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Former
Microsoft employee faces fraud charges
Seatle: A former Microsoft employee accused of
stealing software worth $17 million was charged with 62
counts of mail and computer fraud. Richard Gregg, 43,
of Bellevue, Washington, pleaded innocent to the charges
on Monday. Gregg, a former project coordinator for Windows
development, is accused of ordering software with a retail
value of $17 million through the company's internal software
ordering system and then reselling it. Employees do not
buy the software, which is intended for use at their jobs.
Microsoft fired Gregg in December 2002 after a company
investigation into employees' use of the software ordering
system. The investigation was sparked by a similar case
in which an employee, Daniel Feussner, was accused of
stealing software with a retail value of $9 million and
then using the money to buy expensive cars and jewellery.
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Sony
Ericsson cuts product range to reach profit
Stockholm: Struggling mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson
said on Tuesday it would cut its product range, along
with closing a research and development facility and shedding
500 jobs in an attempt to swing into profit. The loss
making company, a joint venture between Swedish telecoms
equipment maker Ericsson and Japanese consumer electronics
group Sony, said it would cease making CDMA technology
handsets for the North American market but continue making
them for customers in Japan.
"R&D activities in Munich, Germany will be phased
out. In total approximately 500 employees will be affected
in Munich... and at Sony Ericsson's CDMA R&D centre
in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA,"
the company said in a statement.
"The actions reflect our strong forward momentum
as we intensify our business focus and work to achieve
profitability," Sony Ericsson president Katsumi Ihara
said in the statement.
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BA
rejects Virgin's offer, says Concorde won't fly
London: British Airways Plc spurned a five million
pound ($8.4 million) bid for its Concorde aircraft from
rival Virgin Atlantic Airways on Sunday, and said it would
retire the supersonic jet as planned in October. "Concorde
is not for sale. Our position is absolutely unchanged
on that," a British Airways (BA) spokeswoman said.
"We're clear that Concorde will not fly commercially
beyond October 2003." Earlier on Sunday, Virgin raised
its bid for BA's five remaining Concorde aircraft to five
million pounds from its previous offer of just five pounds.
"We have operators ready to help us keep it flying
and would serve New York, Barbados and Dubai, a new destination
for the plane," Virgin chairman Richard Branson said
in a statement. A joint British-French venture, Concorde
first took off in 1969 and can fly at twice the speed
of sound, or around 2,100 kilometre per hour.
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Volkswagen
Beetle to disappear forever
Mexico City: Mexicans remained faithful to the
Volkswagen Bug long after other countries abandoned it,
and many are mourning the announcement that production
of the little cars will end later this summer at a plant
in Puebla, Mexico — the last factory still making
them. A flood of new, sub-compact cars dampened demand
for the Bug and revealed an awful truth, even for old
Beetle lovers: the Bug's time has passed. The failings
of the car — known here as the Vocho — went
largely unspoken here, in part because it became “the
people's car” in Mexico to a greater extent than
it ever did in Germany. First offered in Mexico in 1964,
the Bug's low price, simplicity and ruggedness gave it
mass appeal.
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Oracle
drops condition to complete PeopleSoft bid
New York: Oracle said on Monday it had waived one
of the conditions to its $6.3-billion takeover offer that
PeopleSoft's board of directors had cited as a bar to
the two companies holding talks over the deal. The Redwood
Shores, California business software company said it had
dropped its initial objections to PeopleSoft making changes
to a separate offer it has made for J D Edwards. The value
of that offer now totals $1.75 billion. PeopleSoft has
repeatedly cited this condition as one of the impediments
to the company's board holding talks with Oracle on the
terms of its takeover bid. "We hope that with this
waiver, PeopleSoft will finally agree to meet with us,
as their shareholders are demanding," Oracle spokesman
Jim Finn said in a statement.
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IFC
signs $ 50 mn loan agreement with TELCO
Washington: International Finance Corporation,
private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has signed
a 50 million dollar loan agreement with India's flagship
company TELCO, to support its ongoing investment programme
and new product development initiatives. "The investment
is an endorsement of TELCO's plans and objectives and
we look forward to a long-term partnership with IFC,"
Praveen Kadle, executive director of TELCO said, according
to a release here. Dimitris Tsitsiragos, IFC director
for South Asia responded, TELCO has had a remarkable turnaround
and has demonstrated its engineering expertise by successfully
developing and marketing world class passenger vehicles.
"IFC is glad to be supporting TELCO's growth plans
and to be associated with one of the most progressive
business groups in India," he said. TELCO is among
the world's top ten commercial vehicle manufacturers as
well as a domestic market leader for over 50 years.
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