Bob Woods

Agere Systems , which develops and makes communications components, said it would implement a cost-cutting program that would include the closing of some plants and the loss of 1,400 jobs. The company made the announcement at the same time it revealed first-quarter losses that matched Wall Street expectations. Agere said it expects that today’s initiatives, […]

Struggling Canadian networking giant Nortel Networks Corp. narrowed its fourth quarter pro-forma and net losses, as compared to the prior quarter. Company officials also said they expect a return to profitability by the end of this year. Nortel’s pro-forma loss from continuing operations in the fourth quarter was $506 million or $0.16 per common share, […]

USinternetworking , an Annapolis, Md.-based application-service provider (ASP), said it has made available an updated version of its USi Enterprise Messaging and Collaboration product powered by Microsoft Exchange 2000. New features from the upgrade include wireless access to Exchange 2000 through RIM BlackBerry devices, Instant Messaging through Exchange 2000, and a five day disaster recovery […]

Cordant Inc., which develops enterprise instant-messaging (IM) infrastructure, said it has acquired the IP assets of IMfuse Inc., an Alexandria, Va.-based developer of enterprise IM applications. The deal’s financial details were not immediately available. Both companies are privately held. The buy will “accelerate the development of key products that will further extend (Cordant’s) competitive advantage, […]

A bug that could lead hackers into an unsuspecting user’s computer has been discovered in some versions of America Online’s ICQ instant-messaging (IM) system — the second time this month a vulnerability has been found in one of AOL’s IM programs. The bug was located in the ICQ Voice Video & Games feature for versions […]

Lucent Technologies today announced the availability of an Internet protocol (IP) telephony solution that allows service providers to deliver multiple full-featured voice lines to customers who are currently limited to video and data services. With Release 3.0 of the iMerge(TM) Network-based Call Signaling Gateway (NCSG), multiple system operators (MSOs) can deliver IP telephony services to […]

Web portals will evolve into places on the Internet where people can contact and collaborate with each other and with businesses, according to a top IBM Corp. executive. As those portals become more important, they’ll depend on a number of factors, including instant messaging (IM). IBM Vice President of e-Portal Solutions for IBM Software Larry […]

Jabber Inc., which develops software for extensible instant messaging (IM), said it is making available the source code for two new software components designed to speed the development of applications on both commercial and open source Jabber servers. Now available at no cost is the source code from: Jabber External Component Libraries (JECL), a set […]

Openwave Systems Inc. , which develops open IP-based communication infrastructure software and applications, said that Cox Communications has selected Openwave’s Email Mx messaging platform for use by Cox’s 779,000 residential Internet subscribers. The pact’s financial details were not released. With Openwave Email Mx, Cox can consolidate its services while providing the option to deploy services […]

Digital-infrastructure product provider Metromedia Fiber Network Inc. (MFN) said it will provide metropolitan fiber to RealNetworks(R), Inc., supporting the streaming-media company’s real.com and realnetworks.com Web sites. Under the multi-year agreement, the financial details of which were not released, MFN said it will lease fiber to RealNetworks to satisfy its current and future communications needs. MFN […]

Ottawa-based fiber-optic giant JDS Uniphase Corp. said it has completed its recently announced acquisition of IBM Corp.’s optical transceiver business for about $340 million in cash and Big Blue stock. JDS Uniphase said it paid Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM $100 million in cash and 26.9 million shares of JDS Uniphase common stock in the transaction. As […]

Research firm ElectroniCast Corp. says that the estimated global consumption of fiber optic couplers in 2001 will total $602 million, with that number increasing moderately to reach $1.18 billion in 2005 and then to $2.8 billion by 2010. The rise will be supported by rising quantity growth, but it will be partially offset by a […]