Lots of big tech players go shopping, while Intel closes antitrust deal. Also: Windows 7 inspired by Mac OS?
Steven MusilNight Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
ExpertiseI have more than 30 years' experience in journalism in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
In a bit of a Thanksgiving appetizer, many companies were beefing up their structures by--as one of my colleagues put it--gobbling up other companies.
The biggest deal was announced by Hewlett-Packard, which plans to acquire 3Com, maker of network switching and routing products. The deal is valued at $2.7 billion, or $7.90 per share. HP says the purchase is intended to boost its networking business, particularly in China, where most of 3Com's business is focused.
The 3Com deal is the most recent in a string of enterprise-related acquisitions HP has made in the past year, including most recently file serving software maker Ibrix. HP wants to be a leader in providing customers with an integrated stack of computing technology ranging from servers and storage at the foundation all the way up to services.
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Mobile advertising is AdMob's specialty, and the deal gives Google a technology inroad into a fast-growing segment of online advertising.
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A Unix co-creator is among those behind a language Google hopes will speed computers and programming. Today, Go becomes open-source software.
Google hopes Go will give a browser boost
Following comments from a U.K. Microsoft executive that Windows 7 was designed to create "a Mac Look," a company blog post distances itself from his words.
Microsoft exec: Mac OS inspired Windows 7
With more renewable energy projects trying to come online, the country grapples with the balance between local land use and a national push for clean energy.
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