Wednesday, March 27, 1996

Headlines from the mainstream press:

David Packard, a founder of Hewlett-Packard, died on Monday at Stanford University Hospital. He was 83. With $538, Packard and William Hewlett started HP in a garage in Palo Alto in 1938. The company earned $31B in revenue last year. HP's first product was an audio oscillator for testing sound equipment, which Disney used for "Fantasia." Packard served as deputy secretary of defense in the first Nixon Administration. [NYT 3/27/96 p. D20]

IBM plans to introduce networking software that combines more then 50 products previously sold separately. The software will run on Windows NT, OS/2, and AIX and will cost about $1,000. [NYT 3/27/96 p.D5]

Insiders at Netscape Communications, Bay Networks, Netcom On-line Communications, America Online, Sun Microsystems, and other networking firms sold some of their shares in recent months. Internet stocks weakened following AT&T's announcement of low-cost Internet access. [WSJ 3/27/96 p.C17]

AMD has begun shipping processors that are compatible with Intel's 75-MHz and 90-MHz Pentium processors. AMD's prices are 50% below Intel's. Analysts predict that the effects of the new chips will be modest, since the Pentium market has moved on to faster processors. [WSJ 3/27/96 p.B6]

H&R Block, which plans to sell a 17.7% stake in its CompuServe unit, hopes to get $27 to $30 a share, bringing the company's value to $2.44B. Some analysts argue that CompuServe may be valued higher--at as much as $5B. Others analysts warn of an online price war sparked by AT&T and MCI Communications and say the company is worth $20 to $24 a share. [WSJ 3/27/96 p.B6]

IBM plans to cut prices on its server software in light of increased competition from Microsoft. The server sector is one of the most profitable areas of the computer industry. [WSJ 3/27/96 p.B2]

Bay Networks' shares fell yesterday following analysts' concerns that slowing sales of PCs would hurt sales of networking products. [NYT 3/27/96 p.D4]

Compaq yesterday introduced Netelligent, a line of 100 networking products for remote offices of small and midsize companies. It will rename the Thomas-Conrad and Networth brands it bought last year and cut prices on those products by 10% to 51%. [NYT 3/27/96 p.D4]

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded $305M of Apple long- term debt securities to junk-bond status (Ba2), an indication that Apple will be under severe pressure for the next 12 to18 months. [WSJ 3/27/96 p.B7]

Advertising agencies True North Communications and Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt plan to spin off online marketing arms. [WSJ 3/27/96 p.B10]

News Sources:
BW=Business Week		FRB=Forbes
FRT=Fortune		NYT=New York Times
SFC=San Francisco Chronicle		SJMN=San Jose Mercury News
USA=USA Today		WSJ=Wall Street Journal

Copyright (c) 1996 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company