|
This is also an embedded chip story. Telstra is having to spend $500 million extra, on top of $100m. A public sale of one-third of the company forced the firm to admit this. The government is selling one-third of its stake in the company.
This appeared in THE AGE (Sept. 30).
* * * * * * * * *
Telstra's initial $100 million budget to beat a microchip flaw that could send its computers crashing in the first seconds of the new millenium has blown out by $500 million.
Telstra's offer document for the public sale of one-third of the group disclosed yesterday that the company had put aside a further $500 million to solve the problem, which is known by names including the Millenium Bug and the Year 2000 Bug. . . .
A year ago Telstra hired Hitachi Data Systems, a multi-billion-dollar international software development and consulting group, to oversee its Year 2000 computer revamp.
The original contract to cleanse all Telstra's microchips was estimated to be worth between $100 million and $140 million.
|