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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Rieman who wrote (33062)	5/8/1998 7:59:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

NTL and News Corp........................................... ijumpstart.com THE TANGLED HISTORY OF NTL Back in 1996, NTL, the IBA's former engineering arm, split into two, with one bit going to Rupert Murdoch's NDS and the other first being privatised, then being acquired by International CableTel. It is the CableTel bit, now renamed NTL, which recently bought Comcast and has just acquired NetChannel. Almost a year ago CableTel acquired National Transcommunications Limited (NTL) in the UK, combining its local broadband telephone and television services with NTL's national telecoms and broadcasting services. Last year International CableTel changed its name to NTL although it continues to use the CableTel brand to market its local telephone and television services. Based in Farnborough, the company employs 3900 staff and offers a wide range of products and services through five major business divisions; National Telecoms, Broadcast, Internet, Media Services and Cable Telephony and Television. In February, NTL launched its Education Initiative, which follows the Fixed Rate Internet Tariff announced by the company's CableTel division in 1996. The Initiative offers schools unlimited dial-up Internet access free for two years, through a standard phone line. Additionally NTL is offering teachers unlimited home access at half the usual residential rate, to encourage the adoption of Internet resources for lesson preparation and delivery. NTL is expanding rapidly, thanks to its innovative marketing strategies. In February it made a $600m agreed all-paper offer for Comcast, which should be completed this summer. NTL's dealmaking and marketing flair owe much to George Blumenthal, chairman, and Barclay Knapp, chief executive. The two Americans moved into the UK market in 1993 after selling their US mobile phone business. The acquisition of NTL, the broadcasting engineering arm of the IBA gave the company, which is listed on the US Nasdaq market, a national telecoms network and a backbone for its burgeoning cable business. See ntl.co.uk. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS DIGITAL SYSTEMS (NDS) NDS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (see newscorp.com). Headquartered in the UK, with operations worldwide, it provides end-to-end solutions for digital broadcasting through the company's research, development and manufacturing activities. NDS is a leader in MPEG digital video compression and conditional access. It provides advanced technologies, products and services to 18 of the 30 current and planned satellite and terrestrial broadcasting systems around the world. In addition, over 8 million subscribers around the globe use NDS conditional access systems to receive pay TV satellite and cable services. The company has 700 of its 1200 employees dedicated to R&D. In 1995 News Corporation bought the advanced research division of National Transcommunications Ltd (NTL) that specialised in technologies such as digital video compression and multiplexing. NTL was the engineering arm of the now-defunct Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) that owned the independent television network's transmitters. CableTel, later to re-name itself NTL, acquired the rest.