XEROX ENTERS DEALS WITH SIEMENS, IBM

Siemens Business Services, has signed a multi-year maintenance services contract with Stamford, Connecticut based Xerox, a document management company. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. It was not immediately clear if any Xerox employees will be impacted.

Read More on:SDA India

Bull and JBoss Form Partnership

French IT company Bull and JBoss, a division of Red Hat have entered a partnership to accelerate the development and deployment of interoperable open source middleware solutions for enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), as per a statement issued by the company.

According to the agreement, Bull and JBoss will work together in three areas:

* R&D Collaboration
* System Integration (SI)
* Subscriptions

Read More on:SDA India

Alcatel, Lucent Announce Amendment and Extension of Consent Solicitation

Trans Atlantic telecom equipment makers, Alcatel and Lucent have amended their joint solicitation statement/prospectus, dated November 14, 2006. Under the amended terms, Lucent will pay a one-time consent fee only to holders of its 2.75 per cent Series A Convertible Senior Debentures due 2023 and 2.75 per cent Series B Convertible Senior Debentures due 2023 who consent to the terms of the joint consent solicitation. For each USD 1,000 in principal amount of each series of debentures for which consents are received, consenting holders will receive the product of USD 7.50 multiplied by a fraction, the numerator of which is the aggregate principal amount of debentures of each series outstanding on the expiration date, as defined below, and the denominator of which is the aggregate principal amount of debentures of each series for which Alcatel and Lucent received and accepted consents, the companies stated.

Read More on:SDA India

BigFix Appoints Amrit Williams as CTO

BigFix, a provider of security configuration management solutions, has appointed Amrit Williams as chief technology officer. Williams has over 18 years’ experience in security software development and IT security research. Most recently, Williams served as research director for the Information Security and Risk Research Practice at Gartner. As CTO for BigFix, Williams will be responsible for the direction of the company’s strategic product development and roadmap, as per a statement issued by the company.

Read More on:SDA India

IBM ENTERS USD 863 MLN CONTRACT WITH TEXAS AGENCY

IBM and Texas Department of Information Resources have signed a seven-year contract valued at USD 863 million with three optional one-year extensions. After taking all new and retained costs into account this will save Texas USD 25 million in 2008-2009 and USD 159 million over the base contract period, IBM said in a statement.

Read More on:SDA India

T-Mobile Chooses Ericsson, Nokia

Sweden based telecom hardware company Ericsson and Nokia of Finland have bagged a contract to deploy WCDMA 3G for T-Mobile. Bellevue, Washington based T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, said last month it would spend USD 2.76 billion to build the third-generation network, which will add services such as streaming video and game downloads.

Read More on:SDA India

Tidal Launches Enterprise Scheduler, Horizon, Transaction Analyse, Intersperse

Tidal, a provider of application scheduling and performance management software has unveiled Tidal Enterprise Scheduler, Tidal Horizon for SAP Solutions, Tidal Transaction Analyser, and Tidal Intersperse, as per a statement issued by the company.

Read More on:SDA India

Cenzic Announces Growth in 2006

Cenzic, a provider of automated application security assessment and compliance solutions, has experienced record growth in the past nine months, the company said. Over 500 companies are using Cenzic's technology with an additional 3,000 companies using its Windows port of Nessus.

Read More on:SDA India

IBM Acquires Vallent

IBM has agreed to acquire Vallent, a supplier of network performance monitoring and service management software for wireless service providers. Financial details were not disclosed. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is anticipated to close in the first quarter of the 2007, the company said in a statement.

Read More on:SDA India

Symantec Acquires Revivio

Symantec has acquired continuous data protection vendor Revivio for an estimated USD 20 million. The company bought Revivio's intellectual property and will discontinue sales and development of Revivio's Continuous Protection System appliance. Symantec, which got into the data protection market with its acquisition last year of Veritas, plans to add Revivio's technology to its NetBackup product and sell a stand-alone CDP product of its own.

Read More on:SDA India

Cognigen Announces Decreases in Revenue

Cognigen, an Internet- enabled marketer of communications services, has released the financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2006. The Company realised revenue of USD 2,304,089 for the three months ended September 30, 2006, compared to revenue of USD 2,821,872 for the same period in 2005. Operating expenses for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, decreased approximately 13 per cent over the same period in 2005. Net income decreased from USD 46,117 for the period ended September 30, 2005, to a net income loss of USD 113,367 for the same period in 2006. Net cash provided by operations was USD 117,400 for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, compared to the USD 40,354 for the same period in 2005, as per a statement issued by the company.

Read More on:SDA India

TCS, Infosys, Wipro To Join Top 10 M Cap League

There is buzz in the IT world that three of the largest Indian services companies TCS, Infosys and Wipro may soon enter the top ten million league in market capitalisation in the next couple of years. Wipro Chairman, Azim Premji said, "Currently, Infosys, TCS and Wipro come in the top 16-17 companies globally in terms of market capitalisation".

Read More on:SDA India

MACROVISION SUES ALTIRIS, DELL INKS PACT WITH ALTIRIS ON STOCK DEAL

Macrovision, a maker of software to prevent copying of digital music and DVDs, has sued Altiris claiming it's infringing two patents covering a system for managing product licenses. MeanwhileDell has entered into a partnership with Altiris on a stock deal.

Read More on:SDA India

VeriSign Acquires inCode Wireless for USD 52 mln

Internet payment security company VeriSign is planning to buy technology consulting firm inCode Wireless for USD 52 million. Revenue and earnings from the acquisition will not materially affect VeriSign's 2006 results, VeriSign said in a statement.

Read More on:SDA India

Sony, Samsung Join Hands in LCD Venture

Ailing Japanese consumer elecronics company Sony has joined hands with its long time adversary Samsung to launch S-LCD, a LCD panel joint venture.

"Depending on the demand for large-screen LCD TV sets, it is quite feasible that we will make additional investments and boost the capacity," Sony executive deputy president Katsumi Ihara said.

Read More on:SDA India

Two Key ACS Officials Step Down

Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) has revealed that Mark A. King, the company's CEO, and Warren D. Edwards, the company's CFO, violated the company's Code of Ethics for Senior Financial Officers and have stepped down from their post. Lynn Blodgett has been appointed as President and CEO, and John Rexford has been appointed Executive Vice President and CFO and as a director.

Read More on:SDA India

Ericsson Inaugurates R&D Centre in Chennai

Swedish telecom company Ericsson has opened a research and development (R&D) facility in Chennai. The aim of setting up the center is to concentrate on multimedia research.

Ericsson is all set to invest USD 100 million per annum in the next few years and explore the possibility of setting up a manufacturing facility in Chennai.

Read More on:SDA India

TCS has Largest Financial Services Practice, Says Forrester

Forrester, an independent research firm, in its report entitled 'Which Service Vendors Can Help Retail Banks', noted the need for retail banks to deliver new services to address the conflicting problems of gaining operational efficiencies (for example cost-cutting) and pursuing organic topline growth. Banks will need to effectively transform their business processes, the technologies that support these processes, and train their people to meet the new market demands. According to Forrester, achieving these goals will require external advisors and this report highlights which IT service providers to consider.

Read More on:SDA India

Satyam Ranked 'Best Company to Work For' by BT–Mercer–TNS

In the recently concluded BT-Mercer-TNS Best Employer Survey 2006, Satyam Computer Services was ranked as the third Best Place to Work for in India. Emphasising the organisational focus on creating more leaders and cultivating the CEO mindset across, Hari T., director and senior vice president - Satyam HR, added, “Through our internally researched Full Life Cycle Leadership program, Satyam intends to be an organisation, where leaders are empowered, and can act with speed and agility fast enough to meet the demands of the constantly evolving market".

Read More on:SDA India

TCS Recruits Science Graduates

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), one of India’s largest IT services exporters, has unveiled its latest initiative to enlarge and develop suitable talent pool available to the IT industry. The TCS Talent Transformation (TCS T2) aims to transform science graduates into global software professionals and is the first scalable program undertaken to draw graduates from disciplines other than engineering into the global technology services industry, as per a statement issued by the company.

Read More on:SDA India

Microsoft Launches Online Mapping Service

Microsoft has upgraded its online mapping service. The new service, 'Virtual Earth 3D', integrates Live Search properties of its conventional mapping service and photorealism, the company said.

According to Microsoft the service will allow users to search, browse and explore with a 3 Dimensional view of 15 US cities and generate 3-D models for accuracy. Users can choose between the two-dimensional views, aerial or birds-eye views, and the three-dimensional interface. They could also use the existing map services, such as business listings, white pages, traffic information and driving directions, on any of the interfaces.

Read More on:SDA India

Epson, Microsoft Ink Cross-Licensing Pact

Epson, a provider of printer and printer accessories and Microsoft have entered into a cross-licensing agreement that allows increased access to each company's respective patent portfolios. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The expansion of the long-standing partnership between Epson and Microsoft will promote the exchange and implementation of patented technologies in many consumer and business electronics product areas, Epson said.

Read More on:SDA India

IGATE INKS PARTNERSHIP WITH RADIAN

iGATE, a provider of IT and BPO services has said that the Company's offshore subsidiary, iGATE Global Solutions (iGS) has signed a key technology services agreement with Radian, a provider of credit solutions to the global financial and capital markets, as per a statement issued by the company.

Read More on:SDA India

Media Sciences Says Net Rose to 28 per cent

Media Sciences, a manufacturer of colour toner cartridges and solid ink sticks for colour business printers, has revealed its first quarter financial results for the period ended September 30, 2006.

Consolidated net revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2006, increased 18 per cent to USD 5.6 million from USD 4.8 million for the same quarter last year. In the company's first quarter, colour toner cartridge sales increased by 42 per cent and solid ink sales increased by 11 per cent versus the same period last year. Sequentially, net revenues were USD 0.3 million behind the record set in the company's previous quarter ended June 30, 2006, as per a statement issued by the company.

Read More on:SDA India

Microsoft Joins TCS China as Investor

Indian IT services Company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and its Chinese partners, supported by the National Development and Reforms Commission (NDRC) has revealed that Microsoft had signed a tripartite investment agreement to be an investor in TCS China. Microsoft will hold a minority stake in TCS China, the company said in a statement.

Read More on:SDA India

Subex’s Subash Menon Joins TeleManagement Forum

Subex Azure, a provider of telecom software solutions has appointed Subash Menon, the company's Founder Chairman, Managing Director & CEO, as an interim Independent Director on the Board of the TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum). The TM Forum has more than 540 members in 63 countries that aim to provide guidance and practical solutions to operators, the company said.

Read More on:SDA India

Mphasis BFL Sticks to the Name Mphasis, Appoints Deepak Patel as MD

IT services and BPO solutions provider MphasiS BFL will change its name to Mphasis. The company has appointed Deepak Patel, currently chief operating officer (COO) of the company, as the managing director of the company for a period of five years.

Read More on:SDA India

Xbox Live Video Hits the Marketplace with Issues

Microsoft has unveiled its Xbox Live Video Marketplace that brings varied emotions from gamers. Some are of the opinion that the addition of movies and television shows was a good move for the Xbox 360 platform. But the problem being the Xbox 360 comes with just a 20GB hard drive, which makes storing HD content, quite difficult, sources said.

Read More on:SDA India

Xbox Live Video Hits the Marketplace with Issues

Microsoft has unveiled its Xbox Live Video Marketplace that brings varied emotions from gamers. Some are of the opinion that the addition of movies and television shows was a good move for the Xbox 360 platform. But the problem being the Xbox 360 comes with just a 20GB hard drive, which makes storing HD content, quite difficult, sources said.

Read More on:SDA India

UNIVERSAL, MYSPACE SPAT OVER COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

The Universal Music Group, a music company, has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against MySpace and parent company the News Corporation for allowing users to upload and download copyrighted songs and music videos. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, is seen as part of a strategy by Universal to test provisions of a federal law that provides a 'safe harbor' to internet companies that follow certain procedures to filter out copyrighted works. The law requires sites to remove such content after being notified by the copyright holder.

Read More on:SDA India

NetApp Earnings Rise

Network Appliance, a provider of networked storage solutions, has released results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2007. Revenues for the second fiscal quarter were USD 652.5 million, an increase of 35per cent compared to revenues of USD 483.1 million for the same period a year ago and an increase of 5per cent compared to USD 621.3 million in the prior quarter, as per an official statement issued by the company.


Read More on:SDA India

TCS to Implement 3G Solution in Macau

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), an IT services and consulting firm, has won a USD 8 million contract to implement a solution in Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau S.A.R.L. (CTM), Macau's only full telecom service provider. CTM is a joint venture between Cable and Wireless PLC (51per cent), Portugal Telecom International (28per cent), CITIC Pacific (20per cent) and the Macau SAR Government (1per cent), the company is quoted to have said.

Read More on:SDA India

Mikael Hagström to Lead SAS in EMEA and Asia Pacific

SAS, a provider of business intelligence software, has appointed Mikael Hagström as Executive Vice President of SAS EMEA and Asia Pacific Operations. His appointment by CEO Jim Goodnight comes as SAS approaches its 30th year of revenue growth and profitability. Hagström, who now reports directly to Goodnight, takes over responsibilities of Art Cooke, who announced his retirement November 3, the company stated.

Read More on:SDA India

Avaya Acquires Traverse for Unified Communications

Avaya, a provider of business communications applications, systems and services, has acquired Traverse Networks, a privately held developer of enterprise mobility solutions for unified communications for USD 15 million.

Avaya said it acquired Traverse for its fixed-mobile convergence software that allows users to access corporate IP PBX features, voicemail, e-mail, and other resources over a secure mobile phone data connection.Timed with the acquisition, Avaya announced a repackaging of its unified communications products, including a new four-level product structure that the vendor says will make it simpler and less expensive for customers to buy and install the technology.

Read More onSDA India

Check Point to Acquire Swedish Data Security Company, Protect Data

Check Point has made a bid to acquire Protect Data, the holding company for mobile security firm PointSec Mobile Technologies, in a cash deal valued at USD 586 million (SEK 4,152 million).

"With businesses facing increasingly severe consequences from data breaches and a stricter regulatory environment, it is apparent that protection must extend beyond the infrastructure to the data itself," said Gil Shwed, chief executive officer of Check Point.

Read More on:SDA India

Adobe Resorts to Sue Microsoft if the New OS Shuts Rivals

Adobe may sue Microsoft if it is not satisfied with the European Union's (EU) steps to ensure Microsoft's new operating system does not shut out rivals, Adobe's chief executive Bruce Chizen said.

Chizen is said to have told Germany's Euro am Sonntag newspaper there were two options, either to sue Microsoft directly or to work with the authorities and provide them with the necessary information.

Read More on:SDA India

Yahoo, Newspapers in Ad Deal

Yahoo has entered a partnership with more than 150 US newspapers to deliver search, graphical and classified advertising to consumers in the communities where they live and work. Beginning with recruitment advertising, the newspapers and Yahoo! HotJobs will bring one of the largest online audiences, targeting capabilities, local expertise and advertising power to recruiters, the company stated in an official statement. In addition, the consortium plans to work together to provide search, content, and local applications across the newspapers' web sites.

Read More on:SDA India

Akamai Buys Web Content Delivery Firm Nine Systems

Internet content acceleration firm Akamai is buying Nine Systems, a provider of media management tools, in a deal valued at about USD 169 million. The closing of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory conditions, including the approval of Nine Systems’ stockholders, is expected by year-end. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to Akamai’s earnings on a normalised, diluted per share basis in 2007, as per a statement issued by the company.

Read More on:SDA India

MICROSOFT, FPT IN STRATEGIC ALLIANCE TO DEVELOP APAC IMAGE

Microsoft and FPT of Vietnam have entered an agreement to promote market research in Vietnam and across the Asia-Pacific region. Under the terms of the deal, the two companies signed a three-year alliance agreement in Hanoi.

Read More on:SDA India

SAP Hires New ANZ Chief

SAP has hired Alan Hyde as a replacement for its outgoing Australia and New Zealand chief executive, Geraldine McBride. Alan Hyde would take over as chief executive in the region from the beginning of the 2007.

Hyde, a former PeopleSoft executive, is currently general manager of SAP's business operations in NSW, Queensland, ACT and Fiji.

Read More on:SDA India

Chinese President to Speak on Behalf of Chinese Telecom Firms

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is coming to India today on a four day visit is likely to talk on behalf of Chinese telecom companies such as Huawei and ZTE that are being barred from bidding for government telecom contracts or manufacture in India.

India has barred many Chinese companies from bidding for telecom and ports contracts citing security reasons and also for reasons that Chinese companies are controlled by the Government and he Army and hat these companies have significant presence in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where it is said it worked with the Taliban government.

Read More on:SDA India

Cisco Hits USD 8.2 Bln Net Sales in First Quarter 2006

Cisco has reported its first quarter net sales of USD 8.2 billion, net income on a Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) basis of USD 1.6 billion or USD 0.26 per share, and non-GAAP net income of USD 1.9 billion or USD 0.31 per share.

In a public statement, Cisco’s CEO John Chambers boasted that the company "achieved, a 25 per cent year-over-year increase and a Cisco standalone increase of approximately 16 percent, which was above our standalone guidance of 11 to 13 percent," adding, "this is the fastest standalone year-over-year revenue growth rate we have seen in several years."

Read More on:SDA India

Bix.com in Yahoo Fold

Internet Company Yahoo! has revealed plans to acquire Bix.com web site, which allow web users to create online contests. Yahoo plans to maintain Bix's independent web site while merging its features with its own Yahoo Groups, Yahoo 360 and photo-sharing site Flickr.

Read More on:SDA India

TCS Wins Eli Lilly Clinical Trial Deal

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has won a contract from US-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly to provide services in clinical data management, statistical analysis and medical writing. According to the release issued by TCS, as per the agreement, the company will also establish a medical information sciences centre in Noida, near New Delhi.

Read More onSDA India

YouTube Dapples with Lawsuits Regarding Video Deals

Google, which brought YouTube for USD 1.65 billion, is hoping to convince media companies to allow users to broadcast their content on YouTube. Google was ready to offer upfront payments to media companies for the right to allow users to use their film,TV clips and music on YouTube.

Read More on:SDA India

GOOGLE BUYS ISRAEL START-UP IROWS

Internet search company Google is planning to buy its first Israeli startup, iROWS, a online spreadsheet company.

Read More on:SDA India

Dell Delays Results as SEC Inquires its Accounts

Shares of the personal computer maker Dell fell 2.5 per cent to close at USD 25.10, after the company said the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had formalised a probe into revenue recognition and other accounting matters at the company. The move marked an escalation of an informal investigation that began in August

Read More on:SDA India

Opti Sues AMD over Patent Infringement

OPTi Inc, a maker of controller chips, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for infringement of three US patents.

The three patents at issue in the lawsuit are all entitled 'Predictive Snooping of Cache Memory for Master-Initiated Accesses'. The complaint alleges that AMD infringes the patents by making, selling, and offering for sale CPUs and core logic products based on and incorporating Predictive Snooping technology and inducing and contributing to the infringement of the patents by others.

Read More on:SDA India

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft on Same Web Index Tools

Search engine rivals, Google, Yahoo and Microsoftare joining hands in an initiative that aims to improve the Web crawl process for search engines. The companies have decided to provide support for Sitemaps 0.90, a free and easy way for webmasters to notify search engines about their web sites and be indexed efficiently, resulting in better representation in search indices, the companies said.

Read More on:SDA India

Research Says Only 5% of Fortune 1000 Companies Use IPV6

TheInfoPro (TIP), a research network for the Information Technology (IT) industry, has released its latest Wave 2 Networking Report detailing technology adoption trends and timeframes for the Networking sector. According to the study, only 5% of organisations interviewed have Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in use today. The research also reveals that an additional 18% have expressed some interest in adopting IPv6 for their infrastructure over the next 12 to 18 months.

Read More on:SDA India

Black Duck Welcomes Sun's Decision to Open Source Java

Black Duck, the provider of software compliance management solutions, has given the thumbs up signal to Sun Microsystems’ decision to open source Java. Many organisations are using open source code to develop software, and the Sun announcement means that any company using Java will need to understand the implications of the licensing terms of the open source General Public License (GPL) and the impact on software that is developed with Java, the company said.

Read More on:SDA India

Linux Infringes on Microsoft IP: Steve Ballmer

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has openly stated that he thinks the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property. Microsoft had in fact embraced Novell’s open-source software platform, forming a technological truce between two long-time antagonists who want to make it easier for the still-dominant Windows operating system and the increasingly popular Linux system to work together.

Read More on:SDA India

Intel Hikes Investments in Vietnam

Chipmaker Intel is upping the stakes in its chip building plant in Vietnam to USD 1 billion, more than three times its planed investment. The company said it would increase the size of the assembly and test facility it is building in Vietnam from 150,000 square feet to 500,000 square feet. It had planned to spend USD 300 million on the plant. But after an internal study, Intel said it concluded more money and space would be ideal.

Read More on:SDA India

Chennai-based Megasoft Partners with Telecom New Zealand

Xius, the telecom division of Megasoft, will provide roaming and interoperability solutions to cellular operations of Telecom New Zealand International (TNZI). The partnership will cover technologies to provide roaming footprint, and pre-paid roaming solutions, the company said.

Read More on:SDA India

Genpact, Accenture Top BPO Employers in India, finds Study

Genpact and Accenture have emerged as the top BPO employers in India, according to a study. Genpact currently has a headcount of 19,700 , while Accenture employs 19,000, the are the top two employers, a study by Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) said. About 200 companies are profiled in the 2006 edition and the listing parameters like employee size, verticals serviced and locations of delivery centres were used.. In the Indian outsourcing landscape, captive outsourcing organisations account for 65 per cent of the total ITeS and BPO exports from India, while third party operations make up the remaining 35 per cent. Of this, the top ten third party players dominate with a large 30 per cent share of the pie, it added.

Read More on:SDA India

MSN Hikes Hotmail Capacity to 1GB

Three years after Google launched the 2 GB e-mail service, Microsoft has finally decided to increase the storage in its Hotmail e-mail service to 1GB from the present 250MB. Hotmail has over 260 million users and Microsoft had been delaying increasing the storage.

Read More on:SDA India

7.3 Per cent of IT Budget Spent on Security

US enterprises will have spent USD 61 billion on security by the end of this year, representing 7.3 per cent of total IT spending in the US, a new report from Info-Tech Research Group states. While the IT departments will spend between USD 21- 27 billion on acquiring new security technologies and services, the rest will be spent on operations, primarily staffing costs, as per the report.

Read More on:SDA India

Red Hat Shuts Door on Patent Agreement with Microsoft

Distributor of the Linux operating system, Red Hat has declined Microsoft's offer to enter into a patent protection deal with Microsoft like Novell. Microsoft believed that Red Hat would enter into a similar patent indemnity arrangement with all the other Linux vendors. On the contrary, Red Hat thinks differently, Mark Webbink, Red Hat’s deputy general counsel, said, "We do not believe there is a need for or basis for the type of relationship defined in the Microsoft-Novell announcement."

Read More on:SDA India

Useless Computers Cost Businesses Dear: Study

A study commissioned by Samsung says workers using IT incorrectly costs UK business an astonishing UKP 1.7 billion a day. The results of the study also said that majority of people using IT spend their time fixing problems or searching uselessly for documents.

Read More on:SDA India

CDC Software Looking at Buys in India

Enterprise software company, CDC, is planning to expand its presence in India. The company plans to double its R&D strength in the country to 300 and increase sales presence. CDC is also looking at acquisitions in India. Eric Musser, President of CDC said, "we are close to acquiring companies in India, Europe and North America in the outsourced business services space. The acquisition of the Indian company should happen within next six months.

Read More on:SDA India

EU Sets Nov 23 Deadline for Microsoft to Part with Software Code

Microsoft and the European Union (EU) continue to be at loggerheads as EU has extended the deadline given to the company, by eight daysto submit the secret protocols of its Windows operating system to rivals or face the prospect of more fines, the EU competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes said.

Read More on:SDA India

Microsoft, Sun, Novell, BEA, Software AG Form Interoperability Vendor Alliance

Reiterating that it wants to play better with others, Microsoft has started a group to promote software interoperability. Twenty-five companies, including Sun Microsystems, BEA Systems, XenSource and Novell, have agreed to join the Interop Vendor Alliance unveiled at Microsoft's IT Forum in Barcelona, Spain.

Read More on:SDA India

Motorola Buys Broadband Company Netopia for USD 208 Mln

Telecom gear maker Motorola will buy broadband equipment maker Netopia for USD 7 a share in a deal valued at USD 208 million.

With this acquisition, Motorola gains Netopia’s expertise in copper-based broadband product portfolio including wired and wireless modems, routers and gateways. Its North American customers include telecom players such as BellSouth, Covad Communications, EarthLink, AT&T and Verizon Communications.

Read More on:SDA India

Sun, NEC to unveil HPC Solution

Santa Clara, California based computers and components vendor , Sun has extended its relationship with NEC to combine Sun's systems strengths with NEC's systems integration expertise to deliver High Performance Computing (HPC) solutions to Sun customers. As part of the agreement, NEC will develop HPC solutions integrating Sun Fire servers and share resources with the Sun Solution CentreCentre for HPC , a prepared company statement said.

Read More on:SDA India

Microsoft Launches Banking Integration Factory

Microsoft has unveiled an initiative that provides prescriptive architecture guidance, tools and reference implementations aimed at achieving consistency in banking integration.

The 'Microsoft Banking Integration Factory initiative' supports both Microsoft software and applications from vendors such as ARGO Data Resource, Corillian, Getronics, Harland Financial Solutions, Jack Henry & Associates, AdviceAmerica, Fair Isaac, Fiserv, and Portrait Software. The initiative establishes a common set of frameworks and standards that these and other vendors can use to ensure that their software works together.

Read More on:SDA India

Reuters Invests USD 7 Mln in Blog Aggregator, Pluck

Reuters, the global information company, and Web media syndication site Pluck, have formed an alliance to syndicate third-party blog content as part of Reuters news and information service. Reuters has invested USD 7 million in the Austin, Texas-based company in return for an undisclosed ownership stake, Pluck Co-founder and Chief Executive Dave Panos said.

Read More on:SDA India

IBM Owns Most Supercomputers

IBM owns the highest number of Supercomputers in the world, according to the 28th Supercomputers list being released at Supercomputing 2006 at Tampa, Florida. IBM is the owner of 47.8 per cent Supercomputers, the list said.

The supercomputer that topped the list was IBM’s Blue Gene/L that calculates at the rate of 280 teraflops. Including the chart topper, IBM processors appeared in a total of 93 supercomputers among the Top 500. In the top 10, IBM occupied four positions. With a speed of 101.4 teraflops, AMD’s dual-core Opteron processor was ranked a distant second.

Read More on:SDA India

Microsoft to Unveil Zune on Nov 14

Microsoft's first portable MP3 and video player has finally arrived. The Zune goes on sale on November 14. Some people claim that it shows polish for a first effort, but the Zune's features don't seem compelling enough to make it a serious threat to take a big chunk out of iPod sales.

Read More on:SDA India

Vodafone, Yahoo Partner on Mobile Advertising

The mobile phone operator, Vodafone and Yahoo! have formed a strategic alliance to create a mobile advertising business that aims to enhance the customer experience on mobile phones while providing both companies with a new revenue stream. Through this alliance, Yahoo! will become Vodafone’s exclusive display advertising partner in the UK, the company said.

Read More on:SDA India

VSNL Arm gets International Award

VSNL Singapore, the international arm of Videsh Sanchar Nigam was named the ‘Best Wholesale Carrier’ at the 2006 World Communication Awards (WCA).

Judges included Kenneth Cukier, Technology & Public Policy Editor, The Economist, Michael Bartholomew, Director, The European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association, Sean Collins, KPMG Global Communications and Media Practice, Frederick Knops, Vice President and Partner, Booz Allen Hamilton; and Manoj Menon, Analyst, Frost & Sullivan, Singapore, among others.

Read More on:SDA India

Content, Not Price, Drive Game Purchase Decisions, finds Study

Specific ‘must-have’ features are so important to some consumers that they would be willing to buy a video game console as soon as it becomes available, regardless of price. Appealing game titles is by far the most important feature, with 87 percent of respondents claiming this as their number one concern, followed by backwards compatibility at 68 percent, according to Next Generation Purchase Intent, a report just released by The NPD Group.

Read More on:SDA India

Google Closes YouTube Deal

Web search engine Google has closed its USD 1.65 billion acquisition of online video provider YouTube. In connection with the deal, Google said it issued an aggregate of 3.2 million shares, and restricted stock units, of 442,210 shares of its Class A common stock, along with USD 15 million in cash.

Read More on:SDA India

Dell Multifunction Color Laser 3115cn Launched

Dell has introduced the company’s first color laser multi-function device. According to the company, Dell Multifunction Color Laser 3115cn combines fast color print speeds, standalone and network color scanning, walk-up copying and standalone fax into one unit.

Read More on:SDA India

Microsoft, Airtel Partner to Offer Software, Services to SMBs

Microsoft and Bharti Airtel have entered a strategic partnership that will offer software and services for small and medium businesses in India by January 2007. The partnership will offer Microsoft solutions for hosted messaging and collaboration, besides other applications such as CRM, accounting, ERP, unified communications and select Microsoft ISV applications.

Read More on:SDA India

PG&E Collaborates with Silicon Valley Companies for Energy Efficient Server Technology

Pacific Gas and Electric Company has opened a financial incentive program to support virtualisation projects in data centers, with industry support from VMware, Intel Corporation and others. Virtualisation allows multiple applications to run concurrently on computing equipment, thereby enabling customers to consolidate their data centers and remove a large portion of their existing servers, the company said.

Read More on:SDA India

VMware Announces Winners of Virtual Vanguard Awards

VMware has taken the wraps off the winners of the first-ever Virtual Vanguard Awards. The awards recognise VMware customers who have best employed VMware Infrastructure to create high-ROI and IT strategies. The Virtual Vanguard Awards judging panel consisted of Stephen Elliot, research manager for IDC's Enterprise Systems Management Software Service, Eric Kuzmack, IT architect at Gannett, Jonathan Paul, advisory analyst at Siemens Medical Solutions Health Services, and several judges from VMware, the company said.

Read More on:SDA India

SAP Names Hans-Peter Klaey to Lead Global SME Business Organisation

SAP AG has appointed Hans-Peter Klaey as president of Global SME, a new organisational unit overseeing sales, marketing, operations and alignment of resources dedicated to serving small and midsize customers. The appointment provides additional managerial focus and support to SAP’s SME efforts, and reflects the evolution of SAP’s go-to-market model to serve customers in increasing numbers through a multi-channel approach. Klaey will report to Léo Apotheker, president, Customer Solutions and Operations, and member of the SAP AG Executive Board, the company said.

Read More on:SDA India

SAP Names Geraldine McBride President of Asia Pacific

SAP AG has appointed Geraldine McBride as president of its growing Asia-Pacific region and a member of the global Field Leadership Team. Effective January 1, 2007, McBride will assume the position from outgoing president and CEO Hans-Peter Klaey, who will head up a new global organisation unit as president of Global Small and Midsize Enterprises (SMEs).

Read More on:SDA India

Storage Markets Opens Free Trading to Data Storage Professionals

Storage Markets, a company to offer a predictive market tool to the data storage industry, has said that its web site is open for trading to data storage professionals. The web site is positioned as a tool that aggregates professional opinions to predict data storage market and technology transition trends. Storage Markets uses a technique called predictive market to help professionals express their opinions about market and technology trends in the data storage industry, the company said.

Read More on:SDA India

ReviewMe Pays Bloggers for Product Reviews

Reviewme.com is offering bloggers up to USD 250 for reviews of advertisers products or web sites. And, as part of a promotional offer, the company set aside USD 25,000 to pay bloggers to review Reviewme.com itself. It is no hidden fact that many companies would pay for a favourable review in a news publication. However, the blogging world is making this trend more popular.

Read More on:SDA India

MTV, Nexon Ally on Multiplayer Online Games

Viacom's MTV Networks has partnered with Korean online game publisher Nexon, to develop MTV's Neopets property and launch Nexon's casual multiplayer online games in North America. The companies will create a version of MTV's Neopets online youth community, where users can purchase virtual items for customisation and personalisation.

Read More on:SDA India

Demand for PCs among Asian SBs Set to Rise, says Study

Despite the ubiquity of PCs, as many as 75% of Small Businesses (SBs) in four of the most populous countries in Asia, India, China, Indonesia and the Philippines do not own any computers at all. If some see this as a problem, it is also a huge opportunity in terms of an untapped demand and opportunity for vendors to convert these to PC-enabled businesses. According to the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, there’s reason to hope. The study notes that about 40% of the non-PC SBs in India, over a third in China, and about a quarter each in Indonesia and the Philippines have expressed their intent to buy PCs in the next 12 months.

Read More on:SDA India

Alan Greenspan Predicts Changes in Sarbanes Oxley

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he expects newly energised congressional Democrats to ease some accounting requirements of a landmark 2002 anti-fraud law that much of corporate America has criticised as overly burdensome

Read More on:SDA India

IT Organisations Must Restructure to Embrace Consumerisation

Information technology (IT) departments must relinquish some of the control and responsibilities they have accumulated over recent decades to the end user, to free up time and resources to create business-enhancing opportunities, according to Gartner. With at least two-thirds of IT budgets currently consumed by operations, maintenance and support, there is little scope to invest in or support projects that could transform the business. At the same time, frustrated by restrictions imposed by the IT department, many users are taking advantage of consumer technologies and services and finding alternative approaches to work and collaboration in the workplace. Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president and global head of research at Gartner explained that while many of IT’s responsibilities are still mission critical, IT organisations need to bend to the realities of and opportunities associated with consumer, Internet and fast-emerging technologies if their businesses are to prosper.

Read More on:SDA India

Intel Debuts Super-Computing Products

Chipmaker, Intel has unveiled Cluster Toolkit 3.0 and Cluster OpenMP for Intel compilers. Both products are aimed at helping developers write parallel applications that can be spread across the server clusters that dominate the High Performance Computing (HPC) arena, the company said.

Read More on:SDA India

Verizon Expands IPM AMS Offering to APAC, Europe, and Latin America

Verizon is all set to expand Remote Internet Protocol (IP) Application Management Service to Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. The company has taken the wraps off its remote IP application management service that enables its customers to outsource all or some of the monitoring and management of their business-critical applications.


Read More on:SDA India

Indiagames Crosses One Million BREW Downloads

India-based mobile game developer, Indiagames, has announced that one million of its BREW-based applications have been downloaded so far this year. The company noted that it reached this one million mark in a shorter span of time than in 2005, indicating "the increased availability and adoption of its titles in India and around the world". The company singled out their licensed BREW releases The Mummy, Scorpion King, Predator, and Spy Kids as their leading BREW releases in 2006.

Read More on:SDA India

Wax Info Gears Up to Supply ActiveLibrary to Japanese Companies in China

Wax Info, a developer of secure distributed content management software, is all set to enter the Chinese software market. Wax Info is forming a strategic alliance with Shanghai Xindi Computer, China and Global Systems, of Yokohama, Japan to market the Japanese version of ActiveLibrary 4.0 to Japanese enterprises operating in China.

Read More on:SDA India

Philips Acquires Intermagnetics

Dutch electrical appliances maker Philips has won permission from the European Commission to buy Intermagnetics, a maker of magnets and imaging tools, in a USD 1.3 billion deal.

The European Commission said an investigation found the tie-up would not damage competition in Europe, after examining whether the new company would be able to control the supply of radio-frequency coils to Philips' rivals that also make magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, systems.

Read More on:SDA India

Startups Get Discounts to Run Sun Products and Services

Sun has taken the wraps off Sun Startup Essentials, a new program that aims to enable early-stage companies to run their businesses on Sun's technologies at a cost that fits their budgets. The program intends on offering start-ups a range of Sun products and services at significant discounts, including its Sun Fire x64 (x86, 64-bit) and CoolThreads servers powered by the Solaris Operating System (OS).

Read More on:SDA India

SAP, HP Collaborate on Enterprise IT Research

HP has revealed that it will collaborate with SAP AG on research aimed at improving the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of IT systems for businesses of all sizes. The companies hope to take advantage of synergies between HP's Adaptive Infrastructure management technologies and SAP's enterprise Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). The research work is being called the Adaptive SAP project.

Read More on:SDA India

Chipworks Open Fourth APAC Office in Japan

Ottawa firm Chipworks, has continued to ramp up operations in Asia as it opened a new office in Japan and appointed two new seasoned executives. The company specialises in reverse engineering of semiconductor chips and microelectronic systems for patent protection and litigation. The company has opened its fourth office in the Asia-Pacific region in Osaka, Japan to compliment its existing offices in Tokyo. Taiso Kazuta has been named sales and business developer to lead the new operations. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, Chipworks has appointed Richard Wu as director of Sales for the company's office in Taipei.

Read More on:SDA India

Riya Launches Like.com, Visual Search Shopping Engine

Image search company Riya, has applied its matching technology to a new fashion shopping site called Like.com. The idea is that you if you find a fashion item you like—a particular handbag, pair of shoes, watch or jewelry—the search engine will find related products by examining the actual image. Users can keyword search, browse products, or browse items worn by celebrities to get matches.

Read More on:SDA India

HP Names John W. McCain to Lead Services Unit

HP has promoted John W. McCain to run HP Services, the company's USD 15.5 billion worldwide services business. John McCain is said to be a seasoned information technology services and sales executive, McCain will serve as senior vice president and general manager of HP Services. He will report to Ann Livermore, executive vice president, Technology Solutions Group, HP.

Read More on:SDA India

NetApp Buys Storage Software Firm Topio

Network Appliance has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held heterogeneous replication startup Topio for USD 160 million, in an all-cash transaction.

According to the statement by the company, NetApp intends to add heterogeneous replication capabilities to its disk-to-disk backup products, including the NearStore Virtual Tape Library (VTL), Open Systems SnapVault for remote office backup and SnapVault for NetBackup, a product jointly engineered with Symantec.

Read More on:SDA India

SAP Invests in NetWeaver Partner, Visiprise

SAP AG has made an undisclosed investment in a Visiprise, a company that develops integration software for manufacturing companies that use SAP's NetWeaver platform. The investment is designed to strengthen the partnerships around NetWeaver, SAP's applications and integration platform that includes portal, data warehouse and other components. SAP didn't disclose the size of the transaction, calling it a 'minority investment'.

Read More on:SDA India

Microsoft Updates Dynamics CRM For 2007 Office and Vista

Microsoft has released a new version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM for the 2007 Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista that aims to provide productivity; data visualisation; and communications, collaboration, and security features. Microsoft also announced that, in addition to being offered through Microsoft’s standard Volume Licensing program, Microsoft Dynamics CRM will be offered through the licensing model that is used with Microsoft Dynamics Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products, making it simpler and more convenient for customers and partners to buy and deploy a full Microsoft Dynamics suite solution that spans Customer Relationship Management (CRM), financial management and supply chain management, as per a statement issued by the company.

Read More on:SDA India

Adobe Wins an Emmy for Flash Video

Adobe has won a Technical and Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for its Flash Video technology, in recognition of the software’s role in bringing television content to the Internet. Adobe acquired the technology when it took over Macromedia in April 2005 for USD 3.4 Bln.

Read More on:SDA India

Microsoft Becomes ICANN-accredited Domain Name Registrar

Microsoft has been added to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) list of accredited domain name registrars, according to domain name service provider Dot and Co. This means that Microsoft can now add new top-level domains to the databases used by computers on the Internet.

Read More on:SDA India

Microsoft Office 2007 Goes Gold

Microsoft has sent Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows to manufacturing, ending the large Office beta release and testing program the company has ever undertaken. Business customers and volume licensees will be able to set hands on Office 2007 beginning November 30, 2006—the same date those customers will be able to obtain Windows Vista and Exchange Server 2007. Everyday consumers will have to wait until January, 2007, to purchase either Windows Vista or Office 2007.

Read More on:SDA India

Flextronics Launches Industrial Park in Chennai, India

lextronics, an Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider, has expanded its presence in India through the first phase completion of its planned eight million square foot industrial park in Chennai.

"We selected Chennai as the location for this industrial park because of the technical talent, efficient logistics infrastructure, and cost-effective operations, as well as the support and engagement of the government of India and Tamil Nadu," said Michael McNamara, CEO, Flextronics.

Read More on:SDA India

Indian Search Engine ByIndia.com Acquired by Web2 Corp

Internet technology company, Web2 Corp has acquired recently launched Indian search engine, Byindia.com, which combines blogging, social networking, auctioning and video features.

Read MOre on:SDA India

Yahoo! Revamps Shopping Site for Holiday Season

Yahoo!, an Internet company, has unveiled the redesigned Yahoo! Shopping site. The site boasts a fresh new look to make it easier for consumers to quickly find and compare products, and a new Bargains Center which aggregates sales, coupons, free shipping offers, rebates and more from across the Internet. Yahoo! Shopping has also added the integration of Yahoo! Answers, the number one Q&A site on the Web, the company stated.

Read More on:SDA India

Nokia Makes 20 Mln Handsets in India

Handset maker Nokia will be shipping its 20 million mobile handset from its facility in Sriperumbudur, Chennai this November. Marking the occasion, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Congress President Sonia Gandhi handed over commemorative Nokia handsets to two of the earliest employees at the manufacturing facility for their contribution to this success.

Read More on:SDA India

Symantec Acquires IT Infrastructure Services Firm, Company-i

The IT security firm, Symantec has acquired to buy UK-based consultancy Company-i for an undisclosed amount. Company-i specialises in helping financial services firms manage their data centres. Symantec said the firm would help it expand its IT Risk Management practice. Post acquisition, Company-i will join Symantec’s Global Services organisation as part of its global consulting business, initially focusing on the UK market. Symantec's purchase of the firm is expected to close by the end of the year.

Read More on:SDA India

PeopleSoft Founder Launches New Company for 'ERP as a Service'

PeopleSoft founder David A. Duffield is all set to launch a new company called Workday. Duffield called the business 'a new generation of on-demand ERP,' akin to such companies as San Francisco-based Salesforce.com and San Mateo-based NetSuite. He claims the goal of the new company is to replace traditional enterprise resource planning platforms with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools.

Read More on:SDA India

IT Workers Earn Additional Pay for Skills and Certifications, finds Study

More than 51% of IT workers are receiving some form of additional pay for individual certifications and skills. Pay targeted specifically to non-certified and certified information technology-related skills has exploded in popularity according to a new study, with employers now incorporating such pay in the compensation packages of more than half of all IT workers in the US and Canada.

Read More on:SDA India

Nokia Wins GPRS Expansion Contract from Chinese Mobile Company

Nokia, a mobile devices and mobile network equipment maker, has signed a contract with a Chinese mobile maker company to expand China's Guangdong MCC GPRS network, but gave no financial details. Nokia said it will provide its intelligent GPRS packet core solution for the 8th GPRS expansion of Guangdong MCC and will thus become the GPRS network provider in the province.

Read More on:SDA India

Verizon Business Dominates Singapore Contact Centre Awards 2006

A provider of communications and information technology (IT) solutions, Verizon Business scooped four Gold Awards from the Contact Centre Association of Singapore. Verizon Business won awards in the Best Contact Centre, Contact Centre Manager, Customer Centre Team Leader and Customer Centre Champion of the Year categories for Singapore, as per a statement issued by the company.

Read More on:SDA India

Nokia Gets USD 230 Mln Vodafone Australia Deal

Nokia, a Finland-based manufacturer of mobile devices and network equipment, has signed a USD 230 million, seven-year managed services agreement with Vodafone Australia that includes engineering, operations, and maintenance of Vodafone's HSDPA, 3G, GPRS and GSM networks.

Read More on:SDA India

Nokia Gets USD 230 Mln Vodafone Australia Deal

Nokia, a Finland-based manufacturer of mobile devices and network equipment, has signed a USD 230 million, seven-year managed services agreement with Vodafone Australia that includes engineering, operations, and maintenance of Vodafone's HSDPA, 3G, GPRS and GSM networks.

Read More on:SDA India

Citrix, AMD, Dell, HP, IBM, Others Partner on Dynamic Desktop Initiative

A dynamic desktop is a Windows-based desktop that is delivered over any network and optimised for office workers' tasks. The dynamic desktop includes a Windows-based access device, a network connection, a Windows desktop, desktop delivery infrastructure and desktop experience management tools.

Read More on:SDA India