Austin American-Statesman (Austin, TX) articles from July 2001

Austin American-Statesman (Austin, TX) archives from July 2001

SBC to Test Broadband Network Offering Video on Demand, Interactive Services.
July 2, 2001... Byline: Kirk Ladendorf Jul. 2--This fall, SBC Communications Inc. will start looking for the answers to a critical question: Do its customers want to use its broadband network for anything more than fast Web surfing? San Antonio-based...

As IPOs Vanish, California Law Firms Retool in Texas.
July 2, 2001... Byline: Lori Hawkins Jul. 2--The champagne flowed, the band rocked and no expense was spared last month at the party Brobeck Phleger & Harrison threw following the annual Entrepreneur of the Year bash. Attendees joked that it felt like...

AMD Considers Six Austin, Texas-Area Sites for New Chip Plant.
July 3, 2001... Byline: Shonda Novak Jul. 3--Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is considering at least six possible sites in the Austin area if it decides to build a new multibillion-dollar computer chip manufacturing plant here. The company has narrowed...

Austin, Texas-Based UpLink Inks Golf-Cart GPS Deal.
July 3, 2001... Byline: Bob Keefe Jul. 3--A 2 1/2-year-old Austin company that brings high-tech to the golf course has signed a deal that could be worth up to $500 million. UpLink Corp., which sells global positioning system-based equipment to help...

Texas-Based Netpliance Seeks Reverse Stock Split to Stay Listed on Nasdaq.
July 3, 2001... Byline: Amy Schatz Jul. 3--Netpliance Inc. is trying to keep its second foot out of the financial grave. The Austin-based company, which used to make a simplified Internet-access and e-mail device called the I-opener, said Monday it...

Texas Internet Providers Disturbed by Tone of SBC's Broadband Plan.
July 3, 2001... Byline: Kirk Ladendorf Jul. 3--As telephone giant SBC Communications Inc. gets set to test new broadband communications services this fall, Texas Internet service companies say the phone company is attempting to squeeze them out of...

Tax Rebate Uses? Central Texans' Options Range from Fun to Frugal.
July 5, 2001... Byline: Amy Schatz Jul. 5--In a few weeks, taxpayers will learn how much of a tax rebate they'll receive from the federal government this summer. Many have already figured out how they'll spend it. The Internal Revenue Service will...

Price-Warring Chip Maker AMD Slices Earnings Forecast.
July 6, 2001... Byline: Kirk Ladendorf Jul. 6--Advanced Micro Devices Inc. warned investors Thursday that its second-quarter earnings will plunge as falling chip prices erode its profitability. The chip maker said it now anticipates profits for the...

Sulzer Medica Replaces President of Austin, Texas, Orthopedics Unit.
July 6, 2001... Jul. 6--Sulzer Medica ousted the president of its troubled Austin-based orthopedics division Thursday, more fallout from the debacle over a faulty hip implant that has led to a costly recall and hundreds of lawsuits against the company. ...

Venture Capitalists Sit Down for Roundtable Discussion in Austin, Texas.
July 9, 2001... Jul. 9--Early on in the discussion, led by technology writer Lori Hawkins, the VCs firmly rejected any suggestion that they were to blame for inflating the Internet bubble and for the resulting wreckage. Their primary responsibility, they...

Austin, Texas-Based Firm Examined Possibility of Sabotage in Faulty Implants.
July 10, 2001... Byline: Mary Ann Roser Jul. 10--Sulzer Orthopedics Inc. has investigated the possibility that sabotage was involved in the manufacture of thousands of faulty hip implants but apparently found no evidence, a Sulzer spokesman said Monday....

Round Rock, Texas, Sees Decline in Number of New-Home Starts.
July 10, 2001... Byline: Tony Plohetski Jul. 10--ROUND ROCK, Texas--Growth in what had been one of Texas' fastest-growing cities has stalled as the number of new homes started last month fell to the lowest level in four years. Round Rock issued 71...

Austin, Texas-Based Natural Gas Company Delays Paying Stock Dividends.
July 10, 2001... Byline: Claudia Grisales Jul. 10--A 19th-century Massachusetts law is causing headaches for an Austin-based natural gas company and its 17,000 shareholders. Because of the law, Southern Union Co. has held up paying its annual stock...

Compaq Plans to Cut 1,500 More Workers.
July 11, 2001... Byline: John Pletz Jul. 11--In a sign that weakness in computer demand may be spreading, Compaq Computer Corp. said Tuesday it would cut an additional 1,500 jobs as the company struggles to reduce costs to meet the reality of lower sales...

Doctors Group Lobbies in Texas for Patients' Rights Bill.
July 11, 2001... Byline: Amy Schatz Jul. 11--It's a rare doctor who makes a house call these days. But this week, teams of doctors representing the American Medical Association are fanning out across seven states to rally their stethoscope-wearing...

Shareholder Ousts CEO from Board of Wichita, Kan.-Based Restaurant Chain.
July 12, 2001... Byline: Amy Schatz Jul. 12--It's only a chair. But the ugly battle for it ended Wednesday afternoon, when Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon Inc. announced that a dissident shareholder had defeated the company's chairman and chief executive...

Motorola Records $759 Million Quarterly Loss.
July 12, 2001... Byline: Kirk Ladendorf Jul. 12--Motorola Inc., beset by continuing problems in its cellular phone operation and its Austin-based chip business, reported Wednesday its second quarterly loss in a row. But executives and some analysts said...

Austin, Texas-Based Advanced Micro Devices Hurt by Lower Prices for Flash Chip.
July 13, 2001... Byline: Kirk Ladendorf Jul. 13--Advanced Micro Devices Inc. saw its profits shrivel in the second quarter, and the company warned Thursday that it could drop into red ink in the current quarter. The problem: falling prices for its two main...

Austin, Texas, Occupancy Rates Sink to Lowest Level Since 1992.
July 13, 2001... Byline: R. Michelle Breyer Jul. 13--As a growing number of companies moved out of their offices during the spring, Austin's vacancy rate soared and rents began to fall. Counting sublease space -- in which tenants seek someone to share...

Investors Sue Austin, Texas-Based Firm for Losing Funds in Dot-Com Ventures.
July 13, 2001... Byline: Elizabeth Goldman Jul. 13--Austin-based Interfase Capital Partners, known as a "vulture" investment firm because it specializes in struggling technology companies, has been sued by local investors who say Interfase mismanaged their...

Computer Company Fails to Find Tenants for Austin, Texas, Office Buildings.
July 16, 2001... Byline: Shonda Novak Jul. 16--After several months of trying to peddle prime riverfront office space, Computer Sciences Corp. has been unable to find tenants for the 111,000 square feet of sublease space in the first of its two new...

SEC Scrutinizing Technology Claims by Austin, Texas-Based Firm.
July 16, 2001... Byline: Robert Elder Jr. Jul. 16--Over the past two years, a small Austin company, Loch Harris Inc., has promoted a revolutionary piece of technology it says can help rid the world of land mines. That claim has drawn scorn from respected...

Austin, Texas-Based Telecom Startup Endures amid Tech Failures.
July 16, 2001... Byline: Kirk Ladendorf Jul. 16--General Bandwidth Inc. is storyline reads like the script for "Unbreakable," the Bruce Willis movie: Two-year-old startup survives unscathed in the middle of an industry train wreck. Instead of Amtrak,...

Austin, Texas-Based Software Company Continues Earnings Rebound.
July 17, 2001... Byline: Elizabeth Goldman Jul. 17--Pervasive Software Inc. appears to be shaking off a bad case of Internet fever. On Monday the company managed a profit for the second consecutive quarter despite the declining economy and the...

Dell to Begin Selling Switches under Its Own Name.
July 18, 2001... Byline: John Pletz Jul. 18--In another sign that sales and profits are increasingly hard to come by in the personal computer business, Dell Computer Corp. says it will announce today it's getting into the switch business. Dell has long...

Texas Firm's Parent Company Distances Itself from Faulty Hip Implants.
July 18, 2001... Byline: Amy Schatz Jul. 18--Sulzer Medica Ltd. is saying in court documents that it can't be held responsible for thousands of faulty hip implants made by its Austin-based orthopedics business. In fact, the Swiss company says in...

Austin, Texas, Drivers Get Reprieve from High Gas Prices.
July 19, 2001... Byline: Claudia Grisales Jul. 19--So much for the dire warnings of sky-high gasoline prices. In Texas and across the nation, fuel prices have plunged by more than 20 cents a gallon in the last month, and more declines are possible after...

Dell Investors' Euphoria Fizzles.
July 20, 2001... Byline: John Pletz Jul. 20--It wasn't the same old Dell Computer Corp. annual meeting Thursday. Shareholders noticed the change soon after walking through the doors of the Austin Convention Center, where they were greeted by metal...

Dell Takes Stronger Hold on Personal-Computer Market.
July 20, 2001... Byline: John Pletz Jul. 20--Computer demand continued its painful decline during the second quarter as worldwide PC shipments showed an overall decline for the first time since 1986. Research firm Gartner Dataquest said shipments of...

Estates of Dying Tech Firms Go Up for Sale at North Austin, Texas, Auction.
July 20, 2001... Byline: Shonda Novak Jul. 20--Excess went on sale Thursday. Strictly speaking, it was an auction of the assets of several failed or faded dot-coms. But the event felt more like a wake celebrating the end of the vaguely defined...

Austin, Texas-Area Unemployment Rate Jumps in June.
July 20, 2001... Byline: Amy Schatz Jul. 20--The last time this many people were unemployed in Central Texas, the Dallas Cowboys were routing the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVII. It's taken more than eight years for the unemployment rate to even...

Shakeup Continues at Austin, Texas, Orthopedics Firm as President Presses On.
July 20, 2001... Jul. 20--Sulzer Orthopedics Inc. continued a management shakeup as its new president expressed confidence Thursday that the 600-employee Austin company would overcome its daunting troubles involving a faulty hip implant. "I absolutely...

Compaq Prepares for Another Corporate Makeover.
July 23, 2001... Byline: John Pletz Jul. 23--Compaq Computer Corp. is out to rebuild itself -- again. And this time, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Capellas intends to complete a major makeover in just six months. Compaq says it will...

Motorola Offers to Sell Cell-Phone Knowledge.
July 23, 2001... Byline: Kirk Ladendorf Jul. 23--Motorola Inc., which invented the cellular phone business, now says it will sell a major chunk of its cell phone knowledge to any company that wants to manufacture wireless phones. That announcement,...

Austin, Texas, Developer Creates New Plan for Aiding Tech Startups.
July 23, 2001... Byline: Lori Hawkins Jul. 23--Joe Pinkerton walked into the Twin Lion restaurant in 1992 expecting lunch with his landlord to end with an eviction notice. The three months of free space Dick Anderson had granted Pinkerton's startup,...

Soft Demand Saps Profits for Austin, Texas-Based Chip Makers.
July 24, 2001... Jul. 24--Weak demand for technology products continued to hurt chip makers as earnings reports came in Monday from Austin companies Silicon Laboratories Inc. and Cirrus Logic Inc. and industry giant Texas Instruments Inc. Silicon...

San Marcos, Texas, Working Hard to Lure Chipmaker.
July 26, 2001... Byline: Erik Rodriguez Jul. 26--SAN MARCOS, Texas--Amid an international bidding war to lure a new multibillion-dollar Advanced Micro Devices chip plant, San Marcos has been quietly conducting an exhaustive campaign to win the facility....

Price War Melts Hardware Sales at Compaq.
July 26, 2001... Byline: John Pletz Jul. 26--No wonder Compaq Computer Corp. wants to focus on services. The Houston-based computer maker's hardware sales -- from high-end servers that run stock exchanges to desktop PCs -- are melting under the heat...

Analysts Call for End to Frenzied Construction in Central Texas.
July 26, 2001... Byline: R. Michelle Breyer Jul. 26--Economists had a strong message Wednesday for the Central Texas real estate community: Stop building, and start recruiting. "The level of construction needs to slow down," Mark Dotzour, chief...

Austin, Texas-Based Software Services Firm Optimistic despite Loss in Quarter.
July 26, 2001... Byline: Elizabeth Goldman Jul. 26--Vignette Corp.'s turnaround will take longer than expected. The Austin-based software services company said Wednesday it lost $10.8 million on revenues of $83.6 million. Revenues were down 7 percent...

Austin, Texas, Printing Firm's Founder Prepares for Closure.
July 27, 2001... Byline: Jerry Mahoney Jul. 27--After Tuesday, 83-year-old Bill Hart will be the only one working at Hart Graphics, the business he founded in 1974. But he's not complaining. During the spring, Hart had to stop the presses in the...

Earnings Grow for Austin, Texas-Based Natural Foods Supermarket Chain.
July 27, 2001... Byline: Amy Schatz Jul. 27--Whole Foods Market Inc.'s recovery from missteps into Internet commerce continued Thursday, when the company reported a 20 percent increase in third-quarter profit from last year. But those results were...

Dell Takes Familiar, High-Tech Track into China.
July 30, 2001... Byline: Julie Chao Jul. 30--XIAMEN, China--Corporate America has long lusted after China, population 1.3 billion, and Dell Computer Corp. is no exception. But Dell also knows that the notion of selling a computer to every Chinese...

Stores in Central Texas Get Ready for Shoppers during Sales-Tax Holiday.
July 31, 2001... Byline: Jaime Levy Jul. 31--In a year characterized by belt-tightening, Central Texas retailers are hoping this weekend's sales-tax holiday will encourage wary shoppers to buy new belts to cinch. From 12:01 a.m. Friday to midnight...