Brian Morrissey

Apparently not one to take slights easily, Oracle Corp. is now throwing counterpunches, saying its recent troubles in California and in its slipping ranking in the database market are both a result of misconceptions. Yesterday, Gartner Dataquest released its annual survey of the database software industry, which showed IBM overtaking Oracle for the top spot, […]

In an effort to shore up its defenses against fraud, eBay signed a deal with Internet-security company VeriSign to provide verification services for the online auction site. As part of the deal, whose financial terms were not released, eBay will use VeriSign’s Authentication Service Bureau to vet sellers during registration. The authentication service will verify […]

Oracle’s woes continue. Today, Gartner Dataquest confirmed what many suspected: IBM has displaced Oracle as the leader of the database market. According to Gartner Dataquest’s annual survey of the database software industry, IBM’s total market share for 2001 increased to 34.6 percent, up from 33.7 percent a year earlier. The increase can mostly be traced […]

Microsoft Corp. agreed to acquire Danish enterprise-software company Navision in a $1.3 billion stock-and-cash deal. In the widely expected deal, Microsoft offered shareholders stock and cash worth 300 kroner per share. The five co-founders of Navision control 56.4 percent of the shares, which they have pledged to the acquisition. At the transaction’s close, which is […]

In a smackdown with the World Wildlife Fund over the WWF acronym, Vince McMahon has asked the referee to stop the fight. McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation announced late Monday it would change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The name change comes a little more than two months after a U.K. Court of Appeal […]

While Oracle Corp. copes with a brewing scandal over a California state software contract and fierce competition from its rivals, the database giant sought to get ahead of upcoming research reports on the state of the database industry with one of its own. The FactPoint Group research ranked Oracle No. 1 as the primary database […]

Motorola Inc. not only got mad, it got even. The wireless manufacturer announced this morning it received a $100,000 default judgment against Paging America, which Motorola accused of bombarding consumers with fraudulent e-mails promising free Motorola pagers. In May 2001 Motorola filed suit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Digital Wireless Technologies, conducting business as […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settled its fraud case against a group that hawked computers on several online auction sites, but then failed to deliver them to buyers. The settlement fines the defendants $10,000, and bars them from selling goods online. The case against Auctionsaver, and those running the company, arose out of the FTC’s […]

Executive departures continue to roil Sun Microsystems Inc. , as the company announced its president and chief operating officer, Edward Zander, would retire this summer. Chairman and CEO Scott McNealy will take over Zander’s duties on July 1. The surprise departure of Zander follows the announced retirements last month of longtime Sun executives Michael Lehman, […]

GreyMagic Software said both Netscape and Mozilla browsers are at risk for an attack that would allow local files to be read. According to a security posting on its Web site, the Israel-based software company found that a component for retrieving XML documents from a Web server, known as XMLHTTP, can be used to read […]

Microsoft Corp. is in talks to buy Danish enterprise software company Navision in a reported $1.2 billion deal. According to the Financial Times, Navision confirmed that talks are underway for “a possible strategic transaction,” and requested that the Copenhagen Stock Exchange put its stock on its “observation list.” A deal for Navision would bolster Microsoft’s […]

Bucking the trend of outsourcing IT systems, Oxford Health Plans (OHP) said today it would end its outsourcing agreement with Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) just 18 months into the five-year, $195 million deal. The Trumbull, Conn.-based company said it will bring the functions back in-house. Oxford struck a deal with El Segundo, Calif.-based CSC in […]