E-MAIL A FRIEND
PRINTER FRIENDLY
SAVE ARTICLE
FOR REPRINTS
July's news reviewed.
Monday, 13th August 2007
- Networking giant Cisco purchased a 1.6% stake in red-hot virtualisation software maker VMware ahead of its IPO. Cisco paid VMware owner EMC $150 million for the share. Cisco is not alone in clamouring for a chunk of the fast-growing company: earlier in the month chip maker Intel agreed to pay EMC $218.5 million for a 2.5% slice of VMware. EMC is on course to IPO 10% of VMware later in the year; the price has yet to be revealed.
- Hackers stole information from the US Department of Transportation and several US companies by enticing employees to click on fake job advertisements, according to British Internet security provider Prevx. Prevx took the unusual step of exposing victims of the attack, which included Unisys and Hewlett-Packard, in a bid to highlight the major vulnerabilities of government IT systems.
- Financial services companies are bracing themselves for a wave of fines as result of their failure to comply with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) – 95% expect regulators to impose fines, according to an IFR Market Intelligence report. There remains “widespread confusion” regarding the requirements of the directive, effective from 1 November 2007, with many compliance departments simply “unaware of their true position”.
- Hewlett-Packard made two significant acquisitions within the space of a few days. Firstly, it announced that it would buy data centre automation software maker Opsware for $1.6 billion. Opsware will be merged into HP’s growing Software division, strengthening its systems management portfolio. Secondly, it agreed to add thin-client computing systems Neoware to the Business Desktop unit of its Personal Systems Group, paying $214 million for the privilege.
- Microsoft unveiled plans for an online marketplace through which developers may sell applications that supplement the company’s own, starting with its forthcoming on-demand Dynamics Live CRM service. The planned marketplace, to be launched in 2008, bears a striking resemblance to Salesforce.com’s AppExchange, however Microsoft will look to undercut the market leader’s pricing.
- Global pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca is to extend its outsourcing contract with IBM for another seven years, during which time IBM will manage the company’s IT infrastructure in its entirety. Under the deal, worth $1.4 billion over the seven year period, IBM will enjoy a free hand in design and implementation of the infrastructure.
- Newcastle City Council became the latest high-profile organisation to admit it had allowed sensitive personal information to leak on to the Internet. It said up to 54,000 credit and debit card details may have been exposed, having been posted on an externally-accessible IT system. The card details related to transactions made between February 2006 and April 2007, including payments of council tax, business rates, parking fines and rent.
By Pete Swabey,
pswabey@information-age.com
