Cynthia Harvey

Enterprise software vendor SAP has bought Switzerland-based Hybris AG, an e-commerce software developer. The purchase may help SAP compete more effectively against Salesforce.com. The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Hickins reported, “SAP AG said Wednesday it is acquiring Hybris, the Zug, Switzerland-based vendor of e-commerce technology used by companies that run consumer-facing websites. The companies did […]

The Dell committee tasked with evaluating competing offers for the company has put together a presentation that supports founder Michael Dell’s privatization plan over investor Carl Icahn’s recapitalization plan. It says the Icahn plan is $3.9 billion short of the necessary cash and that it doesn’t solve the problems facing the PC maker. Michael J. […]

Apple has previously won most of the battles in its ongoing patent war with Samsung, but Samsung chalked up a big win this week when the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that some iPhones and iPads infringe on Samsung’s standards-essential patents. The ITC has now banned import of those devices. PCMag’s Chloe Albanesius reported, “The […]

A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has found for the first time that more than half of American adults now own a smartphone. Prices for smartphones continue to drop, putting them within the reach of more buyers. Suzanne Choney with NBC News reported, “More than half — 56 percent — […]

Microsoft has released a video of Windows 8.1 in action. The company is working hard to convince businesses to switch to Windows 8 as the end of support deadline for Windows XP draws ever nearer. CNET’s Lance Whitney reported, “Microsoft is offering people a peek at Windows 8.1 in action courtesy of a new video. […]

President Obama is taking aim at patent trolls with a series of executive actions and calls for Congress to pass legislation. Many technology firms, having been sued repeatedly by patent-holding companies, support the actions. The Wall Street Journal’s Jared A. Favole and Brent Kendall reported, “The White House on Tuesday announced a set of executive […]

At the Computex 2013 event in Taipei, Intel debuted its lineup of fourth-generation Core processors, codenamed Haswell. The new chips offer very low energy consumption and will likely be used in many tablets and hybrid devices. The Register’s Phil Muncaster reported, “As expected, Intel today took centre stage on the first day of Computex proper […]

The May data from NetApplications shows that Windows 8 use is growing, but very slowly. Will the release of Windows 8.1 be able to turn things around for Microsoft? InformationWeek’s Michael Endler reported, “Interest in [Windows 8] — never great to begin with — has evidently begun to flag. As measured by the 160 million […]

SalesForce.com has announced its plans to purchase ExactTarget, a firm that sells social marketing software. The deal will be worth about $2.5 billion, making it Salesforce’s largest acquisition to date. Bloomberg’s Aaron Ricadela and Scott Moritz reported, “Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM), the largest maker of online customer-management software, agreed to buy ExactTarget Inc. (ET) for about […]

The world’s fastest supercomputer race is heating up again, with China reportedly working on a behemoth that will perform 54.9 petaFLOPS. Over the weekend, Dr. Jack Dongarra from Oak Ridge National Lab made public a draft report that provides some details about the system, called the Tianhe-2. (Tianhe is Chinese for “Milky Way.”) Computerworld’s Patrick […]