merger

Dell has until Thursday to top Hewlett-Packard's $1.6 billion offer for 3Par, the sought-after storage vendor announced Tuesday.

Fremont, Calif.-based 3Par said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that HP's unsolicited proposal was "reasonably likely to lead to a 'superior proposal'," and that it had informed Dell that it had three days to submit a more attractive offer. If Dell doesn't produce a superior offer after three days, 3Par intends to begin merger negotiations with HP, 3Par said in its filing.

"3PAR intends to engage in discussions with HP … Read more

Unlike with text documents, combining multiple PDF files is more than a matter of just copying and pasting. Fortunately, you don't have to drop a big chunk of change on Adobe Acrobat to be able to merge or split PDF files. Arduo PDF Merger is a simple program that can handle basic splitting and merging tasks. It's not the most sophisticated program we've ever seen, but it works fine for what it is.

The program's interface is plain and intuitive, with commonsense buttons for adding and removing files. To merge PDF files, users simply select the … Read more

In the future, you may not have to buy antivirus software for your laptops and mobile devices if Intel is able to live up to the promise of integrating technology from acquisition target McAfee, experts said on Thursday.

In announcing its plans to acquire security company McAfee for $7.68 billion, Intel executives said they see security as being as critical to computing as performance and connectivity and that they plan to combine security with its hardware and expand further into the mobile market.

While Intel has been pushing more and more functionality down into the chips, a marriage with … Read more

Juniper Networks plans to acquire mobile security firm SMobile for about $70 million in cash, the companies announced on Tuesday.

Networking equipment maker Juniper said it plans to integrate SMobile's portfolio of security software for smart phones and tablets into its Junos Pulse software, which offers connectivity, security, and acceleration for smart phones, Netbooks, notebooks, and tablets.

"Juniper already secures the majority of smartphone traffic in the United States, is a global leader in high-end firewalls and the SSL VPN(2) market, and enables more than 25 million end users to remotely and securely connect their PCs and … Read more

A future technology shift at Sprint Nextel could pave the way toward a merger between the third-and fourth-largest U.S. wireless companies, the Financial Times suggests in an article published Tuesday.

According to the FT report, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse told the news agency that he sees "logic" in a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile USA, if the two companies were using the same 4G technology. He declined to comment further on merger talks. And Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermannhas ruled out any "multibillion" euro deals this year. Deutsche Telekom owns T-Mobile USA.

Sprint … Read more

Palm stockholders at a special meeting Friday approved plans for the company's acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, according to an SEC filing.

The transaction is expected to close on July 1, according to the filing.

The companies announced in April that computer giant HP would buy the struggling smartphone maker for $1.2 billion. The deal then had already been approved by both companies' boards of directors.

HP has long touted Palm's appealing IP portfolio and says it has plans to put Palm's WebOS on tablets, smartphones, Web-connected PCs.

Almost as soon as the news hit that Hewlett-Packard planned to purchase Palm for $1.2 billion, shareholder lawsuits started rolling in. On Wednesday Palm said it had settled at least one of them.

The suit, Steve Ubaney v. Jonathan Rubinstein, et al., was filed May 5 in Delaware, on behalf of Palm shareholders that thought CEO Rubinstein should have held out for a selling price higher than the $5.70 per share it accepted from HP. In an SEC filing, Palm did not disclose the details of the settlement, which was reached Tuesday.

And other similar class action suits … Read more

AT&T is reportedly looking to get a piece of the mobile market in India, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper reported late last week that AT&T, the second largest cell phone operator in the U.S., is in preliminary talks with Reliance Communications, India's second largest wireless phone company. AT&T on Monday denied it is in discussions with the Indian carrier.

The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources and noted the talks are still in the early stages. Reliance officials said that its board had approved the sale … Read more

When Hewlett-Packard ponied up $1.2 billion for struggling smartphone maker Palm, the move was widely seen as a quick way for the PC and enterprise services company to get into the burgeoning mobile device market.

Not so, HP CEO Mark Hurd said Wednesday. At the Bank of America Merrill Lynch technology conference, Hurd said his company has broader plans.

He told the audience that HP did not "spend billions of dollars trying to go into the smartphone business; that doesn't in any way make any sense," according to a ZDNet report.