Month in Review: November 2004
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10 February 2006
The month's key IT industry news in review.
- The European Commission finally approved a €517 million rescue plan by the French government for beleaguered IT services company Bull. The EC had previously said that a handout would be in breach of rules on state aid.
- Software giant Computer Associates (CA) finally appointed a new CEO, six months after Sanjay Kumar resigned amid charges relating to false accounting. New CEO John Swainson was vice president for IBM's worldwide software sales force, but before that he led the group behind its WebSphere product line. CA's chairman, Lewis Ranieri, cited the way Swainson turned middleware, "a relatively unknown software solution" into "a $1 billion business" as one reason for his selection.
- A slim majority of PeopleSoft shareholders voted in favour of a $9.2 billion hostile takeover from rival Oracle, but the company's board are still resisting the acquisition. PeopleSoft board members responded with a statement describing the $24 share price as "inadequate." Oracle have also nominated four board members to run against the incumbent PeopleSoft board at next spring's annual shareholders' meeting.
- Software maker Novell filed a lawsuit against Microsoft alleging the software giant unfairly attempted to monopolise the office applications market when Novell was the owner of the WordPerfect suite. The new case came hot on the heels of an out-of-court settlement in which Microsoft agreed to pay Novell $536 million after claims it withheld critical technical information about Windows during the 1980s, rendering Novell unable to develop its applications for the operating system. Microsoft says Novell was deliberately trying to limit the commercial success of Windows. However, following the settlement, Novell agreed to withdraw its support for the European Commission's investigation into Microsoft.
- Bill Gates told the Microsoft IT Forum that passwords offer inadequate protection for corporate networks and should be phased out in favour of smart cards and biometric technology. Microsoft intends to simplify existing identity systems and improve authentication technology to prevent fraudulent attacks, such as 'phishing'.
- An investigation into the chronic failures of the UK's Child Support Agency (CSA) laid much of the blame on the £456 million computer system built by Electronic Data Systems (EDS). An internal memo from within the services giant described its product as "badly designed, badly tested and badly implemented." When the CS2 system was introduced in March 2003 only 75% of those parents due for maintenance payments were being paid. Since then, this figure has fallen to 50%. CSA chief executive Doug Smith has since resigned. A July report found the CS2 system to be an "appalling waste of public money."
- BT announced it would buy US-based voice and data network provider Infonet Services Corp for £520 million in a return to the international telecommunications arena. The aggregate worth of the acquisition, taking into account Infonet's negative cash balance was £310 million
