Business Briefs: Computer Sciences, Diodes, Occidental, News Corp.

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– Computer Sciences Corp.

said it is in negotiations with Britain’s BAE Systems Plc. to expand a technology-outsourcing contract worth about $1.9 billion over five years. The new contract would replace an existing $1.5 billion, 10-year pact that is set to expire in October 2006. When it was originally signed in 1994, it was one of the largest commercial IT-outsourcing contracts ever awarded to a single supplier in Europe. The contract is subject to completion of successful negotiations and final approvals, Computer Sciences said in a release.


Computer Sciences also said it signed an extension to its contract to provide information technology outsourcing services to DuPont Co., in a deal worth an estimated $1.6 billion to $2 billion over 7 years and seven months. An interim agreement between the two companies was announced on July 1. Computer Sciences’s relationship with DuPont began in June 1997 when the companies signed a 10-year global IT outsourcing contract.



– Diodes Inc.

said it signed a definitive stock purchase agreement to acquire Taiwanese fabless analog company Anachip Corp. for about $30 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to add to Diodes’ 2006 earnings. Selling shareholders include Lite-On Semiconductor Corp. (which owns approximately 60 percent of Anachip’s stock and holds approximately 23 percent of Diodes stock), two Taiwanese venture capital firms (together owning about 20 percent of Anachip’s stock), as well as current and former Anachip employees.


Anachip, which makes products used in LCD monitors, portable DVDs and modems, is expected to earn full-year net income of $2.5 million on revenue of $35 million.



– Occidental Petroleum Corp.

is seeking bids for a $2 billion project to boost output from the Mukhaizna oil field in Oman where it replaced Royal Dutch Shell Plc as the main foreign operator, Bloomberg News reported. Oil and gas engineering companies will be invited to bid by March 26 for a contract to increase oil production to 150,000 barrels a day from about 10,000 barrels at the field now. Los Angeles-based Occidental and its partner, Abu Dhabi’s Liwa Energy Ltd. replaced Shell as the field’s main foreign operator in May after agreeing with the Omani government to invest billions to pull more oil from its wells using high-pressure steam.



& #8226; News Corp.

shareholders can move forward with a lawsuit alleging that Chairman Rupert Murdoch reneged on a promise to let them vote on a “poison pill” provision, a judge ruled. Delaware Chancery Court Chief Judge William Chandler dismissed three of five allegations in the suit brought by a group of U.S., Australian and European institutional holders in October but ruled the case could go ahead on two claims of breach of contract and breach of promise. Chandler said News Corp. directors had agreed not to change the “poison pill” without shareholders’ support when they switched the company’s headquarters to Delaware from Australia.


The lawsuit seeks to nullify the “poison pill” extension and require News Corporation to pay legal expenses. Analysts have said the provision was enacted to fend off John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. from increasing its 18 percent voting stake.

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