NBN Co's FTTB rollout begins; eBay cuts 2400 jobs; UK drops HP-Autonomy investigation

NBN Co has ‘earmarked’ the first 43 apartment buildings to receive its fibre-to-the-basement (FTTB) services, located across Sydney, Melbourne and the ACT.

The 6000 individual dwellings within those apartment buildings will be able to access NBN Co’s FTTB services before the end of June, the company said, with about 2000 of those expected to be ready for service by the end of March.

According to ITnews, in NSW NBN Co is targeting Sydney CBD, Balmain, Elizabeth Bay, Erskineville, Haymarket, Rushcutters Bay, Potts Point, Pyrmont, Randwick, Mascot, Alexandria and St Leonards. In Victoria, the company is targeting Carlton, Keysborough and Brunswick, and in Canberra, the CBD.

eBay cuts 2400 jobs

eBay will cut 2400 jobs globally - 7% of its workforce - in its first quarter this year.

The cuts will come from the company’s Marketplaces, Enterprise and PayPal divisions.

“Looking forward to 2015, we will be simplifying organisational structures to focus the businesses and ensure that we are set up to compete and win,” a statement from eBay said.

The reveal of the cuts came as eBay reported US$4.9 billion in fourth quarter revenues (up 9% year on year) and GAAP net income of US$936 million (up 10%).

eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said the company’s plans to separate eBay and PayPal into independent companies in 2015 are “on track” and that “we are confident this is the right strategic path for each business”.

eBay also said it is exploring “strategic options” for its Enterprise division, including a sale or IPO.

“[I]t has become clear that [the Enterprise division] has limited synergies with either business and a separation will allow both to focus exclusively on their core markets, as we create two independent world class companies,” a statement from the company said.

UK drops HP-Autonomy investigation

A UK government department looking into the sale of Autonomy to HP in 2011 has closed its investigation, saying there was “insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction”.

In November 2012, HP announced an impairment charge of US$8.8 billion related to its acquisition of Autonomy.

At the time, HP said: “The majority of this impairment charge, more than $5 billion, is linked to serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures discovered by an internal investigation by HP and forensic review into Autonomy’s accounting practices prior to its acquisition by HP.”

In 2013, HP contacted the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), sparking an SFO investigation into the 2011 Autonomy purchase. The SFO is an independent government department in the UK that investigates and prosecutes fraud and corruption.

But now, the director of the SFO has closed its investigation into the HP/Autonomy deal.

“In respect of some aspects of the allegations, the SFO has concluded that, on the information available to it, there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction,” a statement from the SFO read.

But a US-based investigation will continue. The SFO’s statement went on to say: “In respect of other aspects and on the application of well-established principles, jurisdiction over the investigation has been ceded to the US authorities whose investigation is ongoing.”

The SFO said that it couldn’t go into further detail regarding the decision to close its investigation, because doing so might undermine the US-based investigation.

Mike Lynch, Autonomy’s founder who led the company when it was sold, reportedly welcomed the SFO’s decision. Reuters quoted him as saying: “Let’s remember, HP made allegations of a $5 billion fraud, and presented the case in public as a slam dunk ... HP now faces serious questions of its own about its conduct in this case and the false statements it has made.”

HP, however, said it remained “committed to holding the architects of the Autonomy fraud accountable”, Reuters reported.

Image courtesy Jes under CC