A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Eircom to upgrade broadband

Dominant fixed-line telecoms player Eircom plans to upgrade broadband capacity and cut prices for some of its customers.

Domestic customers will get upgrades of one or two megabytes (mb), while businesses will get upgrades of up to 5mb. It will cut charges for some residential customers by €5 and €10, and on one of its business packages by €4.

Xerox revenue disappoints

Xerox posted disappointing fourth- quarter revenue and an outlook that left investors wanting, overshadowing an 18 per cent rise in profit and sending its stock lower.

Despite success in introducing color printing systems, which are more profitable than black-and-white, and grabbing market share from competitors, Xerox is still struggling to ignite revenue growth in a sluggish market.

Revenue was flat at $15.7 billion for the year. Xerox, best known for its copiers even as it expands its offering of document services, said fourth-quarter net income rose to $267 million (€218 million), or 27 cents a share, after payment of preferred dividends, from $226 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier. - (Reuters)

Bristol-Myers Squibb warning

Bristol-Myers Squibb reported a higher fourth-quarter profit due to lower taxes, but warned 2006 earnings may fall as much as 20 per cent as its Pravachol cholesterol medicine and other drugs face generic competition.

The company, whose full-year 2005 profit fell 18 per cent as a number of its drugs lost sales to generics, reaffirmed profit growth should resume in 2007.

The New York-based drugmaker said it expects profit this year of $1.15 to $1.25 per share, excluding special items, or about 13-20 per cent less than 2005. Fourth-quarter profit rose as a much lower tax rate and improved profit margins more than offset a decline in overall company sales.

The company earned $499 million (€408 million), or 26 cents per share. That compared with $139 million, or 7 cents a share, in 2004, when it took a $575 million charge for taxes on overseas profits returned to the United States. - (Reuters)

BOC rises on takeover hopes

Shares in UK industrial gases firm BOC Group rose for a second day yesterday on hopes of takeover bid at least as high as the £7.6 billion pound (€11.1 billion) proposal it has spurned from Germany's Linde.

BOC shares rose 4.4 per cent to £14.62 pounds after touching a new high of 14.88 pounds in early trade. This compares with Linde's all-cash proposal of £15 a share which BOC rejected on Tuesday. - (Reuters/ Financial Times service