Oracle Originally Only Wanted Sun’s Software Assets (Update2)

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Oracle Corp., which agreed to buy Sun Microsystems Inc. for $7.4 billion last month, made its offer only after failing to acquire the company’s software assets in March.

Oracle, the world’s second-largest software maker, proposed buying the assets on March 12, when Sun was in exclusive talks for a takeover by a rival, according to a filing today from Sun. Oracle’s offer wasn’t attractive enough to make Sun end its talks with the other suitor.

Oracle made its winning bid of $9.50 a share for the full business on April 18, also gaining Sun’s computer assets and pitting Oracle against International Business Machines Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. in the shrinking server market. The company may eventually seek to sell parts of the hardware unit, said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities Inc.

“That’s much less attractive than the core software business,” said Barnicle, who rates Oracle’s shares “outperform” and doesn’t own any. “It’s a much lower-margin business.”

Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison said this month he plans to keep the computer business and boost its profit by making hardware and applications work better together. In a filing, he cited Apple Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. as companies with lucrative hardware products.

Sun’s server sales, which make up more than half of revenue, fell 26 percent last quarter as customers pared equipment spending in the recession. Servers run corporate networks and Web sites.

Other Bidders

IBM also bid for Sun, and Hewlett-Packard held talks about a combination with the company, people familiar with the matter have said. According to today’s filing, Sun permitted two other companies besides Oracle to conduct due diligence reviews, without naming them.

One of the other bidders, “Party A,” was prepared to pay $9.10 a share as late as April 19, while the other, “Party B,” said on April 17 it wouldn’t submit an offer, Sun said.

“Party B” was Hewlett-Packard, said a person aware of the discussions who asked not to be named because the talks were confidential. While Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz and Hewlett- Packard CEO Mark Hurd met to discuss a deal, Hewlett-Packard never made an official offer, the person said.

Talks Last Year

“Party B” had indicated interest in a deal late last year, though it had said that a transaction wouldn’t be optimal in the near term, Sun said. “Party B” restarted a due diligence review of Sun on April 9, only nine days before Oracle made its winning bid, Sun said.

Hewlett-Packard bought Electronic Data Systems Corp. last year for $13.2 billion and the company has said it is continuing to digest that takeover, Hurd’s largest transaction. Christina Schneider, a spokeswoman for Hewlett-Packard, declined to comment today.

IBM, the world’s largest computer-services provider, was in talks with Sun prior to the announcement of the Oracle acquisition and was intending to pay between $9 and $10 a share, according to people familiar with the matter. Ian Colley, an IBM spokesman, declined to comment today.

Oracle, based in Redwood City, California, fell 18 cents to $18.38 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading at 4 p.m. New York time. Sun, based in Santa Clara, California, rose 9 cents to $9.

source:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aq_XvujIIrl8&refer=news

Business column: Boost your marketing with online search tools

Search-engine optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a Web site. When SEO is done properly, it will place you high on search-engine result pages for certain key phrases and terms (i.e. real estate, law firms, doctor, etc.).

In today's online-driven world, the names Google, Yahoo and MSN are rapidly becoming more of a household name than the Yellow Pages. Most of us now have access to the Internet via work, home and mobile phone. According to research by Jupiter Media way back in 2004, more than 64 percent of people who are looking for information online use search engines. The number is closer to 80 percent today.

Low risk, high impact

In these tough economic times, business owners are becoming increasingly challenged and conservative with their marketing budgets. Most of us are seeking low-risk, high-impact marketing options in a down economy. When it comes to meeting these needs, search engines like Google provide a viable and cost effective solution.

So where should your advertising dollars be spent in today's market?

Consider the traditional advertising option of the yellow pages. For a prominent ad, your costs could be thousands of dollars per month Also, Yellow Page ads have limited flexibility, and you are usually locked in to a one-year commitment.

Optimize your Web site

How many times have you used the paper Yellow Pages this month?

How many times have you searched for a business or service on Google or Yahoo this month?

Now consider your Web site. You can further your business leads by making sure that more people are viewing it. You can optimize your Web site to rank in the main listings without any media spending at all. You can test multiple ads and list under multiple words or phrases all at the same time and get instant tracking on which ads are working for you.

The major search engines also can determine where the search is coming from. This means you can target ads all the way down to a city, or ZIP code.

If you are not currently utilizing this marketing channel, I recommend you take half of your local marketing this year and invest in search optimization or paid search ads. Work with a search-analytics professional to track the new program for 90 days. You likely will be surprised to see who's been searching for you, and see an immediate impact for your business.

Source:- recordonline.com/

IT can open door to manpower export

Let's take the instance of the voter list and national identity card project। A voter sits in front of a computer. His fingerprint, signature and picture are taken in a computer. Then the software is doing the rest automatically. The voter's personal information is sent to a specific place where the data is being preserved. Since made and preserved by software, it will be possible to prevent illegal use or misuse of the person's identity card. The task of the voter list and the national ID project is going on in full swing. Two Bangladeshi companies have developed the database software being used in this gigantic project.

According to IT experts, software is a set of serially placed programme's in computer's language aiming to resolve problems, which activates the hardware by creating a relation between computer hardware and user। Due to the influence of suitable software, the computer becomes mathematically intelligent. System software and application software are made as products meaning software has an unlimited commercial utility.

Computer Usage Corporation (CUG), a US-based organisation, began software use in 1955 as a service-providing sector. Then this has become the fast changing sector. People have gradually become dependent on it. Everything, from I-pod to laptop and computers to businesses, is run by software.

New software is being used in many ways like bringing newness in business, atomising offices and industries, and producing different products. With software, information is readily available everywhere. It has been possible to time-consuming works in a short time. So, the software industry is expanding very fast. Though challenging, this new industry is creating various types of employment's too.

There is a bright prospect for Bangladesh in this software industry. By virtue of this flourishing industry, the country too is forwarding to e-commerce-based economy keeping pace with the world. Lakhs of unemployed youths are getting opportunity to work both at home and abroad.

Manual Islam, 30, is one of them. After his graduation in software programming from India's Pune University, Manual is now working as an assistant director in Development and Research Network, a private organisation.

Nurul Absar also works in the same organization as web application developer. Though working in software section now, his field of study at university was different. He completed master's in statistics from Sylhet Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Later, he had a post-graduate diploma in information technology from the same university. "Software is now such an industry where self-employment is possible after necessary training. This is why employment is rapidly expanding in this industry," says Absar.

According to a recent joint research by Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), software is the most promising export sector in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) is a leading IT organisation as it has been working since 1997 for its development. As of June 2007, the number of BASIS members was 245.

On the present state of Bangladesh's software industry, BASIS programme manager Shariar Shams says, "At present, there are over 4,500 registered software companies in the country where about 5,000 professionals are working। Besides, from June 2006 to May 2007, 1,839 job advertisements have been published in newspapers and on the Internet. This figure is 7 percent higher than June 2005 to May 2006.

He also says the demand for Bangladeshi software has increased significantly. A huge quantity of quality software is being produced in the country. The demand for software in the local market is worth over Tk 300 crore. About the performance of BASIS, Shams says his organisation regularly exports software to 30 countries. In the first eight months of2006-2007 fiscal, BASIS exported software worth about Tk 2 crore that is about 26 percent higher compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Bangladesh Economic Survey-2007 states the country is exporting software and IT enabled services to 30 countries, including the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia and different European states. Over 50 software firms and IT companies are involved in the export प्रोसेस

The survey also says some of the organisations that use Bangladeshi software are Nokia, Japan Airlines, the World Bank, US Postal and US Agriculture Department. An ICT incubator centre has been established in Dhaka city's Karwan Bazar for flourishing the software industry. Currently, 48 organisations are working at the centre. From this incubator, an amount of Tk 4.27 crore was earned in the last two years through export.

A Commerce Ministry reports on 'Export of Computer Software from Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects' says there are many positive aspects of Bangladesh's software। Every year, a huge number of students are receiving degrees and training on computer-related subjects from different government and private universities. Many Bangladeshi students are also studying abroad. Besides, IT -educated manpower is available in Bangladesh at much lower cost than the developed countries and even neighbouring India.

There are also many problems in the software industry of the country. Saqibul Hasan, an engineer of ICT research-related firm Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, says, "In our country, it's not being possible to create enough manpower for lack of IT institutions. This is the main problem. Besides, lack of information is another aspect. For instance, many people with the highest degrees in Computer Science don't even know that software can be made sitting at home. There are many works available on line for professionally skilled software developers."

Enamul Haque, project manager of Daffodil Software Ltd, points out another problem the industry is now facing। "Software industry is electricity dependent. But, we never get uninterrupted power supply. For this, software developers face problem in delivering the orders. It also affects the efforts to create skilled manpower in the IT sector."

BASIS executive director TIM Nurul Kabir says despite many problems, Bangladesh's software sector is moving ahead contributing to the national development. About the prospects of software industry in Bangladesh, eminent economist Dr Atiur Rahman says, "This sector will create huge employment opportunities. It will be possible to export trained manpower meeting local demand."

According to experts, the main problems that are hindering development of the industry include absence of duty-free facility in case of software export-import, problems relating to necessary infrastmcture and marketing, reluctance of government offices in using software, lack of IT-based educational institutions, inadequacy of teachers and labs, lack of planning and government support, reluctance of banks to provide loans and absence of software-related laws.

If the existing problems could be resolved, this export-oriented industry can open up a new horizon of prospects for national development

source=http://nation.ittefaq.com/

Study: SaaS Most Important Enterprise Software Trend

According to a recent survey of 850 "enterprise software customers," software-as-a-service (SaaS) continues to be the most important enterprise software trend, followed closely by Web services/service-oriented architecture (SOA), then offshoring/globalization, open source software and software industry consolidation.

The survey, conducted by research firms McKinsey & Company and the Sand Hill Group, asked participants to select "the most important [software] trend impacting your business." 31 percent selected SaaS, up one percent from the last time the firms asked the question in 2006. Web services/SOA also rose 1 percent, from 24 percent to 25 percent.

Offshoring/globalization remained in third place, but dropped two percentage points, from 15 percent to 13 percent. Open source also dropped, from 10 percent to eight percent, as did software industry consolidation, with only seven percent choosing it as their top trend this year, as opposed to 17 percent in 2006.

Participants saw other trends ahead than those listed above, with 16 percent selecting "other" in this year's survey, up from four percent saying so in 2006 IT budgets are more focused toward

subscription/on-demand licenses, the research found, with 19 percent of the average respondent's budget going toward "Subscription/On-Demand" services in 2008.

The amount of money enterprises are expected to spend on software overall is also on the rise, the study stated. The average percentage budget allocated to software rose from 30 percent in 2006 to 32 percent in 2008, according to respondents, and it was expected increase to 35 percent in 2010.

"Despite the economic downturn in the U.S., there is slow but steady growth in software's share of the overall IT budget," the researchers commented in the report. "Survey respondents projected that this growth pace will continue for the next two years, indicating that software plays an ongoing role in delivering business productivity gains."

Respondents were also asked to choose where they think the industry is in its current innovation wave। Sixty-two percent said that it is "on the upswing," while 17 percent said it's "at the peak," five percent said it's "past the peak" and 17 percent picked "What innovation wave?" as their answer.

source=http://www.adtmag.com/

Local authorities carry out anti-piracy raids against two IT resellers in Ajman in coordination with Microsoft Gulf

Microsoft Gulf in collaboration with Ajman authorities has announced that it has recently conducted two raids against IT resellers who were selling products with unlicensed Microsoft software in the emirate of Ajman।

Microsoft, initiating the raids in its capacity as a member of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), has been closely monitoring the resellers following reports that they were installing illegal versions of MS Office 2007 and Windows XP on computers sold to customers। The raids resulted in the confiscation of two PCs loaded with pirated versions of Windows XP and Microsoft Office, along with several CDs containing illegally copied Microsoft programs.

The ongoing campaign involving Microsoft, BSA, the international association established by the software industry to promote a safe and legal digital world, and local authorities in the UAE, is part of a drive towards removing unlicensed installations of Microsoft programs in the UAE, where a Madar Research report reveals that PC sales are growing at a compound average growth rate of around 12%, one of the highest in the Middle East। At this rate, PC penetration in the country will be 27% higher than the world average by 2008.

'Our nationwide anti-piracy campaigns are in line with the UAE's strong commitment to create a piracy-free environment। To effectively tackle the menace of piracy, we require the sincere efforts of the business sector and end users, who need to take a conscious decision to not use pirated software and report any violation of intellectual property rights,' said Jawad Al Redha, IPR Manager, Microsoft Gulf.

The UAE leads the Middle East in intellectual property rights and copyright protection, currently placing 29th in the world rankings of IPR protection. According to global research firm IDC, the country enjoys a software piracy rate of 35 per cent, far below the 57 per cent average of the Middle East and North Aftrica region. UAE law strictly requires software users to keep evidence of the originality of the software they buy and use.

source=http://www.ameinfo.com/

IT gurus launch software cleanup of Estonia

TALLINN (AFP) — Skype guru Ahti Heinla and Microlink and Delfi founder Rainer Nolvak put cutting-edge IT technology and 40,000 volunteers to work Saturday to clean-up the tiny Baltic Sea state of Estonia।

Heinla and Nolvak used special software based on Google Earth, positioning software for mobile phones and mobile phones with GPS to map and take images of illegal garbage dumps across the country।

"The aim is not just to clean the fields and forest from the enormous amount of garbage but we also wish to kind of clean the brains of those people who have left that garbage in nature," Tiina Urm, a spokeswoman for the cleanup campaign told AFP।

The innovative software also brings the massive garbage collection campaign virtually into living rooms where Estonians can follow its real-time progress, organisers said।

Dubbed "Teeme Ara 2008", the campaign covers all 45,227 square kilometers of Estonia that won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and has since developed a major IT industry।

source=http://afp.google.com/

Philippines to Emerge as a Major SaaS Hub

“By 2010, over 30 percent of global software revenue will be driven by SaaS (software as a service) enterprise applications,” according to Winston Damarillo, executive chairman of Morph Labs, Inc।, “and the Philippines will emerge as a major SaaS innovation hub for the industry,” with many developers using tools and services provided by Morph Labs for rapid, cost-effect development of SaaS applications.

Manila, Philippines (OPENPRESS) May 5, 2008 -- Morph Labs is a Philippine-based SaaS product and service developer and a leading enabler of SaaS web application development by third-party independent software vendors (ISVs)। Its Morph AppSpace service, the first Platform as a Service (PaaS) for Ruby on Rails — a popular open source programming framework — allows developers to quickly deploy applications into an enterprise quality on-demand environment.

A recent Gartner Research reports supports Damarillo’s projection। According to Gartner, one third of spending on business application software will be through subscriptions by 2010, up from just five percent in 2005. Gartner also projects that 84 percent of small and mid-size companies and 69 percent of large companies are willing to consider, are currently reviewing or are already using SaaS applications.

Damarillo believes the Philippines will become an important supplier of SaaS applications globally, and his company is providing products and services to help ISVs develop their own SaaS applications। “Morph Labs enables ISVs and entrepreneurs to enter the global SaaS marketplace and compete without making huge investments in technology capabilities,” said David Abramowski, chief executive of Morph Labs.

“And with the Internet as the distribution channel, there is plenty of opportunity for grassroots marketing that’s only provided in the Web 2।0 world. Our tools and Internet distribution present great opportunity for Philippine startups,” he said. “Given the Philippines’ capabilities and global reputation for software development, we are confident that this country will be among the major hubs of the global SaaS industry,” Abramowski said.

Damarillo said that cost benefits are the most obvious advantage of SaaS applications over traditional software, but that this end user advantage puts tremendous pressure on SaaS developers. “The challenge for a technology innovator is overcoming the time and cost to establish a reliable technology platform to deploy, deliver and manage new business applications,” said Damarillo. “By reducing the cost of infrastructure and making it more affordable for ISVs, Morph Labs is enabling an increase in global supply of SaaS applications.

“And that increase in supply means more options for clients and end users, which generates increased demand as SaaS applications become mainstream,” he said. “Our vision is to simplify innovation.” Abramowski said. “Morph Labs will continue to introduce applications and services that will help entrepreneurs and ISVs in streamlining development and deployment.”


Morph Labs itself provides a suite of software applications called Morph AppSuite that can be used by ISVs to build applications, or directly by end users। SaaS applications developed or under development at Morph Labs include human resources management, expense management, and customer relationship management solutions. Since launching services in January this year, Morph Labs has signed up nearly 300 Morph AppSpace subscribers.

A service used by third-party developers for the development of help and training sites, Morph helpME, is being leveraged for the development of over 200 sites. An online community for developers and their clients, Morph eXchange — through which subscribers access Morph AppSpace — has nearly 1,000 direct subscribers who regularly access both free and for-fee SaaS subscriptions, he said.


Damarillo is often referred to as a successful serial technology entrepreneur, having founded a number of internationally successful startups. He is also managing director of Global Gateway Venture Capital, which funds global-facing Asian start-ups. His career as a venture capitalist began with Intel Capital, where he was one of the top performing professionals.


About Morph Labs
Morph Labs (http://www।mor.ph) is the leading enabler of Software as a Service (SaaS) that leverages virtual infrastructure and open source technologies to simplify the deployment, delivery, and management of web based applications.

Morph Labs uses virtual infrastructures including Amazon Web Services to provide a truly elastic environment for web applications that can be instantly provisioned and seamlessly scaled।

Morph Labs is a global company with headquarters in Cebu City, Philippines with additional in-country operations in Manila along with Los Angeles, California and Austin, Texas in the U।S.A.

source=http://www.theopenpress.com/

MS looks to increase installed base of licensed

Kolkata: Microsoft Corporation is contemplating the rollout of a “subscription-based software model” with a view to facilitating an increase in the installed base of licensed software, according to Deepak Maheshwari, Director, Legal and Corporate Affairs, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt Ltd.

Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Information Security’ organised here on Friday by the Confederation of Indian Industry (Eastern Region), Maheshwari said the number of people who pay for the software they use was very low.

More India business stories
The unit cost of software can come down only if the number of people paying for it goes up. To facilitate an increase in the installed base of software that is paid for, Microsoft was toying with the idea of unveiling a subscription-based software model।

Maheshwari, however, could not throw any light on when the initiative would be rolled out and if it would be launched on a global basis।

Speakers at the seminar said information security and its management were critical issues not only to business and the industry but also to the society at large. Cyber crimes, it is also believed, threaten the core infrastructure that supports critical business activities।

Dr। Debesh Das, West Bengal’s Minister for Information Technology, stressed upon the importance of information security and its varied implications. He said the day was not far when there would be security agencies to protect our IT infrastructure just as we have security agencies to guard our homes, offices and vital installations. Academic institutions should incorporate courses on IT security in their curriculum, he said.

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Vikram Tiwathia, Chief Information Officer of CII, said, as hardware costs go down, the industry needs to address the issue of software costs appropriately।

source = http://sify.com/