Google acquires Urchin Software

Google, the internet search company, has just announced that it has agreed to acquire the Urchin Software Corporation, which makes software to help companies analyse the traffic at their Web sites.

The New York Times and Associated Press report (29 Mar.) that thousands of internet sites use products from Urchin to help better understand their users' experiences and track the performance of advertisements and other aspects of visits to Web sites.

Google said it expected the service to help web sites increase their advertising returns, says the NYT.

The paper says that Google said it anticipated the deal would close by the end of April.

Oracle snaps up security firm

Database behemoth Oracle continued its shopping when it bought Oblix, a privately-owned security firm, for an undisclosed amount, reports The Register (29 Mar.)

The Register says Oblix provides companies with secure identity and Single Sign-On services. These are increasingly used by businesses to guarantee the identity of people accessing corporate networks over the web.

The online publication says Oblix products COREid, COREsv and SHAREid will continue to be available as individual products. But Oracle is keen to include the best features into its own identity management products.

Capital firms to buy SunGard Data

SunGard Data Systems, whose software handles most Nasdaq Stock Market trades, has agreed to be acquired by seven buyout firms led by Silver Lake Partners for US$10.4 billion in cash in the largest private takeover since 1989.

The New York Times reports (29 Mar.) that the group will pay US$36 a share for SunGard, a 44 percent premium to its price on 21March, when the company said it was approached. Joining the bid are Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Blackstone Group, Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, Providence Equity Partners and Texas Pacific Group, the companies said in a statement.

The paper reports that it will be the largest takeover by US buyout firms since Kohlberg Kravis paid US$31 billion for RJR Nabisco 16 years ago. Managers of takeover funds, which spent a record US$180 billion on purchases last year, are now collaborating on purchases and avoiding competition with each other.
ne has the firepower to take a deal down of this size by themselves."

The total value of the acquisition, including debt and other items, is US$11.3 billion, SunGard said. The payment will come from equity from each of the buyout firms and debt financing from JPMorgan Chase & Company, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley, the paper adds.

The NYT says financial services companies in the United States are spending about US$100 billion a year on information technology like software that tracks trading and provides disaster recovery, which are SunGard's specialties.

Microsoft-EU agree on Windows name

Microsoft has just announced the company has reached an agreement with European Union antitrust regulators on the name Windows XP Home Edition N, with the N standing for "not with Media Player," for a reduced version of its Windows media software sold in Europe.

The New York Times and Associated Press report (29 Mar.) that the XP Professional Edition will also include the N for versions sold without the Media Player feature.

Microsoft's officials said they "have some misgivings" about the new name, fearing it may cause confusion for consumers buying the product, but say it will adopt the commission's name in order to move forward and accelerate the pace of the implementation process,the NYT and AP report.

The NYT says the agreement is part of talks between the European Union and Microsoft over the union's fine against Microsoft last year, totaling 497 million euros (US$644 million), which was imposed after the union ruled the company abusively wielded its Windows software monopoly to lock competitors out of the market.

The European Union ordered Microsoft to offer a version without Media Player and compatible with competitors' software, like RealPlayer, the audio-video player from RealNetworks, says the paper.

Qwest demands answer from MCI by 5 April

The two-month fight in the US for MCI may be coming to an end, reports The New York Times and Associated Press (29 Mar.).

The paper and AP say that Qwest Communications has just set an April 5 deadline for MCI to accept or reject its US$8.45 billion bid for the company.

Qwest, said in a letter to the MCI board that, "if we have not executed an agreement on or before midnight, April 5, 2005, our offer will be withdrawn," reports the paper.

The NYT says Qwest also said that its lenders would commit an additional US$500 million - on top of US$5.25 billion - to pay for potential merger-related expenses, like retiring MCI bonds.

The paper says Qwest's deadline is the latest twist in a fight for MCI, which agreed in February to be sold to Verizon Communications for US$6.75 billion. Qwest made an initial offer of US$8 billion, which it raised to US$8.45 billion on 17 March. Some of MCI's shareholders have pressured the company to reconsider Qwest's offer, which is now 25 percent higher than the Verizon bid.

Now, can you find its square root?

An eye surgeon in Germany has discovered the world's largest known prime number - or at least his computer did.

The New York Times reports (29 Mar.) that the surgeon, Dr. Martin Nowak of Michelfeld, is among thousands of participants in the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, one of several big projects that tap idle computers worldwide.

Last month, says the NYT.,Dr. Nowak's Pentium 4 computer concluded that a number it had been crunching on for more than 50 days was indeed prime, with only two integer divisors, 1 and itself.

A different computer using different software verified the result.

The paper says the number, rendered in exponential shorthand, is 225,964,951-1. It has 7,816,230 digits, and if printed in its entirety, would fill 235 pages of the New York Times.

In addition,says the NYT.,it falls in a rare category of primes known as Mersenne primes, which can be written as 2n-1 where n is also prime. The first few Mersenne primes are easily verifiable - inserting 2, 3 and 5 for n produces 3, 7 and 31, all prime - but the math quickly becomes overwhelming for larger values, says the paper.

The NYT says that in 1644, Marin Mersenne, a French monk, published a list of 11 prime numbers - the highest being 257 - for which he asserted that 2n-1 was also prime. That list was not fully checked until 1947, three centuries later. Mersenne turned out to be wrong about two numbers on his list and had missed three others, but his name still remains attached to the concept. Even with computers to speed up the search, Dr. Nowak's number is still only the 42nd Mersenne prime to be found.

The NYT says that the announcement did not, however, cause much of a stir because what mathematicians really want to know is: Are there an infinite number of such numbers?

The search nevertheless goes on, says the paper, on about 75,000 computers. Begun in 1996 by George Woltman, a computer scientist, the project has discovered eight Mersenne primes.

Canon moving into biotech chip business

Japanese office equipment and camera maker Canon plans to branch out into biotechnology by commercialising DNA chips for use in medical diagnosis, aiming to build a new pillar for future growth.

The New York Times and Reuters report (29 Mar.) that the move comes on the heels of plans by Canon, the world's largest office machine maker, to enter the flat-television market by launching advanced flat panel displays as part of efforts to widen its business portfolio.

The paper and Reuters report that Canon said it will seek approval at its shareholders meeting this week to include "production and sales of pharmaceutical products" in its operational objectives, getting ready for the commercialisation of biotechnology products.

The NYT and Reuters say that as part of its biotechnology research, Canon is developing systems for the mass production of DNA chips that use the bubble jet technology employed in its printers and are aimed at helping with the diagnosis of cancer and infectious diseases.

The new method would allow DNA chips for diagnosing cancer and diabetes to be mass produced more cheaply than with existing technology, says the paper.

THe NYT says that the The Nikkei Business magazine reported this year that Canon planned to spend up to 10 billion yen (US$93.2 million) on mass production of DNA chips possibly in 2005 and that it wanted to post 100 billion yen of biotechnology-related sales in 2010.

Toshiba preps minute-charge 'miracle' battery

Toshiba has developed a Lithium-Ion battery capable of being charged to 80 per cent of its full capacity in under 60 seconds. Filling it up takes just "a few more minutes", the company boasted, reports The Register (29 Mar.)

The Register says that's considerably faster than today's Li-ion rechargeables which can take 1-4 hours to reach 80 per cent capacity, and even longer to fill completely.

The UK online publication says that Toshiba also claimed the new cell offers a greater longevity than today's Li-ion batteries, losing only one per cent of its capacity after 1000 charge cycles, according to the results of its own charge-discharge testing.

The Register says Toshiba says the miracle battery will come to market next year.

AOL Latin America may cease operations

America Online Latin America, the beleaguered provider of internet services in South America, has said that it was running out of cash and may shut down or file for bankruptcy protection.

The New York Times and Reuters report (29 Mar.) that unless AOL Latin America finds a buyer for its assets, it will have to close down operations, the company said in a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The paper and Reuters say that AOL Latin America, founded as a joint venture between America Online and the Cisneros Group at the start of the internet bubble in 1998, has since struggled to become profitable.

The loss-making company, which provides internet dial-up service mainly in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, stopped counting non-paying subscribers in 2003 as the SEC investigated the company's methods in counting subscribers, the paper and Reuters reeport.

According to the NYT and Reuters, other internet service providers have also struggled to stay in business in Latin America. StarMedia Network , Terra Lycos and Yahoo's efforts to build an access provider have fallen flat, the paper adds.

Sony in dispute over digital projectors

Sony Electronics a unit of Sony Corp., last week demonstrated a projection technology for digital cinema that displays images at twice the resolution of existing digital projectors, the new York Times and Reuters report (29 Mar.).

Reuters and the NYT say that Sony plans to begin shipping the system in July, setting up a race with Texas Instruments, whose technology is at the heart of digital projectors already on the market.

The paper and Reuters say that the competition is emerging at the same time Hollywood is looking to work out a fair way to roll out digital cinema nationwide in the US to replace the ubiquitous 35mm film projectors.

According to the NYT and Reuters, critics question how well the eye can distinguish between the 2,000 lines of resolution that current digital projectors have and the 4,000 lines Sony's new projector promises (by comparison, high-definition TV sets show up to 1,080 lines). They also question whether color separation and contrast are any better with a higher line count.

The report says Sony will begin shipping two models of its projector in July. The cost of outfitting a screen around Sony technology could range up to US$140,000.

Texas Instruments' DLP technology is already playing in 315 theatres worldwide. That number is expected to top 1,000 in the next 12 months, says the paper and Reuters.

VeriSign should keep .NET franchise says panel

An independent advisory firm in the US has recommended that VeriSign be given another six years to run the internet's third most popular domain name suffix.

The New York Times and Associated Press report (29 Mar.) that if approved,renewal of a contract to serve as master-keeper of ".net" directories would generate about US$20 million annually for VeriSign, which already makes more than US$200 million a year managing ".com." Owners of ".net" domain names could see lower prices when they renew.

The paper and AP says the domain name operator, known as the registry, also has the technical ability -- though some question whether it has the legal authority -- to make sweeping policy changes. In 2003, VeriSign briefly redirected web surfers who mistype ".com" and ".net" addresses to VeriSign's own search engine, breaking some spam-filtering programs and other applications in the process.

The report says VeriSign suspended that program under pressure and has since sued the internet's key oversight body, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, accusing it of impeding efforts to offer new, moneymaking services.

VeriSign currently gets US$6 annually for each ".com" and ".net," though it promised to settle for US$4.25 in the new contract, 75 cents of which would go to ICANN, says the paper and AP.

Brazil an open source haven

Since taking office two years ago, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has turned Brazil into a tropical outpost of the free software movement, reports The new York Times (29 mARCH).

The NYT says that looking to save millions of dollars in royalties and licensing fees, Mr. da Silva has instructed government ministries and state-run companies to gradually switch from costly operating systems made by Microsoft and others to free operating systems, like Linux. Brazil has also become the first country to require any company or research institute that receives government financing to develop software to license it as open-source, meaning the underlying software code must be free to all, the paper reports.

The paper also says that now Brazil's government looks poised to take its free software campaign to the masses. And once again Microsoft may end up on the sidelines.By the end of April, the government plans to roll out a much ballyhooed program called PC Conectado, or Connected PC, aimed at helping millions of low-income Brazilians buy their first computers.

And, says the NYT., if the president's top technology adviser gets his way, the program may end up offering computers with only free software, including the operating system, handpicked by the government instead of giving consumers the option of paying more for, say, a basic edition of Microsoft Windows.

The paper says Microsoft has offered to provide a simplified, discounted version of Windows for the program. Though a final decision on which software to install has been delayed several times, as has the program's rollout, Mr. Amadeu and some other government officials have publicly criticised Microsoft's proposal, calling the version's abilities too limited.

Under the program, which is expected to offer tax incentives for computer makers to cut prices and a generous payment plan for consumers, the government hopes to offer desktops for around 1,400 reais (US$509) or less. The machines will be comparable to those costing almost twice that outside the program, says the NYT.

According to the NYT., the program aims at households and small-business owners earning three to seven times the minimum monthly wage, or about US$284 to US$662. The government says seven million qualify, and it hopes to reach a million of them by year-end.

The paper says that may seem ambitious in a developing country of 183 million people where only 10 percent of all households have internet access and just 900,000 computers are sold legally each year, although including black-market sales, the number is closer to four million.