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Technology Stocks : Intel Corporation (INTC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: semi2000 who wrote (86471)	8/1/1999 10:01:00 PM
From: Ian Davidson	Respond to of 186894

Intel invests in fast Net access for Asia By Reuters Special to CNET News.com August 1, 1999, 3:30 p.m. PT Chipmaking giant Intel said today that it is investing in a new joint venture with Hong Kong-based Pacific Century Group in an effort to bring high-speed Internet access to Asia. Under the deal, Intel's existing joint venture with Pacific century, known as Pacific Convergence, would be folded into a new company, Pacific Century CyberWorks, said Claude Leglise, vice president of Intel's home products group, in an interview. Pacific Century Group, a private company controlled by Richard Li, the youngest son of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, is creating CyberWorks out of its acquisition of telecommunications firm Tricom Holdings. Intel would invest $50 million in CyberWorks and supply chips, software and systems to form the backbone of the new company's broadcast and Internet business. The investment, combined with Intel's share of the earlier joint venture, would give the Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker a 13 percent stake in CyberWorks. Leglise said the deal would help Intel get a foothold in Asia's Internet growth, and resembled a deal announced in June to supply U.S. telecommunications firm Hughes Network Systems with chips for TV set-top boxes that will combine satellite television with speedy Internet access. "Hughes is obviously an agreement for the Americas, and what you see here is another brick, if you will, to cover Asia," Leglise said. Li said in June the Pacific Century Group aimed to offer high-speed Internet access to Asia through satellite and cable television lines. The group has also said it plans to use CyberWorks to help lure investment to Hong Kong's Cyberport project, a $1.74 billion high-technology business park aimed at computer and information companies. Leglise declined to forecast how much Intel's sales of equipment to the venture would be worth but said, "The Asian market is very large and is growing very quickly." By combining television service with Internet access, Leglise said the venture had the potential to tap tens of millions of homes in Asia that could not afford to buy a personal computer. "One of the things we are trying to do is to bring the Internet to devices other than the PC. We have to recognize that there are 1.5 billion TVs in Asia, and often they are they only screen in the house," Leglise said. Story Copyright © 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.