software

Senate Legislation Targets Cyberstalking Software

The Senate Judiciary Committee was expected Thursday to approve legislation that would close a legal loophole that allows so-called cyberstalking apps to operate secretly on a cellphone and transmit the user's location information without a person's knowledge.

Accenture Sees Room for Growth in Insurance

Shares of technology outsourcing and consulting giant Accenture have been on a tear lately, with the company bulking up its insurance offerings. Trefis thinks Accenture's acquisition of Duck Creek Technologies could give it a boost, but maintains its price estimate for now.

IBM Capitalizes on a Need to Make Cities Smarter

Last week, IBM announced its Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities, aimed at providing in one easy package a software platform for cities to use in monitoring and managing city resources. Trefis sees this as a potentially huge boost IBM's lucrative middleware business.

SAP Knows: You Spend Money to Make Money

SAP showed healthy revenue growth in its recently announced first quarter earnings, but operating profits increased by far less. Why? Because the company is putting more money into operating expenses and R&D, which sets it up for bigger profits in the longer term.

Can U.S. Services Growth Outweigh High Oil Prices?

The U.S. services sector is growing strong, providing additional evidence that the U.S. economy is recovering and might not need more stimulus funding. But that's contingent upon oil staying below $120 per barrel.

Bill Gates Sells 90 Million Microsoft Shares

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has cut his stake in the world's largest software maker -- which he co-founded -- by 13% over the past year, InformationWeek reported. In the last five years, the company has delivered far lower returns than Apple or Oracle.

European Commission Approves Intel Acquisition of McAfee

The European Commission on Wednesday approved Intel's $7.68 billion acquisition of security-software company McAfee. Regulators had been concerned that the deal would exclude competing software from working with Intel processors, but Intel agreed to maintain interoperability.

Gartner: IT Spending will Grow 5.1% in 2011

The outlook for IT spending this year is looking up. Research firm Gartner said Thursday it expects revenue to grow 5.1% from 2010, an increase from a previous forecast of 3.5% growth.

Oracle Earnings Jump 28% as Tech Spending Rises

Oracle, one of the world's biggest software companies, on Thursday posted fiscal second-quarter earnings that grew 28% year over year. It's the latest sign that companies are spending more on technology.

Cloud Computing Is Growing Up, and VCs Are Feeding It

On-demand-software giant Salesforce.com just acquired a cloud software startup called Heroku for $212 million in cash. That's par for the course these days as cloud computing goes from buzzword to reality. And venture capitalists are flocking to put money into the next Heroku.

Attachmate Buys Software Firm Novell for $2.2 Billion

Software and computing services company Novell will sell itself to Attachmate for about $2.2 billion. The $6.10 per share price represents a premium of 28% to Novell's closing price on March 2, a day prior to the public disclosure of Elliott Associates' proposal to acquire Novell for $5.75 per share.

Oracle's Patent War with Google Could Backfire

A few months ago, Oracle rocked the Internet world by suing Google for patent infringement based on the Android mobile operating system's use of Java. Now, Google has laid out its defenses, and its countersuit might well invalidate Oracle's Java patents altogether.