Channel Flannel Intel has shut down its first and now almost certainly only Internet café. Situated in Malaysia, the store was intended to be a pilot for a chain extending through Asia, according to ZDNET. The chip giant said the store closed following accelerating Internet access in Malaysia.
Staying in Malaysia, Dell is to open a second assembly plant in the country, doubling capacity over the next three years from one million to two million units a year. The headcount will jump from 1600 to 2200.
And while we're on the subject of Dell, the PC maker has taken an undisclosed equity stake in Partminer, an online component sourcing business. Dell will sell surplus inventory (hey, isn't Dell supposed to be strictly build to order?) through Partminer, and will use the firm to source hard-to-get components. Partminer will also build a marketplace for Dell's internal use, which should be up and running in three months or so.
Westcon, the networking distribution subsidiary of South African-owned Datatec, has filed registration for IPO documents with Nasdaq. Last year, Datatec pulled the IPO for Logical, its networking reseller arm. Westcon has distribution ops all over the world, but is particularly big in the US and the UK.
Syntegra, BT's computer services business, has bought a German firm, EDM, for an undisclosed sum. Based in Dortmund, EDM has an 'excellent reputation in the field of Internet content management' and it has developed 'particular expertise in the insurance and energy industries'. EDM changes its name to Syntegra with immediate effect.
ITNET today confirmed that it has received official notice of termination for its revenue and benefits service contract with Hackney Council. It anticipates the handover of what has been a disastrously-run contract will take place fairly quickly and smoothly.
The news from ITNET is a little belated - on Thursday 11 January, Northgate Information Solutions said it had been awarded the contract to run Hackney's systems. ITNET says it was informed by Hackney of its dismissal on 12 January. ®