BT dumps shares in British Interactive Broadcasting

With the wolves at the door, desperate measures are often called for and it seems that cash-strapped British Telecom is no exception. The company has just opted out of its deal with BSkyB over British Interactive Broadcasting, the interactive arm of the SkyDigital platform. BT exercised its right to give up its shares in the company on 14 May and will receive 19. ...more

HP introduces two new ranges of desktop PCs

Hewlett-Packard has unveiled two new lines of desktop PCs. The HP Compaq d530 series is aimed at the larger corporate market whilst the HP Compaq d330 series is targeted at the small and medium business sector. Both feature the new Intel 865-G 'Springdale' chipset which provides hyperthreading support for the Pentium 4. ...more

And also today (2-October-2001), for the record...

Here, in brief, are some of the day's other stories. Troubled times for Compaq The merger-seeking Compaq has issued a profits warning - it expects revenue and earnings for its third quarter to be "below prior guidance". Events of the 11 September are blamed for exacerbating "economic deterioration". ...more

EU launches another probe into Microsoft monopoly

The European Commission has announced that it is to investigate the recent purchase by Microsoft and Time Warner of ContentGuard, a specialist in digital rights management. Europe has undertaken a preliminary investigation into the acquisition and is concerned that Microsoft may be building a monopoly in DRM which is set to become a key technology in the coming years. ContentGuard's principle product is XrML 2. ...more

Sharp develops MPEG4 recorder

Electronics giant Sharp has exhibited a prototype MPEG4 recorder at the World PC Expo 2000. The exhibited model was only a mockup, but a spokesperson from Sharp said that the company hoped to release a unit for the consumer electronics market by the end of the year. Details are a little sketchy but it is hoped that the recorder will have inputs so that it can record analogue TV and video signals. ...more