Sybase closes energy deal in China

Enterprise software maker Sybase has signed a multimillion-dollar deal with China Petroleum and Chemical (Sinopec), a major producer and supplier of oil and petrochemical products. As part of the contract, Sybase's SQL Anywhere Studio will be used to power a new point-of-sale application at 30,000-odd gas stations across China, the company said in a statement.

Among other features, the new application will automate the collection of sales data and enable electronic payment processing, Sybase said. Sinopec also purchased Sybase's Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.5 and PowerBuilder for database management and application development.