Sierra Pacific Suspends Dividend Because of Energy Crisis in Western States
The Wall Street Journal, 04/16/01

Wind Farms May Reap Profit as Britain Looks to Add Renewable Energy Sources 
--- Seek Profits Out of Thin Air As Britain Pursues Renewable Energy
The Wall Street Journal, 04/16/01

Internet Rumor Mill Changes Layoff Process --- Companies Scramble to Keep 
Their Plans Off the Web
The Wall Street Journal, 04/16/01

Time Seems Bright for Solar Power / Big companies bring financial clout to 
field
The San Francisco Chronicle, 04/16/01

Small Tech Rally Precedes Earnings Reports from Silicon Valley
San Jose Mercury News - California, 04/16/01

A REBUKE FROM ENRON'S BOSS
Business Week, 04/16/01

BUSH TAPS DEFENSE INC. AGAIN
Business Week, 04/16/01

Godbole panel report a boost for MSEB
The Times of India, 04/16/01

TUs gear up for April 25 Maharashtra bandh
The Times of India, 04/16/01

It happens only in Indiya
Business Standard, 04/16/01

NAPSTER-LIKE THREAT PUTS MOVIE INDUSTRY ON GUARD DIVX LETS USERS COPY AND 
TRADE FILMS ONLINE
Chicago Tribune, 04/16/01

Enron Restarts MTBE Plant.
The Oil Daily, 04/16/01

Panel Suggests Enron Solutions.
The Oil Daily, 04/16/01



Sierra Pacific Suspends Dividend Because of Energy Crisis in Western States
By Rhonda L. Rundle
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

04/16/2001
The Wall Street Journal
B4
(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

Sierra Pacific Resources, which owns two Nevada utilities, said it suspended 
its quarterly dividend, citing high power costs and other fallout from the 
energy crisis afflicting the Western part of the U.S. 
The utility holding company said it still hopes to complete a $2 billion 
agreement to purchase Enron Corp.'s Portland General Electric unit. The 
transaction, which will also include the assumption of $1 billion in debt, 
has been delayed partly because of a new California law that has blocked 
Sierra Pacific from raising funds through planned sales of certain 
power-generating assets.
Sierra Pacific has paid a quarterly dividend of 25 cents in recent quarters. 
Suspension of the payout will save "less than $20 million -- but every dollar 
counts at times like this," said Mark Ruelle, senior vice president and chief 
financial officer. The dividend policy will be reviewed again at the next 
board meeting, set for May 21, the company said. 
Sierra Pacific, based in Las Vegas, said it is continuing several 
cost-control programs that were recently undertaken to reduce expenses. The 
cutbacks are mainly in the area of administrative expenses and include 
elimination this year of incentive pay for executive staff. 
Sierra Pacific, like utility owners in other Western states, has been hit by 
rising energy costs. Sierra Pacific has said it incurred an unanticipated 
expense of $889 million in 2000 to purchase fuel and electricity on the open 
market. That produced a full-year 2000 loss of $39.8 million, or 51 cents a 
share. 
"There is no question that both our utilities in Las Vegas and the Tahoe 
region are exposed to the same general market conditions as all of the 
western U.S.," Mr. Ruelle said. The impact on Sierra Pacific has been 
moderated somewhat by power contracts that were secured before the latest 
runup in prices. "Our contracted prices for fuel and purchased power are 
favorable compared to current prices, but still above what we can recover 
through utility rates," he said. 
Sierra Pacific got some relief in February when the Nevada Public Utilities 
Commission approved a 17% rate increase, equal to about $300 million of 
additional revenue. Now the Nevada legislature is considering a proposed new 
law that would restore stability to the state's electricity markets, Mr. 
Ruelle said. The measure would reinstate an old regulatory provision that 
assures utilities of eventual recovery of any fuel and power purchase costs 
that exceed current rates. 
Sierra Pacific's agreement to purchase Portland General Electric from Enron 
was reached in November 1999. Enron's chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling, said 
last month that there is only a "5% probability" that the sale will go 
through. But Mr. Ruelle said Friday that Sierra Pacific is "continuing to 
work toward the deal and to address the difficulty in securing necessary 
regulatory approvals given the underlying dislocations in the markets." 
Sierra Pacific has agreements to sell seven of its nine power plants, and 
related assets, to various power generators for an aggregate of $1.8 billion. 
The sales have been blocked partly by the new California law, which prohibits 
the sale of power plants that serve California customers. Sierra Pacific's 
Sierra Pacific Power Co. unit has a small service territory in the Lake Tahoe 
area of California. The parent company's "financial profile" looks much 
different without the sale of those plants, Mr. Ruelle said.

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 





Wind Farms May Reap Profit as Britain Looks to Add Renewable Energy Sources 
--- Seek Profits Out of Thin Air As Britain Pursues Renewable Energy
By Geoffrey T. Smith
Dow Jones Newswires

04/16/2001
The Wall Street Journal
(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

Ten years ago, Peter Edwards, a dairy farmer in Cornwall, sold his cattle to 
raise money to establish the United Kingdom's first wind farm intended to 
produce electricity. It wasn't competitive and did nothing to lessen the 
country's dependence on fossil fuels -- not the most encouraging vision of 
the future. 
Today, many farmers might willingly change places with him.
As livestock farming staggers from crisis to crisis, wind farming is showing 
strength. Last week, in a landmark move, the Crown Estates, which holds the 
U.K. seabed in trust for the country, issued seabed leases for 13 offshore 
wind-farm projects to companies traditionally associated with fossil-fuel 
energy. The projects, which could attract up to GBP 1.6 billion ($2.3 
billion) of investments, according to the British Wind Energy Association, 
will allow for the installation of 1,500 megawatts of generation capacity 
along Britain's coast by 2004. That would meet the electricity needs of 1.1 
million households, according to BWEA estimates. 
The projects -- seven in the Irish Sea and six in the North Sea -- are the 
first concerted effort in the U.K. to raise the contribution of renewable 
power sources, other than hydropower, to the energy mix. 
For the wind industry, going offshore is a test of technology and viability. 
Larger numbers of more-powerful turbines, driven by higher wind speeds, could 
yield economies of scale. Offshore winds also are more constant than those 
onshore, which could help offset wind power's major drawback: 
unpredictability. 
Such projects no longer are the preserve of companies on the fringe of the 
energy sector. Among those awarded leases were units of Innogy PLC, Powergen 
PLC, Scottish Power PLC, Enron Corp. and TXU Europe. 
Under terms of the government's Renewables Obligation, all public electricity 
suppliers must get some of their power from renewable generation sources by 
2003. The amount will probably start at 5% or more, rising to 10% by 2010. 
Via a system of tradable "green certificates," companies can trade surplus 
renewable power on the open market with suppliers who can't meet the 
obligation by themselves. 
The emphasis of U.K. policy-makers for the past 10 years has been on bringing 
prices down, rather than encouraging green energy to become competitive. As a 
result, the role of wind in the U.K. has been restricted to blowing the 
emissions of coal and gas-fired plants across the North Sea, forcing Norway 
and Germany to cope with the environmental impact. 
In countries with more government subsidies, more wind farms have flourished. 
Germany and Denmark had installed capacity bases of almost 5,500 megawatts 
and 2,280 megawatts, respectively, by the end of 2000, according to estimates 
by investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Crown Estates and the BWEA 
are in talks concerning a second round of licenses for larger sites. 
Alison Hill, communications manager at the BWEA, says the generation costs of 
existing onshore facilities have fallen to between 1.9 pence and 3.5 pence 
(between 2.7 cents and five cents) a kilowatt-hour today from about 11 pence 
a kilowatt-hour for first-generation technology. That makes some prices for 
wind-generated electricity competitive in Britain, where the market is 
deregulated. A pilot project off Blyth in northeast England is generating at 
between five pence and six pence per kilowatt-hour, Ms. Hill says.

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 



Internet Rumor Mill Changes Layoff Process --- Companies Scramble to Keep 
Their Plans Off the Web
By Stephanie Miles WSJ.com

04/16/2001
The Wall Street Journal
B3E
(Copyright (c) 2001, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

NEW YORK -- When British technology publisher Future Network PLC announced a 
broad restructuring that would result in 350 layoffs, few employees were 
surprised. For a week, workers had been glued to an industry-gossip site. 
"Everybody was waiting, expecting to be fired," says Scott Laine, who was 
laid off from a job in sales for Revolution magazine, published by Future's 
U.S. subsidiary Imagine Media.
Managers were watching the message boards, too. So, when Future announced the 
restructuring in February, it sent a short companywide e-mail with the press 
release attached. The company also sent out two more detailed letters, from 
Future's chairman and chief executive respectively, explaining the 
circumstances surrounding the layoffs. But instead of beaming them 
electronically, the U.S. unit printed out color paper copies and placed them 
on employees' desks, in an effort to keep the note from being quickly posted 
online or cleanly photocopied. 
"Why make it easy?" says Nancy O'Neill, then president of Imagine Media. Ms. 
O'Neill stepped down as president at the end of March. 
Leaks are nothing new. But the "post once, read anywhere" nature of Internet 
rumors has forced companies to make much quicker decisions about when to 
release information about layoffs to employees and the public, and what 
exactly to say. Companies, for a variety of reasons, are often stuck saying 
"no comment," only to confirm the layoff rumors later on. Worse, a scramble 
to respond to investor and press inquiries can sometimes result in 
embarrassing reversals. 
The Web-consulting industry is among the most closely scrutinized sectors on 
Web rumor boards, and companies are under constant pressure to respond. After 
rumors popped up online, consulting firm Razorfish Inc. confirmed to several 
press groups that it was offering a "voluntary termination plan" to an 
undisclosed number of employees. But a little more than a week after the 
reports of the voluntary plan, postings on Vault.com message boards were 
abuzz with reports of early morning wake-up calls. "Woke me from a sound 
sleep," wrote one anonymous poster at noon on a Saturday. "Anybody else get 
jousted out of bed?" Other cryptic notes followed, and a note on Sunday 
spelled it out: "They didn't get as many people to volunteer as they wanted 
to, so from now on it's involuntary." 
Melissa Kramer, a Razorfish spokeswoman, confirmed that the company called an 
undisclosed number of employees at home Saturday to tell them they no longer 
had jobs, and sent them packages confirming their involuntary termination. 
She says the voluntary plan hadn't drawn as many people as hoped. 
Ms. Kramer says the activity on the message boards had no effect on how 
layoffs were carried out, either in terms of how affected employees were 
notified or the timing of the announcement. 
In general, companies have latitude in deciding what information to release. 
Aside from releasing quarterly earnings reports, public companies are 
required to disclose news that is material to their operations. But when it 
comes to layoffs, the requirements laid out by the Securities and Exchange 
Commission are fuzzy. 
"It's a fact-specific situation," says John Heine, an SEC spokesman, 
explaining that the SEC expects companies to report any material changes in 
the company's outlook in its quarterly and annual reports. Severance pay and 
other layoff-related expenses will show up in quarterly reports as 
restructuring charges, but "There isn't a specific rule that I can point you 
to that deals with layoffs," Mr. Heine says. 
Unless the job cuts are so large that local or federal authorities are 
required to be notified under plant-closure or other laws, publicly held 
companies are generally under no obligation to confirm the number of layoffs, 
specific firings, or other work-force changes, experts say. 
Disclosing job cuts is often "less of a legal determination than it is a 
business decision," says Richard Rowe, a corporate attorney and partner with 
Proskauer & Rose LLC in Washington, D.C. Another issue is timing. Some 
companies issue a press release announcing cuts right away; others wait to 
release the news with their quarterly earnings reports, while others refuse 
to even comment. 
The decision depends often on how the company thinks layoffs will play with 
investors and surviving employees. For Old Economy industrial firms, cuts are 
often seen as an effective way to slash overhead costs. But in the 
beleaguered Internet sector, layoffs often are viewed as a harbinger of 
future troubles. For example, defunct e-tailers eToys Inc. and Garden.com 
Inc., which traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market, both disclosed broad layoffs 
about three months before the companies shut down altogether. 
If the jobs cuts "are enhancing shareholder value, that's really good news 
for a publicly traded company," says John Kroen, executive vice president at 
investor-relations firm Dresner Corporate Services. "As long as it doesn't 
signal the end." 
Adding to the pressure on companies facing layoffs are new rules about 
disclosure. While the Internet has loosened companies' control of 
information, the new Regulation FD, which prohibits selective disclosure of 
information, largely limits companies' dissemination options. News can't be 
filtered through analysts or large investors as in the past, so for the most 
part, companies have to either make a public statement or stay mum. 
When EMC Corp. fired several hundred workers in February as part of an annual 
review, word leaked out on investor message boards run by Yahoo! Inc. 
Although the storage maker maintains that the job cuts were a routine course 
of business, the company's shares fell as rumors hit the Internet. In years 
past, EMC didn't publicly disclose what it termed performance-based firings, 
according to Mark Fredrickson, vice president of corporate communications. 
This time, however, the company decided to confirm the firings in the press 
to make clear that the job cuts weren't related to the state of the economy 
or the technology sector. 
"I think it attracted attention because of" the environment," he says, adding 
that the company didn't consider the cuts, of roughly 3% of EMC's 24,000 
employees, of material importance to investors. "Two years ago, in the midst 
of the high growth which we were enjoying, this would not be news." 
But sometimes, being active in the face of rumors can help change the tone of 
coverage. "It's better to put your words out there yourself then have them 
cut and pasted back at you," says Elliot Sloane, president of Sloane PR, a 
public- and investor-relations firm. 
Last month, for instance, energy company Enron Corp. publicly denied rumors 
that it was planning layoffs in its broadband Internet unit, rumors that had 
helped to send its stock to a 52-week low. The company had recently 
terminated a video-on-demand partnership with Blockbuster Inc. 
But in a conference call that reiterated the company's 2001 earnings outlook, 
the company explained that third-party contracts for broadband capacity had 
eliminated some of the need to build its own network. An undisclosed number 
of employees had been redeployed as a result, the company said, but the 
rumors of layoffs were false. The stock rallied, reaching $59.40 as of 4 p.m. 
that Friday, up from a low of $51.51 Thursday morning. 
Still, many executives resist issuing any comment on layoffs or work-force 
shifts. "The majority of the CEOs I've dealt with want to keep it as much 
in-house as possible," says Dresner's Mr. Kroen. "It's rare that you find a 
CEO who wants to tell as much as possible. They have to be pushed to air 
their dirty laundry." 
While top executives huddle to put the final touches on layoff plans and 
discuss how much information to release publicly, employees can face days or 
weeks of waiting for the ax to fall. Message boards can get very crowded.

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 


NEWS
Time Seems Bright for Solar Power / Big companies bring financial clout to 
field
Jim Doyle
Chronicle Staff Writer

04/16/2001
The San Francisco Chronicle
FINAL
A.13
(Copyright 2001)

On the sun-bleached floor of the Mojave Desert, solar-thermal plants are 
producing electricity to fulfill a long-term contract with Southern 
California Edison Co. 
Rows of parabolic mirrors focus the sun's rays into a high-energy beam that 
heats an element to make steam, which turns an electrical turbine. In all, 
nine solar-thermal units near Barstow generate enough daytime power for 
350,000 homes.
"This technology has been around for 15 years," said Bob Cable, manager of 
KJC Operating Co., which runs five of the solar-thermal units for investors 
that include East Coast utilities and insurance firms. "It's very reliable. 
And with today's high fuel prices, we're a bargain. 
"There's really nothing like us in the world," Cable said. And for renewable 
energy advocates, that's the problem. 
Solar-thermal is just one of several renewable forms of energy that have 
languished for years. No new plants have been built in a decade, mainly 
because power produced using low-cost fossil fuels made alternative energy 
look pricey. 
But now that the price of natural gas has shot up, solar, wind and geothermal 
are more attractive to big energy suppliers. 
"There's a lot of consolidation in the field now. Big players are coming in 
and setting up divisions for solar and wind energy," said Dave Renee, a 
research analyst for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, 
Colo., a division of the U.S. Department of Energy. 
Even before the power crisis, oil and gas companies were increasing their 
stake in renewables and buying up smaller energy firms because of rising fuel 
costs and tighter environmental restrictions on fossil fuel plants. 
Sharp, the Japanese electronics company, last year became the world's largest 
producer of photovoltaic solar cells, which convert sunlight directly into 
electricity. At the Sydney Olympics, BP Solar - - a division of British 
Petroleum's energy-producing empire -- powered a solar suburb of 650 homes to 
house the athletes. 
A year ago, Shell Oil created its Shell Renewables division, which formed a 
joint venture with Siemens Solar, another leading manufacturer of solar 
cells. Shell predicts that by 2050 half the U.S. energy mix will be 
renewable. 
Enron, the Texas supplier of natural gas, has bought Zond, a major wind power 
company. The oil companies have also invested in hydrogen fuel cell 
technology, which may soon be used to power cars, homes, offices and 
factories. 
"We think the new technologies are going to get better, and prices will come 
down," said George Douglas, a spokesman for the National Renewable Energy 
Laboratory. "And we think the price of conventional power plants, whatever 
fuel they're using, is going to come up." 
12 PERCENT RENEWABLE POWER 
Today, only 12 percent of California's power comes from renewables, but 
advocates envision a future electrical grid with a diverse mix of 
nonpolluting energy sources, large and small. 
"California should be much more aggressive in pursuing the renewable energy 
options," said Dick Swanson, president of SunPower Corp., a Silicon Valley 
company that has developed new solar technology being used in power plants in 
Australia and Arizona. "We are leaving the state too vulnerable if we are too 
dependent on natural gas." 
Gov. Gray Davis wants to rush 5,000 megawatts of capacity into service by 
July through construction of large and small power plants. Renewable energy 
advocates say Californians should carefully consider which kind. 
"The investments we make this year and next year will stay with us for the 
next 30 years," said Kari Smith, a regulatory affairs manager for Powerlight, 
which makes photovoltaic systems for factories and office parks. "We need to 
promote as much renewable energy as possible so that we're not stuck again 
with a fossil fuel economy." 
Sixteen percent of the new 5,000 megawatts will come from renewables -- 
mainly from wind power, but also from biomass, energy created from organic 
waste. 
The California Energy Commission's $202 million subsidy program for renewable 
plants offers financing incentives of as much as 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour, 
or up to one quarter of cost, to help these systems compete. 
ECONOMIC INCENTIVES 
Environmentalists want more economic incentives for renewables, and also 
taxes on fossil fuel power plants to offset the pollution they cause. 
Since the 1970s, most government subsidies for renewable technologies have 
gone to solar power, although it accounts for less than 1 percent of the 
state's electricity -- less than geothermal (5 percent), wind (2 percent), 
small hydro plants (3 percent) and biomass (2 percent). 
Solar has proved costly to develop, but appears to be on the verge of paying 
off. 
"In the last 20 years the cost of producing electricity from solar cells has 
dropped tenfold," Douglas said. "We can expect it to drop at a similar rate 
over the next 20 years by raising efficiencies of solar cells and decreasing 
the manufacturing costs." 
The U.S. market for solar energy has grown steadily in recent years, but more 
than 70 percent of photovoltaic systems are exported to developing countries. 
Solar panels, used since the late 1950s on orbiting satellites, are only now 
becoming affordable. A household unit can cost $10,000 to $30,000, though in 
California, state rebates can reduce the cost by half. 
In December, the state Energy Commission received 50 applications from homes 
and businesses for its "buy down" program, which offers rebates of up to 50 
percent for the cost of solar panels and small wind generators. In January, 
there were 250. In February, there were 245. 
WAIT LIST FOR HOME SYSTEMS 
In Sacramento, the local utility district sells solar panels to residential 
customers at reduced rates. The utility, which also installs the panels, has 
a waiting list of 700 homeowners for a total of 100 solar units available 
this year. 
"We foresee the day in the next five or 10 years when photovoltaics will 
compete with fossil fuel-generated power price- wise without subsidies," said 
Vince Schwent, who runs the Sacramento Municipal Utility District's solar 
energy program. "At that point, the market for solar will explode. Mass 
production will lead to lower prices." 
Independents that have tried to break into California's power market, 
however, have had difficulty obtaining investors and loans for unconventional 
technologies. 
"The investment market and engineers have been focused on the creation of 
large power plants," said Richard Harkrader, a North Carolina energy 
consultant. "How do you persuade people to make the higher investment in 
return for no emissions and (ending the uncertainty of) fuel costs?" 
But solar research scientist Jim Augustyn, a contractor for the U.S. 
Department of Energy, cautions against the federal or state governments 
pushing too hard for alternative energy systems. 
"The government could do more, but they have to be careful about how they do 
it," Augustyn said. "You can't just throw a lot of money at the technology 
and expect it to grow fast. You have to build this whole infrastructure. 
There are people who can install a photovoltaic system on your roof, but 
there are not a lot of them." 
Scientists disagree on how much fossil fuel the Earth holds. But few think 
this year's energy crisis will be the last. 
"I think that we should view this century as a transition away from fossil 
fuels," SunPower's Swanson said. "If we wait too long, it's just going to be 
that much more painful." 
----------------------------------------Energy EconomicsWith tax credits and 
rebates, wind power is already competitive in price with conventional energy 
sources, and solar power is fast becoming more affordable..The cost of 
building a natural gas boiler runs about $1 million per megawatt of capacity. 
Wind generators cost about the same to build. Solar thermal units cost more 
than twice as much. But the fluctuating price of fuel must be factored into 
the cost of making electricity from natural gas.


PHOTO (3); Caption: (1) Rows of parabolic reflectors bounced the sun's rays 
onto a steam generator at this KJC Operating Co. power plant in the Mojave 
Desert. / Photos by Kendra Luck/The Chronicle, (2) Brandon Banks monitored 
the power output at the KJC Operating Co.'s desert solar thermal plant., (3) 
Bob Cable, manager of the KJC Operating Co. plant, walked among the solar 
reflectors, which pivot on their stands to keep sunlight focused on the steam 
generator. 


Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 


Small Tech Rally Precedes Earnings Reports from Silicon Valley
David A. Sylvester

04/16/2001
KRTBN Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News: San Jose Mercury News - California
Copyright (C) 2001 KRTBN Knight Ridder Tribune Business News; Source: World 
Reporter (TM)

The stock market looks like it's following that old cliche that it takes more 
muscles to frown than to smile. 
As if tired of the effort required by persistent pessimism, investors gave 
into optimism last week and started buying tech stocks with little apparent 
reason. As a result, the Nasdaq composite index had its largest weekly rise 
in 10 months, rising 14 percent during the four-day week and closing Thursday 
at 1961.43. Only the week before, it was scraping along the bottom by coming 
near the one-year low it had hit on April 4.
The overall market did well, too. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 
above 10,000, and Standard & Poor's 500, a broader gauge of the market, rose 
nearly 5 percent for the week. 
Yet the surge of buying came along with bad news. The economic reports last 
week showed the U.S. economy is stumbling: worsening consumer confidence, 
flat retail sales and sharply rising unemployment claims. And the earnings 
results weren't great either. Motorola reported its first loss in 16 years, 
and Juniper Networks warned analysts that its sales and profits would fall 
below previous forecasts. 
What gives? "I'd say we're in a correction to a bear market," said Ken 
Fisher, chairman of the Woodside investment company Fisher Investments. 
"Sentiment is much too optimistic for the market to bottom yet." 
This week may give further evidence of whether that's true. Some of the 
biggest tech companies will report their first-quarter earnings, revealing 
how much damage the slowdown has caused to profits and sales, the vital signs 
for the future health of stocks. The list of companies reporting is a Who's 
Who of Silicon Valley and the tech world: Intel, Sun Microsystems, Apple 
Computer, IBM, Microsoft, Lucent Technologies. Also coming are results from 
major banks such as Bank of America and Wells Fargo, airlines such as United 
Airlines parent company UAL Corp. and independent energy producers such as 
Duke Energy and Enron. 
Wall Street is looking not just for the current reports but what companies 
will say about their expectations for the summer: 
-- How bad is the slowdown among personal computer makers? Analysts are 
expecting Microsoft to earn 42 cents a share for the quarter, down slightly 
from 41 cents a year ago when it had disappointing results. 
-- What is demand in Europe, the strongest economy in the world right now? 
Intel was one of the first to blow the whistle on slowing sales in Europe and 
is expected to report 15 cents a share, half of its 35 cents a year ago. 
-- Are corporate customers still reducing their purchases of big-ticket 
computer systems, software and Internet equipment? In the telecommunications 
world, Juniper indicated last week that its customers among phone and 
Internet companies were reducing their orders for capital goods. 
-- Most importantly, what is the outlook for the second half of the year? 
Will the slowdown persist? Some think so, particularly for tech. "It's going 
to be a harder quarter for software companies in June than it was in March," 
says Wendell Laidley, software analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston. 
The answers to these questions could determine whether the current bear 
market for technology stocks ends soon or turns into an extended one. Those 
who believe the bear market has a lot further to go point to trouble. They 
say the economy is stuck with excess capacity to produce goods, especially in 
technology, as well as an unstable bubble of credit that paid for the boom. 
Consumers overspent and undersaved as they went on a spending spree, and 
businesses bought too much of the tech products. Moreover, a U.S. recession 
of two quarters of decline in the real Gross Domestic Product appears on the 
horizon, if not already arrived, in this view. 
"We haven't had much of a bear market so far," says David Tice, an investment 
adviser who manages $180 million in the Prudent Bear mutual fund. "People 
need to remember how seductive bear markets are. They keep investors 
invested. They keep you hoping." 
But the bulls believe help is on the way. The Federal Reserve Board is 
certain to cut interest rates to lower the cost of borrowing, and tax cuts 
should help stimulate demand. From this point of view, an economic rebound is 
expected by the end of the year to boost corporate profits. And if the 
economy improves, stocks may rise sooner, since changes in the market often 
precede those in the economy. 
Abby Joseph Cohen, investment strategist and long-time bull at Goldman, Sachs 
& Co., advised investors in mid-March to put more money into stocks. "The 
U.S. economy still benefits from favorable secular trends: the world's most 
productive workforce, well-managed companies, mild inflation and large 
federal surplus," she wrote in a note to investors on March 7. 
If it ends now, this current Nasdaq bear market will go down as the sharpest 
in its 30-year history, but hardly the longest. In fact, Nasdaq has had nine 
bear markets -- defined as a 20 percent drop in the index -- and three of 
them were as long or longer. The longest, from Jan. 11, 1973, to October 3, 
1974, lasted almost 21 months when the national economy was moving into a 
recession. 
But it was a bear of a bear. That one down market was big enough to absorb 
the next two bull surges -- each one nearly 60 percent -- and bring Nasdaq 
back to its 1973 peak five and a half years later, on Sept. 13, 1978. In 
other words, Nasdaq had been basically flat for more than five and a half 
years. 
The second longest bear market lasted just more than 15 months, from 1981 to 
1982, also in the teeth of a national recession. But this bear market was 
sandwiched between two others, so that Nasdaq went through three 20 percent 
declines by 1984. In fact, the bull market for Nasdaq didn't really start 
until July 25, 1984 -- two years after it started for the Dow Jones 
industrials. 
After doubling by 1987, Nasdaq then waffled for two years and nine months, 
gaining only 0.4 percent in total by May 23, 1990. It punctured the 1990s 
bull market with another one-year flat spot from March 18, 1994, to March 14, 
1995, and hit another six-month pothole in 1999. 
Fisher, who accurately diagnosed the tech bubble in March 2000, compares its 
bursting with the drop in energy stocks in the early 1980s. And he has 
developed a rule of thumb about bear markets: the last two-thirds of the drop 
comes during the last third of the time spent in a down market. "It's the 
back end of a bear market that kills you," he said.

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 


Washington Outlook: CAPITAL WRAPUP
A REBUKE FROM ENRON'S BOSS
EDITED BY PAULA DWYER

04/16/2001
Business Week
55
(Copyright 2001 McGraw-Hill, Inc.)

Ever since the President backed away from action to prevent global warming, 
greens have wondered what Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay, a pal of George W. 
and a backer of anti-global warming measures, thought of the decision. Well, 
at an Apr. 4 Toronto Board of Trade meeting, a questioner put Lay on the 
spot. Visibly uncomfortable, according to one participant, Lay responded that 
the Administration team went too far--and that he has already let them know 
it.

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 


Washington Outlook: CAPITAL WRAPUP
BUSH TAPS DEFENSE INC. AGAIN
EDITED BY PAULA DWYER

04/16/2001
Business Week
55
(Copyright 2001 McGraw-Hill, Inc.)

After picking industry execs as his leading candidates to head the Navy and 
Air Force, President Bush is following the same pattern for the Army. His 
expected choice: Enron Corp. executive and retired Brigadier General Thomas 
E. White Jr. White is expected to be a strong proponent of outsourcing such 
services as electricity delivery--which could benefit his former company. 
Enron won a $25 million contract in 1999 to provide power and water to New 
York's Fort Hamilton.

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 


Godbole panel report a boost for MSEB
Vidyadhar Date

04/16/2001
The Times of India
Copyright (C) 2001 The Times of India; Source: World Reporter (TM)

MUMBAI: The Madhav Godbole committee report has come as a boost to the 
Maharashtra State Electricity Board as it has run into a financial crisis 
because of the high tariff of the Dabhol power project of Enron. Trade unions 
too are pleased as they have made the Enron issue a focal point in their 
campaign against globalisation and the proposed Maharashtra bandh for April 
25. 
The committee has observed that even if the MSEB improves its performance, 
phase II of the Dabhol project will still drag the MSEB into financial 
sickness. The MSEB has already taken steps to improve its performance and 
recover dues and reduce losses, board sources said. The MSEB has also told 
the government a few months ago that it would not be able to cope with phase 
II of 1490 MW of the power project. The state does not need that much power 
and does not have the financial capacity to buy it. The board, however, can 
by improving its own performance withstand the hardships created by phase I.
The MSEB has also expressed reservations about using excess power generated 
by the proposed Bhadrawati and Reliance projects. The Godbole committee has 
suggested that the MSEB should defer all power purchase agreements reached 
with independent power producers (IPPs) till such time as it is possible to 
fully absorb power generation from them. 
The burden of Dabhol power is nearly Rs 6000 crore per annum, which would 
rise due to the depreciation of the exchange rate. This could conceivably 
lead to a drastic cut in budget allocation for the plan and lead to a 
declaration of a plan holiday, the Godbole committee has observed. Mr Godbole 
should know since he is a former state finance secretary and former 
chairperson of the MSEB. 
The Bhadrawati and Reliance projects will also be a drag on the MSEB since 
the board will have to buy nearly 90 per cent power produced by them or else 
pay a higher tariff for purchasing less power as in the case of Enron. 
A.R. Bapat, a former chief electrical engineer of BEST Undertaking, said the 
question now was how to force Dabhol to come to the negotiating table. At the 
same time, he said the MSEB was doing well to impose a fine on Dabhol 
corporation for its failings. This should drive the point home to Dabhol. 
P.J. Joglekar, a former professor at IIT, Delhi, and electronics expert, said 
that even if Dabhol is allowed to sell power directly to other companies, as 
recommended by the committee, it would not solve the problem. Industrial 
units are already charged high rates and the MSEB uses the profit to cross 
subsidise to the weaker sections. The MSEB would be in trouble again if 
industrial units have to pay more. Even if the Dabhol power was sold to other 
states, the question is why should people in other states pay a high price 
for Dabhol.

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

TUs gear up for April 25 Maharashtra bandh
Vidyadhar Date

04/16/2001
The Times of India
Copyright (C) 2001 The Times of India; Source: World Reporter (TM)

MUMBAI: The report that 86,000 workers lost their jobs in the US last March, 
the biggest loss for a single month in more than nine years, has vindicated 
the stand of the organisers of the proposed Maharashtra bandh for April 25. 
``This is what free market is doing to workers,'' trade union leaders say. 
The bandh call is against globalisation, the growing power of the free 
market, increasing unemployment and the adverse impact of WTO on farmers.
So far, workers had borne the brunt of the development process, now for the 
first time farmers are feeling the pinch. That is why farmers from different 
parts of Maharashtra turned up in large numbers for the rally organised by 
Left political parties at Shivaji Park recently. 
The big response has boosted the morale of the organisers. The rally was 
attended by three Maharashtra ministers, Ganpatrao Deshmukh, Mohan Patil and 
Meenaxi Patil, all belonging to the Peasants and Workers Party. 
The news of the protests by employees of the Marks and Spencer group against 
layoff in Paris last week is also seen by the TU leaders as a vindication of 
their stand that only progressive policies can help create and retain jobs. 
The French prime minister, Lionel Jospin, a socialist himself, has protested 
against the layoffs in France. But his critics say with irony: ``He is 
neither Marx nor Spencer.'' 
The job losses in the US have shaken the government and the secretary of 
labour, Elaine Chao, has said: ``The new unemployment numbers show that the 
patient isn't getting any better, so it is time to prescribe some medicine.'' 
Trade union leaders in Maharashtra will also be watching with interest the 
Shiv Sena's response to the bandh call since the party has suddenly taken an 
aggressively pro-labour stand. It has strongly criticised the Central 
government's new policy on labour, globalisation and imports of agricultural 
commodities. Uddhav Thackeray, Sena leader, gave a call at a rally organised 
by the party on March 21 for trade unions of all ideologies to come together 
to oppose the policy of globalisation. 
Left-wing trade union leaders say they would not be averse to the support of 
the Sena to the bandh. But they would not share the platform with the Sena 
leaders. ``We must maintain our separate identity,'' the leaders said. 
With the unions of state transport and BEST joining the bandh, life in the 
state will be considerably affected. Efforts would also be made to block 
suburban trains in Mumbai, a trade union leader said. 
The news that the government proposed to close down 25 textile mills of the 
National Textile Corporation in Mumbai and 11 in other parts of the state has 
strengthened the resolve of the workers to enforce the bandh. The Rashtriya 
Mill Mazdoor Sangh, the Congress party's recognised union in the textile 
industry, has already organised a rasta roko on the issue. 
The high tariff of Enron's Dabhol power plant has also provided a major issue 
to the Left parties. A number of booklets on the subjects have been brought 
out. One booklet, written by Ajit Abhyankar and published by the CPM, was 
eagerly bought at a recent rally along with Dr Ashok Dhawale's book on the 
Shiv Sena and Krishna Khopkar's on the `post-mortem of the new agricultural 
policy'.

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 


It happens only in Indiya
T C A SRINIVASA-RAGHAVAN

04/16/2001
Business Standard
11
Copyright (c) Business Standard

Back in the days when Kings used to rule, they would often make mistakes. The 
more mistakes they made, the more they would be ridiculed, even if only 
privately. But since it is hard to keep a good fool down, there would come a 
time when the King became the butt of all jokes. 
To counter this tendency amongst an ungrateful populace, courtiers came up 
with the theory of Divine Right. The theory said that Kings, simply because 
they were Kings, were divinely ordained.
As such they could not, by definition, make mistakes. Nor could they be held 
responsible for any of their actions because they were carrying out God's 
will. 
It was a great theory, so great indeed that it has never lost its appeal. 
Even that 20th century haven of atheism, the Soviet Union, adopted it while 
typically denying God credit for the implicit divinity of the politbureau. 
The proletariat substituted God but that was like conversion from one 
religion to another. The basic notion did not change. 
The USSR's co-brother-in-law, as they would call China in Chennai, still 
practises this version of the Divine Right. So does that other model of 
humane governance, North Korea. Millions may die of starvation but the 
Supreme Leader, which is Communist for King, is never blamed. Nor are the 
advisors in the politbureau. 
Democracies, it was thought, would be different because, for the first time 
in history, the people would have the right to remove their rulers if they 
made too many mistakes. This would leave no space for Divine Right and the 
theory would slowly be discarded in favour of the Right to Remove. And, by 
and large, that is what has happened. But India, consistent with its genius 
for assimilating ideas and coming out with a hybrid, has remained an 
exception. 
Defined in terms of the Right to Remove, it is a full-fledged democracy. 
Indeed, we are specialists in removing governments. Everyone here the people 
through elections, Parliament through no-confidence motions, and even the 
central government through Article 356 has the right to remove governments. 
No other country can match this. 
But if you turn the coin over to see if the Divine Right theory has been 
rubbed out by the efflux of democratic time, you get a nasty surprise. It 
hasn't. 
India's rulers can still never make any mistake and if things go wrong it is 
always someone else's fault. And the beauty is that this holds for all 
rulers, irrespective of the party to which they belong. For the level below 
the elected one, of course, this holds with knobs on because the politician 
can at least be voted out, this class can only be promoted. 
There is general as well as specific proof for this. The general proof is 
provided by the fact that, thanks to gigantic errors of policy since 1947, 
India is now a truly awful country to live in for everyone except the rulers. 
Yet, only with a few exceptions, those who made those mistakes are generally 
revered. The fault is never theirs, always ours for breaking their idiotic 
rules. 
This brings up the specific proof, of which the two most recent instances are 
the Ketan Parekh and Enron affairs. Consider the Parekh affair first. What 
has he done? Borrowed money? Is that illegal? 
What have the banks done? Lent him money? Is that illegal? Was it illegal for 
Mr Parekh to ramp up some shares? Was it illegal for the banks to accept the 
ramped-up shares as collateral? 
Those with an axe to grind and I must regretfully include some crusaders from 
my own tribe may go after Mr Parekh. But it will be interesting to see how 
the charges stand up in court. 
Likewise, in the case of Enron, why blame it? It was the government that 
botched the agreement for whatever reason. Enron simply took advantage of the 
fact that the people who were negotiating the agreement were either out of 
their depth or worse. 
The point is that the MSEB signed the contract. Once you have signed, how can 
you say I didn't know this and I was not aware of that? Indeed, when you do 
that, are you not admitting that you are either a fool or a knave? 
Yet, what we see now is an elaborate attempt to shift the blame from the 
rulers to Mr Parekh and Enron. What's worse, most people are willing to 
accept this. They have been conditioned to believe that the government can 
never be wrong and that if it says someone else is to blame, that must be 
automatically correct. 
Amazingly, people are willing to believe that D R Mehta, the Sebi chairman, 
is guilty of something what, pray? but that the Governor of the RBI is 
completely blameless. Why? Because the finance minister is yet to say so. 
It is the Divine Right theory all over again.

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 


Business
NAPSTER-LIKE THREAT PUTS MOVIE INDUSTRY ON GUARD DIVX LETS USERS COPY AND 
TRADE FILMS ONLINE
Ron Harris, Associated Press

04/16/2001
Chicago Tribune
North Sports Final ; N
7
(Copyright 2001 by the Chicago Tribune)

For the movie industry, a small piece of software called DivX holds the same 
promise and peril that the MP3 audio format presented to the record labels. 
DivX already has shown the potential to become a de facto Internet 
standard--and the basis for a California start-up that hopes to make it the 
compressed digital video format of choice.
Thousands of film buffs have discovered that DivX can be a real alternative 
to paying for movies, just as Napster and MP3 allow music fans to trade 
millions of songs for free. 
"Sometimes I rent a DVD at a local rental store, I `rip' it and send it 
back," said Bruce Heller of Paris. "I know it's illegal, but I think it's 
better to rent a movie each week than buying a DVD or two each year." 
DivX compresses full-length movies into sizes small enough to be sent on the 
Internet and stored on a single compact disc. Using DeCSS software to crack 
the "content scrambling system" on DVDs, Heller copies movies using DivX onto 
his own CDs and loans them to friends. 
"We are only at the beginning of the movie piracy, and it's growing fast," he 
said. "Who would not be interested in it?" 
Setting a standard 
The challenge for Hollywood and technology companies is to create a popular 
yet secure standard for online video delivery before the movie industry 
suffers the same losses that record labels have seen. 
Publicly, Hollywood is enthusiastic about a future in which movies can be 
delivered directly to personal computers over the Internet. 
DivX, like other video compression technologies, could provide the answer if 
coupled with strong security measures, said Jack Valenti, head of the Motion 
Picture Association of America. 
"I think the technology is wonderful," Valenti said. "I don't see it as a 
tool of piracy. I see it as a convenience to consumers who want to [download] 
legitimate licensed films." 
DivXNetworks, a small, San Diego-based start-up, hopes to make DivX the 
format of choice for Hollywood. It wants to negotiate revenue-sharing deals 
with companies looking to sell content online but hasn't succeeded in cutting 
any deals with major studios. 
Jordan Greenhall, the company's chief executive and co-founder, said 
DivXNetworks' only legitimate customers so far use DivX to deliver video of 
monster truck contests and Japanese animation shorts. 
The company faces formidable challenges from Microsoft Corp., which showed 
the power of the Windows Media format last month by delivering a short film 
starring John Cleese to a Pittsburgh theater via the Net. 
RealNetworks Inc. also offers a secure format for "streaming" video content 
online and can leverage MusicNet, its online music subscription venture with 
AOL Time Warner Inc. and Bertelsmann AG. 
Leveraging the Internet 
Without major backers, DivXNetworks has turned to the power of the Internet, 
posting the DivX source code online and encouraging programmers to retool and 
improve it. 
DivXNetworks hopes DivX will become so popular that Hollywood will decide to 
make it the standard, in the same way that record labels have grudgingly 
accepted MP3s as the way to deliver music. 
But even if DivX becomes as popular as MP3, it faces other challenges. 
For one thing, although Greenhall says security measures can be incorporated 
into DivX, the code is loose on the Internet, where unsecured versions may 
prove devilishly difficult to tame. 
Also, Microsoft claims DivXNetworks uses technology stolen from Windows 
Media. 
"It's our technology, and they've essentially rebranded it," said Michael 
Aldridge of Microsoft's Digital Media division. "It's like taking a 
Volkswagen, taking the brand Volkswagen off the hood and putting DivX on it." 
Greenhall denied that his company lifted Microsoft's code, saying the latest 
version of the software was programmed from scratch. 
The notion of piping movies on demand straight to PCs over high- speed 
Internet connections stalled last month when talks broke off between 
video-rental giant Blockbuster Inc. and Enron Broadband Services. 
Downloading woes 
Robin Diedrich, an entertainment industry analyst with Edward Jones, said 
eight to 10 years could pass before consumers have full catalogs of movies 
online, because most consumers still connect to the Net through telephone 
wires. 
Downloading a full-length DivX movie using phone wiring could take days, 
compared with a few hours using high-speed T1 lines or cable modems. 
Diedrich also said studios would be leery of anything that could reduce 
revenue from theaters and video rentals. 
Valenti said online versions likely will appear only after films are 
delivered to theaters, airlines, home video and pay-per-view. He also said 
the studios he represents haven't endorsed any particular file format. They 
only urge that any movies delivered online be encoded with enough security 
measures to prevent unauthorized copying. 
But hackers aren't waiting. Both the DivX codec--techie shorthand for a 
software program used to compress and decompress video and audio data--and 
DeCSS software are freely available on the Internet. 
The Hollywood trade group is fighting back, cruising through newsgroups, Web 
sites and chat rooms for DivX movie traders. Hemanshu Nigam, the MPAA's 
director of Internet enforcement, expects to send 20,000 cease-and-desist 
letters this year to people who illegally trade copyrighted movies. That's 10 
times the number sent out in 2000.


PHOTO; Caption: PHOTO: Jordan Greenhall of DivXNetworks wants to have his 
company's DivX technology for transferring movies online become the industry 
standard. The software compresses video files for storage on a CD. AP photo 
by Denis Poroy. 

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 


Enron Restarts MTBE Plant.

04/16/2001
The Oil Daily
(c) 2001 Energy Intelligence Group. All rights reserved.

Enron said Thursday that its 15,000 b/d methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) 
plant in Morgan's Point, Texas, has restarted from scheduled maintenance. 
The plant came back up "a few days ago," an Enron spokeswoman said Thursday, 
but a specific date was unavailable. The plant was brought down for a planned 
turnaround on March 9.
The MTBE plant is on the Houston Ship Channel near Baytown, and is Enron's 
only MTBE plant. The company also owns a plant in La Porte, Texas, which 
makes 400,000 b/d of methanol, an MTBE ingredient. 
(c) Copyright 2001. The Oil Daily Co. 
For more infomation, call 800-999-2718 (in U.S.) or 
202-662-0700 (outside U.S.).

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 


Panel Suggests Enron Solutions.

04/16/2001
The Oil Daily
(c) 2001 Energy Intelligence Group. All rights reserved.

A committee set up by the Indian state of Maharashtra to examine US energy 
giant Enron's controversial power project on Thursday recommended that the 
supply deal be renegotiated. 
Enron and the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) have been locked in 
a long-standing dispute over the state utility's unpaid bills. In March, 
Enron, which owns 65% of Enron's Indian Unit Dabhol Power Co. (DPC), invoked 
a counterguarantee of the Indian government after MSEB failed to clear its 
bill of 1.02 billion rupees (US$21.91 million) for December.
DPC has come under fire because of the relatively high cost of its power. 
Critics object to it charging 7.1 rupees/kilowatt hour vs. 1.5 rupees charged 
by other suppliers. 
The committee suggested that the tariff be renegotiated to make it lower and 
to remove the dollar linkage, which resulted in a steep increase each time 
the rupee fell against the dollar. The report also recommended the financial 
restructuring of DPC to defer payment obligations for at least five years, 
with a preference of 15 years. 
Earlier this week, Enron's Indian unit sent a political force majeure notice 
to MSEB (OD April10,p7). Such a notice is a contractual clause dissatisfied 
parties give as a first step toward possibly dissolving a contract. 
(c) Copyright 2001. The Oil Daily Co. 
For more infomation, call 800-999-2718 (in U.S.) or 
202-662-0700 (outside U.S.).

Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.