Late News (13 August)

• Memory Corporation has revealed plans to raise money either through a rights issue or placing, following a drop in the chip maker?s share value from #350 million to #18 million. The announcement coincided with Memory?s tie-up with Micron Technology, with which it will produce flash memory cards for digital cameras.
• Madge Networks will lose up to 650 staff and incur a $50 million charge after its consolidation. The cuts will hit the US hardest, affecting ATM, marketing, finance and the public relations department.
• Informix has achieved a turnover for its second quarter, ended 29 June, of $169.7 million, up 23 per cent on Q1. But it reported a net loss of $120.5 million, including $62.1 million related to staff reductions and writedowns of assets.
• Digital is seeking to sell off its computer network equipment business. According to industry officials, the network product unit has an estimated annual turnover of about $600 million and could fetch $500 million to $750 million.
• Compaq UK admitted on 11 August that it wanted to cut a number of its dealers, because they have failed to hit sales targets. Micro Computing was among the dealers cut.
• America Online has reported a quarterly loss of $11.8 million caused by expenses related to a move to flat-rate pricing. The results were dragged down by the $24.5 million the online service company spent on renegotiating agreements to cope with a surge in demand once it switched to flat fees.
• IBM will launch a broad-based marketing initiative through the channel which it hopes will encourage resellers to push its software into NT-based accounts.