Harvard Net gets boost from Cisco
CHARLESTOWN – Harvard Net, a major provider of digital subscriber line access service for businesses in New England, announced that it has received a $120 million investment from a unit of Cisco Systems, bringing the total of the investment in the company to $210 million. Harvard Net said the investment would be used to continue work on its network in New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The company’s network in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island is nearly completed Harvard Net president Mark Washburn said.
Viacord and t.Breeders to merge
BOSTON – Viacord, Inc., a company that collects umbilical cord blood and stores it until other family members need stem cells, and Worcester-based t.Breeders, which has developed a technology to expand stem cells have agreed to merge into a new company that will be called ViaCell, Inc.Cynthia A. Fisher, president of Viacord, and Morey Kraus, chief technical officer at t.Breeders will share the presidency of the new company, according to The Boston Globe.ViaCell will reportedly develop pharmaceutical products and services using stem cells for the treatment of diseases. ViaCell will continue to offer umbilical cord blood stem cell banking services under the Viacord name and research and development of stem cell products.
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EMC reports 49 percent gain in first quarter profits
HOPKINTON (Bloomberg) — EMC Corp., the leading maker of corporate computer-storage systems, said first-quarter profit rose 49 percent on increased demand from companies using the Internet to do business. Net income increased to $332 million, or 30 cents a share, from $222.3 million, or 20 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 23 percent to $1.82 billion from $1.48 billion.
Demand for EMC’s vending-machine-size devices that store the equivalent of more than a million novels has risen as companies put their records online and buy and sell on the Web. Sales to big customers such as Home Depot Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. will help EMC overcome any slowdown from smaller Internet retailers, Chief Executive Michael Ruettgers said.
Though EMC is boosting sales to Internet companies, they account for 10 percent to 15 percent of revenue, Lewis said. At the same time, demand from big corporations is rising.
Revenue in the Asia-Pacific region, for instance, rose 60 percent during the quarter on sales to Korea Telecom Corp. and others, EMC said.
The company’s stock was the second-best performer on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index during the 1990s. Salomon Smith Barney added EMC to its “top pick” list in January, and Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Securities put it on the “focus list” of recommended stocks the same month.
Boston Scientific joins online medical exchange
CHICAGO (Bloomberg) – Boston Scientific, Becton, Dickinson & Co., and Guidant Corp. said they’ve joined an online marketplace for health-care providers that will allow hospitals and others to buy supplies and cut costs.
The three makers of medical equipment join Johnson & Johnson, Baxter International Inc., Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc. and General Electric Co. in creating the site. Analysts estimate the site will tap about 10 percent of the $100 billion spent each year by health-care companies in the U.S. on products and services.
Becton, Guidant and Boston Scientific said they’ve taken equity stakes in the exchange, without disclosing terms. The companies anticipate having the exchange up and running by the third quarter of this year.
CTC Group to spend $190 million for fiber optics
WALTHAM – CTC Communications Group, Inc. will spend some $190 million over 20 years to lease and develop fiber-optic communications, The Boston Globe reported.
According to The Globe, CTC will pay $115 million over the 20 years to Williams Communications Group of Tulsa, Okla. For rights to use more than 8,300 miles of fiber-optic cable in Eastern States, and will spend $75 million over two years to purchase and install optical networking equipment from Disco Systems. It will upgrade the cables it leases so they can carry voice and data telecommunications signals, The Globe said. The deal substantially expands CTCs range. CTC now has access to about 1,500 miles of fiber optic lines, primarily in New England.
Online travel business to consolidate
The online travel business, among the fastest growing sectors on the Internet, is in for a massive consolidation, according to a report from Bear, Stearns & Co., The Wall Street Journal reported. According to the paper, the report said that more than 1,000 travel sites have emerged on the Web, offering cheap airline tickets and hotel reservations. The Bear, Stearns report suggests that as many as 80 percent of the sites will disappear with consolidation, The Wall Street Journal said. Those that survive, the report said, will be those with brand recognition and one-stop shopping. On-line travel bookings account for only a small fraction of actual bookings, with many consumers simply price-shopping online and booking their travel through more traditional methods. The report suggests, however, that online travel sales are expected to increase to $29 billion by 2003, about 10 percent of all travel bookings.
(Compiled from news reports and releases, print and electronic.)
