News

The much-hyped Microsoft-LinkedIn acquisition on Monday evening overshadowed another very important acquisition in tech history which also took place around the same time. Symantec and Blue Coat, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Symantec will acquire Blue Coat for approximately $4.651 billion in cash from Bain Capital, in the struggling antivirus company’s largest deal for more than a decade. The transaction has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2016. “This...

IBM and VMware, have announced they are enhancing their strategic partnership by enabling VMware Horizon Air customers to take advantage of cloud-hosted desktop and application services via the IBM Cloud. This announcement reinforces IBM Cloud being a strategic cloud partner for VMware. VMware Horizon Air cloud services deliver full Windows desktops or published applications to desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones. These services running on the IBM Cloud will give customers the flexibility to access critical apps and data from any device, anywhere, at anytime. Earlier in 2016, IBM and VMware...

Xerox announced that Ashok Vemuri will become the chief executive officer of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company upon the completion of the separation of Xerox into two publicly-traded companies. Vemuri will join Xerox effective July 1, 2016 and serve as chief executive officer of Xerox Business Services, LLC and an executive vice president of Xerox Corporation until the separation is complete. “Ashok’s deep industry experience and proven track record of leading growth and corporate transformations will be instrumental for the BPO company’s future success,” said Xerox chairman and CEO...

Keeping its commitment towards corporate social responsibility (CSR), Fashion and lifestyle e-tailer Limeroad.com has set a target to empower 1.5 lakh women entrepreneurs over the next two years. Limeroad, which is backed by Matrix Partners, Lightspeed Ventures and Tiger Global, has attracted a thriving community of 2,00,000 women scrap-bookers since is inception in October 2013, of which 25 per cent are active entrepreneurs. Scrapbook is a feature that invites users to create ‘styled looks’ by putting together an entire ensemble, including clothes (pairing tops and bottoms), shoes, earrings, handbags, belts,...

Mumbai-based Trade Association of Information Technology (TAIT), recently conducted its Knowledge Series workshop at Mumbai to address issues related to disputes arising out of dishonor of cheques, and Income Tax issues faced by their members. The workshop was addressed by Vijay Agarwal, Founder of Bounced Cheque Victims Forum and Vimal Punmiya, CA and Vice Chairman of All India Business Council. Both speakers talked about the need for members to put up a united front against the prevailing sloth in the judicial system, especially in cheque dishonor cases and disputes related...

In a bid to boost local manufacturing, the government is planning to offer more incentives to mobile part makers. The efforts aimed at making India a full-blown mobile components and accessories production hub in the next three to four years. According to the Economic Times report, the government, as a part of phased plan, is likely to change duty structures around mobile phone components such as camera module, printed-circuit board (PCB) and keyboards to expand the manufacturing base locally by next year. “There is a provision to manufacture a few accessories in...

Ericsson is reportedly planning to lay off between 3,000 and 4,000 staff this summer, according to Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. Thousands more may have to go at the network equipment manufacturer as management look for additional cost savings of 10 billion Swedish kronor (US$1.2 billion), the newspaper said, citing anonymous sources. Ericsson had around 115,000 staff in April, 17,000 of them in Sweden. A spokeswoman declined to discuss the news report, saying the company does not comment on rumors and speculation. Ericsson is facing increasing competition from Nokia, which swallowed its...

Microsoft is buying LinkedIn, the professional social network, for USD 26.2 billion in its biggest-ever deal. The combined entity is expected to reach out to more customers and partners, who can see tremendous innovation in the social-cloud collaboration, according to the two companies. In a letter written to Microsoft employees about the acquisition, the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned that Microsoft’s strategy is to integrate social, collaboration, communication and productivity to help its customers achieve business objectives of faster growth and quicker innovation. For developers he talked about APIs that are...

Virtualisation and cloud infrastructure provider VMware has announced the intention to acquire a software-defined data center security and operations firm-Arkin Net. With the acquisition of Arkin, and through the integration of VMware vRealize Suite, cloud management teams will have access to a new generation of planning, troubleshooting and automation platform that provide visibility and control across the entire data center environment. With the acquisition of Arkin, VMware vRealize Suite will have the ability to extend across the entire SDDC, including the VMware NSX network virtualization layer. “Arkin is a great...