Acer Group chairman and chief executive officer Stan Shih said the PC maker was developing new appliances called XCs, new low-cost computer devices that start at $200, aimed at the masses of users who cannot afford PCs. Shih, addressing the Asia Pacific Information Technology Summit, said Acer planned a new line of computers called XCs, that would range in price from $200 and go up to $1,000, which would enable almost anyone to buy a computer.

Netscape CEO says filings show Microsoft shift: Netscape Communications Corporation chief executive officer James Barksdale said on Friday that internal Microsoft documents released by the US justice department show Microsoft has been rewriting history in arguing its Web browser was integral to its operating system. "They have misrepresented the chronology of this," Barksdale said of Microsoft's arguments that it had planned for a long time for a Web browser to be incorporated into Windows, the Microsoft operating system now shipped with nearly all PCs.

JC Penney sees 12 per cent earnings growth: JC Penney Company Inc said on Friday it expects long-term earnings growth to accelerate to about 12 per cent as it reaps benefits from its acquisition of the Eckerd drugstore chain. Chief financial officer Dan McKay told a meeting of industry analysts he expects profits to grow about 12 per cent starting next year with same-store sales growing at between seven and eight per cent. "Our stores and catalog business will be in the low-to-midsingle digits and the drug stores are going to be much higher," McKay said.

Nobody escapes lightly in Guinness report: Britain's official report into the so-called Guinness affair will level limited, but explicit, criticism at the people involved, the Financial Times reported on Saturday. The department of trade and industry (DTI) plans to publish its report into the controversial takeover of Distillers by drinks group Guinness Plc on Thursday. According to the Financial Times, the department of trade and industry narrative of events will be seen as ``a damning indictment'' of the behaviour of many of the participants. `Nobody escapes lightly' it quoted one adviser who has seen the department of trade and industry report as saying.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.