Stories by Chris Kanaracus

Microsoft-Yahoo deal: What about developers?

While observers believe that Microsoft is willing to pay Yahoo US$44 billion primarily for its users and advertising base, Microsoft's chief software architect, Ray Ozzie, wants to grow its developer community as well.

HP releases open-source licence tracker

Hewlett-Packard has launched the FOSSology Project, a tool for tracking and monitoring the use of free and open-source software within an IT environment.

SOA buy for IBM

IBM is expanding its broad SOA portfolio with the acquisition of AptSoft, a maker of business event processing software.

Oracle buys again

Its BEA purchase may have grabbed the headlines, but Oracle's string of niche acquisitions continues with the purchase of Captovation, a document-capture vendor Captovation.

Cognos upgrade

Cognos has released the latest version of its business intelligence platform, in what will liklely be the last update before the company's sale to IBM becomes final.

Domino, Lotus roadmap revealed

The next version of Lotus Notes and Domino will ship in February and will feature an array of updates, including a new Web 2.0-style feature called My Widgets, IBM said yesterday during its Lotusphere show in Orlando, Florida.

Oracle to buy BEA Systems for US$8.5 billion

Oracle has agreed to buy BEA Systems for about US$8.5 billion, or $19.375 per share, the companies announced.
BEA's board of directors turned down an initial offer from Oracle of $17 per BEA share in October, saying it "significantly undervalues BEA." Oracle in turn dismissed the BEA board's counteroffer of $21 per share as "impossibly high."

NetBooks aims at 'S' of SMB

If the success of NetSuite's IPO this week was any indication, the market for on-demand ERP (enterprise resource planning) software is red-hot. Startup NetBooks hopes to capitalize on that.

SugarCRM offers biggest upgrade yet

SugarCRM has released the 5.0 version of its open-source customer relationship management software following a long period of development and testing.

Filing reveals that Cognos went to IBM first

Cognos executives first approached IBM in the months leading up to IBM's pending US$5 billion deal to buy the company, not the other way around, according to a document Cognos submitted Friday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sun to dangle prize money over open source efforts

Sun Microsystems on Wednesday will release details of a new award program meant to spur growth and activity within the company's open-source efforts, according to a post by Sun's open-source officer, Simon Phipps, on his corporate blog.

Cloudsmith service pushes 'virtual distros'

A new company, Cloudsmith, has created a Web-based service meant to let developers access and exchange "virtual distros," or custom configurations, of open-source software.

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