SANTA CLARA, Calif. April 20, 2009 Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire Sun common stock for $9.50 per share in cash. The transaction is valued at approximately $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of Sun's cash and debt. "We expect this acquisition to be accretive to Oracle's earnings by at least 15 cents on a non-GAAP basis in the first full year after closing. We estimate that the acquired business will contribute over $1.5 billion to Oracle's non-GAAP operating profit in the first year, increasing to over $2 billion in the second year. This would make the Sun acquisition more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined," said Oracle President Safra Catz. "The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems," said Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system - applications to disk - where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up." There are substantial long-term strategic customer advantages to Oracle owning two key Sun software assets: Java and Solaris. Java is one of the computer industry's best-known brands and most widely deployed technologies, and it is the most important software Oracle has ever acquired. Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle's fastest growing business, is built on top of Sun's Java language and software. Oracle can now ensure continued innovation and investment in Java technology for the benefit of customers and the Java community. The Sun Solaris operating system is the leading platform for the Oracle database, Oracle's largest business,
SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available. There is a number of versions available from the following page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=66ab3dbb-bf3e-4f46-9559-ccc6a4f9dc19
REDMOND, Wash. — April 1, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. has expanded its industry-leading Windows Server family of operating systems with the addition of Windows Server 2008 Foundation. Built for small businesses with 15 or fewer users, Windows Server 2008 Foundation puts the reliability, security and manageability of the Windows Server platform within the reach of all businesses at an affordable price. Windows Server 2008 Foundation is initially available in 40 countries and will provide small business customers with the ability to run business applications and databases, host Web sites, and provide basic server functionality such as file and print sharing and remote access. Microsoft is committed to empowering small businesses around the world with the technology and resources they need to drive innovation and get the most out of their investments quickly and cost-effectively. This commitment and opportunity were reiterated by Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer. "Today we are launching a new server-based solution with the right technologies at the right price to give small businesses access to the power of server-based business software," Ballmer said. "Small businesses around the world have big business dreams and needs. To support their success I am also pleased to announce that we will donate a portion of the revenues of Windows Server 2008 Foundation to TechSoup.org and Telecentre.org, two organizations that focus on bringing the power of technology to nonprofits around the world. We see this as an opportunity not only to deliver a technical foundation for business growth but also to create a financial foundation for community." Microsoft's goal is to provide a Windows Server-based solution for every customer need, size and budget. Windows Server 2008 Foundation delivers server functionality that customers have come to expect from Microsoft in a familiar Windows environment. As the business grows, customers can upgrade to other members of the Windows Server family, which
PALO ALTO, Calif., March 16, 2009 - HP today announced the new, entry-level HP Integrity NonStop NS2000 server family, which delivers high performance and fault-tolerance at the lowest cost available for a multi-core Integrity NonStop system. The NS2000 is ideal for small and midsized organizations in the healthcare, financial services and telecommunications industries, as well as customers in emerging markets. It allows organizations to cost-effectively meet the high availability and scalability of their business. Designed with the full benefits of HP NonStop technology, the NS2000 family paves the way for future growth without the worry of application compatibility. "There is a large segment of smaller enterprise customers that tends to be priced out of the market for high-end, fault-tolerant servers," said Jim Johnson, chief executive officer of the research company Standish Group. "For those customers, the NS2000 server offers significant value and additional choice for application availability and fault tolerance." The new rack-mounted NS2000 servers are simple to manage and fully leverage the power of Intel® Itanium® multi-core processors to deliver: Double the performance capacity of previous NonStop entry-class systems. 24/7 data availability and real-time access to critical business applications. A cost-effective development and test platform for HP Integrity NonStop BladeSystem customers. The NS2000 closely matches their production environments with a common software and I/O infrastructure. A target migration platform for current HP Integrity NonStop S-series customers. The NS2000 runs the same applications, offering complete investment protection by extending existing solution capabilities. "Customers with limited IT resources are looking for cost-effective solutions that quickly and easily deliver the fault-tolerant capabilities they need to minimize risk of downtime," said Winston Prather, general manager, NonStop, HP. "The NS2000 Integrity family deliv
SAN JOSE Calif. - March 16, 2009 - Cisco today unveiled an evolutionary new data center architecture, innovative services and an open ecosystem of best in class partners to help customers develop next-generation data centers that unleash the full power of virtualization. With today's announcement, Cisco is delivering on the promise of virtualization through Unified Computing - an architecture that bridges the silos in the data center into one unified architecture using industry standard technologies. Key to Cisco's approach is the Cisco Unified Computing System which unites compute, network, storage access, and virtualization resources in a single energy efficient system that can reduce IT infrastructure costs and complexity, help extend capital assets and improve business agility well into the future. Today's announcements extend Cisco's data center portfolio and are a critical step in the company's Data Center 3.0 strategy. To help customers accelerate the transition to the Unified Computing architecture, Cisco is paving the way with a comprehensive suite of new Unified Computing services. In addition, Cisco today announced collaboration with industry leaders on the Unified Computing System and architecture. The Cisco Unified Computing System: Based on industry standards, the Unified Computing System is a new computing model that uses integrated management and combines a "wire once" unified fabric with an industry standard computing platform to optimize virtualization, reduce data center total overall cost, and provide dynamic resource provisioning for increased business agility. Reduces total cost of ownership: up to 20 percent reduction in capital expenditures (CAPEX) and up to 30% reduction in operational expenditures (OPEX). Improves IT productivity and improves business agility: provision applications in minutes instead of days. Shifts the focus from IT maintenance to IT innovation Increases scalability without added complexity: managed as a single system, wh