software

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.

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.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison testified that rival SAP owes his company $4 billion for stealing intellectual property. SAP has admitted that its now-defunct subsidiary, TomorrowNow, stole customer-support documents from Oracle -- but contends that it only owes about $40 million.

German software company SAP has agreed to pay its larger competitor, Oracle, $120 million to partially settle allegations of intellectual-property theft. But it's only the first part of the settlement; you can expect more to come.

When you're a new Web company, it's not easy to land customers. That's why many startups use a strategy called "enterprise freemium" that gives potential clients the opportunity to try before they buy. Here's how it's done.

Jury selection for a major copyright case involving Oracle and its smaller competitor SAP started in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, marking the beginning of a trial between the two software rivals that's been more than two years in the making

Microsoft's fiscal first-quarter earnings jumped 51% as the world's largest software maker boosted sales of its Office 2010 product and grabbed share in the videogame-console market. Microsoft shares jumped on the news.

Shares of SAP fell Wedneday after the German software company's third-quarter profit grew less than analysts had expected. Sales beat Wall Street expectations, growing 20% year over year, but net income rose only 12% on lower margins.

In a trial that starts Monday, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison says he intends to prove that incoming Hewlett-Packard chief executive Leo Apotheker stole ideas from Oracle in his previous position as head of European competitor SAP.

Gemalto NV, a Dutch maker of security software, sued Google (GOOG), saying that the Android smartphone operating system used its software without permission. The complaint accuses Google of improperly including Gemalto's Java Card technology in the Android development platform, Bloomberg News...