In a tumultuous week on the market, the attention of IT investors was captured by a mixed bag of acquisition activity and earnings news from the hardware and chip arena -- a sector that is supposed to help lead tech out of the recession.
As industry insiders attempt to gauge the impact of economic recovery on IT, acquisitions and legal deals among vendors including Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Hewlett-Packard, 3Com and Logitech are sparking investor interest by altering the shape of the tech market.
Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Thursday announced that they have settled all antitrust litigation and patent cross-license disputes between the companies.
Good news about the economy along with upbeat statements from industry leaders and market researchers are helping to instill confidence in the tech sector after a rollercoaster ride on U.S. exchanges over the past few weeks.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took the stage in New York Thursday, playing the role of chief salesman in a day of worldwide launch events, executive speechmaking and sales promotions meant to persuade consumers and businesses to migrate to Windows 7.
With quarterly IT sales results pouring in, vendors including IBM, Google, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel appear more confident than ever that the global recession's depressing effects on the tech market are lifting.
Aiming to expand its mobile Internet offerings, Cisco Systems will acquire Starent Networks for US$2.9 billion, the companies announced Tuesday.
U.S. markets are taking a breather this week before a wave of earnings reports, with tech stocks lifting on positive macro-economic news.
Despite Google's phenomenal growth, the Internet search giant does not appear to be worried about taking on too many projects, judging from comments made at a media roundtable Wednesday with company cofounder Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt.
Macroeconomic concerns put pressure on stocks in all sectors this week, but acquisitions and financial news continued to stoke investor hopes for an imminent recovery from the recession for IT.