Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1983 May to 1994 June

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[***][7/15/86][***] IBM SLASHES PC PRICES IBM dealers breathed a sigh of relief last week when IBM cut its wholesale prices on PCs by up to 18%. Big Blue's quiet move (there was no public announcement and barely a corporate acknowledgement to the press) comes as dealers complain of low cost PC-compatibles and clones eating into their sales and profits. (Indeed, InfoCorp says IBM commanded 30% of the PC market in the first six months of 1985 and only 25% in the same period this year.) The price cuts put IBM PCs, XTs and ATs on more of a par with the imitators, but do not make them the same price--IBM products remain slightly higher even with the discounts. [***][7/15/86][***] CLONE BUYER'S GUIDE The IBM XT Clone User Group of San Francisco has published "The IBM XT Clone Buyer's Guide," a $9.95 reference book of the Far East copies that can be had dirt cheap and the various "compatibles" made by recognizable names. (For the record, I'm told by the book's author Edwin Rutsch, that a "compatible" simply runs IBM software, a "clone" runs BOTH the software and the hardware.) Also included are chapters on assembling your own clone, choosing the right parts and buying at garage sales. The chapters are regularly updated by the dedicated club members, who run a BBS open to the public (415) 552-9070. To get a copy of the book write the address below: CONTACT: MODULAR INFORMATION SYSTEMS, 431 Ashbury St., San Francisco, Ca. 94117 [***][7/15/86][***] IBM WINS BIG LAWSUIT IBM has won a three year old lawsuit which accused a small San Jose firm with trade secret theft and patent infringement. Cybernex Corp., founded by former IBM employees, was charged with stealing technology to make thin-film recording heads. In the out-of-court settlement, Cybernex agrees to destroy all records pertaining to the technology, destroy inventory of thin-film heads, allow IBM inspection rights to guard against future violations, and to repay IBM's court costs. Said a defeated John Dellos, Cybernex vice president, "They (IBM) got everything they asked for. We were not in a strong posture. Companies that knew we were being sued thought twice about doing business with us." Just after the settlement was announced, Cybernex officials promptly agreed to sell their disk drive technology operations to Read-Rite Corporation of Milpitas, and will acquire a Xerox disk drive business to start anew. [***][7/15/86][***] APPLE SCAM FALLOUT There were two developments in the Apple vs. the Church case this week. As you recall, Apple charged a purchasing agent for the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, and a retail store, Computer Connection, with conspiring to resell at the retail level 2,500 Apple computers which were purchased at a discount for the schools. The purchasing agent, John Lynch, has been fined $500, required to serve 500 hours in community service, and given three years probation after he plead guilty. Meanwhile Computer Connection is closing its doors. Once the biggest Apple dealer in the state, the store was stripped of its authorized Apple dealer status when the alledged scam first surfaced. The store is going through its second "huge inventory clearance" prior to going out of business within a month. [***][7/15/86][***] SUCH A DEAL? Software Publishing Corporation is launching its second promotional effort aimed at chipping away the lead of Lotus 1-2-3 in the spreadsheet/graphics market. For $195 plus a copy of your Lotus 1-2-3 PrintGraph disk, you get a copy of Harvard Presentation Graphics, which normally costs $395 by itself. Exactly one year ago Software Publishing tried a similar tactic--for $20 and the Lotus 1-2-3 master disk, you could get a copy of PFS:Plan. Some 200 people actually responded to that offer, trading in their $495 Lotus 1-2-3 disk for the $140 program. [***][7/15/86][***] PUTTING MORE ON THE DESK Move over Apple, IBM, Aldus, and others. There's a new kid scrambling for space on the desk. MicroPro has announced it has signed an agreement with Island Graphics to develop a PC-based desktop publishing product for the business market. Called PRISM, it will operate under the Microsoft Windows environment, and will accept text files from all of MicroPro's word processing software. The firm says the product will be out by the end of the year. CONTACT: Lee Lensky, MICROPRO, 33 San Pablo Ave., San Rafael, Ca. 94903 415/499-1200 [***][7/15/86][***] BORLAND LANDS BIG ONE WITH TANDY Borland International either has very good products or very good marketers or both. The firm's latest accomplishment is getting its software distributed in all of Tandy's 5,000 Radio Shack retail stores. All of Borland's products are available in PC- compatible versions and work nicely on Tandy 1000, 1200 and 3000 series personal computers. Meanwhile, Borland has also announced a major upgrade of the Turbo Tutor program, a self-study guide to Turbo Pascal. Tutor version 2.0 is available immediately. CONTACT: Robin Shepherd, BORLAND, 4585 Scotts Valley Dr., Scotts Valley, Ca. 95066 408/438-8400 [***][7/15/86][***] IN BRIEF-- DEST CORP. and COMPUTERLAND just reached an agreement in which DEST's PC Scan, a page reader for IBM PCs and compatibles, will be carried by Computerland stores. SUN MICROSYSTEMS has filed a complaint in federal court against SUNTEK TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL of Sunnyvale and SUN PC of Santa Clara for trademark infringement. In this question of "Who owns the sun," Sun Microsystems wants the sun removed from its competitors' company names. CONVERGENT TECHNOLOGIES of San Jose will post a loss of $4.8 million in this most recent quarter, it says. To blame is a big take-back of unsold computers. Could we be talking AT&T machines? [***][7/15/86][***] TEDDY BEAR WARS Talkin' Teddy Ruxpin, the bear with the tape recording in its back and the microprocessor-choreographed eyes and lips, is anything but a bear on Wall Street. Its maker, Worlds of Wonder, won $108 million in the firm's first stock June 20. Now competititor Axlon, Inc., maker of Petsters (electronic plush toys) has filed for a $12 million stock offering. In its prospectus, Axlon, owned by Atari founder Nolan Bushell, says it's received $3 million from giant toymaker Hasbro in return for rights to market a consumer electronics product Axlon is developing. [***][7/15/86][***] SMART KIDS USE COMPUTERS A Stanford University study of kindergarten students has revealed sharp differences in reading aptitude between youngsters who use computers at home and those who don't. The study of 5-year-olds at the Cupertino Union School District revealed kids who use PCs at home scored twice as high on reading tests as their non-PC'd counterparts. Children who used the computers both at home AND at school scored five times higher than children who had access to neither. The research was conducted by Professor Robert Hess. [***][7/15/86][***] SMART SENIORS TO USE COMPUTERS In an unique project, the University of San Francisco plans to electronically link senior citizens in five US cities: Syracuse New York; Reston, Va.; Framingham, Ma.; Menlo Park, Ca.; and San Francisco. Called "SeniorNet: Computers for Kids Over Sixty," the project has already received a donation of 17 Macintosh and 20 Apple IIc computers from Apple. University programmers expect the system to encourage the seniors to become a part of the computer revolution. They'll have electronic mail, bulletin boards, shopping, and teleconferences, but more importantly, establish a long-needed network of friends and ideas. We sure applaud the project and wish it the best! [***][7/15/86][***] DATA RACE UPGRADES MODEM The "asymmetrical" modem produced by Data Race Inc. has been enhanced and now offers 212A (1200 baud) and 103 (300 baud) compatibility in both answer and originate modes. (The previous version ignored 1200 baud and would not answer at 300 baud.) The new model, called the Data Race AF (Advanced Function), otherwise retains the features of the original model -- it's a 4800 baud CCITT V.27 modem in one direction and a 150 baud modem in the other, using data compression to boost throughput. The slow channel is used for the terminal to host direction, and the fast channel for host to terminal, although this can be reversed if the traffic requires it. The AF costs $1645. CONTACT: Deck Yoes, DATA RACE, 5839 Sebastian, San Antonio, Texas 78249 512/692-3909 [***][7/15/86][***] PHOTOPHONE NOW REMEMBERS Image Data has added a micro floppy to their Photophone product, giving it the ability to store about 60 pictures. Photophone sends digital TV pictures through the phone lines, taking 7 to 15 seconds for pictures with a resolution of up to 296 by 440 lines, with 128 levels of gray. The basic unit costs $8550, and the 3.5-inch disk option costs an extra $875. CONTACT: Larry Buerk, IMAGE DATA CORP., 7896 Mainland, San Antonio, Texas 78250 512/680-2727 [***][7/15/86][***] DATAPOINT SEES LIGHT, DECIDES TUNNEL HAS ENDED In a recent interview, Datapoint CEO Ed Gistaro indicated the new, downsized Datapoint has what it takes to continue profitability. He was responding to questions about Datapoint's first profitable quarter since 1984. (The office automation and LAN vendor made $5.8 million on $55.8 million revenue for the quarter ending April 26.) Chairman Asher Edelman (whose takeover of the company in March 1985 sparked rumors that he would take the company private and liquidate it) says he expects Datapoint to become a billion dollar company in the next fews years. Harold E. O'Kelley, former president dumped by Adelman, under whom Datapoint pioneered the distributed data processing and local area network markets, is reported to be returning to Georgia to become a gentleman farmer. Victor D. Poor, former head or R&D at Datapoint and designer of the 8008 microprocessor chip (who left during O'Kelley's final days) is now at Image Data in San Antonio. CONTACT: Tom Moldenhauer, DATAPOINT CORP., 9725 Datapoint Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78284 512/699-7000 [***][7/15/86][***] DATAPOINT HAS OEM MULTI-USER AT CLONE Datapoint has enhanced its "Starport" series of PC/AT clones with the Starlift, a multi-user MS-DOS system that also supports Datapoint's programming language, Databus. The Starlift uses adapter coards to allow 17 users. Each card includes an 8 megaherz CPU and up to one megabyte of memory. A 17-user system with a 60 megabyte hard disk and 9.68 megabytes of RAM would cost $1,937 per user. The machine is primarily intended for Datapoint "independent sales organizations" (OEMs). CONTACT: Rose Mary Eash, DATAPOINT CORP., 9725 Datapoint Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78212 512/699-7000 [***][7/15/86][***] TANDON TO SELL COMPUTERS UNDER OWN NAME As expected, Tandon Corp. has decided to begin selling IBM- compatible personal computers under the firm's own name. Encouraged by better-than-expected European sales of similar Big Blue clones, Tandon will jump into the domestic market with two models of low-cost IBM PC-XT and AT-compatible machines, the Tandon PCX and PCA. Ranging in price from $1,155 to $3,595, each of the new machines will be sold in three basic configurations. "The move is a key element in Tandon's plan to become a significant factor in the personal-computer market," said Chairman Jugi Tandon, who also predicted that his company would capture from eight to 10 percent of the personal-computer market by 1987. That goal may be a bit difficult, though, without two of the largest retail computer chains signed up to carry the new computers. Representatives of Businessland say they will refuse to stock the Tandon machines because of similarities to their own house-brand computers. Industry analysts predict that ComputerLand will also reject the Tandon products for the same reason. On the bright side, both the Entre Computer Centers and Sears Business Center stores have announced they will buy the clones. Finally, Tandon spokespeople were much more tight-lipped than usual about their new computers late last week. Apparently, marketing department employees were instructed not to give out even the names of the new products over the phone, and to refer all calls to marketing manager Mike Sanders...who was persistently unavailable for comment. When Sanders BECOMES available, we'll have more information about specific features of the PCX and PCA machines in NEWSBYTES-L.A. CONTACT: TANDON CORP., 20320 Prairie, Chatsworth, CA 91311 (818) 993-6644 [***][7/15/86][***] CLIPPER ADS SAIL WITH MISLEADING CLAIM *** EXCLUSIVE *** Advertisements for Clipper software from Nantucket Corp. of Culver City say the dBase III enhancement product features multi-user capability. According to the product manager for Clipper, it does and it doesn't. "Things like support for file locking and other network functions are available from outside developers," said Ray Love, "but no, they are not in our software." Asked if the firm had received complaints from customers who found they would be forced to buy the advertised features from a third-party developer, Love denied any calls had come in. But at least one NEWSBYTES-L.A. reader has reported that he registered complaints about the missing functions with both the firm's marketing and customer service departments. "When somebody walks into a store to buy Clipper, he would ask the salesperson if it had multi-user capability and the answer would be `no,'" said Love. "Nobody buys software from an ad without asking questions about it." When queried if he felt the Clipper ads, which have been running regularly in publications like BYTE, were misleading, Love answered with a simple: "No." Asked when the firm would indeed offer the multi-user features, Love gave an estimate of when the functions would be available, then retracted his comment, saying, "I don't want you to publish that information at this time." Another Nantucket marketing employee, however, did want to go on record and said the product may be upgraded to match its advertising claims within one or two months. CONTACT: NANTUCKET CORP., 5995 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230 (213) 390-7923 [***][7/15/86][***] WOZNIAK CLAIM AGAINST L.A. THROWN OUT In this week's "Lawsuits of the Rich and Famous" file, Steve and Candace Wozniak's $750 lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles has been abruptly dismissed by a federal court judge. "Mrs. Woz," you may remember, had been arrested by the L.A.P.D. on charges of scalping gymnastics tickets during the 1984 Olympic Games. Police confiscated 128 Olympic event tickets with a face value of $11,920 from her purse, but didn't press the case after the women to whom she sold the passes refused to testify against her. The Wozniaks sued the City for $1, later upping it to $750, saying they wanted to make the point that their constitutional rights had been violated by the police. U.S. District Judge William Byrne threw out the case after concluding that the tickets in Wozniak's posession might have been needed for evidence and were properly seized. Avery Einhorn, attorney for the Wozniaks, said the couple will appeal the federal court decision "because we feel the court's ruling on the law was erroneous." On Wednesday, the same day the decision was handed down by Byrne, Steve Wozniak appeared live on the CBS late-night news program "Night Watch" with interviewer Charlie Rose. "I have the ability to ignore problems and just walk away," said Wozniak in response to a question about Apple Computer management squabbles. [***][7/15/86][***] IRVINE "INNOVATION CENTER" TO BE BUILT Pledging $10 million to fund the construction, the Irvine Company has announced that it will build a technology center near the UC Irvine campus. Richard Sim, an official of the Irvine Co., said the 100,000-square-foot facility will be a key component of a research park being developed jointly by the university and a Newport Beach-based real-estate-development firm. When completed, the "Innovation Center" will house the western headquarters of the Washington-based National Academy of Sciences and the Irvine Co.'s executive hotel/conference center. In addition, office sites for technology-oriented corporations will be dotted throughout the attached 265-acre park-like development. Sim said that start-up companies "with the best, cutting-edge ideas" will be selected to occupy the center, and will be able to rent space at below-market rates for two to three years. "We regard the Innovation Center as an important tool to help us keep high technology in Irvine," Sim said. Construction of the Innovation Center itself is expected to begin early next year, with opening ceremonies scheduled for early 1988. [***][7/15/86][***] SAN DIEGO COMPUTER STORES MISSING IN ACTION A recent article in the business section of the San Diego Union reported that "America's Finest City" has been hit with a rash of computer store closings in recent months. Here is a partial list of the missing: MicroAge Computer Store of Carlsbad, Fast Track Computers, Entre Computer Center and On Line Computers Plus of San Diego, and ValCom Computer Centers in San Diego and La Mesa. That list doesn't include those stores still open but operating under one of several bankruptcy codes. Micro Help, a three-store chain based in San Diego, remained open while it filed for Chapter 11 protection. "Every store carries IBM, they're all cutting prices and no one's making any money," said Norm DeWitt, an analyst at Dataquest, about the San Diego situation. One local retailer pointed to IBM's decision to sell its IBM Product Centers to NYNEX as an example of how tough computer retailing has become. Another blamed the general San Diego economy for his tale of woe. "San Diego is a cutthroat city to deal computers in," said Bob Fisher of ValCom Computer Centers. "Margins are five to 10 percent lower than in the Los Angeles area." [***][7/15/86][***] SPUR INTROS NON-IBM MINI AND MAINFRAME LINK TO PRINTERS Forging a link between printers normally compatible only with larger IBM systems and a variety of computers from different manufacturers is the new Universal Subsystem Adapter (USA) from Spur Products Corp. The USA allows high-speed dedicated IBM impact printers to be driven by Burroughs, DEC, H-P, Prime and Wang computers at the rate of 18,000 lines per minute, or by laser printers at 2,000 lines per minute. The selling price of the Spur USA is a cool $8,500. CONTACT: SPUR PRODUCTS CORP., 13469 Beach Ave., Marina del Rey, CA 90292 (213) 822-7100 [***][7/15/86][***] CIPHER DATA PROSPECTS UP, STOCK HAMMERED BACK DOWN As soon as tape-backup manufacturer Cipher Data's business prospects start looking up, nervous stock speculators lower the boom on the San Diego-based firm. At least that's part of the reason why Cipher Data's stock prices are still considered "depressed," according to Arnold Kaufman of Standard & Poors. "Earnings in recent quarters have been hurt by a slowdown in the minicomputer industry," says Kaufman. "However, Cipher Data's business appears to be recovering." Joining Kaufman in defense of Cipher Data's worth is Jean Orr of Drexel Burnham Lambert, who also can't figure out why investors won't support a company that "could contribute $60 million to $70 million in revenues" by 1988. As an indication of its strength, the company recently doubled the capacity of its Singapore manufacturing facility to handle increased demand for its half-inch streaming tape drives. CONTACT: CIPHER DATA PRODUCTS INC., 10225 Willow Creek Rd., San Diego, CA 92131 (619) 578-9100 [***][7/15/86][***] JPL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER SHOWING PROGRESS Robotics and computer scientists had hoped for help building a computer-run warehouse system, but they probably didn't expect the assistance to come from Mars by way of Pasadena. According to engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), computer programs developed for a Mars-roving robot are being applied to the problem of robot stereo-optic vision and materials discrimination. Behind the technology transfer from Space to robot forklifts is an arm of SoCalTEN, the networking organization for Southland high-tech executives formed three years ago. Also involved with NASA's information exchange are the Southern California firms of Alpha Microsystems, AST Research, CalComp and Emulex. The companies pay a one-time fee of $25,000 to participate in the program, which exposes them to the absolute latest in high-frontier engineering. The program hopes to have 12 participating companies within a year, although administrators say it will accept as many as 20. "For the companies that participate," said Christy Walters of the Calif. Dept. of Commerce, "this is a cheap way of buying engineering talent that some of these companies otherwise could never afford." The State of California is involved in the program because "small businesses are creating the most job growth in the state," said Walters. Andrew Paterson of SoCalTEN's RIMTech arm says the main reason why everyone is so cooperative in JPL's technology transfer has to do with a practical reason. "JPL recognizes that their great strength is in unmanned space exploration. They don't know industry and we do," he said. [***][7/15/86][***] TELECOMMUTING CENTER OPENED BY PACIFIC BELL Would distractions make it impossible for you to do data-input work on a home-based personal computer? If you worked for Pacific Bell, your choices were to commute to the utility's downtown Los Angeles offices or find employment elsewhere if the problems couldn't be managed. Now, the phone company has opened a satellite "telecommuting center" in Woodland Hills for those who want to get away from home to work, but who don't want to suffer through the hour-long drive to downtown. The new center consists of 12 cubicles of from 100 to 125 square feet each. The rooms are equipped with telephones and PCs, and are near a shared conference room and laser printer. Rick Higgins, a Pacific Bell spokesman, says the cubicles could be duplicated at home for about $2,500 each. According to researchers for the phone company, California has more telecommuters than any other state. [***][7/15/86][***] BEACHBITS >>> Digital Productions, a Los Angeles company that uses a supercomputer to create special effects for movies, has been sold to the Canada-based Omnibus Computer Graphics. The two co-founders of Digital, John Whitney and Gary Demos, have sued the majority owner of the company, Santa Clara-based Ramtek, for a portion of the sale proceeds. Both men were locked out of their offices at Digital after they filed the suit. >>> Future Trends Corp. of Malibu has announced the Keyport 60, an input-enhancement device for IBM compatibles. The invention permits long strings of commands (or "macros") to be entered at the touch of a special button on PCs. The hardware/software combination is said to work with nearly every program ever written for PC-DOS. The Keyport 60 retails for $158. For more information, contact FTC at: (213) 456-8999. >>> Computer & Communications Technology Corp. of San Diego says its negotiations to acquire Acton Computer Technology of Goleta have been called off. C&CTC decided to repurchase its former Zeta Laboratories division from Whittaker Corp. for $39 million instead. >>> Gateway Computer Systems, a Huntington Beach-based retail chain, has been bought by Boardroom Business Products. Gateway will operate as a subsidiary of Boardroom and will shift focus to the "national account marketplace." Terms of the merger were not disclosed. >>> Ultrasystems Inc. will be listed on the American Stock Exchange beginning this week. The Irvine-based high- technology and engineering company will trade under the symbol ULS. >>> Micro CAD/CAM Inc. of West L.A. will be a major beneficiary of Apple's 12-city summer road show to promote the Macintosh as a desktop publishing and CAD/CAM computer. The firm's engineering program will be one of only a handful of design software packages demonstrated in each of the dozen cities, including Los Angeles. >>> Tandon Corp. of Chatsworth has sold its "Thinline" diskette-drive division to Shugart Corp. of Laguna Hills. Shugart will produce, market and service the drives under its own label. Terms of the sale were not released. >>> Cordata of Thousand Oaks says it will be moving to more posh digs in Newbury Park. The firm will occupy an 80,000- square-foot facility, consolidating its operations from Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village in the new location. Cordata employs 240 workers. [***][7/15/86][***] ADVERTISEMENT OF THE WEEK "Formerly sold for $1995, we have 2,800 in stock new in box with factory warranty! Volume discounts available! Now you have a chance to own the same laptop that Bob Hope's joke writer uses." -- An ad for the Sharp PC5000 from Liquidator Advanced Computer Products of Santa Ana. $395, and thanks for the bubble memories. [***][7/15/86][***] KAPOR LEAVES LOTUS Mitch Kapor, who led Lotus from a basement office with two employees to a quarter-billion dollar company with 1200 employees, resigned his position as chairman thursday. Over the past few months, the 35-year-old Kapor had been backing off from day-to-day operations and became more reclusive, refusing to talk with the press. The official word from Lotus is that Kapor's resignation was voluntary and something he's been planning for quite a while, and Lotus insiders confirmed it to NEWSBYTES. Kapor, wearing one of his well-known Hawaiian shirts, told employees Thursday that it's time to leave the running of the company to others and "get on with my life." The owner of some $54 million worth of Lotus stock, Kapor's obviously not prone to financial worries. He'll remain as a consultant to and director of Lotus. Kapor dismissed pervasive rumors that he's planning to get into politics, and said he'll spend some time with his wife and child on his 22-acre estate in Chestnut Hill, MA. Later, Kapor hopes to start a private foundation doing basic research in artificial intelligence. [***][7/15/86][***] LOTUS' MOST-EXPENSIVE SOFTWARE Meanwhile, Lotus Development introduced a new software package this week. And if you think that software prices are going down, you're going to be in for a big surprise. At a New York press conference, Lotus rolled out "The Application Connection" (T-A-C), which allows Lotus users to extract information from mainframes. Costing between $10,000 and $30,000 (depending upon which mainframe it's designed to be used with), T-A-C is the first micro/mainframe connection software that uses a standard command language regardless of the mainframe system it's used with. At prices like these, T-A-C is obviously designed for those ever-potentially-lucrative corporate (Fortune 500) accounts. T-A-C is derived from I-Link, a product from Information Center Software of New Paltz, NY. Lotus purchased the company in February. And T-A-C isn't all you need; it runs "on top" of still-required hardware and software that links micros and mainframes. CONTACT: Lotus Development, 55 Cambridge Parkway, Cambridge, MA 02142, 617-577-8500 [***][7/15/86][***] WANG CUTS AGAIN After weeks of rumors, Wang Laboratories announced this past week that they'll be making another major cut -- 1600 jobs this time. Rather than forced layoffs, a company spokesperson says they'll use a combination of early retirement and voluntary separation. 800 of those to be laid off will come from manufacturing; the others from finance, administration, and marketing. Wang stressed that it's not cutting positions from sales, research and development, and customer service. Instead, they'll be adding people to these departments. The company is targeting workers over the age of 45 for the early retirement plan. Those who leave voluntarily will get three months pay, plus a week's salary for every year that they've been on the job. If they make a fast decision, those who leave by July 19 will get an extra month's pay. When all 1600 are gone by September it'll bring the total number of employees cut over the past year at Wang to 3200. The company had previously announced that it expects to break for the just-concluded fiscal year. CONTACT: Wang Laboratories, One Industrial Ave., Lowell, MA 01851, 617-459-5000 [***][7/15/86][***] LOCKHEED BECOMES SANDERS WHITE KNIGHT Loral's hostile takeover attempt of Sanders Associates fell in the mud this past Wednesday when Lockheed Corporation apparently became Sanders' "white knight." The news took Loral very much by surprise. In fact, Loral chairman and CEO Bernard Schwartz was meeting with stock analysts Wednesday, defending Loral's offer, when he was handed the news of Lockheed's offer. Although Schwartz was quoted as saying "it's not over yet," Lockheed's $60/share offer for Sanders stock is substantially above the $50 that Loral was offering, although stock analysts say there's still a remote possibility that Loral might make a bigger counter-offer. Assuming the deal comes to fruition, analysts say Lockheed and Sanders will be a logical fit. Lockheed, based near Los Angeles, is the nation's 4th-largest defense contractor, with sales last year of $9.5 billion dollars. Sanders will bring a strong electronics presence to Lockheed. Sanders officials revealed Friday that they'd been talking with Lockheed weeks before Loral's offer. They also stressed that they'll stay in New Hampshire, remaining as the state's largest employer. CONTACT: Sanders Associates, Inc., 95 Canal Street, Nashua, NH 03060, 603-885-4321 [***][7/15/86][***] KURZWEIL ROLLS OUT VOICE TERMINAL Inventor/entrepreneur Ray Kurzweil's long-awaited voice-operated terminal has finally been introduced. Based around an IBM XT, the Kurzweil Voiceterminal adds custom hardware and software that recognizes 1000 words, and can be trained to recognize several different speakers. The company is also offering a developer's toolkit that lets programmers customize the Voiceterminal for specific applications. Although the system is primarily designed for controlling large external computer systems, it can also be used as a stand-alone voice-controlled PC. Prices for the system range between $9500 and $10,900. CONTACT: Kurzweil Applied Intelligence, 411 Waverly Oaks Road, Waltham, MA 02154, 617-893-5151 [***][7/15/86][***] CENTRONICS TO SELL ROMANIAN PRINTER Back in the hazy days when Bentronics was the number-one printer company, they used to manufacture their printers in the United States. But things have changed. Centronics recently announced they'll be selling a low-end Japanese-manufactured printer (see NEWSBYTES NORTHEAST, July 1). Now, for the other end of the printer scale, Centronics' high-speed band printers (mainly used with mainframes) will be manufactured by Romania-CITEC, the state-owned computer company in Bucharest. Centronics stopped manufacturing printers in the United States last year when it closed its Rochester, MI manufacturing plant. Romania-CITEC has been making printers for Centronics since 1980, but up to now only sold them in Europe. CONTACTS: Centronics Data Computer Corp., 1 Wall Street, Hudson, NH 03051, 603-883-0111 [***][7/15/86][***] PLAN NOW FOR COMDEX FALL With the summer heatwave covering the nation, it may seem like a very strange time to be talking about Fall Comdex. But if you're the type that likes to plan ahead, Fall Comdex will take place November 10-14th in Las Vegas. The Interface Group announced last week that the keynote speaker will be William C. Lowe, president of IBM's Entry Systems Division (The PC/AT people). Also, for the first time, the show will allow new types of exhibitors under two new categories called "Comdex Support Services" and "Product Showcase." Exhibiting will be advertising and PR firms, training, consulting, and market research companies, and even financial service people. And yes, there's still plenty of time to reserve your space. CONTACT: The Interface Group, Inc., 300 First Avenue, Needham, MA 02194, 617-449-6600 [***][7/15/86][***] ANOTHER PETERBOROUGH MAGAZINE This little New Hampshire town (population 5000), home of BYTE and numerous other magazines -- nobody knows exactly how many -- has another new magazine. With articles like "The Video/Computer Connection," VIDEOMAKER Magazine is an example of what's happening to consumer electronics--where computers, video, and other home entertainment electronics are all coming together. Of course, it may not be just a coincidence, since the most of the magazine's staff were formerly with BYTE. A one-year subscription (six issues) costs $9.97. CONTACT: Videomaker, Depot Square, Peterborough, NH 03458 603-924-7281 [***][7/15/86][***] PODUSKA SAYS PLAN AHEAD J. William Poduska, who was one of the founders of Prime Computer and Apollo Computer, spoke to a group of hopeful entrepreneurs at Boston's Babson College last week. Poduska, who's just starting Stellar Computer, his third company, told those present that one of the most important things is to plan for going public from the first day you do business. Poduska's become a multi-millionaire from his projects, and starting the budding entrepreneurs salivating by telling them he and the other founders of Apollo Computer got back $1200 for every dollar they invested. New company anyone? [***][7/15/86][***] NORTHEAST BITS -- Framingham, MA-based International Data Corporation has just released the results of a poll it took of MIS executives at Fortune 500 companies. And the results are surprising. Asked to rate the importance of computers other than the IBM PC and AT, about 160 executives rated the Apple MacIntosh above the Leading Edge PC, IBM Convertible, and other non-IBM computers. -- Methuen, MA-based software distributor First Software, which is going through chapter 11 reorganization, has lost its chairman and co-founder. Ken Carpenter resigned and is now president of Metalflake, Incorporated -- a paint manufacturer. -- Using computer equipment donated by publisher Houghton- Mifflin, the Boston Public Library has started a free computerized career information service. Besides a career interest test, the system has a database of colleges, graduate schools, and financial-aid sources. Call 617-442-1171 for more information. -- New England Telephone is experimenting with a computer system to simplify the process of connecting (and disconnecting) telephones for the tens of thousands of college students that jam the Boston area during the school year. At Simmons College, N-E-T installed a touch-screen terminal that lets students order service by entering the order directly into the computer. N-E-T hopes to expand the pilot program throughout the area. [***][7/15/86][***] PC CONVERTIBLE LANDS IN JAPAN IBM Japan announced (7/8) it will market IBM's latest laptop PC "Convertible" in Japan. IBM Japan will sell the same model as the one released in the U.S. So, it is obvious that the laptop does not have a Japanese language feature. However, IBM Japan does not mind this, since the company plans to target this machine for the Japanese branches of overseas firms. A number of foreign firms, especially financial industries, have recently sprung up here in Japan. From this point of view, there's a slim chance that IBM Japan will add a Japanese feature to Convertible. Of course, it WILL when and if the demand arises. Convertible will be released at US$2,982 in September. Meanwhile, IBM Japan has released the three new models of the PC/XT and an 8MHz version of PC/AT (model 339). CONTACT: IBM Japan, 3-2-12 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106 (03-586-1111) [***][7/15/86][***] TELECOMMUNICATION SURVEY The Nikkei-Sangyo Research Corp. (Tokyo) has taken a survey among 1,000 business people concerning personal computer-based telecommunication. According to this survey, money and health seem to be the main concerns for those people. (TELECOM SERVICE) --------------------------------------------------- 1) USING DATABASE 37.7% 2) STOCK EXCHANGE 27.8% 3) HEALTH COUNSELING 26.2% 4) LANGUAGE TRANSLATION 18.5% 5) TICKET RESERVATION 15.2% 6) E-MAIL 10.6% 7) HOME BANKING 10.1% --------------------------------------------------- (Taken from "the Nikkei-Sangyo Daily", July 8) [***][7/15/86][***] HIRING BID FOR '87 Some of the firms in Japan already announced (7/11) a plan to hire school graduates next March. Most of those firms will hire fewer, compared with this past March. The only exception is TI Japan which will increase the number by over 30 percent. COMPANIES MAR.,'86 MAR.,'87 ----------------------------------------------------------- Mitsubishi 1600 1280 -20% SONY 1090 1000 -8% Sharp 1195 1175 -2% TI Japan 150 200 +33% Kyocera 866 725 -16% Canon 1268 887 -30% SEIKO-EPSON 386 240 -38% UNIVAC Japan 415 415 0% ----------------------------------------------------------- [***][7/15/86][***] THE EGG TO CONCENTRATE YOUR MIND Japanese software house "Management Work" has developed a unique gadget which can be used for releasing your tension and beefing up the concentration power of your mind. As the name "Relax Egg" tells, the gadget looks like an egg. Just grasp this egg when you're frustrated, and turn the top of the egg. As a red light turns on, try to relax. When the egg recognizes that you're relaxed, the red light turns to green and a peaceful melody goes on. This device measures Ohmage (current resistance) of a hand's skin -- Ohmage decreases when you're nervous, while it increases when you're relaxed. The built-in digital clock makes it good interior decoration when it is not used. It will be released at US$106 in September. CONTACT: Management Work Corp., 3F Eternal-Nishiya, 21-46 Nishi, Ohdori, Chuo-ku, Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido 064, Japan (011-611-1121) [***][7/15/86][***] RENAISSANCE SYMPOSIUM '86 The Tama Renaissance Research Group will hold "Renaissance Symposium '86" in Tokyo on October 25 and 26. At the symposium, various studies on biotechnology, mechatronics, and new-media will be introduced. The group also plans to hold a Japan-U.S. hi-tech conference, using personal computer's telecommunication network. The U.S. participants of the conference will be the computer engineers at the Silicon Valley and the lecturers of Stanford University. Meanwhile, the staff members of Fanuc, Mitsubishi, and SONY, and some professors are expected to take part in this conference in Japan. Tokyo metropolitan governor will give a keynote address. The Tama Renaissance Research Group has been organized by several universities, regional governments, and computer manufacturers of Western Tokyo. CONTACT: Tokyo Metropolitan University of Science and technology, c/o Akiyama Research Group, 6-6 Asahiga-Oka, Hino-shi, Tokyo 191 (0425-83-5111) [***][7/15/86][***] <<< SUKIYAKI BYTES >>> SONY TO BOOST LD OUTPUT -- According to a published report, SONY plans to rapidly increase its production of music laserdisks. The total output from the company's domestic and overseas factories is said to reach 10 million disks per month by the end of next year. SONY has already decided to beef up the production lines of Digital Audio Disk Corp. (U.S.A.) and build a new factory in Austria for that purpose. SPACE TELECOM VENTURE -- Nine major Japanese manufacturers, including NTT, KDD, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, and Toyota, will jointly establish a firm to develop large-scale telecom equipment for broadcasting and space satellites in October. According to a published report, Japanese Ministry of Inter- national Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications will foot 70 percent of the new firm's stock. NEC'S UNIX WORKSTATION -- NEC has developed a workstation "Astra XL/32" which runs UNIX System V. This product will be shipped in the U.S. through NEC Information Systems (MA) in September. HITACHI AND FAIRCHILD -- Hitachi has inked a second source contract with Fairchild (U.S.A.) concerning the advanced high- speed CMOS logic-IC "FACT". With this agreement, Hitachi will begin shipping its sample products at the end of this year. [***][7/15/86][***] SINCLAIR BLASTS BACK Sir Clive Sinclair, fresh from his enforced sellout to Amstrad earlier this year, is back with a vengeance. This last week has seen the formal unveiling of his new company - Anamartic - with a promise of wafer scale integrated products on sale by 1987. Born out of Sir Clive's old Metalab project, the wafer scale integration project involves the successful (we hope) production of many chips on a silicon wafer the size of a human fist. Normally, when chips are produced en masse, the failure rate is high. Sir Clive's system is to wire the "good" chips together on a wafer, thus producing megabytes of RAM storage cheaply (that, at least, is the idea). Anamartic's first offering for early next year will be a 1Mb memory pack, but, as ever, Sir Clive's ambititous nature shows through, as he's already talking about 7Mb wafers which can be stacked to give up to 280Mb in a small wafer unit. The major problem for Sinclair will be the fact that hard disc storage prices are falling through the floor in the UK - already we're seeing 20Mb units retailing to the trade at 350 pounds ($525). But Sinclair is pinning his hopes on wafer scale memory's sheer speed - many times that of conventional winchesters and only marginally slower than normal RAM. Add this to low power consumption figures and he might just succeed. Perhaps learning form previous finger-burning marketplace sorties, Sir Clive is distancing himself financially from the company. Already he is quoted as offering 30% equity in the company, in exchange for a 6 million pound ($9m) cash infusion, and ideally wants 90% of Anamartic to be cash funded from outside of his company circle. Will he succeed? Jim Anderson, a leading UK financial analyst is quoted in this week's "Computing" as saying, "Given Sir Clive's past track record, investors will look with more than due diligence at his business plan and expect to see as little of the Sinclair hype as possible." "Computing" comments that if UK funding isn't forthcoming, then Sir Clive may well look to the US for funding if the UK fails him. And if the US fails to provide the cash? No-one's saying anything on that subject... [***][7/15/86][***] MICRONET IN THE NEWS AGAIN #1 Micronet 800, the microcomputing information provider to Prestel, is in the news again this week. Following the contentious launch of its Gay closed user group pages recently (see last weeks NEWSBYTES UK for details), Micronet's share capital has been partially acquired by British Telecom, which owns and runs Prestel itself. BT now has a 40% majority stake in Micronet, which is exemplified by the recent installation of a new boss - Tom Baird - who is spanning the bridge between his old job as a top persona at Prestel, and his new similar job at Micronet. Quite simply, he's continuing to do both jobs! Micronet 800 was originally set up as a joint project between BT and East Midlands Allied Press (EMAP) back in 1983. Last year, following BT's privatisation (mirroring that of Ma Bell), BT considerably reduced its shareholding. Micronet now has 20,000 subscribers, which represents about a third of the Prestel subscriber base. After much behind the scenes share-dealing, EMAP has reduced its original 55% shareholding to 40%, with an equal share going to BT, and a 20% slice staying in the hands of Bell Canada. And how much is the company worth as a whole? "I keep that sort of thing a fairly well-guarded secret," said Baird, when he spoke to Guy Kewney of "Microscope" this week. "And I am not going to even give you a clue, except to say that we are the market leaders in videotext." Ah, such modesty! Contact: Micronet 800, Durrant House, 8 Herbal Hill, London EC1R. Tel: 01-278-3143. [***][7/15/86][***] MICRONET IN THE NEWS AGAIN #2 Prestel has never been the commercial success of the French Teletel system, which is perhaps due to the French's farsighted ideas back in 1980, when the Teletel project was pilot-launched in Velizy, a Paris suburb. Now with over 2 million terminals dotted around France, the majority of which were *given* away by the French to get their computerised directory assistance service off the ground, the service is the envy of videotext systems worldwide. It comes as no surprise therefore, to see Micronet seeking to capture the UK's undoubted viewdata market by giving 10,000 of their modems away, provided the subscriber signs on the dotted line for a years subscription, which costs around the $100 mark - not bad when you get a $75 modem thrown in for free! "How do they do it?" I hear you ask. NEWSBYTES UK asked this self-same question of Keith Rose, marketing persona of Modem House, a major modem box-shifter located in the southwest of England. "I'm very, very annoyed with Micronet 800," said Rose. "The modems they (Micronet) are giving away are the same ones I exclusively purchased from Prism (a modem distributor) when they were liquidated back in '83. They shouldn't be selling or giving away those modems without consulting me first." Rose is incensed at Micronet, not only for the modem giveaway, but for a recent panning they gave his Sinclair Spectrum modem package, which has just been launched. "I'm angry," said Rose, "and shall be consulting my solicitors over these matters." Contact: Keith Rose, Modem House, 70 Longbrook Street, Exeter, Devon,EX4 6AP. Tel: 0392-213355. [***][7/15/86][***] COMDEX EUROPE - THE FINAL WORD Final word on Comdex Europe, which we mentioned briefly a few weeks ago after it took place in Nice, France during early June, goes to Guy Kewney who, writing in the latest edition of "Personal Computer World," pans the show like nothing else. According to Kewney, Comdex Europe sported such delights as $15 2 mile taxi rides, drinkless civic reception (no drinks - not even water), vice girls all over the place, and was summed up by one sad US delegate when he said to Guy: "After paying $125 a head for a meal in France, the one thing you expect is good cooking, not just a ripoff." Kewney says that out of the 10,000 expected show/conference attendees, just 4,000 actually walked their shoes through the door, and that one manufacturer sponsored conference session was made to an audience of two, both of whom were the official translators. No doubt Kewney's experiences are tempered by the attack of the French stomach he had whilst in Nice (one meal and several trips to the mens room in three days), but was Comdex Europe *that* bad? "If Interface Group organise another Comdex Europe in Nice, my candid advice is: don't go... there isn't even sand on the beach." Contact: Guy Kewney, Personal Computer World, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG. Tel: 01-439-4243 The Interface Group Inc., 300 First Avenue, Needham, MA 02194, United States. Tel: 617-449-6600. [***][7/15/86][***] SLASHING THE PRICE OF THE PC Whilst Amstrad-watchers continue to froth at the mouth of the soon-come Amstrad PC clone (see last week"s NEWSBYTES UK), this month's "Personal Computer World" is jam packed with amazing offers of machines that are so cheap I'm almost tempted to reach for my credit card and phone. UDM is riding the market to its limits in the magazine with an offer price of 299 pounds ($450) on their 256K RAM, single floppy system with 150W psu, which, with a cheap monitor attached, could get you started on the IBM trail for around the 350 pound ($525) mark. Providing your budget stretches to 500 pounds ($750), you can choose from several ads in the magazine. At these kind of prices it's no wonder Big Blue is getting worried at falling sales of its standard PC which still costs well over a 1,000 pounds! Contact: UDM, Stanhope House, Fairbridge Road, London N19 3ZP. Tel: 01-281-2161. [***][7/15/86][***] PAYING FOR SOMETHING THAT ISN'T THERE Laugh of the week must go to the University of Wales Hospital in Cardiff which is none too pleased at having discovered it's been paying maintenance fees for the past five years on computer kit it doesn't have! The major Welsh hospital has shelled out over 20,000 pounds ($30,000) for maintenance of computers which were purchased and then never used. Keith Moger, the local health authority's spokesman, is quoted in several computer magazines as saying he believed the discovery was made as part of a drive to cut costs. Maybe this item isn't such a laugh after all, since the 20K could have been spent to save patients lives. Not funny. Let's hope the hospital gets its money back soon. Contact: The University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff, South Wales, Tel: 0222-755944. == [***][7/15/86][***] CHIP TALKS AT A STANDSTILL Computer trade talks last week in Washington between Japan and the U.S. bogged down over the question of expanded access to the Japanese market. The negotiators agreed to delay final action until July 26, after the talks nearly reached a successful conclusion. With the possibility of the talks failing, the U.S. semiconductor industry began jawboning to force progress. George Scalise, chairman of the Semiconductor Industry Association, warned that "if the Japanese negotiating team remains intransigent on the remaining issues, SIA will pursue all available remedies." That includes further action on anti-dumping petitions that have been held in abeyance during the talks. Once the dominant force in the world computer market, U.S. chip makers have seen their market erode to Japanese competition. [***][7/15/86][***] U.S. AND INDIA NEAR SUPERCOMPUTER DEAL "The Washington Post" reports that the U.S. is about to permit sale of supercomputers to India. The only hurdle is Indian agreement with the U.S. and Japan on safeguards to keep the technology from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union. Cray Research and Control Data Corp. in the U.S. and NEC in Japan are the chief supercomputer manufacturers. The newspaper says Indian is interested in as many as four machines from each country. The Indian interest has prompted the U.S. to seek a common policy with Japan on the sale of supercomputers to friendly but politically neutral countries. India and the U.S. have been talking about the supercomputer issue for a year. The discussion got more complex when India approached Japan about an NEC machine. The talks then shifted to attempts to get Japan on board on safeguards. The two sides reportedly have differences in how to approach the issue. The Post quotes a source as saying the U.S. is "being too broad and too stringent" in its approach to safeguards. [***][7/15/86][***] NAVY RETIRES GRACE HOPPER -- AGAIN "Government Computer News" reports that the Navy has ordered Adm. Grace Hopper, creator of the COBOL computer language, to retire after 43 years of service. In 1966, when Hopper was only 60 years old, the Navy involuntarily retired her. But after eight months, the Navy ran into computer problems and called her back to active duty. She is now 79. The Defense Department plans a retirement ceremony August 14 in Boston aboard the U.S.S. Constitution, the paper notes. Says the feisty Hopper, "I'm not leaving; they're telling me to go." [***][7/15/86][***] DATAFLEX GETS COMPAQ DISTRIBUTORSHIP Dataflex Corp., an Edison, N.J. computer distributor, has been awarded a Compaq distributorship. the company has been an IBM PC distributor since 1985 and a Digital Equipment Corp. distributor since 1981. The company targets large organizations and say it carries about 2,000 accounts. Its Mainsite program provides full-time, on-site maintenance staff with an inventory of spare parts and replacement units. "The Compaq distributorship and service capabilities are an important step in providing additional service to our growing customer base," said President Jeffrey Lamm. "Many of our present customers are currently utilizing Compaq's line of personal computer products." CONTACT: Dataflex Corp., 770 New Durham Road, Edison, N.J. 08817, 201-321-1100. [***][7/15/86][***] NEWSNET ADDS LETTERS ON ASIA, TAXES, CHEMICALS NewsNet, the electronic newsletter vendor, has added publications on Asia, taxes and chemical instrumentation to its burgeoning list of publications on line. "Asian Intelligence" is a fortnightly highlighting information about Asia that might be of interest to bankers, manufacturers and investors. It is published in Hong Kong by Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. "BNA Tax Updates," published by the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington, follows tax developments closely and is updated several times daily. "The Chemical Monitor" is a monthly that reviews the technical literature on chemical instrumentation and comments on technical development and market forces. CONTACT: NewsNet, Haverford Road, Bryn Mawr, Pa., 19010, 800-345- 1301. [***][7/15/86][***] NSF PICKS FIVE FOR FIVE-YEAR COMPUTER GRANTS The National Science Foundation has made five-year grants totalling more than $15 million to five universities. The money is to help the schools set up and run major experimental computer research facilities, under NSF's Coordinated Experimental Research Program. Cornell University will develop and experiment with systems involving representation of complex objects using very large scale integration design tools. Indiana University will expand its experimental computer facility, which is working on languages for parallel procession. University of California-Irvine is working on cooperative, experimental research in software engineering. Yale University plans to broaden its investigations into parallel, multiprocessor-based computers. CONTACT: Ralph Kazarian, National Science Foundation, 1800 G. Street, Washington, D.C., 20550, 202-357-9498. [***][7/15/86][***] COMPUTER INDEX STILL STAGNANT The Washington Computer Business Index is as stagnant as the Washington summer weather. The index, based on computer display ads in the weekly "Washington Business" tabloid, slid down to 180 last week, the first dip below 200 for several months. Computer ads ran a bit under ten pages for the July 7 edition, narrowing the typical 2-1 gap between non-computer and computer ads. Non- computer display ads slid to 13 pages for the week. [***][7/15/86][***] POWERBYTES $$$ The Interior Department has awarded Prime Computer of Natick, Mass., a $64 million contract for more than 400 32-bit superminis. The five-year contract is the largest Prime has ever signed. $$$ The Naval Avionics Center in Indianapolis, Ind., has awarded a $9 million engineering support contract to SofTech of Waltham, Mass. The award is the first renewal of a multi-year contract that could be worth as much as $30 million. [***][7/15/86][***] QUOTE OF THE WEEK "The top priority, right now the very single priority in the research community...is parallelism. Pure and simple. We've got us a wonderful time in history to do that. I think the machines we've got...we've got more machines than we need in fact. But we have no software and we have no trained people." -- Gordon Bell, assistant director of computer information science and engineering at the National Science Foundation and architect of the VAX line of minicomputers when he was at Digital Equipment Corp. Quoted in "The Washington Post," July 6, 1986. [***][7/15/86][***] TANDY SETTING UP GLOBAL RETAILING SUBSIDIARY Intertan Inc., a subsidiary of Tandy Corp. of Fort Worth, Tex., has been set up in Barrie, Ont., north of Toronto, to manage the company's retail outlets everywhere except in the U.S. Tandy Electronics Ltd., the existing Canadian subsidiary, has become part of Intertan, as will Tandy Australia Ltd. Robert Keto, former managing director of the Canadian operation, has been named president of Intertan. In addition to Canada and Australia, Tandy has stores in Britain, France, Belgium, West Germany and the Netherlands. Tandy's Canadian operations are already operating under the Intertan banner. The company is waiting for regulatory approval of the change from governments of the various European countries where it operates. CONTACT: David Miller, TANDY ELECTRONICS LTD., 279 Bayview Dr., Barrie, Ont. L4M 4W5, (705) 728-6242 [***][7/15/86][***] COGNOS WILL GO PUBLIC Cognos Inc., an Ottawa-based software developer, will make a public offering of its shares in August. Cognos is a vendor of applications-development software for Digital Equipment, Hewlett- Packard and Data General minicomputers. The company is aiming for sales of about C$65 million in its current fiscal year. The bulk of its sales are in the U.S. The public offering is expected to raise about C$12 million. Cognos issued a preliminary prospectus for a stock offering in February of 1984, but then postponed going public because the stock market had become leery of high-tech stocks. Currently, company president Michael Potter owns 44 percent of Cognos' shares, a unit of the Toronto-based mining and manufacturing conglomerate Noranda Inc. holds 26 percent, and the rest is spread among some 400 shareholders, many of them employees of Cognos. CONTACT: COGNOS INC. 275 Slater St., 10th Floor, Ottawa, Ont. K1P 5H9, (613) 237-1440 [***][7/15/86][***] CANADIAN AI SYNERGISM The acquisition of AI software developer Logicware Inc. by Nexa Corp. of Ottawa (see NEWSBYTES CANADA, July 8) has created "a possibility of a strong synergism," says Ian MacLachlan, vice- president and general manager of Logicware. Right after the buyout, Logicware moved its offices to space occupied by Nexa and a number of its other subsidiaries in Mississauga, just west of Toronto. Logicware joined Canadian Artificial Intelligence Products Corp., Inference Canada Inc., Symbolics Canada Inc., Western Expert Systems and Waterloo Engineering as subsidiaries of a Nexa holding company called International Artificial Intelligence. That makes Nexa clearly Canada's largest player in artificial intelligence, and says MacLachlan, it makes International AI a candidate for a public share offering. Logicware is the only member of the International AI family with much presence outside of Canada: 80 percent of its sales are in the U.S. CONTACT: Ian MacLachlan, LOGICWARE INC., 5915 Airport Rd., 2nd Floor, Mississauga, Ont. (416) 665-0022 [***][7/15/86][***] MITEL OPTIMISTIC The new bosses at Mitel Corp., the troubled communications equipment manufacturer acquired by British Telecom in March, are cautiously optimistic. They expect the company to do better in fiscal 1987 than it did in 1986. That isn't saying much--in 1986 the company lost C$160.2 million. Deryk Vander Weyer, Mitel's new chairman, told the annual meeting the company can't be sure of making a profit in 1987, but should become profitable again "reasonably quickly." British Telecom paid C$322.2 million for 51 percent of Mitel. The British firm doesn't plan any more injections of capital into Mitel, Vander Weyer told the annual meeting. British Telecom also doesn't plan to have Mitel market BT products, but does expect that the two organizations will co-operate on technology. Contact: MITEL CORP., 350 Legget Drive, Kanata, Ont. K2K 1X3, (613) 592-6353 [***][7/15/86][***] RESURRECTED TARIFF IS UNPOPULAR When the Canadian government slapped a 3.9 percent tariff on computer parts imported from the United States a few weeks ago, it didn't get any thanks from the Canadian computer industry. In fact the tariff -- which is simply a reinstatement of what existed until Ottawa dropped it at the beginning of this year -- has drawn fire from most Canadian computer vendors. George Nutter, director of communications at the Canadian Business Equipment Manufacturers' Association (CBEMA), said that since 87 percent of the computer products manufactured here are for export, and since many of the components used in those products must be imported, the tariff is in effect hurting Canadian exports. That's ironic, since it was imposed in retaliation for a U.S. tariff on shingles that is expected to hurt other Canadian exporters. Some computer vendors and distributors have called off planned price cuts because of the tariff's reintroduction. CBEMA's Nutter said his association's first reaction was to send a telegram to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, asking why he had "shot the industry in the foot." [***][7/15/86][***] DESKTOP PUBLISHING PRODUCT FROM TORONTO DEVELOPER FTL Systems Inc. of Toronto has just introduced MacTex, a typesetting and page-composition package for Apple Computer's Macintosh Plus. The package combines Tex, a typesetting language used on mainframes and minicomputers, with Postscript, the popular page-description language used by Apple's LaserWriter printer and other devices. The software can work with Postscript compatible typesetting equipment as well as lineprinters. It can also work with the MacPaint software package that runs on the Macintosh. MacTex costs C$1,000 for single copies; site licenses and educational discounts are available. CONTACT: FTL SYSTEMS INC., Suite 205, 234 Eglinton Ave. E., Toronto, Ont. M4P 1K5, (416) 487-2142 [***][7/15/86][***] DISK DANGER LURKS UNDERGROUND If you visit Toronto, you probably won't get mugged in the subway -- but your disks might get erased. The subway system in Canada's largest city has a reputation for safety and cleanliness, but apparently that doesn't include magnetic fields. This month's edition of the local publication "Toronto Computes!" reports that equipment under the floors of some of the city's newer subway cars generates strong electromagnetic fields that can erase computer disks. The Toronto Transit Commission has acknowledged that a problem exists, and says it is limited to cars with numbers higher than 5670. [***][7/15/86][***] BITS, EH? - Bell-Northern Research, of Ottawa, has a new president. He is Gedas A. Sakus, formerly group vice-president of switching at Northern Telecom Canada. Former BNR president John Roth has gone to Northern Telecom as an executive vice-president. Northern Telecom owns 70 percent of BNR, while Bell Canada, the telephone operating company for Ontario and Quebec, owns the rest. Both Bell Canada and Northern Telecom are subsidiaries of Bell Canada Enterprises of Montreal. - Control Data Canada, Ltd., of Mississauga, Ont., reported a profit of C$16.2 million for the first six months of 1986. Revenue was C$123.1 million. In the same period of 1985, the company earned C$3.1 million on revenues of C$122.3 million. The profit includes an extraordinary gain from the selling the British operations of Computing Devices Co., a subsidiary. - Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Ltd. of Mississauga, Ont., will open a software research and development centre in Montreal. The centre will develop software for office automation and natural resources applications, and will cost C$50 million to C$60 million. - Cantel Inc., the independent company that competes with Canada's phone companies in providing cellular radio service in Toronto and Montreal, is going west. Toronto-based Cantel will be offering cellular radio in the Alberta cities of Edmonton an Calgary, in competition with Alberta Government Telephones and Edmonton Telephones.