Michael Hickins

It isn’t 1999 all over again, but Amazon.com seems to think it is. The e-commerce bellwether is behaving like it did in the halcyon days before the bubble burst, spending more money on customer acquisitions than it can probably afford. And while the market wants to see revenues increase, investors are also cringing as the […]

From the Industrial Revolution through the Information Age, technology has, in almost equal measure, improved our standard of living and wrecked havoc on our quality of life. The march of progress has gutted our countryside of farm labor and filled our streams with foamy discharge; stamped out smallpox and scarred us with birth defects; brought […]

In helping save your skin, Microsoft  may also be saving its own. The Redmond software behemoth’s every move and

Having security software installed on your PC should be like car insurance. Everyone should have some. The difference is that car insurance is mandatory, and antivirus software isn’t. By Symantec’s  reckoning, more than a third of all consumer PCs still lack adequate protection against adware, spyware and other forms of malicious code. Symantec aims to […]

Microsoft  seems to be getting this right. The company today released the first public beta of Exchange Server 2007, as well as a public beta of Forefront Security for Exchange Server. The new beta comes months after the company released another beta to a limited number of partners. Based on initial feedback from developers during […]

IBM  gave investors something to smile about despite the fact that Goldman Sachs downgraded the company from “buy” to “neutral.” The Armonk, N.Y.-based company announced a 10-year business transformation outsourcing (BTO) agreement with CVS/pharmacy designed to transform and manage the drugstore chain’s key human resources (HR) transactional services. The signing reflects what Mark Loughridge, IBM’s […]

Like Hollywood marriages, most high-profile partnerships seem to go the way of AOL and Time Warner. But Microsoft  and Nortel  have announced a strategic alliance that might actually live up to its billing. And quite a billing it is. The software giant and the Toronto-based networking giant have committed to delivering a communications solution that […]

Microsoft hopes its next release earnings release this week will go over better than the last one. The software giant, which is set to announce fourth quarter results on Thursday after the market closes, has announced changes to its financial reporting structure. The changes reflect organizational changes it has already announced, and are designed to […]

Channel partners looking for growth areas should look no farther than the neighborhood strip mall or business district. The small- to medium-sized business (SMB) sector represents a $154 billion market opportunity for channel partners in 2007, a 17 percent increase over 2006, according to AMI-Partners. Moreover, the market for Web-hosting and other Web-based services aimed […]

Reporter’s Notebook: Vonage  is still mulling the complaint that Verizon filed against it earlier this month. However the Holmdel, N.J. VoIP provider isn’t too concerned. Brooke Schultz, vice president of communications at Vonage, called many of the allegations of patent violations “suspect.” But as much as the substance, it is the timing of the suit, […]

Enterprise hardware spending has rebounded thanks in large part to computer-telephony integration. A study released Thursday by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) shows that after lackluster years earlier this decade, 2004 and 2005 showed sharp increases in corporate spending on new communications tools. Total revenue from spending on enterprise equipment reached $98.3 billion in 2005, […]

Security and storage software vendor Symantec isn’t giving up without a fight. Not even when it’s going up against the IRS. The company filed a 60-page petition with the United States Tax Court rejecting a claim that it owes Uncle Sam more than $1 billion in back taxes and penalties. The IRS is claiming Symantec […]