Technology Industry Archive

It seems like only yesterday that I was writing about the danger of antitrust actions in high tech. In fact, it was, and at the time I mentioned the speculation that Intel would face a walloping antitrust fine from the EU today. And so it does: €1.06 billion, or about $1.44 billion. When you read the statement from the body, you start to understand the perception of predatory monopolistic...

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I understand why my colleague Michael Hickins thinks that Microsoft’s plans for issuing $3.75 billion in bonds would be an acquisition. But I’m going to take another side of the argument — that Microsoft’s goals are more limited and more openly stated. First, $3.75 billion, while a boat load of money, isn’t that much when it comes to acquisitions of any size,...

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Microsoft is raising $3.75 billion through a bond offering that should be candy to Wall Street. Moody’s Investor Services rates the bonds AAA because of “the company’s position as the world’s largest software company with a strong and defensible market position throughout its diverse core offerings.” That’s for anyone who still listens to Moody’s. Lest...

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To traditional corporate views, say on pay — or the ability for shareholders to have a direct say on executive compensation — is anathema. But shareholder initiatives are coming up in an increasing number of annual meetings at tech companies, and chances are that more than one will ultimately end up joining Apple in having stockholders closely reviewing top management pay. What...

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I noted in an earlier post that software vendors like SAP and Oracle have been abusing customers through various means just short of legal extortion. Customers have complained about vendors forcing them to purchase applications they don’t need just to meet artificial and internal quotas, and to pay ever-rising maintenance fees. Well, the vendors have begun to address those issues…...

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No one likes to be a target of government investigation. But given the Obama administration’s stated interests, and the modus operandi of the high tech industry, there could be a clash that will have corporations and executives hiring lawyers for antitrust defense. The Department of Justice yesterday issued a notice that it was withdrawing a previous policy of dealing, or not dealing,...

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By releasing a new service pack for Office that includes support for the open document format (ODF), Microsoft appears to be complying with European demands that it play well with others, while putting to rest accusations by IBM that it is still trying to maintain a monopoly over document formats. But forgive IBM for failing to cheer an apparent victory in its long-running document format war...

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One of the big levers, both in profit and power, which Apple has had with the iPhone has been the ability to control the sale of apps. Companies that didn’t toe the line could always be cut-off, and Apple would get a cut of app sales. But this morning, Amazon announced something that has effectively illustrates a way to walk around Apple and begin encourage more direct sales relationships...

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Search is the main way people navigate the Web these days, but video remains an exception. Video sites like market leader YouTube and its fast-charging rival, NBC Universal-owned Hulu, get the lion’s share of their video traffic by getting customers to go directly to their sites, in contrast to most content providers, who attract customers through search (primarily Google, of course)....

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A look at highlights of the past week in the high tech legal world: courts, regulation, and lawsuits. And a busy week it has been. Sun may have broken bribery laws — In a regulatory filing, Sun Microsystems said that it found “potential violations” of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and said that it took “remedial action.” The FCPA is encompassing and a violation...

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