BUSINESS/BIZ WATCH	JANUARY 26, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 4
	Biz Watch By MICHAEL BRUNTON, DAN ERCK, PEGGY SALZ-TRAUTMAN AND STEPHEN SHORT EXCITEMENT FOR ALL--IT'S IN THE MAIL Although governments often say that furnishing children with access to the information superhighway is a top priority, action rarely matches rhetoric. But a keystone of the British government's commitment to "wire" every place of learning by 2002 fell neatly into place last week when the Internet media company Excite announced it would provide free E-mail addresses for life to 10 million school children and teachers. Launched as part the UK NetYear initiative, Excite UK will roll out addresses for their web-based ExcitePost system at the rate of up to a million a month throughout 1998. Students will be able to read and send E-mail from any access point to the Internet while shielded from unsuitable material by filters and teachers acting as "gatekeepers." Excite claims "goodwill" is the driving force behind the initiative and offers to replicate the deal in other countries which similarly connect their students. Says Jed Simmons, managing director of Excite International: "Tony Blair recently said children cannot be effective in tomorrow's world if they are trained in yesterday's skills. We agree. That's why we're doing something concrete." Of course, having your brand name embedded in the electronic identity of an entire generation of net-users has its attractions too. CLAIMS AND CARPING ON AIRCRAFT SALES Boeing's numbers are a flight of fancy--or so says an Airbus Industrie spokesman responding to an announcement by its archrival Boeing Co. that the Seattle-based aircraft manufacturer led the industry in new orders and deliveries for commercial planes last year. Both frequently engage in verbal dogfights over the issue of market share. The scores on the respective doors this time around show that Boeing finished 1997 with a claimed 568 gross orders worth $42.8 billion, with Airbus trailing 460 at $29.6 billion. The European consortium's showing looks even better when Boeing's acquisition of McDonnell Douglas, the world's third biggest civil aircraft manufacturer, is taken into account. But Airbus, claiming that Boeing inflated figures by including deals yet to be formalized, wants Boeing to list orders by customer. Whatever the outcome, the news that Boeing will slash up to 12,000 jobs by the second half of this year makes celebration a little premature. Both companies face new concerns about their prospects for sales in Asia following the financial crisis there. Philippine Airlines canceled orders for four Boeing 747-400 jets last week. Reports from the region indicate that several of Asia's leading airlines will seek to delay delivery of planes ordered for this year. SAXONY GETS SILICON IMPLANTS Siemens and Motorola have announced a 50-50 joint venture to develop next-generation silicon-wafer technology in Dresden, the capital of the eastern German state of Saxony. The goal is to be among the first to achieve volume production of 300-mm wafers by 2000. Moving to the larger wafers will allow production of roughly 2.5 times more chips per wafer and reduce costs by an estimated 30% over the existing 200-mm variety. The two companies estimate that R&D and start-up costs will top $823 million. Subsidies from Saxony and the German government will cover more than a fifth of that. Semiconductor300's location outside Dresden is just minutes away from competitor AMD's wafer-fabrication facility. The presence of both plants will reinforce Dresden's claim as the pearl of "Silicon Saxony," a Mecca for the microelectronics industry. The region has also attracted foreign investors like Silicon Valley Group, Applied Materials Inc. and Canon Inc. "The industrial revolution started 200 years ago in Saxony," says Andreas von Zitzewitz, president of Siemens Memory Products Division. "Someday people will remark that this region also influenced a revolution in the worldwide microelectronics industry. They will say that 300 mm technology started in Dresden."
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