Novells CEO Gets Googled
Search engine Google last week appointed Eric Schmidt, Novells chairman and CEO, as chairman of its board of directors. Schmidt also made a “significant” financial investment of an undisclosed amount in the privately held company, Google says. Schmidt succeeds Sergey Brin, Googles co-founder and current president.
Air Mail
Cant wait until you land at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to fire off that memo? Virgin Atlantic Airways says it will offer e-mail and Web services, accessible via seat-back screens or passengers laptops, on some of its flights by years end. The airline will roll out the services with Seattle-based Tenzing Communications, which has a system that uses aircraft satellite communications equipment to transmit and receive Internet data.
Gab Fest
Terra Lycos last week launched Lycos Talk Radio, which will let users host their own Internet radio talk shows. Lycos Talk Radio uses Wonderhorses proprietary interactive voice software, which lets listeners click on a “talk” button to let the talk show host take calls while “on the air.” The first of Lycos Talk Radios hosts include Steveo in Arkansas discussing wrestling, and a Seattle woman dishing about the Oscars.
PCs in a Slump
Sales of PCs will continue to sag through the end of the year, according to a report issued last week by Gartner Group Dataquest. The research firm expects worldwide PC desktop and laptop shipments to reach about 145 million in 2001, up 10.7 percent over 2000, but much lower than the industrys previous year-over-year growth. The analyst firm predicts a fierce price war as direct vendors such as Dell Computer and Gateway try to take market share from Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.