Corporate and legal

Cisco Systems is picking up another data center start-up as it makes a push to diversify its business.

On Thursday the company announced that it plans to buy privately held Tidal Software for $150 million in cash. Tidal, located right in Cisco's back yard in San Jose, Calif., develops management software that automates business processes.

Specifically, the company automates routine tasks that often span multiple servers and operate independently. Traditionally, IT managers have had to manually schedule jobs that these servers undertake, which costs time and money. Tidal's software helps streamline this process.

Tidal counts Citibank and Microsoft … Read more

Regulators in Germany slapped Microsoft's local subsidiary with a fine of 9 million euros ($11.8 million) for improperly influencing pricing of Office during a retail promotion.

"Microsoft has influenced the resale price of the software package--Office Home & Student 2007--in an anticompetitive manner," Germany's Bundeskartellamt said in an English-language version of its press release.

The agency said that Microsoft unduly influenced pricing of Office Home and Student 2007 at a particular retailer as part of a fall 2008 promotion with office supply stores, which included financial support from Microsoft.

"Even before the launch of … Read more

Update 2:58 p.m. PDT: This story has been updated with information about what caused the massive phone and Internet outage in Silicon Valley on Thursday. Comments from Sprint Nextel have also been added.

Vandals are to blame for the massive phone and Internet outage in Silicon Valley on Thursday, an AT&T representative has confirmed.

A story published by the San Francisco Chronicle and carried on SFGate.com first reported that police confirmed the phone and Internet outage that has left thousands of customers in the San Jose, Calif., area without phone or broadband Internet service was … Read more

Microsoft was hit Wednesday with a $388 million verdict in a long-running patent infringement case.

In the suit, Uniloc alleged that Microsoft used its patented technology as part of the software giant's product activation methods. A federal jury in Rhode Island found that Windows XP, Office XP, and Windows Server 2003 infringed on a Uniloc patent.

Microsoft said that it will appeal.

"We are very disappointed in the jury verdict," Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said in an e-mail. "We believe that we do not infringe, that the patent is invalid and that this award of damages … Read more

Well, I have a little more information on what Marc Tremblay will be doing once he starts at Microsoft.

In addition to assuming the title "distinguished engineer," Tremblay will be part of a "Strategic Software/Silicon Architectures group." The unit is headed by KD Hallman and is part of the research and strategy organization headed by Craig Mundie.

"Marc will help oversee cross-company technical task forces and strategic direction for the company's software and semiconductor technologies," Microsoft said in a statement.

From what I could glean, the SiArch group, as it is dubbed … Read more

Cable operator Cox Communications is getting closer to launching its new cell phone service. And The Wall Street Journal has picked up a few more tidbits of detail about what the company has in store for the new service.

Cox has been dreaming of wireless for a long time. It had been involved in a joint venture with Comcast, Time Warner, and other cable companies to build a new wireless company. The plan was to use Sprint Nextel's network to provide the service. But in fewer than three years, the companies squabbled over marketing and technical issues, and they … Read more

Taking a break from hiring people at Yahoo, Microsoft has scooped up a top chip executive from Sun Microsystems.

Marc Tremblay, a Sun fellow and chief technology officer for its chip unit, is joining Microsoft as a "distinguished engineer," Microsoft confirmed on Wednesday. Tremblay, an 18-year Sun veteran, was one of the main architects for Sun's Sparc line of chips. I'm working on getting more details on what Tremblay will be doing in his new role at Microsoft.

Meanwhile, Sun said Tremblay's role would be filled by Rick Hetherington, who has served as co-CTO for … Read more

Acer executives said that Google's Android still has a long way to go before it can be used as the operating system for the hot new category of laptops known as Netbooks. And the CEO of the Taiwanese company hinted that its Netbooks may soon end up on Verizon Wireless' network.

At a press event Tuesday night to launch the company's new line of consumer and business computers, Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci and Jim Wong head of Acer's IT products business line, told reporters that the company plans to use Google's Android operating system on its … Read more

The Australian government has terminated the National Broadband Network tender process with no winner, instead flagging plans to invest billions of dollars in building its own fiber-to-the-home network to 90 percent of Australians over the next eight years.

Citing "deterioration of the economy," Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Treasurer Wayne Swan, along with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, said at a Canberra press conference on Tuesday morning that the government had not found any of the NBN bids, by players such as Acacia, Optus, Axia Netmedia, satisfactory.

Instead of accepting an NBN bid, Rudd said, the federal government would … Read more