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Technology Stocks : Orckit (ORCT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: shlomi cohen who wrote (1205)	5/28/1998 7:51:00 PM
From: savolainen	Respond to of 1998

[msft/icl (fujitsu)] hi shlomi, altho the following msft/icl news is tangential to orctf, think it's interesting in that it is further evidence that msft and fujitsu seem to be increasing the level of their "co-operation" on a number of fronts... also in reviewing my msft/webtv/dsl notes, this one jumped out at me... didn't remember b. gates being so explicit..: ..."You will see a WebTV box that has DSL in the coming year. You will see WebTV with cable. You will see a WebTV box with satellite," he (bill gates) said...." news.com so the question is whose (dsl) will he use? :) ... and he'll need chips too... no doubt msft will play the field... and altho orctf/fujitsu is hardly the only game in town... the list isn't that long... would think even a slice of that pie would be worth something... :) seems like the potential for new relationships between fujitsu and msft might increasing as they edge ever so closer together ... we now have msft's webtv strategy for establishing a "foothold" in the consumer market ... fujitsu taking a 25% share in the japanese subsidiary of webtv... orctf and fujitsu working on adsl chips and companion chips for set-top boxes... orctf/fujitsu taking xdsl worldwide together... msft announcing that webtv will have dsl this year... also msft is seriously pushing g.lite thru the uawg... orctf seems to be up to speed on that one ... and agree with your assessment of supercom/announcements ... (at a minimum) would think that orctf/fujitsu/gte might have something to show there in the g.lite department .. and fujitsu/orctf supplying msft redmond with adsl thru gte... and now icl (90% owned by fujitsu) announcing an "information technology" pact with msft ... seems to be some sort of pattern forming... tho as you pointed out regarding the new orctf r&d center in haifa... there are other explanations... and then there is also webtv/vdsl... bet some out there are working on that one... best wishes s ---- Microsoft And ICL Ink IT Pact (05/26/98; 2:51 p.m. ET) By Barbara Darrow, Computer Reseller News ICL and Microsoft said Tuesday that they will work together to develop and support Windows NT-based IT solutions. Microsoft [MSFT] will help fund the creation of seven Solution Centers worldwide and train more than 4,000 people dedicated to creating and supporting these solutions, executives from both companies said. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Microsoft executive vice president Steve Ballmer said the deal represents "tens of millions of dollars" of Microsoft investment. The Solution Centers will be based in Bracknell, Manchester, and Belfast, as well as Stockholm, Sweden, and Katowice, Poland. There will be two U.S. centers in Wake Forest, N.C., and Microsoft's home town of Redmond, Wash. "We believe this will be the largest IT training program in Europe," said Keith Todd, CEO of London-based ICL. The alliance will target four major initiatives in retail, education, government, and enterprise infrastructure markets, such as backbone networks. One push, for example, will be to offer Web-based access to government information and services. It was unclear if and how ICL's own products, including its X.500 directory and TeamWare groupware product, fit into this deal. TeamWare competes with Microsoft Exchange Server. ICL will continue to sell its Unix solutions, Todd said, though he acknowledges the bulk of ICL's continuing application development investment will be in NT. Asked if Microsoft's investment in the European-based company could affect the European Union's scrutiny of Microsoft, Ballmer said: "The [European Commission] will do its job and should do its job. Our job is very simple. Our job is to do wonderful products that work very well for customers." CRN reported last week that the European Commission is supportive of U.S. Department of Justice actions on Microsoft's business practices and that the European Union's competition commissioner is to meet this week with top U.S. antitrust officials. ICL, which was bought by Fujitsu in 1990, remains London-based. It reported its first profit in two years in March 1998. techweb.com