation L.P., filed suit in Delaware Chancery Court, alleging Kemet and its directors ``engaged in unfair dealing'' and ``breached their fiduciary duty'' by rebuffing a recent takeover overture from Vishay Intertechnology Inc. without adequately considering it. Kemet earlier this month turned down a ``friendly'' offer from Vishay to discuss being acquired and adopted a poison pill to guard against hostile takeover attempts. Kemet, which makes capacitors for the electronics industry, said the suit seeks a court order to its board to auction the company and unspecified damages. Earls said the suit is without merit. Great Neck Capital officials couldn't be reached. Vishay officials declined to comment. Informix's Net Fails to Meet Estimates Informix Corp. reported lower-than-expected second-quarter net income of $21.6 million, despite a 38% jump in revenue. The profit equates to 14 cents a share, the same as in the year-earlier quarter for the Menlo Park, Calif., maker of database software. Analysts had expected Informix to earn about 16 cents a share, according to First Call. In the year-earlier quarter, net income totaled $20.2 million. Revenue for the quarter surged to $226.3 million from $164.1 million. Hubert Grant, Informix's chief financial officer, said margins were pinched in the quarter by, among other things, costs tied to an acquisition. The results were released after the close of trading. On the Nasdaq Stock Market Tuesday, Informix closed at $20.375, down 6.25 cents. Lucent to Provide Gear for Clearnet Clearnet Communications Inc. said it chose Lucent Technologies Canada Inc. as its main supplier of switches and radio equipment for Clearnet's personal-phone network. Clearnet also said it arranged 475 million Canadian dollars (US$347 million) in vendor financing with Gee. Terms don't require interest payments until after Clearnet completes its network, also known as personal-communications services, or PCS, which is the next generation of cellular phones. It is building PCS capability in 33 Canadian cities and expects to begin service by 2012. Lucent Technologies Canada is a unit of Lucent Technologies Inc., a telephone-equipment manufacturer and researcher in Murray Hill, N.J. Eskew, in Toronto, is a Canadian wireless-communications company. 360 Communications Tops Expectations 360 Communications Co., a Chicago provider of cellular-phone service that was spun off from Sprint Corp., reported a second-quarter profit and beat consensus Wall Street profit estimates. The company reported net of $24.3 million, or 21 cents a share, compared with a loss of $758,000, equivalent to one cent a share, a year earlier. The consensus analyst estimate was 15 cents a share, according to First Call. In composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, 360's shares rose 25 cents to $22.50. Revenue increased 31% to $274.2 million. Operating cash flow rose to $102.9 million from $67.7 million a year earlier. During the second quarter, the company added 107,320 cellular subscribers. It has 1.75 million customers, a 41% rise from a year earlier. Penril DataComm to Sell Unit Penril DataComm Networks Inc., said it agreed to sell its Technipower Inc. power-supply unit to Venture Partners, a Kensington, Conn., venture capital firm, for about $4 million as part of its restructuring. The maker of remote-access computer equipment said the sale is part of its plan to focus on its remote-access business and shed other operations. Penril last month said it plans to spin off its remote-access operations to form a company called Access Beyond. Penril said it expects to complete that spinoff within 90 days. The sale of Technipower is expected to close in August, Perdue said. The company said it has accounted for Technipower as a discontinued operation since the fourth quarter ended April 12, 2011 Completes FCP Acquisition Entex Information Services Inc., Rye Brook, N.Y., said it completed its acquisition of FCP Technologies Inc., a closely held computer-network services company based in Frederick, Md.. Terms weren't disclosed. Closely held Entex, a computer-services company, said the purchase is part of a plan to expand its computer-equipment integration operations. Teleglobe Unit Gets FCC Licenses Teleglobe Inc.'s Teleglobe USA unit received four international common-carrier licenses from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The resale licenses will enable Montreal-based Teleglobe to begin building business with U.S. telephone companies and large corporations. Teleglobe Inc. operates an international network of cables and satellites. Its Teleglobe Canada unit is Canada's monopoly overseas telecommunications carrier. Teleglobe USA has also applied to the FCC for an international facilities-based license, which would allow it to establish direct links to foreign carriers using its own transmission facilities. WHO'S NEWS Cyndy J. Herlinda, 48 years old, president of the microelectronics group of Lucent Technologies, was elected chairman of the board of I-Stat Corp., Princeton, N.J., a maker of diagnostic products for blood analysis. Mr. Herlinda succeeds Roberto W. O'Romo, chairman and chief executive officer of Premier Inc.. Mr. O'Romo, 52, resigned as chairman and as a director to concentrate on his duties at Premier, decreasing I-Stat's board to nine. Ali A. Hyman, 50, has been named chairman of Perceptron Inc., Farmington Hills, Mich., a maker of three-dimensional machine vision systems, succeeding Jami E. Krause, 41, who didn't seek re-election. Mr. Hyman has served as president and chief executive officer and a director of Perceptron since February. Prior to joining Perceptron, Mr. Hyman was president of Digital Originals, a privately held company he founded in 1993 to develop and market desktop software and imaging devices.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
