Mon
Apr
20
Oracle Corp plans to enter the computer hardware market by buying Sun Microsystems Inc for more than $7 billion, swooping in after Sun’s talks with IBM fell apart. The announcement on Monday surprised many Oracle watchers, who believed the company can boost profitability at Sun’s software businesses but were unsure if it can be as successful with Sun’s hardware unit amid stiff competition against IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and new entrant Cisco Systems Inc. “It’s an out-of-the-box, left-field type of a deal because Oracle is buying a predominantly hardware business,” said Jefferies & Co analyst Ross MacMillan. “The push-pull of the deal is the uncertainty of the hardware business with the earnings accretion of the software business.”
Oracle will pay $9.50 a share for Sun, which values the high-end server and software maker at about $7.06 billion, based on 743 million shares outstanding as of the end of its second fiscal quarter on December 28, according to Sun. Sun had previously rejected IBM’s offer to pay up to $9.40 a share, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Shares of Sun jumped 35.7 percent to $9.08 in morning Nasdaq trading, while Oracle shares fell 3.7 percent to $18.36. Shares of IBM, which did not immediately return calls for comment, fell 1.8 percent to $99.49 on the NYSE. Oracle President Safra Catz said on a conference call that Oracle intends to make the hardware division profitable. Sun’s top-selling products are high-end servers and storage equipment.
Source: Reuters
Wed
Apr
15
Yahoo is rumored to be planning to announce more layoffs next week, its third round of cuts in a little more than a year, according to a report Tuesday in The New York Times.
The layoffs could affect hundreds of employees and could be announced as early as April 21 when the embattled search pioneer announces its first-quarter financial results, according to the report.
Yahoo representatives declined to comment on the report.
Yahoo, which finished last year with 13,600 employees, has undergone plenty of reorganizations and executive turmoil in the past year, as well as two major layoffs. Yahoo laid off 1,520 U.S.-based employees in December as well as 52 of 251 employees based in France earlier this year. Those layoffs followed a round in January 2008, in which an estimated 1,100 employees were laid off.
In February, Yahoo appointed Carol Bartz as the successor to Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who under fierce financial pressure announced in November that he would step down as CEO when the company’s board had selected a replacement. Bartz then announced a sweeping reorganization in February aimed at making the Internet pioneer faster, simpler, and more responsive to those who use its services.
Yahoo, which has steadily lost search market share to Google and has been particularly hard hit by the economic recession, has reportedly been in preliminary talks with Microsoft to form a search and advertising partnership.
Tue
Apr
7
Microsoft officials have confirmed that it, along with PC partners will allow users of its upcoming Windows 7 the option to downgrade to both Windows Vista as well as Windows XP.
The last few days have been fraught with rumors that Microsoft will be offering users the opportunity to downgrade to Windows XP. Those who don’t like the look of Windows 7 and are afraid it’s their only alternative can rest easy; ZDNet asked Microsoft for a little clarification and the a spokesperson revealed that XP would also be on offer when it came to downgrades.
When asked if Microsoft had downgrade rights for Windows XP planned as part of Windows 7, the Redmond company responded with a resounding yes. The spokesperson went on to detail that this would not the first time that Microsoft has offered downgrade rights to a version other than its immediate predecessor and the company’s volume-license customers can always downgrade to any previous version of Windows.
Microsoft also noted that the terms and conditions for OS downgrades were consistent across all OEMs and would not be cutting deals with individual companies. Read the full statements on ZDNet.
Source: windows7news.com
