Last week it was announced that Telefonica bought the managed services business of bankrupt network integrator 2e2, taking in roughly 100 staff.  The two companies had previously run a joint venture – O2 Unify – which offered network access, kit and related services under a single ICT services model. While the acquisition may have more relevance for the UK, the [...]

It is now official that, as widely expected, Michael Dell in tandem with Microsoft and private equity firm Silver Lake intends to take his eponymous company private, almost 25 years after its IPO. The $24.4 billion buyout would be financed with Michael Dell’s cash and equity, cash from Silver Lake, and a $2 billion credit line from Microsoft. Four major [...]

Microsoft reported its first loss in its 26-year history during the June 2012 quarter (owing to the write down of the online ad business), and its performance for the first quarter of fiscal 2013 has been less than spectacular. The markets reacted with disappointment to Microsoft’s latest earnings announcement this week, and PAC believes that apart from the ongoing adverse [...]

The monsoon may be playing hide and seek this season in India, but the Indian IT Industry is feeling the presence of clouds everywhere. SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft have come forward in unison to say that cloud services are getting hotter in India…

With two major announcements, Microsoft has made it clear that it will no longer play wait-and-see in the mobile space. Firstly, it has unveiled its own tablet; secondly, the vendor has disclosed details of generation 8 of its mobile operating system. However, with Surface, Microsoft probably not just wants to provide another tablet, but intends to demonstrate the technological possibilities [...]

As we previewed in our blog post last week, SAP made a series of announcements this week in support of its stated goal to become a leading database provider by 2015. As expected, they centred on its internally developed HANA technology, and heavily leverage its Sybase acquisition, now folded into the mother ship. In the words of Steve Lucas, SAP [...]

Microsoft today began its launch of SQL Server 2012, with release to manufacturing tomorrow and GA beginning on April 1. While not quite up there with Windows 8, which is heading towards GA later this year, SQL Server is a strategically important product for the company (and many of its clients). Key aspects of the new release are improved mission [...]

The news is spreading fast. Surprising the markets, Google just announced that it will buy Motorola Mobility (Motorola’s smartphone division) in a cash transaction valued at about USD12.5 billion. Evidently, despite the failure of the earlier Nexus One ‘experiment,’ Google still feels that to fully compete with Apple and also Microsoft-Nokia, it needs phones and tablets in its own portfolio. [...]

The acquisition of Skype Microsoft primarily aims at strengthening its position in the consumer market. In the age of ‘consumerization’ any IT company that wants to be successful in the enterprise markets also needs to address private customers.

The use of tablets, notably the iconic iPad, is catching up fast not only in the personal spheres but also within the corporate environment. In a recent PAC trend study, commissioned by Microsoft, about one fifth of the 151 interviewed companies said that they are already using tablets for business and the majority is using the iPad. That figure might [...]