Posted 03/18/10 at 09:09:23 AM by Paul Lilly

Building a thin and light ultraportable notebook means making a few concessions, and in some cases, that includes removing the optical drive. Not so with Gateway's new EC series, the company's first ultraportable to sport an integrated DVD drive. Kicking off the new series is the 11.6-inch EC14D01h. 

"Customers understand how convenient it is to have a notebook PC that is portable enough to take nearly anywhere to stay connected and have fun -- and the new EC14D01h brings a new element of entertainment to customers with the ability to watch DVD movies, play games on CD and DVD and more," said Chris Chiang, product manager for Gateway Canada. "The integrated DVD drive in such a compact device will be a huge benefit for customers who want the flexibility to enjoy and share different movies, music, photos, and more stored on a DVD or CD."

Other hardware consists of an Intel Peniu. SU4100 ULV processor (1.3GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz frontside bus), integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, 4GB of DDR2-667 memory (upgradeable to 8GB), 320GB hard drive, memory card reader, Wi-Fi, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and S/PDIF, multi-gesture touchpad, 6-cell battery,a nd Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Gateway said it will begin shipping the EC14D01h later this month in Canada for 580 moose bucks ($574 USD). No word on when, or if, Gateway plans on shipping this one south of the border.

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Posted 02/16/10 at 07:35:41 AM by Paul Lilly

In a deal first announced in November 2009, the European Commission has notified HP that it will not stand in the way of the company's $2.7 billion bid to acquire 3Com.

"The Commission concluded that the concentration would be unlikely to riase competition concerns," the EC said in a statement, adding that "the merged company would continue to face a number of global and effective competitors, giving customers the choice from a range of alternative providers for switches and routers."

No conditions were attached to the approval, and HP said it expects to close the deal by the end of June. However, China's competition regulator, the Ministry of Commerce, or Mofcom, hasn't yet ruled on the takeover, though the deal doesn't pose much threat to competition in China.

Both companies build networking products and by adding 3Com to its portfolio, HP will increase its position in the core networking space, as well as increase its competition with Cisco Systems.

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Posted 01/21/10 at 11:20:07 AM by Paul Lilly

It's finally over, at least as far as the European Union is concerned. The big news in the IT industry today is that Oracle has officially been given the green light by EU regulators to proceed with its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

"I am now satisfied that competition and innovation will be preserved on all the markets concerned," said EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes, in a statement. "Oracle's acquisition of Sun has the potential to revitalize important assets and create new and innovative products."

It wasn't that long ago that EU regulators were singing a different tune. The major stumbling block had been Oracle's impending control of the free MySQL, which drew concern over what Oracle would do with the database software in light of selling its own database product. But those concerns were put to rest when Oracle agreed to a series of concessions, some of which included promising to pay $72 million over the next three years in R&D to improve MySQL, and extending MySQL's existing commercial licenses for up to five years.

"The Commission's in-depth investigation showed that although MySQL and Oracle compete in certain parts of the database market, they are not close competitors in others, such as the high-end segment," the EU said in a statement.

There's still work to be done, and before Oracle can pop the cork on the champagne bottles, it will need to convince regulators in Russia and China to jump on board. Protesters from the MySQL community recently turned their attention to these very markets in hopes of blocking the deal, but Oracle still says it expects "unconditional approval" to come soon.

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Posted 01/05/10 at 07:07:06 AM by Paul Lilly

MySQL developers from around the world are doing what they can to convince the European Union to rule against Oracle's proposed $7.4 billion takeover bid of Sun Microsystems. And therein lies the problem: there's not much the MySQL community can do at this point.

In a last ditch effort to block the deal, developers took to emailing regulators from not just the EC, but also Russia, China, and various other countries. In addition, they've put together a petition signed by 14,000 MySQL users, all protesting the acquisition.

"In less than one week, during the holiday season, we gathered 50 times more customer support than Oracle claimed three weeks ago, when it presented a few hundred orchestrated letters from customers to the European Commission," MySQL creator Michael Widenius said in a statement. "The campaign has only started, and the number of signatures will double very quickly."

The problem for Widenius, and everyone else who opposes the deal, is that time is quickly running out. Oracle made a series of concessions that has EU regulators ready to approve the deal, and according to eWeek's sources, it's going to happen within the month.

Nevertheless, Widenius promised to keep drumming up support for his campaign right up until the bitter end, which might not be that far off.

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Posted 12/21/09 at 07:03:54 AM by Paul Lilly

At this stage in the takeover game, there's little doubt Oracle will soon add Sun Microsystems to its portfolio, and according to Oracle, it's going to happen soon.

"We expect the European Commission to unconditionally clear the acquisition of Sun in January," said Oracle president Safra Catz yesterday, as the firm reported its second quarter results. "I want to thank all of our customers for the overwhelming support they have given us during this process."

Unconditionally? Only if ignoring the concessions Oracle made in order to get to this point. Just last week Oracle promised to preserve the viability of the free and open-source MySQL database application that it would acquire in the deal. More specifically, the company promised to extend MySQL's existing commercial licenses for up to five years, while also making binding guarantees not to pursue intellectual property claims against companies and individuals who already use MySQL. Oracle also agreed to spend upwards of $72 million over the course of the next three years in R&D to improve MySQL.

But if we can look past all those concessions, then sure, the EC will in all likelihood "unconditionally" approve the $7.4 billion acquisition.

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Posted 12/16/09 at 11:20:50 AM by Paul Lilly

Before Rudolph and company head for the skies next week, you may spot a flying pig or two gliding through the clouds. That's the sort of thing that tends to happen when the world turns topsy-turvy, as it seemingly has after the European Commission announced today that it has settled its remaining antitrust issues with Microsoft and is abandoning its case against the software giant.

The two sides have been in dispute for the better part of a decade, and as it turns out, all Microsoft had to do was agree to a legally binding commitment to start marketing rivals' browsers next to its own Internet Explorer.

"Millions of European consumers will benefit from this decision by having a free choice about which web browser they use," said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

A curious statement, considering European consumers have had that choice all along, as did anyone else who chose to run Windows. But regardless of Kroes' poor choice of wording, the issue at hand was the belief that Microsoft was stifling innovation by only including Internet Explorer in Windows, which gave the company a distribution advantage that didn't necessarily reflect a superior browser.

Under terms of the agreement, Microsoft will deliver a ballot screen consisting of its own Internet Explorer, Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome, Apple's Safari, and Opera Software's ASA browser for a five-year period. In addition, OEMs will be allowed to decide for themselves which browser to pre-install, and may turn IE off completely, if they so wish, the Commission said.

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Posted 12/15/09 at 06:38:13 AM by Paul Lilly

For a long while, things weren't looking too hot for Oracle in its planned $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. While the U.S. Department of Justice approved the deal, the European Union voiced serious displeasure over the idea of an Oracle-owned MySQL and threatened to block the deal.

That no longer looks to be the case. Now the European Commission is saying it feels "optimistic" that a deal between Oracle and Sun would no longer pose a threat to the European market for database software. So why the sudden about-face?

Oracle promised to preserve the viability of the free and open-source MySQL database application that it would acquire in the deal. According to a report in The New York Times, Oracle vowed to extend MySQL's existing commercial licenses for up to five years, while also making binding guarantees to companies and individuals that already use MySQL that it would not pursue intellectual property claims.

On top of it all, Oracle also said it would spend upwards of $72 million over the next three years in R&D to improve MySQL, negating any concerns that Oracle would turn a cold shoulder to the open-source database app in order to better sell its own paid software.

"Today's announcement by Oracle of a series of undertakings to customers, developers, and users of MySQL is an important new element to be taking into account in the ongoing proceedings," said Brussels' merger officials in a statement.

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Posted 12/01/09 at 07:09:51 AM by Paul Lilly

Oracle has been having a tough time convincing European Union regulators that its $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems is the best thing for all involved, but maybe things are about to change. Or at least that's what Oracle's hoping, once Neelie Kroes, the European Commission's Competition Commissioner for the past five years, finishes her term In January.

EC regulators are expected to make a decision on January 27, 2010 on whether or not a combined Oracle and Sun corporation will be allowed to conduct business in the 27 EU countries. By then, a new Competition Commissioner could be put in place, giving Oracle a fresh set of ears to plead its case.

That doesn't mean Oracle is out of the woods. According to eWeek, a "source close to the situation" says Kroes will still have some influence over the EC's decision. Even worse (for Oracle), eWeek says the sources they've been talking to say it's unlikely that the EU will change its stance, even with a new official put in place.

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