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

To: Stoctrash who wrote (36283)	9/28/1998 4:30:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

Rupert makes a move into Italy................................. dbsdish.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Telecom Italia agrees to Murdoch as potential partner in pay TV. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press MILAN, Italy (AP) -- Telecom Italia has agreed to pursue Rupert Murdoch as a partner in the development of digital TV in Italy, despite strong political opposition. Telecommunications officials have spoken of a "colonization" of Italian television if the Australian media magnate is allowed into the country's pay-TV market. On Friday, its board authorized Telecom Italia to work with RAI state television in an accord on digital TV, and singled out British Sky Broadcasting Group as a good potential partner for them. The British company is 40 percent owned by Murdoch's News Corp. If negotiations don't conclude by Oct. 5, Telecom is free to pursue other solutions on its own, the company said. RAI board member Alberto Conti said Thursday that the state TV company was likely to agree to an alliance with News Corp. -- on condition that Italians keep an absolute majority, and that Murdoch confine himself only to pay TV in Italy. Some analysts say Murdoch's presence would be a plus for Telecom Italia and the market as a whole. His aggressiveness and the heightened competition could boost the size and development of the Italian digital television market, they contend.

To: Stoctrash who wrote (36283)	9/28/1998 9:25:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Adaptec Delves into Video-capture Market Company Sources VideOh! Components from FutureTel, C - Cube 09/28/98 Multimedia Week (c) 1998 Phillips Business Information, Inc. Attempting to leverage success with Easy CD Creator Deluxe into a consumer hardware business, Adaptec Inc. [ADPT] is sourcing components from C-Cube Microsystems Inc. [CUBE] and FutureTel Inc. for the debut of the VideOh! video-capture peripheral next month, Multimedia Week has learned. "We've known that video is important to CD-R and vice versa," said Dave Ulmer, general manager of Adaptec's software products group. "Without CD recording, all you can do is capture good quality video, put it on your hard drive and eventually erase it." Ulmer hopes to translate Adaptec's market share lead in CD recording software into the hardware market for video-capture peripherals. The Milpitas, Calif.-based component supplier will ship the hardware, which comes bundled with the Adaptec CD-R application, within 30 days for $299. The hardware is an OEM version of FutureTel's Video Sphynx Pro, which includes C-Cube 's CLM411 MPEG-1 encoder. FutureTel began shipping the Sphynx Pro late last year. The Adaptec-branded version also will come with FutureTel's SureSync, a combination of hardware and software that synchronizes audio and video. Neither FutureTel nor other companies shipping video-capture peripherals based on the C-Cube chip have had much success. AVerMedia Technologies Inc. began shipping a product called the MPEG Wizard last August (MMW, June 16, 1997 p. 1), and Videonics Inc. [VDNX] sells a version called the Python MVP, which shipped last summer. Dazzle Multimedia's Dazzle peripheral, also based on the C-Cube chip, hit shelves last November and has the largest presence at retail. Officials from those companies would not say how many units they've shipped, but insiders estimate the installed base of consumer video-capture devices based on the C-Cube chip at less than 100,000 units. Ulmer suspects AVerMedia, FutureTel and Videonics were unable to achieve high-volume sales because consumers have yet to realize the benefits of writable CD hardware. "The market was too small last year," he said. "Only about 2 percent of PC owners had CD recorders." But Ulmer expects Adaptec to have more success, with 6 million rewritable CD drives (CD-RW) expected to ship this year followed by 15 million units in 1999, according to manufacturers invested in the technology. Much of the projected growth is attributable to prices, which have dropped more than 35 percent in the last year. Distribution Intact While the company's name might not ring as many bells with PC- savvy consumers as Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc. [DIMD] or Creative Labs [CREAF], Adaptec has ready-made distribution in place to drive hardware sales. Adaptec will sell the hardware at the same stores that offer the company's CD software, including music and photography retailers in addition to computer stores. The company also will offer Easy CD Creator Deluxe owners a discount, the price of which has yet to be determined. (Adaptec, 408/945-8600; C-Cube , 408/944-6300; FutureTel, 408/522-1400)