Larry Barrett

IBM on Tuesday managed to squeeze by analysts’ estimates in its third quarter, posting a profit of $2.36 billion, or $1.68 a share, on sales of $24.1 billion. This time around, IBM’s services and software businesses—as well as a weak U.S. dollar—bailed out a disappointing performance from its hardware unit and helped the company overcome […]

The head of Oracle’s Fusion Applications project is no longer in charge, following a reorganization at the enterprise software giant that’s prompting new questions about the future of its much-hyped business applications suite. John Wookey, responsible for leading Fusion development, resigned late last week over what a source close to the company characterized as “divergent […]

IBM rolled out new software this week that it says will lower the cost of managing all the disparate data sources residing in enterprise IT departments and speed the deployment of applications that deliver real-time business information from multiple sources. If the new applications are as good as advertised, customers will be able to, for […]

It appears it’s now just a matter of when — not if — Oracle will complete its $6.7 billion takeover of embattled middleware software provider BEA Systems. Despite the drama of hastily exchanged letters and rebuttals on Friday between the companies’ executives, most financial and software industry analysts expect the deal to become official sooner, […]

Niklas Zennstrom, Skype’s co-founder and former chief executive, told attendees at this week’s ETRE technology conference in Hungary that while the Internet telephone services provider was growing at a steady pace, “we overshot in terms of monetization” and admitted the company had not delivered the immediate revenue boost expected following eBay’s $2.6 billion acquisition in […]

Oracle on Friday gave arch-rival SAP another reason for concern, making a $6.7 billion bid for embattled middleware software provider BEA Systems. There’s a very real possibility the bid may turn into a protracted hostile takeover, however. BEA’s board of directors flatly rejected Oracle’s $17-a-share offer, claiming the “unsolicited proposal significantly undervalues BEA Systems.” “BEA […]

With Microsoft poised to unleash its next collaboration and unified communication (UC) suite next week, rival IBM is launching a preemptive strike by promising a tight level of integration between its own UC platform and its new, free Lotus Symphony productivity suite. IBM said Sametime customers would soon be able to share and collaborate on […]

IBM on Tuesday gave customers a preview of a new mashup platform that purportedly helps even the most tech-averse employees create Web 2.0-style application mashups in minutes. Its Mashup Starter Kit, available for download from the IBM alphaWorks Web site, includes a Mashup Hub that stores information feeds from blogs and Web sites using RSS, […]

Reaction to SAP’s $6.8 billion acquisition of Business Objects was swift and punishing. SAP shares fell $2.87 a share, or 5 percent, to $56.36 in Monday trading, suggesting Wall Street wasn’t terribly enthused by the enterprise software giant’s decision to pay such a high premium — roughly 20 percent above Business Objects’ shares closed on […]

VMware has a major update planned for the end of the year. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based virtualization software company on Monday announced updates to its mainstay VMware Infrastructure software, including VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5. Set to be available sometime “later this year” the software will include new features VMware said will make […]

Proactive enterprise CIOs might have Oracle to thank for saving their companies millions, and even billions, of dollars in the event they’re called to task during civil or criminal litigation. On Monday, the database software company rolled out Universal Records Management 10g Release 3. The platform includes enhanced retention and management features for e-mail and […]

What do you call a wake-up call for a wake-up call? Whatever you call it, officials responsible for securing and maintaining Marin County’s (California) transportation authority Web site slept right through it for more than three weeks, leading to a cascading series of events that culminated Tuesday afternoon with a federal shutdown of the state […]