Ericsson girds for Y2K
Telecom firm may extend Christmas holiday to minimize millennium risk
December 8, 1998: 9:57 a.m. ET
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Ericsson
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Wall Street research on Ericsson from Multex
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) - Swedish telecommunications group Ericsson said Tuesday it could extend an annual holiday shutdown at factories and administrative offices at the turn of the century to avoid possible millennium bug disruptions.
"Some days during Christmas we close down factories. This is normal in Sweden," said Ericsson spokeswoman Pia Gideon. "One solution might be to prolong this a few days."
The millennium bug, or "Y2K" problem, arises from the inability of many computers to recognize the date change from 1999 to 2000 because they were programmed to record only the final two digits of a year.
This may cause computers to shut down or malfunction when they register 2000 as year "00."
Gideon dismissed newspaper reports Tuesday that Ericsson planned to shut down all or large parts of its production plants for two weeks to prevent problems arising from the millennium bug.
"We have a group working with millennium issues all the time. But when it comes to what extent we will close factories, nothing is decided and there is no master plan that we should close down the whole of Ericsson," Gideon said.
Swedish daily Dagens Industri said Ericsson is considering shutting all or some of its approximately 30 production plants and that tens of thousands of workers would be affected.
"What we're thinking about is opening up system after system gradually (after Christmas)," Gideon said.
Ericsson, which has more than 100,000 employees in 140 countries, hasn't yet decided what precautions to take to battle the millennium bug but likely will focus efforts on the administrative side, she said.
She declined to comment on where Ericsson's largest millennium bug risks lies.
In Stockholm, Ericsson shares were down 2 kroner at 229 by mid-session. In New York, the company (ERICY) closed up 1 at 28-3/4 on Monday.
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