Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Juniper Plans $900 Million in Charges for Past Stock-Compensation Probems

Juniper Networks announced that its internal Audit Committee has concluded that numerous stock option grants issued in the past differ from the recorded grant dates of such awards. Specifically, it was determined that there were numerous instances in which grant dates were chosen with the benefit of hindsight as to the price of the Company's stock, so as to give favorable prices. Blame was attributed to certain management members who are no longer with the company.



Therefore, Juniper currently anticipates that it will record additional non-cash charges for stock-based compensation expense of approximately $900 million, 99.9 percent of which relate to options granted between June 9, 1999 and December 31, 2003.



Juniper Networks noted that its CEO, Scott Kriens, received two stock option awards with measurement date issues. However, both options were canceled unexercised in 2001. Kriens has not exercised any stock options since 1998, approximately a year before the company's IPO.



Juniper's Board of Director expressed their continued confidence in Kriens.

http://www.juniper.net

AT&T Launches U-verse TV in SF Bay Area

AT&T announced the initial launch of its U-verse TV service in parts of the San Francisco Bay area, including parts of the cities of Cupertino and Saratoga, and parts of the cities of San Ramon and Danville. AT&T said it now expects to launch U-verse in eleven markets by the end of the year, with plans to launch in additional markets in early 2007.



AT&T U-verse is offering:

  • more than 300 channels, including digital music, local, and premium movie and sports programming.


  • a more than 25 High Definition (HD) channels-and high speed Internet access.


  • Web remote access to digital video recorder (DVR)


  • built-in picture-in-picture functionality that allows subscribers to "channel surf" on any television without leaving the program they're watching.


  • specially designed set top boxes, manufactured by Motorola, all of which are HD-capable and include universal remote controls that provide backlit buttons and one-touch access to video-on-demand, DVR, and other
    services.


  • a premium Spanish-language package


Three packages of AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet U-verse Enabled will be made available to AT&T U-verse customers:

  • Elite: Downstream up to 6.0 Mbps, upstream up to 1.0 Mbps.

  • Pro: Downstream up to 3.0 Mbps, upstream up to 1.0 Mbps.

  • Express: Downstream up to 1.5 Mbps, upstream up to 1.0 Mbps.
http://www.att.com

Seagate to Acquire EVault for Online Backup Service

Seagate Technology agreed to acquire privately-held EVault, which provides online backup services, as part of its effort to extend the company's storage solutions and strengthen its Seagate Services group. The all-cash deal was valued at approximately $185 million.



EVault was founded in 1997 and is based in Emeryville, California. The company has over 250 employees and claims more than 8,500 customers, including hundreds of financial, health care and legal organizations.



EVault is the most recent acquisition in the broader storage solutions area and the third for Seagate in the area of services. In 2005, Seagate purchased Mirra, which developed a networked digital content protection server for the home and small business markets; and Action Front, a professional in-lab data recovery company.



Seagate said that with its Services group it is interested in pursuing underserved markets where it can leverage leading technology and market expertise, and provide unique value propositions to address growing customer needs.

http://www.seagate.comhttp://www.evault.com

Motorola To Acquire Tut Systems for $39 Million

Motorola agreed to acquire Tut Systems for $1.15 per share in cash, giving the transaction a value of approximately $39 million on a fully-diluted basis.



Tut Systems provides carrier-class end-to-end digital video encoding, processing and distribution products. Their solutions support MPEG-2 and MPEG- 4 AVC video compression, local ad insertion, forward error correction, and real-time conditioning of video and audio. Tut Systems' customer list includes more than 160 service providers worldwide.



Tut Systems' "Astria" content processor (CP)is an IPTV headend solution supporting various access networks, including ADSL, VDSL, fiber to the home (FTTH) and hybrid-fiber coax (HFC), all within a single chassis. Protocol support includes ATM, pure-IP, IP over ATM and native MTS. Astria CPs support physical interface requirements including Gig-E, OC-3, DVB-ASI.



Motorola said it plans to integrate Tut Systems' solutions with its own digital video delivery solutions for supporting advanced video services over IP, ATM, or RF-based network architectures. Motorola currently has deployed 2060 digital video networks and over 50 million digital video set tops worldwide.



Once the deal closes, Tut Systems will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Motorola and will be integrated into the Motorola Connected Home Solutions business. Motorola intends to maintain Tut Systems' operations in Lake Oswego, Oregon, San Diego California and Pleasanton California.

http://www.motorola.comhttp://www.tutsys.com

UTStarcom's CTO Resigns to Take Post at China Mobile

UTStarcom announced the resignation of Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Bill Huang, who will take a senior executive position at China Mobile Ltd. On an interim basis, Pat Chan, senior vice president of UTStarcom's Network Solutions business unit, will assume Huang's responsibilities as acting chief technology officer.

http://www.utstar.com

DIRECTV Awards Data Networking Contract Extension to AT&T

DIRECTV will continue its current contract with AT&T for OneNet services for an additional year at a value of $33 million. AT&T will continue to provide DIRECTV with toll-free 800, Advanced Features and ATM and Frame Relay services that support 18 call centers and approximately 60 corporate WAN points of presence. AT&T will also begin to provide MPLS connectivity for supporting DIRECTV's corporate VoIP traffic.

http://www.att.comhttp://www.directv.com