Tough-as-nails , the European Union's head antitrust cop, issued a stern warning to any company planning to blow off the regulatory agency and European antitrust laws.
Neelie Kroes
(Credit: European Community)"If you flee the rules, you will be caught. And it will cost you dearly," warned Kroes during in press conference Wednesday, following the European Commission's announcement it was slapping a $1.35 billion fine on Microsoft for failure to comply with earlier March 2004 antitrust sanctions.
Kroes further noted: "Talk is cheap. Flee the rules and it will be expensive. We don't want talk and promises. We want compliance (with regulations)."
For Microsoft, its fine was calculated based on the 488 days it was out of compliance, Kroes said. And while Kroes characterized the fine as "substantial," she noted it represented 60 percent of the total assessment the Commission could have levied on Microsoft.
Meanwhile, readers who participated in a News.com poll were roughly split 60-40 on whether the Commission's fine was too low, or too high, respectively.
Kroes, however, maintained the size of the fine was reasonable, given the length of time that Microsoft was out of compliance with the historic March 2004 order and number of people, companies and government agencies affected.
"Microsoft continued to stifle innovation by charging other companies prohibitive royalty rates for the essential information they needed to offer software products to computer users around the world," Kroes said. "The high rates made the rendering of (interoperability) information pointless."
To comply with the March 2004 order, Microsoft was supposed to offer rivals complete and accurate interoperability information so that their products would work with Microsoft's dominant operating system, as well as offer the information at a reasonable price.
Any company looking to avoid a clash with Kroes needs to keep one thing in mind. Says the woman herself: "Our approach is to ensure companies and people have a right to choose...then the markets will deliver so much more."
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Neelie Kroes describes Microsoft's pricing structure as 'unreasonable.'
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Antitrust chief talks tough
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Correction at 10:07 a.m. PST on February 27: An earlier version of this report cited a source's claim that SAP added a change-of-control policy, aka a golden parachute for executives. An SAP representative said there is no such policy.
Microsoft investors, don't hold your breath that Redmond is about to dump its pursuit of hottie Yahoo and change its flirtatious stance with SAP into something more serious.
Sure, Microsoft and SAP have discussed a potential merger executive to executive for a number of years, but it's never risen beyond that level to be fully vetted by SAP's supervisory board, which would ultimately need to give its blessing for such a deal to get done, said one SAP insider.
"There's been small talk and we have walked around and flirted a bit, but it's never been a serious look," said the source.
And now, with various reports coming out that Microsoft should dump the Yahoo buyout bid, in favor of another deal, such as an SAP merger as one report noted in The New York Times, this source noted that Microsoft lost its chance to acquire SAP at a deep discount several years ago when it was cheap, cheap, cheap.
"Hasso (Plattner, co-founder) and the board have said if Microsoft wanted to buy us, they should have made an offer three or four years ago when we were so cheap," noted the source.
Indeed. SAP's stock currently trades around $28 a share, compared with roughly a third of that level back in 2003.
... Read more
I had two conversations today that set me to pondering the future of open source. One was during a panel I moderated on "cloud-based computing" at the Webguild Web 2.0 Conference. The second was over lunch with an old friend.
First, what happens to the open-source development community if the world moves to cloud-based computing? Open source has been a server or PC-based phenomenon. Why did Linus Torvalds develop for an x86 architecture? Because that's what he had. He didn't have a massive server farm to work with. Neither do you.
Think about it. What software could you or I write in a world where there are only a few "computers" (five, according to Yahoo), computers to which you and I don't have access? I suppose developers will increasingly be able to write code for others' "clouds," but will this be the same?
... Read moreEver want to own a third-party enterprise applications software maintenance and support company?
Better hurry. Tuesday's the deadline to declare your interest to its owner SAP, as the deadline draws near, according to sources.
SAP, back in November, said it was considering putting TomorrowNow on the auction block, and apparently it's headed in that direction. But whether the software applications vendor ultimately selects a buyer from among TomorrowNow's competitors and new parties interested in entering the market has yet to be seen, sources said.
SAP could also just wind down the operations and let it go at that. In its recent preliminary fourth quarter announcement, SAP noted is in its footnote about its U.S. GAAP requirements that the company is "required to present its results of discontinued operations (TomorrowNow) separately from its results from continuing operations."
That TomorrowNow reference was part of SAP's preliminary fourth quarter announcement and is not my add.
One source speculated SAP may want to let its TomorrowNow business slip into the sunset without a buyer, if it cannot find one that can adequately care for its TomorrowNow customers. The last thing SAP needs is more controversy surrounding TomorrowNow, which is entangled in a legal mess with arch-rival Oracle.
Oracle in March filed a lawsuit against SAP and its TomorrowNow subsidiary, alleging TomorrowNow downloaded proprietary Oracle software that it was not entitled to access.
TomorrowNow provides third-party maintenance and support to PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, and Siebel customers--all companies that Oracle has acquired over the years.
Get those bidder paddles ready. NetSuite launched on Monday its long-anticipated IPO auction, with hopes of raising in excess of $99 million.
The auction, the first of NetSuite's four-step IPO process, is expected to close as early as December 19 at the market's close.
NetSuite, the on-demand applications company backed by Larry Ellison of Oracle fame, will then use the bid information to set a final IPO price, which will help it determine who should receive an allocation of shares.
For example, if a bidder wants 100 shares at $8 a share, another 100 shares at $10 a share, and finally another 100 shares at $15 a share, the bidder could potentially end of up with 200 shares and an outlay of $2,500, should NetSuite's IPO price at $10 a share.
NetSuite last week set an initial pricing range of $13 to $16 a share, but, of course, when all is said and done, auction participants may ultimately push the final IPO price above or below that range.
Do I hear $13? Now, do I hear $14? What about $15?
Enterprise Web software company Salesforce says it will be a holiday season worth celebrating: the company announced Wednesday that it is set to surpass a milestone of one million paid customers by the end of 2007.
"It took seven years to reach the first 500,000 paying subscribers and only another 16 months for the second 500,000," Salesforce chairman and CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement. "That's incredible global momentum and adoption for businesses of all sizes."
Benioff is set to be present at a New York press event on Wednesday afternoon that will elaborate on the news. To commemorate the 1 million mark, Salesforce will be donating a total of $1 million across an array of ten nonprofit organizations: the Acumen Fund, the Bridge School, the Bronx Lab School, Endeavor, Kiva.org, Room to Read, San Francisco Connect, San Francisco General Hospital, Tibet House, and TransFair USA.
In addition, in a bold move the company is debuting a new software product at Wednesday's New York event. This is a new software feature called "Salesforce to Salesforce," which allows clients to connect with other companies that have existing Salesforce accounts. Using a social networking model, a company can pay to "invite" another company to share Salesforce data and engage in "cross-company collaboration" for a fee of $1,200 per year per connection.
"Just as Facebook is revolutionizing how individuals connect, Salesforce to Salesforce is revolutionizing how companies connect and share business information," George Hu, Salesforce's executive vice president of products and marketing, said in the company's release. Salesforce is also a member of Google's OpenSocial developer project.
According to Salesforce, it should be a welcome addition to the business-to-business market. Citing statistics from market research firm IDC, the company estimated that $3 billion was lost in 2006 due to a poor B2B integration infrastructure that "has met with high failure rates due to cost, complexity, and inability to scale."
As SAP tries to untwine its third-party support and maintenance company, TomorrowNow, from its legal entanglements with archrival Oracle, a sale, or effort to wind down the company, may be its preferred path.
SAP, which earlier this week announced TomorrowNow's chief executive and several managers had resigned, is now apparently operating without its senior vice president of sales, Bob Geib, and vice president of international sales, Nigel Pullan. Both executives are no longer on the company's management roster, and Pullan's office phone is no longer active. Geib, when contacted by his mobile phone, referred all calls to the company's press contacts.
Meanwhile, one source noted that a couple of TomorrowNow's best sales representatives have been folded into SAP's sales team.
Calls and e-mails to SAP were not immediately returned. It's not clear whether SAP plans to fill those TomorrowNow sales positions, in light of its announcement earlier this week that it was considering selling its subsidiary. TomorrowNow continues to be run by Mark White, TomorrowNow executive chairman.
Meanwhile, TomorrowNow customers were migrated off the company's systems Wednesday and left to get their Oracle updates for PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel Systems applications on their own systems, according to a report in eWeek.
TomorrowNow was making good on a promise it made last August during its case management hearing in federal court. SAP said it had revamped its download policies and planned to require any download of Oracle updates for PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel be done on the customers' premises, rather than hosting that work on its own servers.
SAP, which acknowledged it had engaged in some improper downloads of Oracle's support and maintenance software on behalf of the customers it wooed away from its rival, is debating its next steps for TomorrowNow, a company it acquired nearly three years ago.
Upate: November 21, 1 p.m.
TomorrowNow's remaining sales team will now report into Mark White, TomorrowNow's executive chairman, a representative for SAP said in an e-mail late Wednesday. The representative declined to elaborate, however, on whether the company is winding down its operations.
SAP announced Monday its third-party support and maintenance company TomorrowNow, which is embroiled in a legal battle with archrival Oracle, may be put up for sale. TomorrowNow's founder and several executives have resigned effective immediately.
SAP acquired TomorrowNow as a means to woo away maintenance and support customers from Oracle. TomorrowNow provides third-party support and maintenance for PeopleSoft and JD Edwards, two companies that Oracle acquired.
But earlier this year, Oracle filed a lawsuit against TomorrowNow and SAP, alleging the company went beyond its former customers' contracts and downloaded proprietary Oracle software and materials.
SAP and Oracle have been in the process of seeking documents and depositions from each other and are scheduled to give the court an update in February on that process.
In the announcement, SAP said it is exploring its options for TomorrowNow's business, including the possible sale of TomorrowNow. An SAP spokesman declined to comment on whether these options are currently being explored because TomorrowNow has seen a drop-off in customers since the controversy erupted, or whether it may be part of any potential settlement negotiations with Oracle.
Mark White, TomorrowNow executive chairman, will continue in his role in running the company.
You've heard of the "killer app."
But have you really seen one?
Ed Abbo, Oracle's senior vice president of applications development, thinks he has--several times over. But then again, what else would you expect an apps guy to say?
Keenly aware that a number of attendees at Oracle OpenWorld were interested in the company's applications strategy, Abbo set out to deliver some answers--with varying degrees of the "wow" factor.
Oracle is looking to add a taste of social networking structure into its apps and, like a number of companies, a pinch of Web 2.0.
For example, Oracle wants to deliver a "social CRM" solution. Basically, it would be customer relationship management (CRM) software that brings information in from the Internet into the application, with the help of iGoogle, Google's personal home page creator.
Sales reps, for example, could pull in information on prospective customers and potential references and leads.
On the less surprising front, Abbo reassured apps customers--yes, that's, PeopleSoft, Siebel, J.D. Edwards and other customers acquired by Oracle--that you can still evolve your business by staying in the same vein of software applications, without having to jump into Oracle's latest-greatest-next-generation Fusion Middleware and apps.
Oracle is adding some of its Fusion Middleware into the apps, as each enhancement is made to the next version of PeopleSoft, Siebel, J.D. Edwards, and the like. Customers, however, can expect to receive support, maintenance, and enhancements on these non-Fusion versions of Oracle's software indefinitely, Abbo noted.
"The center of our (apps) strategy is around offering customers choice," said Abbo.
How's that for a killer concept?
Fusion, or confusion?
For Niranjan Reddy, a technical lead at Office Depot, the answer was Fusion, with less confusion.
That was Reddy's assessment, after listening to Thomas Kurian, top executive on Oracle's Fusion middleware efforts, during his keynote speech Tuesday at Oracle OpenWorld on the company's Fusion Middleware 11g beta.
"We wanted to see how much better it would be to use Fusion 11g with E-Business (Suite) 12," Reddy said. "Right now, we're using many different adapters outside of Fusion Middleware, but with Fusion 11g and E-Business 12 we could bring it all in--we could develop and deploy within E-Business 12."
And for John Doe consumer perusing the isles or Web site at Office Depot, Reddy said it will help get an improved picture of the inventory carried on the shelves.
Kurian, taking the stage at Oracle OpenWorld, touted the new features, from offering a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), enterprise 2.0 functionality and grid computing via a single platform.
He added the new features will also include greater security, such as encryption and authentication, as well as the ability to develop richer enterprise applications via Oracle's Applications Development Framework.
Fusion Middleware 11g, which is slated for delivery next year, may offer additional bells and whistles, but it's debatable how many customers will switch over from their current Oracle installations.
Although Fusion Middleware will feature a PeopleSoft user interface, the actual PeopleSoft code will not be baked in. A number of Oracle's PeopleSoft customers use middleware from other vendors, such as BEA Systems--a company Oracle recently tried to acquire but was rebuffed.
"It won't be a smooth transition for PeopleSoft customers. It's not as simple as an upgrade. It will be equivalent to a re-implementation," said Lee Geishecker, enterprise strategies vice president for AMR Research.
Because Oracle is not forcing customers of the companies it acquires to adopt its Fusion Middleware, or Fusion applications once the software is released, it will need to woo them over with the technology Fusion offers, Geishecker said.
And Kurian attempted to do just that Tuesday.
