US Crisis: Tech giants pledge millions in aid

NEWS Offers of cash have been flooding in from corporate America to help fund the relief efforts following Tuesday's terrorist attacks. Cisco, General Electric and Microsoft are a few of the companies donating cash to the relief organisations and families affected by the disasters. Bill Gates' software company has pledged $10m in cash and technical services. Half the money has been donated to the September 11th Fund set up by the United Way of New York City and New York Community Trust. The remaining money will be used to finance consulting services, volunteers' hours and software to help the recovery effort. Rick Belluzzo, president and COO at Microsoft said the company wants to support the recovery effort in every way it can. Microsoft has also pledged to match every dollar contributed by employees to the non-profit organisations such as the American Red Cross. But the software giant is not alone. Cisco has donated $6m to the Red Cross and other relief organisations. General Electric has donated $10m to New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to help the families of the emergency workers presumed dead. US company Spring has offered wireless phones for disaster workers and given $500,000 to the Red Cross. Motorola deployed crises teams to New York and Washington DC with communication equipment to support efforts. Scott Wyman, a spokesman for Motorola, said the company had shipped thousands of mobile phones, batteries, base stations and other equipment to the two disaster areas. Anyone wishing to make donations to the September 11th Fund may send financial donations in care of the United Way September 11th Fund, 2 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10016. Donations can also be made online at http://www.uwnyc.org