Vol. 2 - No. 1 - Winter 2005
| Cisco Systems Continues to Enhance Its Security Capabilities Through Acquisitions |
|
The company announced plans to buy privately held Protego Networks, which makes software that aggregates and correlates information about security threats, for $65 million in cash. The deal is expected to close by Jan. 29, the end of Cisco's fiscal 2005 second quarter. Cisco has focused on adding security capabilities to its product line for more than a year now. Last year, the company unveiled its Network Admission Control (NAC) program, a security architecture that combines virus scanning with network policing to keep attacks from entering the network in the first place. From the beginning, Cisco has relied on acquisitions to assemble the pieces necessary to make the architecture a reality. In fact, the critical "trust agent" software in the NAC architecture that sits on users' PCs and communicates with the Cisco policy server came from its acquisition in 2003 of Okena. [More] |
| What's Next for Google |
|
Source: Technology Review by Charles H. Ferguson, January 2005 For Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, 2004 was a very good year. His firm led the search industry, the fastest-growing major sector in technology; it went public, raising $1.67 billion; its stock price soared; and its revenues more than doubled, to $3 billion. But as the search market ripens into something worthy of Microsoft’s attention, those familiar with the software business have been wondering whether Google, apparently triumphant, is in fact headed off the cliff. [More] |
| New IBM Technique Holds Promise to Triple Chip Performance |
|
Source: IBM News IBM says it has demonstrated a technique that triples the performance of a standard transistor used in semiconductors. The new process is compatible with current CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) technology, requiring no radical changes in chip manufacturing. The technique involves the creation of a layer of the element germanium in the "channel," the part of the transistor through which electrical current flows. Boosting transistors' current flow has already led to increased circuit performance. In fact, several companies are already using strained silicon to do just that. Strained germanium, however, offers significantly better transport properties than silicon or strained silicon. Until now, conventional circuit manufacturing techniques have not been able to add strained germanium. The IBM demonstration placed strained germanium on the selected areas of a chip using a CMOS-compatible process already widely used in the industry. [More] |
| 15 Tech Companies Power Up Open Standards |
|
Source: IBM News Fifteen technology companies have banded together to form Power.org, an open standards community around chips and systems which use Power Architecture technology. Power microprocessors are found in products ranging from video gaming systems and telematics to supercomputers. Coming together to form the Power.org community are AMCC, Bull, Cadence Design Systems, Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Culturecom, IBM, Jabil Circuit, Novell, Red Hat, Sony Corporation, Shanghai Belling, Synopsys, Thales, Tundra Semiconductor and Wistron. More companies are expected to join. [More] |
| It's over - Oracle Finally Swallows PeopleSoft |
|
Source: TechWorld, Dec 13, 2004 It's over. After 18 months of the most heated boardroom battles in recent memory, Oracle has finally got its hands on rival PeopleSoft for a staggering $10.3 billion. The deal, announced at 11.30am today, has the approval of both boards and is expected to close in January - subject of course to the offical approval of shareholders. Since the fact that a majority of PeopleSoft shareholders publicly stated they were willing to sell their shares to Oracle was what put the final thumbscrew on PeopleSoft's directors, it seems somewhat unlikely that the deal won't go ahead as planned. [More] |
| PeopleSoft CEO Resigns: First Fallout from Oracle Takeover |
|
Source: TechWorld, Dec. 29, 2004 David Duffield has resigned as PeopleSoft's CEO and chairman. He lasted less than three months after taking over again as CEO at the company he founded and which is in the process of being acquired by rival Oracle. According to a filing made by PeopleSoft with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Duffield resigned on 21 December, only eight days after Oracle announced it had reached an agreement to buy PeopleSoft for about US$10.3 billion [b], ending a nasty takeover battle that lasted for about 18 months. [More] |
| Lenovo to Acquire IBM Personal Computing Division Creating New Leading PC Business with Global Market Reach |
|
Source: ARMONK, N.Y. and BEIJING -- Dec. 7, 2004 Lenovo Group Limited, the leading Personal Computer brand in China and across Asia, and IBM today announced a definitive agreement under which Lenovo will acquire IBM's Personal Computing Division to form the world's third-largest PC business, bringing IBM's leading enterprise-class PC technologies to the consumer market and giving Lenovo global market reach beyond China and Asia. [More] |
|
Phone: 1-503-725-3525 |
©2004 PICMET Inc.. All rights reserved.