Irvine, Calif., June 29, 2000 (PRIMEZONE) -- (www.ibchannel.com) VoIP Telecom, Inc. (OTC:VOPT) VOPT, in conjunction with its wholly owned subsidiary, Access Network Limited (ACCESS), announced Monday that its Singapore-based VoIP network is now in operation. Earlier this year, VoIP Telecom announced an aggressive VoIP deployment program whereby it will install Clarent servers across the Asia-Pacific region. The Company intends to build an IP Telephony network capable of handling more than 400 million voice minutes per year in East and South Asia alone. Asia is one of the most explosive digitized telecommunications arenas in the world today.
Startec Global Communications, an integrated communications provider of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), data and Internet services to emerging economies, today announced that it has been chosen by China Telecom (NYSE:CHL) to deliver inbound and outbound VoIP services in the Chinese market. VoIP is a state-of-the-art technology that provides numerous advantages over the traditional method by which voice traffic is sent. Using digital rather than analog signals, VoIP transfers information more efficiently and permits the seamless integration of voice, data, Internet and video services over the same network. The deal significantly expands Startec's presence in the Asia-Pacific region, as the company already provides VoIP services in Hong Kong.
deltathree.com (Nasdaq:DDDC), the global provider of Internet telephony services and other enhanced, web-based communications services to individuals and businesses worldwide, today announced its telecommunications services have been integrated into hongkong.com (www.hongkong.com).
As part of the integration, users are able to register for deltathree.com's services, including PC-to-Phone calling and Unified Messaging Services, as well as place free PC-to-Phone calls to the U.S. and Canada directly from the hongkong.com website. The integration comes as a result of deltathree.com's partnership with chinadotcom (Nasdaq:CHINA), wherein deltathree.com will make available its current and future Internet communication services to users of chinadotcom's portals which, in addition to hongkong.com, include china.com, cww.com and taiwan.com.
In its first full quarter as an independent and public company, Palm Inc. reported Wednesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit and sales both surged more than 100 percent. The hand-held computer giant (Nasdaq:PALM) said it earned $16.9 million, or 3 cents a share, excluding separation charges related to its spinoff from 3Com (Nasdaq:COMS). The numbers represent a 147 percent jump from the year-ago period of $6.8 million, or 1 cent a share. First Call expected Palm of Santa Clara, Calif., to earn 1 cent a share in the fourth quarter. Revenue in the quarter leaped 101 percent to $350.2 million, compared with $174.3 million the year earlier.
Wireless communications technology developer Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq:QCOM) warned on Wednesday it may see a slide in fourth-quarter chipset orders due to lower handset sales in South Korea. The company said in a statement it could see ``modestly lower'' chipset orders in the fourth quarter, as the elimination of phone subsidies in South Korea, a key Asian market, have trimmed the pace of phone sales there. TriQuint Semiconductor (TQNT: news, msgs) is giving up 7 13/16 to 101 3/4. Merrill Lynch believes the stocks decline is attributable to negative comments coming from Qualcomm (QCOM: news, msgs) regarding chipset sales into Korea (see 9:24 item). Christopher Danely, an industry analyst at Merrill, noted that TriQuint only receive 1 percent of its total revenue from Qualcomm, and Korean cell phone makers are thought to represent between 2 and 3 percent. Danely believes there should be "little to no impact" from these developments.
Shares in No. 2 long-distance phone company WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq:WCOM) surged more than 12 percent as Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON) fell nearly 10 percent Wednesday, a day after European and U.S. regulators moved to block WorldCom's $120 billion takeover of Sprint. WorldCom's rise and Sprint's fall came amid Wall Street speculation that the blockage of the deal means WorldCom or Sprint, the No. 3 long-distance company, could become takeover targets from foreign carriers.AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) and the merged company would have controlled 80 percent of the U.S. consumer market. Analysts have speculated that such foreign carriers as Germany's Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) (NYSE:DTE) or Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (9432.T) (NYSE:NTT) could bid for WorldCom or Sprint.
E-Tek Dynamics Inc.(Nasdaq:ETEK) on Wednesday said its stockholders have approved the company's previously announced merger with JDS Uniphase Corp. (Nasdaq:JDSU), clearing one hurdle for the deal that is set to close on June 30. Only customary closing conditions remain. The deal has already received antitrust clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice, the company said in a statement. Under the deal, each outstanding share of E-TEK Dynamics will be exchanged for 2.2 shares of JDS Uniphase, a maker of products for fiber optic communications markets. E-Tek makes components and modules for fiber optic systems.
To give service providers new options for providing broadband fixed wireless services to customers, Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced four new Broadband Fixed Wireless Ecosystem partners. Bechtel, Fluor and Getronics are focused on integration, deployment and implementation of carrier-scale, complex networking and Radio Frequency (RF) solutions. Additionally, Netro Corporation's AirStar(TM) broadband wireless access system will be made available to qualified system integrator partners. These partnerships will extend Cisco's ability to satisfy growing customer demand for broadband wireless solutions.
Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN) Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos on Wednesday took to task an analyst who warned last week the leading online retailer may run out of cash. ``On Friday there was a single analyst who wrote a report which isn't correct, without even calling us -- predicting we would be out of cash by I think December, or something like that,'' Bezos told a crowd of nearly 1,000 who came to hear his keynote speech at PC Expo in New York. "We have a billion dollars in cash,'' he said pointedly. ''We actually expect to generate cash flow from operations through the rest of this year, not use cash flow operations. So it's wrong. Encourage analysts to call the companies before they make such comments "
Mountain View, Calif.-based Rambus (Nasdaq:RMBS) makes its money by selling ideas for the design of computer memory technology to chip manufacturers. Its technology is the basis for a new memory interface technology known as Direct Rambus DRAM, which speeds the ability of a computer's main processor to talk to the memory. Most computers now use a type of memory known as synchronous DRAM, or SDRAM. But as speed of processors from companies like Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) has climbed ever upward, the speed at which those processors can talk to the main memory has not kept up. Intel says that its next generation processor, codenamed Willamette, will work exclusively with Rambus' RDRAM technology and nothing else. The list of companies that could end up paying huge royalties to Rambus include Micron Technology (NYSE:MU), Infineon Technologies (NYSE:IFX), Samsung and NEC (Nasdaq:IPNY), among others. No one is quite sure how the rest of the industry will respond to the new royalties, and Rambus has indicated that it may be in talks with other memory manufacturers to cut similar deals.
Leapnet, Inc., (Nasdaq:LEAP) an Internet Professional Services company, announced today it has been named a tier-one strategic consulting partner by BroadVision, Inc. (Nasdaq:BVSN), the leading worldwide supplier of personalized e- business applications. As a tier-one partner, Leapnet has been placed by BroadVision in its highest partnership level. Under the terms of the agreement, BroadVision and Leapnet will develop and implement a structured framework designed to drive revenue by jointly identifying and pursuing specific business and marketing objectives. The goal of the framework is to increase Leapnet's exposure, penetration and share in the marketplace, and increase implementation and integration of the BroadVision One-To-One suite of enterprise application solutions with front- and back-end office systems, eBusiness strategy, content management and creative design, particularly in the travel market.
Lehman Bros. continued a more than 50 year tradition Wednesday unveiling a tech heavy list of 10 stocks it expects to outperform the broader market over the next year. The stocks listed were Agilent Technologies (NYSE: A), BEA Systems (Nasdaq:BEAS), Cendant (NYSE:CD), Gemstar International (Nasdsaq:GMST), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HWP), Juniper Networks (Nasdaq:JNPR), Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Micron Technology (NYSE:MU), Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT) and Tellabs (Nasdaq:TLAB).
RF Micro Devices, Inc. (Nasdaq:RFMD), a leading provider of proprietary radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) for wireless communications applications, is announcing the RF2968 -- a low cost transceiver for Bluetooth applications. The RF2968 is a complete transceiver solution, offering 1Mbps data rates as defined in the Bluetooth specification.
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) on Wednesday lashed out at rival software maker Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq:ORCL) over its admission that it hired private detectives to investigate groups supporting Microsoft, saying it could be just one of a string of anti-Microsoft activities. ``These published reports may only be the tip of the iceberg of their activities,'' Microsoft said without elaborating.
The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it would hold a public hearing July 27 on the proposed $124 billion combination of America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), which top executives of the two companies are expected to attend. ``AOL's most recent filing to the FCC is yet another attempt to couch its efforts to dominate the IM marketplace by hyping security and privacy as barriers to interoperability and open standards,'' said Ross Bagully, chief executive of CMGI Inc.'s (Nasdaq:CMGI) Tribal Voice, which offers its own instant messaging service.
AOL also tried to head off concerns about the company's alliance with Hughes Electronics Corp. (NYSE:GMH), which owns the direct broadcast satellite service DirecTV Inc., to develop and market online services across the United States via satellite. AOL invested $1.5 billion in Hughes' parent company, General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) and received GM's Series H automatically convertible preference stock, but does not carry any voting rights in GM or Hughes.
The anticipated initial public offering of StorageNetworks Inc. grew in stature on Wednesday after the deal's price range was raised, indicating strong demand for shares of the data storage company, expected to begin trading on Friday. StorageNetworks is creating a fiber optic network that will allow companies to store a ``virtually unlimited'' amount of data it will have access to over the Web, the company said in its Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) , the lead underwriter on the deal, holds a 14.5 percent stake in StorageNetworks prior to the offering, while Dell Computer Corp.(Nasdaq:DELL) owns 6.6 percent, the filing revealed. On Monday, the firm filed an amended prospectus with the SEC to add the news that on June 21, the company received a letter from storage equipment provider EMC Corp.(NYSE:EMC) alleging improper activity on behalf of StorageNetworks. StorageNetworks has applied to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol "STOR" (Nasdaq:STOR) With 88.2 million shares outstanding after the IPO, the company would have a market capitalisation of over $2.1 billion, based on the $24 middle-of-range offering price.
Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (Nasdaq:MRVL) gained 41 5/8, or 278 percent, to 56 5/8 Tuesday in its IPO. It priced 6 million shares at $15 a share, above its raised range. Marvell, which makes integrated circuits which store and transmit digital data at high speeds, raised its range to $12-$14 per share from $9-$11 a share.
Genuity Inc. (Nasdaq:GENU) surprised many Wall Street watchers when its shares, expected to be among the top new issues on the market this week, opened below their $11 offering price and closed more than 14 percent lower on Wednesday. The initial public offering was expected to be warmly received as investors have moved in recent weeks to scoop up shares of telecommunications companies and those offering Internet access, Web hosting, intranet and extranet services for e-commerce like Genuity.
SDL, Inc. (Nasdaq:SDLI) announced today plans to build two new facilities that will expand its North American operations by 183,000 square feet to meet demand for SDL's Raman amplifier product line and emerging transmitter and receiver products. These additions include a 50,000 square foot facility at its Santa Clara, California campus and a 133,000 square foot facility in Piscataway, New Jersey. These moves follow recent manufacturing facility expansions for semiconductor lasers, lithium niobate modulators, 980 nm pump modules and doped specialty optical fibers. SDL plans to occupy the new facilities and begin production at both sites by the end of the fourth quarter of this year.
Applied Materials, Inc. (Nasdsaq:AMAT) announced that LSI Logic (NYSE:LSI) has ordered its Copper Wiring Equipment Set to create next-generation copper-based chip designs. The equipment set includes the Endura(r) Electra(TM) Barrier/Seed system, the Electra Cu(TM) Integrated ECP (ElectroChemical Plating) system, and the Mirra Mesa(TM) CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) system. The systems are expected to be shipped to LSI Logic's R&D center in Santa Clara, California, in the second and third calendar quarters of 2000. IBC has an equity position in the companies mentioned herein. Please see our disclaimer at www.ibchannel.com.