Also: IETF selects IBM researcher as chair; IBM to boost iSeries platform; Microsoft details SQL Server 2005 pricing; Colorado eyes companies that offshore; Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee established
Qwest, in its effort to lure MCI away from rival Verizon, last week made a new bid for MCI that guarantees the price it will pay to MCI stockholders. Qwest’s new offer would continue to pay $24.60 per share in cash and stock to MCI stockholders, in a deal worth about $8 billion, the same price Qwest offered Feb. 11. However, the new Qwest bid would guarantee that purchase price, unlike a rival bid from Verizon, and it would allow a faster payout to MCI stockholders than Qwest’s previous bid. MCI executives on Feb. 14 accepted a deal from Verizon worth about $6.7 billion, arguing that the larger and more profitable Verizon would be the best long-term fit for MCI. Stockholders still would have to approve that deal. MCI issued a short statement Thursday: “MCI’s Board will conduct a thorough review of the Qwest offer, as it has with all previous offers.”
The IETF, the Internet’s premier standards-setting body, has selected IBM researcher Brian Carpenter as its new chair. The appointment will be made official March 9 at the group’s meeting in Minneapolis. Carpenter replaces Harald Alvestrand, a Cisco fellow who resigned the post after four tumultuous years spent restructuring the group’s administrative processes and improving its financial situation. Alvestrand will return to a full-time post with Cisco in Norway this summer. Carpenter is a distinguished engineer with IBM’s Systems Research Group at its Zurich Research Lab in Switzerland. Carpenter has been active in the IETF’s development of IPv6, a long-awaited upgrade to the Internet’s main protocol, IPv4. Carpenter has co-authored 21 IETF standards known as RFCs.
IBM last week promised to give its midrange iSeries servers a boost, saying that it would provide $1 billion in services and support to thousands of software partners over the next few years to help accelerate the development of applications and tools for the iSeries platform. Big Blue has been stressing its commitment to the iSeries for the past couple years, launching television and magazine ads extolling the reliability and flexibility of the platform, formerly the AS/400. Last year, IBM advanced the hardware piece of the puzzle, rolling out iSeries servers based on its Power5 processor. Now the focus is on hardening software support for the boxes, says Doug Fulmer, worldwide sales executive, iSeries e-business infrastructure at IBM. Today, the iSeries can support i5/OS – an updated OS/400 operating system – AIX, Windows and Linux, giving users greater flexibility.
Microsoft last week detailed increased pricing and new features for its long-awaited SQL Server 2005 database, which is expected to ship this summer. The newest version of the software, code-named Yukon and in development for the past four years, includes a new edition for small businesses and as much as a 25% price increase for the Standard Edition and 20% increase for the Enterprise Edition. The new edition, called Workgroup, has been introduced for the 2005 edition and retrofitted into the available versions for SQL Server 2000. It includes support for up to 3G bytes of data, the Management Studio tools and a feature called Backup Log shipping for disaster recovery. Many of the features Microsoft has added to the Enterprise and Standard Editions of SQL Server 2005 are to keep pace with rivals Oracle and IBM, experts say. The final release of the database is expected in July or August.
The notion of offshoring jobs or dealing with vendors that do so still is irking many state government officials. Colorado last week became yet another state to see a bill before its legislature that would cut tax breaks and other incentives to companies in Colorado that offshore workers. According to an Associated Press report, 36 states considered legislation aimed at limiting offshoring last year. Laws, however, were only passed in two of them: Tennessee and Illinois. So far this year, 15 states besides Colorado are considering such bills. A proposed law in South Dakota would bar companies that outsource from getting state aid. New Hampshire lawmakers are looking at keeping track of how many jobs are outsourced and not doing business with any companies that ship more than 50 jobs overseas.
The Department of Homeland Security has set up a 20-member committee of outside advisers called the Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee to provide DHS with recommendations on how to protect the privacy of personal information of U.S. citizens and visitors. The DHS committee is composed of representatives from industry, including Oracle, IBM, SAIC, Computer Associates and Cendant, as well as think tanks Cato Institute and Heritage Foundation. Critics complained that the committee also includes the firm Claria, whose Gator software is often viewed by network managers as intrusive adware they want to block from internal use among corporate employees.
