The Modesto Bee from Modesto, California • 18

MARKET INDEX CLOSE DOW 30 SAP 500 799683 I 95543 7956 4-92 NYSE NASDAQ 49916 168945 260 1 9-09 B-4 The Modesto Bee How to reach us: Business News 578-2336 Tuesday September 23 1997 IBM breakthrough: Copper chip nearly 5 percent on the news leading the Dow Jones industrial average to a nearly 80-point gain IBM stock ended up $462': to $1038712 on the New York Stock Exchange Sematech a 10-year old chip consortium financed by 10 American chip makers including IBM recently said it had developed a technique for applying copper to the surface of silicon wafers But analysts said commercial applications from that effort are at least three years off Intel had planned to come out with See Page B-7 Copper technique to if there are ways to improve said the spokesman Howard High Copper carries electrical signals faster but can contaminate the silicon surface of the thumbnail-size chip Aluminum has been used since the microprocessor industry was born more than three decades ago IBM developed a special insulation to put between the copper and the silicon base In addition IBM designed a new way to flatten the copper that permits the layering of many wires inside chips Wall Street welcomed breakthrough The stock soared Within three years copper is likely to become the industry's metal of choice not just for machines and chips made by the Armonk NY-based company Ana lysts expect rivals such as No 1 chip maker Intel Corp to speed their timetables for switching to copper The IBM process going to raise all boats so to speak with anything you build out of silicon" said Linley Gwen-nap editor of the Microprocessor Report a newsletter based in Sebastopol near Santa Rosa Still Intel said through a spokesman it stepping up its already aggressive plans But Intel will check out details of By David Kalish The Associated Press NEW YORK For more than a decade computer chip makers have sought an alternative to the aluminum long used to make the tiny circuits that are the brains of computers and electronics equipment Monday IBM beat chip rivals by at least a year International Business Machines Corp confirmed it has found a wav to switch to copper from aluminum an important advance that could lower prices and improve performance for a variety of business and consumer computers Gift of learning The Associated Press IN BRIEF Insurance on the Net SAN MATEO An insurance company trying to steer more auto insurance sales to the Internet has moved into the industry's fast lane by enlisting the largest carrier in a computer-driven price-quoting sendee State Farm Insurance will field applications from California and 46 other states through a steadily expanding electronic emporium set up by InsWeb a San Mateo-based company that opened its first East Bay office in San Ramon last week to help carry out its ambitious plans Bloomington Ill -based State Farm joins four other auto insurers that process applications submitted on Internet site and provide price quotes within a few days if they want the business of the prospective policyholder Internet bazaar is at wwwinswebcom Internet monopoly ends NEW DELHI India The government has thrown open the Internet to private service providers ending a state monopoly Until now people had access to Web sites only through a state-owned company that charged $420 for 500 hours or one year Nearly 30000 people across India subscribe to the Internet half of them in the capital of New Delhi an official said Tag for sex sites on Web? Responding to the rapid increase in the amount of sexual material on the World Wide Web an Internet policy organization has floated a plan to create a special designation for adult-oriented Web sites Under the proposal such sites would get a new domain name the three letters that end a Internet address The proposed name is xxx the same warning typically used for hard-core movies The new suffix would let Web surfers steer clear of sexually explicit sites that might offend them and more effectively block children from accessing the sites Conversely it also could make sex-related sites easier to find Defamation claimed CONCORD NH Presstek Inc is suing three investors that it claims posted false and defamatory statements about the company on the Internet to drive down its stock price The company claimed the investors stood to make money if its shares fell The lawsuit filed in US District Court says the men were of the stock A short sale is a legal investment technique where investors sell borrowed stock and profit when the price falls The lawsuit charges Ivan Lustig of Colorado Mark Hollingsworth of Virginia and Parag Patel of New Jersey with defamation and unfair business practices Net retail shop closes SANTA MONICA Virtual Emporium Inc has moved its headquarters to Cambridge Mass and closed its Third Street Promenade shop hailed as the first Internet retail outlet when it opened in November The company will continue its hybrid version of computer-catalog marketing at a store in New York City and outlets elsewhere spokesman Tuck Rickards said ShareWave set to go SACRAMENTO An El Dorado Hills start-up company run by former executives of Intel Corp is steaming ahead with efforts to develop a home entertainment product that combines computer and other consumer electronics technology Executives at ShareWave declined to comment about their company or its products but the firm reportedly has received nearly $8 million in two rounds of private financing and is actively recruiting high-level technical talent including chip designers software engineers mechanical engineers and marketing specialists The company reportedly has 40 people on staff At its Web site ShareWave says its mission is create innovative products that facilitate the emergence of computers communications and entertainment appliances in the Tech TV show canceled SAN FRANCISCO an Emmy award-winning technology show on MSNBC has been canceled Program creator Ziff-Davis Inc and MSNBC the Microsoft-NBC cable channel said the program was dropped because it does not fit in with increasing all-news format The Site an hourlong show on technology had been airin6 on MSNBC seven nights a week and has won two Emnrvs using the first of $100 million worth of network computers donated by Oracle to the 100 most economically challenged schools in California Lane earlier addressed 18000 people attending the Oracle Open World Developers Conference Ray Lane president and chief operating officer of Oracle Corp talks with Yanet Cordero foreground and Sandra Hernandez both 12 during a visit Monday to George Washington Carver Middle School in Los Angeles The girls were United travel fee cut Agents warn public eventually will pay The Associated Press CHICAGO Travel agents began legal and public campaigns Monday to combat United decision to lower commissions for writing tickets and warned of higher ticket costs if other airlines follow example United effective Friday lowered the commission rate on tickets for domestic flights to 8 percent from 10 percent retaining a $50 cap for a round-trip fare International commissions also fell to 8 percent from 10 percent with no cap on payments the company said Southwest Airlines announced that it will not follow decision Trans World Airlines said Monday it has made no decision Other major airlines have declined to comment on their plans Airlines analysts predict most will soon follow United let United take the heat from the agents for a while but most carriers will go said analyst Julius Maldutis at Salomon Brothers As consumers begin to balk at rising ticket prices and Wall Street presses for continued earnings growth airlines must cut costs by turning to their second-largest expense the $12 billion spent annually for distribution costs such as travel agent commissions Maldutis said American Express Corporate Services Agencies which books mostly business travelers warned that if other airlines follow suit some travel agencies will go out of business That would send more business to reservation agents who do not offer the lowest available fares from all carriers or result in travel agents passing costs along to consumers action by United reducing commissions by 20 percent is effectively a price increase for the end said Ed Gilli-gan president of the company The Association of Retail Travel Agents a Lexington Ky-based trade group that represents 4000 travel agencies and agents announced that it will seek US congressional approval to allow small travel agents to bargain collectively with the major airlines and to steer customers to airlines when negotiating fails dues on politics A limit on soft money and an additional $12 million raised over two years through the dues increase would free substantially more resources for labor to spend on mobilizing its members in state and federal campaigns federation leaders believe fact is that business outspends labor by about 17 to AFL-CIO Political Director Steve Rosenthal said Meanwhile the Senate committee investigating political finance is taking a hard look at last $35 million advertising and get-out-the-vote effort by the AFL-CIO Republicans charge that the effort unfairly aided Democrats A federal grand jury in New York is looking at the involvement in the fund-raising controversy that caused Teamsters President Ron election to be set aside last month Surf Net via an eye in the sky Entrepreneur plans system of planes circling over cities providing access plane transmitted public television signals to schools in the Midwest for several years according to a former public broadcasting engineer Peter Fannon And for 12 years the federal government has beamed radio signals later followed by TV signals into Cuba via a transmitter aboard a tethered balloon 10000 feet above the Florida Keys More recently President secretary of state Alexander Haig Jr has been involved in a project called Sky Station that would provide worldwide high-speed wireless Internet access mobile phone service and other data communications via blimplike aircraft For plan to work it would need a big slice of the public airwaves Angel executives said they bid for airwaves licenses but want to team up with compa- See Page B-7 Planes By Jeannine Aversa The Associated Press WASHINGTON Call it a communications tower in the sky specially equipped airplanes circling 24 hours a day 10 miles up providing high-speed wireless Internet access and other data services to people on the ground A slew of companies are offering or plan to offer wireless data links that would let customers surf the Net send and receive e-mail faxes or files from their computers at home or work Sophisticated cellular-like networks on terra firma or satellites out in space would carry the load But a small St Louis company thinks it has a better idea: Put all the hardware in the air right over our heads Angel Technologies proposed system is a tall tower in the President Peter Diamandis said Flying in a circular path at 52000 to FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY 60000 feet a plane with a pod attached to its underside carrying an antenna and other communications equipment would beam wireless data services to and from a specific metropolitan area Chief Executive Officer Marc Arnold explained The range of the service would be limited 50 miles to 75 miles in diameter and beyond that people would lose the signal To provide round-the-clock service to just one metro area three piloted planes each flying consecutive eight-hour missions would be needed Arnold said To send and receive signals people would need an 18-inch dish mounted on a rooftop or outside a window In the early 1960s a converted Army a very serious matter and I hope it will be cleared up Sweeney said adding that he is confident the AFL-CIO had done nothing wrong in regard to the Teamsters election A resolution passed by the executive council calls for public financing of campaigns says current regulations on party-building contributions are urges limits on the money political parties could accept and says fide should receive free TV and radio time as well as reduced postage rates But the federation wants no new limits on the right of groups outside the political parties to wage advertising campaigns to hold candidates accountable on issues important to those groups Part of a 6-cent per capita dues increase the convention is expected to approve will be dedicated to mobilizing on Labor federation calls for major political changes By Kevin Galvin The Associated Press PITTSBURGH The AFL-CIO urged public funding for all federal campaigns free television time for candidates and new limits on contributions Monday at the opening of the labor annual convention political system is awash with dirty money corporate money and foreign federation President John Sweeney said in his keynote speech is corrupting our elected officials and it is corroding the soul of our nation And it is crowding out the participation and power of workers and their Little mention was made at sessions of a Senate inquiry into political activities in 1996 or of the Teamsters election fund-raising controversy that has spread to the labor members around issues AFL-CIO will continue to expand our efforts to inform and educate working families on issues of importance to them and we will continue to inform our members about how candidates for public office stand on these the resolution said Organized labor spent $119 million political activity during the 1996 election cycle according to the Center for Responsive Politics Union PACs gave $49 million directly to federal candidates and an additional $95 million for party activities The great majority of contributions went to Democrats The reinvigorated involvement of unions in elections last year particularly the ad campaigns generated criticism from Republicans and discussion in Congress of ways to restrict ability to spend.