Monday, February 26, 2001		Lens on IT

Hasso Plattner, spokesman of the board of Europe's largest software company SAP and Mark Hoffman (L), chairman of the board and CEO of US software company Commerce One pose for photographers before an interview during the E-Link 2001 conference in Berlin last week. Plattner and Hoffman said they were "cautiously optimistic" that sales in 2001 would resist a slowdown in US economic growth.

Jan Hung-tze (C), chief executive officer of Taiwan's PC Home Publishing Group, leaves the office of the Internet newspaper Tomorrow Times in Taipei after informing employees (behind) that the online journal would cease operations after a year in the red. 

Hugh Brogan, CEO of Sendo International shows his company's Z100 multimedia smartphone at a news conference during the GSM World Congress in Cannes, France last week. The Z100 phone features a colour screen and runs on the Microsoft smartphone platform. The phone will be hit the market in the autumn of 2001. 

Former President Bill Clinton speaks to the Oracle Appsworld convention at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Centre in New Orleans. Clinton, out of office but knee-deep in controversy over an 11th-hour pardon, made little mention of his troubles in his statesmanlike speech to hi-tech executives.

— Reuters photos