Siemens might be having second thoughts about the joint venture with Fujitsu. Reports surfaced that the two companies were in talks to decide the way forward.
If Siemens did walk away, Fujitsu would have first refusal to buy it out. If no agreement could be reached, it would be left looking for another partner or a company to buy the entire business. ~
Samsung and Sun Microsystems develop tougher SSD's for servers
Samsung Electronics has collaborated with Sun Microsystems to develop the ultra-endurance, server-grade, single-level-cell (SLC) NAND flash memory device for use in solid state drives.
Offering a five-fold increase in data write-and-erase cycles over standard SLC flash memory, Samsung's new SLC NAND flash memory is designed to be used in SSDs to greatly extend the life cycle of any high-transaction data processing server.
Samsung said that its server-grade SLC memory will provide a 100X increase over conventional hard drives, in the number of data transfers (input/output per second or I/OPS) per watt.
Probable applications for the new ultra-endurance SLC flash include its use in video streaming, high-transaction data processing, search engine operations and other high-speed server functions. ~
SanDisk delays SSD launch to develop a compensation for Vista shortfalls
SanDisk is delaying the delivery of large capacity SSD drives until next year, when MLC technology (esp. controller part) becomes more advanced. The next generation of SSDs with capacities of 128 GB and more will use multilevel cell (MLC) technology, which requires a more sophisticated controller in order to provide acceptable performance levels within Windows Vista.
SanDisk Chairman and CEO Eli Harari said that Windows Vista will present a special challenge for solid-state drive makers. "As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid-state disk," he said. "The next generation controllers need to basically compensate for Vista shortfalls," he explained. "We have very good internal controller technology... We are now behind the schedule because we did not fully understand, frankly, the limitations in the Vista environment," he added. ~
E7200 and Q6600 best buys after the latest price cut
In a recent episode of CPU price cuts, Intel has reduced the price of a desktop Core 2 Duo E7200 (2.53GHz) for 15 percent, from $133 to $113. The popular quad-core Q6600 (2.4GHz) part has become 14 percent cheaper (not $224, but $193).
Yahoo will appoint Carl Icahn and two of his nominees to its board, settling a proxy battle and making an immediate transaction with Microsoft Corp less likely to happen.
Today's announcement comes 11 days before Yahoo's August 1 annual shareholders meeting, and two days after Bill Miller expressing understanding of Yahoo board's position. These circumstances make it look like a compromise. Like most of compromises, certainly with ones with Icahn in the past, have reinforced the status quo, so it's less likely that there will be a transaction with Microsoft.
Icahn was quoted in a Yahoo statement as saying the settlement was a "good outcome" and that he continued to believe a transaction to sell Yahoo or its search business should be given full consideration. ~
The investor Carl Icahn hinted that progress had been made towards agreeing a deal whereby Microsoft would purchase Yahoo's search business, and pay Yahoo for any searches that originate from a Yahoo content page.
"Yahoo felt that a deal of this nature would be very interesting, but only if Microsoft would guarantee the revenue that Yahoo now received," Icahn said. Yahoo would, for five years, receive a minimum of the $2.3bn they are currently receiving as long as they continued to supply the page views and affiliate traffic they now had.
Steve Ballmer agreed to provide the guarantee and commit $7.7bn to the transaction (consisting of a $1bn payment for 'Search', a $2.8bn loan and a $3.9bn tender offer to Yahoo shareholders).
Icahn was "surprised" when Yahoo appeared to reject the deal without discussions, and later got the impression that Yahoo is concerned about would changes the deal would impose to Yahoo management. "Finally, Steve Ballmer suggested that we not spend the rest of Friday afternoon on corporate governance. 'First tell us if you like the deal,' he said."
"Yahoo's (rejecting) press release (dated July 12th) states that 'this odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Mr. Icahn has anything but the interest of Yahoo stockholders in mind', raising the innuendo that I am on Microsoft's side in this manner. That is patently ridiculous," said Icahn.
On 14th of July Microsoft issued a press release to address the "inaccuracies that need to be corrected". Microsoft clarifies that the enhanced proposal for an alternative search transaction submitted on 11th was made at the request of Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock as a result of apparent attempts by Mr Icahn to have Microsoft and Yahoo engage on a search transaction on terms Mr Icahn believed Microsoft would be willing to accept and which Microsoft understands Mr Icahn had discussed with Yahoo."
Has Microsoft been tricked to believe that Icahn has Yahoo's approval to negotiate the deal? I believe not. That's just a part of the winning a deal.
Because Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock called Steve Ballmer's office on 10 July, and said that "with substantial guarantees on the table and an increase in the traffic acquisition cost rate, there are the pillars of a search only deal to be done", Microsoft's Steve Ballmer displayed willingness to provide the guarantee and commit total of $7.7bn to the transaction.
"This proposal included significant revenue guarantees, higher traffic acquisition cost rates, an equity investment and an option for Yahoo to extend the agreement over a 10-year period. Microsoft's proposal did not include changes to Yahoo's governance." Microsoft's press release says.
"At the time Microsoft submitted its enhanced proposal, Microsoft asked that Yahoo confirm whether it would agree that the enhancements were sufficient to form the basis for the parties to engage in negotiations over the weekend on a letter of intent and more detailed term sheets. This discussion has been mischaracterised as a take it or leave it ultimatum, rather than a timetable in order to move forward to intensive negotiations. Yahoo informed Microsoft on Saturday that it had rejected the proposal."
On 18th of July Yahoo has released a letter to shareholders in response to the latest takeover plan by Microsoft and Icahn. "We believe the Icahn slate and agenda present significant risk to your investment in Yahoo," the board told its shareholders. "We believe you cannot count on Microsoft to bail out Mr Icahn's misguided agenda, at least not on terms that are in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders."
However, the Yahoo board said that it would still be willing to sell to Microsoft for a flat $33 per share. ~
