News

• Think cloud is no big deal? IBM and Salesforce.com just spent a combined $4.5 billion on it

  It's raining money from the clouds as Salesforce.com and IBM this week together spent a total of $4.5 billion to boost their cloud computing services.

• Zynga fires 18 per cent of workforce, vows refocus on mobility

  Social gaming publisher Zynga announced Monday that it will lay off 18% of its total workforce -- more than 500 employees -- in an effort to reduce staff costs and focus on the mobile sector.

• Cisco not looking to kill Microsoft/Skype deal, says Chambers

  Cisco doesn't want to kill Microsoft's marriage to Skype -- it just wants a dowry.

• Cisco appealing EU approval of Microsoft/Skype union, again

  Cisco is reportedly attempting to persuade Europe's second-highest court that it should overturn the European Union's approval of the Microsoft/Skype union, an $8.5 billion blockbuster originally announced by the companies two years ago.

• Extreme Networks replaces its CEO again

  Charles W. Berger is the beleaguered company's new president and CEO.

• Google grabs behavioral analysis startup Behavio

  Behavio, the startup best known for maintaining the open-source Funf mobile framework, announced Saturday that its staff had been acquired by Google, in a move likely aimed at bolstering the search giant's mobile capabilities.

• Former switching chief McCool leaves Cisco

  Cisco Senior Vice President John McCool, CTO of the enterprise segment and instrumental in data center fabric initiatives, has left the company after 17 years.

• Apple leverages Wi-Fi location with latest acquisition

  Apple has bought a small software startup that lets smartphones and tablets pinpoint their location indoors using nearby Wi-Fi signals.

• IBM's Rometty nets $16.2 million in first year as CEO

  IBM CEO Ginni Rometty earned a $16.2 million pay package in 2012, while her predecessor, Sam Palmisano, made more than double that for his role as chairman and senior adviser to IBM.

• Security vulnerability-management rivals marry: Tripwire acquires nCircle

  Tripwire today said it had acquired nCircle for an undisclosed price, a deal that will meld together two longtime rivals in the security and vulnerability-management industry. Tripwire, which had been acquired by investment firm Thoma Bravo two years ago, said it expects to continue making more acquisitions to grow as a security company.

• Cloud, SaaS are bright spots in tech's weak M&A market

  The total value of technology mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fell 35 per cent in 2012 compared to 2011 on concerns of sluggish macroeconomic conditions, but Cloud computing represented a bright spot, with software as a service (SaaS) companies specifically being a hot target for activity, according accounting firm Ernst & Young.

• The hottest startups are targeting the enterprise

  While some of the most successful consumer Internet companies are capturing the headlines today, more than 70 per cent of venture exits in the last two years valued at over $500 million have been in the enterprise sector.

• Radware buys Strangeloop for Web acceleration in $8.4M deal

  Application delivery vendor Radware has bought Web acceleration provider Strangeloop for $8.4 million and will sell its products under a new name.

• Juniper bolsters security assets with $10M buyout of anti-DDoS firm

  Juniper Networks has acquired the assets of Webscreen Systems, a developer of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) mitigation products, from Accumuli of the United Kingdom.

• Symantec CEO: 'We'll absolutely have a Norton brand'

  Symantec has commenced with a massive reorganization, saying it will end the internal separation that's traditionally been made in security software development done in the Norton consumer division and its enterprise product lines. But that doesn't mean Symantec's Norton brand is going to disappear, according to Symantec CEO Steve Bennett.