Google revenues surge 42 percent
,----[ Quote ]
| Google employed 19,156 full-time employees as of March 31, 2008, up from
| 16,805 full-time employees as of December 31, 2007. Of the 2,351 added,
| approximately 1,500 were associated with DoubleClick.
`----
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/17720/1054/
IBM grows profits, raises outlook
,----[ Quote ]
| IBM posted first-quarter financial results that blew past analyst estimates,
| providing the second indication in as many days that some IT outfits aren't
| getting dragged into a slumping US economy that some say already is in
| recession. The company also raised its earnings estimates for the remainder
| of 2008.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/17/ibm_first_quarter_results/
OOXML appeal possible, but looks unlikely
,----[ Quote ]
| Outspoken OOXML opponents Sun and IBM have not commented on possible plans
| for an appeal. But at least one spokesman for the ODF Alliance said it’s too
| early to tell.
|
| “I wouldn’t be surprised, given the number of documented irregularities, if
| an [national standard body] formally appeals. ISO rules require that an
| appeal be fully documented so I would expect an NB considering such a appeal
| to use more of the time (two months) allotted,” said Marino Marcich, a
| spokesman for the ODF Allliance, in an e-mail to ZDNet.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2303
Last week:
Is Microsoft Now Banned from EU Contracts?
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=697&blogid=14
Euro MP thinks Microsoft should be banned from government contracts
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/10/member-eu-parliament-asks
Green MEP says Microsoft should be excluded from EU contract awarding procedure
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/106338/from/rss09
EU: Europarlement testing Ubuntu, OpenOffice and Firefox
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Parliament's IT department is testing the use of GNU/Linux
| distribution Ubuntu, OpenOffice, Firefox and other Open Source applications,
| the British MEP James Nicholson explained last week in a letter to Italian
| MEP Marco Cappato.
`----
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7565
Recent:
EC probes OOXML standards-setting process
,----[ Quote ]
| A spokesman for the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, told
| The Register that regulators were continuing to scrutinise interoperability
| issues related to Microsoft’s products following complaints from the
| Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) group.
|
| As part of that process, the EC formally contacted a number of national
| standards bodies, including the Norwegian Standards Institute (NSI),
| requesting more details about possible irregularities in the OOXML
| standardisation process.
|
| [...]
|
| “It must be stressed that it is not the Commission's intention to influence
| the outcome of this process, but the Commission considers it essential to
| ensure that European competition law is not violated in the course of the
| standard setting process,” he said in an email to El Reg.
|
| In January the EC began formal anti-trust probes against Microsoft in two
| cases where it was alleged that the multinational firm had abused its strong
| market position. As part of the investigation into the first case, the
| Commission said that it would scrutinise OOXML on the grounds that the
| specification doesn't work with those of competitors.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/04/ooxml_ec_investigation_iso/
Related:
EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
| Quinn was by no means unique.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
|
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