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654 days ago
Bidding stalled on Tuesday in the closely watched auction of a piece of wireless airwaves that the U.S. government is selling, according to data released by the Federal Communications Commission. There were no new offers for the nationwide "C" block slice of wireless spectrum to top previous high bids totaling $4.74 billion. Tuesday's pause prompted speculation that bidding for the C block spectrum may have run its course, and that the most likely possible winner could be either Verizon Wireless or Internet search leader Google. Bidders' identities are kept secret until the entire auction ends, under FCC rules. The end won't come until bidding has stopped on all five blocks of spectrum up for sale in the auction, which will probably take at least another week or two. The $4.74 billion in bids for eight regional pieces of the C block on Monday surpassed a $4.71 billion offer made last Thursday for a nationwide package of the spectrum. Stifel Nicolaus analyst ...
654 days ago
Cisco told investors on Wednesday exactly what they didn't want to hear: that growth slowed dramatically in January and may not rebound for several months. The assessment from CEO John Chambers on the company's conference call sent Cisco's shares skidding by 7% in after-hours trading to a new 52-week low. Cisco's sales for the quarter that ended in January rose 16.5% to $9.83 billion, just ahead of Wall Street estimates, while pro forma earnings of 38 cents a share, or $2.4 billion, met the Thomson Financial consensus estimate. But Chambers said sales growth slowed to less than 10% last month, and while he said that may be an "aberration," he said it was prudent to assume that the "extremely challenging" environment "may continue for the next several months," so the company lowered its sales growth forecast to 10%. Wall Street analysts were looking for 15% growth in the current quarter. "We are seeing our U.S. and European customers ...
654 days ago
NEW YORK -- With the $5 billion acquisition of business intelligence provider Cognos formally concluded last Thursday, IBM wasted no time unveiling a slew of new products and its plan for integrating the company into its information-on-demand (IOD) strategy. Addressing analysts and press in the rooftop suite of the St. Regis Hotel here in Midtown Manhattan, Steve Mills, IBM's software group executive, heralded Cognos as the culmination of two years of acquisitions and initiatives to improve how companies store, organize, retrieve and visualize data. "The Cognos acquisition completes %26#91;an%26#93; end-to-end set of capabilities IBM can offer," Mills said, adding quickly that IBM would continue its aggressive pursuit of the business-optimization market. "It's not just the roadmap we've been on -- it's the roadmap going forward." Ottowa-based Cognos's visualization and reporting applications will put a face on IBM's IOD initiative, begun almost exactly two ...
657 days ago
Microsoft announced this week it has released both Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008 to manufacturing %26#150; the final stage before a product actually gets into users' hands. In the case of SP1, at least, there is one catch. If you're waiting on the edge of your seat, you still have a while to sit on your hands -- until mid-March. Meanwhile, Windows Server 2008 %26#150; Vista's server counterpart -- has also been released to manufacturing (RTM) and will be available for purchase to new customers starting March 1, the company said in a statement. Volume licensing customers with Software Assurance or Enterprise Agreements can download the server near the end of February. "Vista SP1 is something all of our customers on the business side have been waiting for %26#91;so%26#93; we can now ring the SP1 bell," CEO Steve Ballmer said during a meeting with financial analysts Monday morning that was Web cast. Ballmer was referring to enterprise ...
658 days ago
Google today reduced pricing significantly for its line of on-demand security software as it continues to fine-tune the software applications it acquired last year when it bought Postini. "What was once a convoluted and complex product line is now three nice chunks of applications at an aggressive price," Scott Petry, founder of Postini and product management director at Google, told InternetNews.com. "Before we would try and get more dollars for every feature," he explained, "but now that we're part of Google there's a great democratization of the product line that lets us reach a huge market." The three areas Google offers are in security and compliance services: Google Message Filtering, Message Security and Message Discovery. Filtering, which covers incoming spam, malware and other e-mail threats, is available for $3 per user per year. According to Petry, the volume of spam doubled last year. "If you're an administrator, do ...
