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.B.M. plans to announce today that it is making 500 of its software patents freely available to anyone working on open-source projects, like the popular Linux operating system, on which programmers collaborate and share code.The new model for I.B.M., analysts say, represents a shift away from the traditional corporate approach to protecting ownership of ideas through patents, copyrights, trademark and trade-secret laws. The conventional practice is to amass as many patents as possible and then charge anyone who wants access to them. I.B.M. has long been the champion of that formula. The company, analysts estimate, collected $1 billion or more...

IBM will soon be keeping a close eye on you thanks to its purchase of SRD (Systems Research and Development). SRD, a small privately-held company based in Las Vegas, is best known for its ERIK and NORA identity management products. This spooky software collects data about an individual from various sources and is billed as a "customer relationship management" tool. SRD has been in business for 20 years and will now be part of IBM's Information Management software unit. No financial details about IBM's buy of SRD were revealed. NORA ( Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness) is without doubt the most compelling...

I.B.M. said yesterday that the personal computer business it was selling to the Lenovo Group of China had not made a profit for three and a half years. I.B.M.'s personal computing division had a loss of $139 million in the six months ended June 30. It had losses of $258 million in 2003, $171 million in 2002 and $397 million in 2001, I.B.M. said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During that period, the PC division had sales of $34.1 billion. I.B.M., which is based in Armonk, N.Y., does not typically reveal results for its PC division,...

Americans have had no lack of dramatic news this year. The Boston Red Sox finally broke the 86-year-old "curse of the Babe" and won a World Series.... But events that don't make headline news often are more important than those that do. That quiet backdrop is explored by Sir Harold Evans, a British journalist, in "They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine -- Two Centuries of Innovation," (Little Brown & Co.) In an interview in the winter issue of "Invention & Technology" magazine, he is quoted as saying that America became economically strong through the "adaptive...

CHANDLER, Ariz. (Reuters) - From a wind-swept industrial site in the Sonoran Desert, Intel Corp. (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , appears to be gearing up for battle. Construction crews hammer away at an unprecedented $2 billion upgrade to one of Intel's two Arizona factories, preparing the world's largest chip maker to safeguard its lead in manufacturing from resurgent rivals and to put recent costly missteps behind it. The stakes are high: If Intel can pull off its complex renovation of the 8-year-old Fab 12 plant, it could pioneer a much cheaper alternative to building chip fabrication facilities from scratch. For...

In 2005, IBM plans to bring a significant feature from higher-end servers to the next generation of its PowerPC 970 processor line used in Apple Computer machines and Big Blue's own blade servers. The next-generation chip will have technology that lets it run multiple operating systems simultaneously, said Karl Freund, vice president of IBM eServer pSeries. Doing so allows a computer to handle more jobs at the same time and to be used more efficiently. The technology, called partitioning, relies on a concept called virtualization that breaks the hard link between an operating system and the underlying hardware. Partitioning is...

MUMBAI(BOMBAY): At 26, Ajit Fernandes has bought a house and a car, something his parents could never have dreamt of doing in their salad days. "I have bought both on credit. But I am confident of paying off my loans as the outsourcing industry is booming and salaries are rising," said the operations manager of a suburban call centre. Fernandes is typical of a burgeoning breed of young people reaping the dividends of India's economic reforms. Armed with confidence in the future and hefty wallets, they are splurging on items from branded clothes to plush apartments. "My home is an...

In July 2003, Sam Palmisano, the chief executive of IBM, traveled to Beijing to explore the sale of the company's personal computer business. But he did not start by making the usual visit with executives of IBM's preferred partner, Lenovo, China's largest personal computer maker. Instead, Palmisano first engaged in a bit of old-fashioned courtship. Before formally approaching Lenovo, he sought permission from the parents, by meeting privately with a senior Chinese government official in charge of economic and technology policy. IBM was not merely looking to sell its PC business, Palmisano told the official, but had bigger aspirations of...

IBM (Quote, Chart) and AMD (Quote, Chart) have devised a new silicon transistor technology they claim will boost the speeds of single- and dual-core chips. (excerpts) The process, known as "Dual Stress Liner," uses IBM and AMD's jointly developed strained silicon technology and could increase transistor speed as much as 24 percent without using any additional power, the two companies said. IBM and AMD said the technique works without the help of additional new processes, which may be welcome news for chipmakers struggling to boost chip speeds without overheating computer systems. "Innovation has surpassed scaling as the primary driver of...

BEIJING: Chinese consumers are likely to displace their US counterparts as the "engine" of the growth in the global economy by 2014, a study by a leading global investment bank has found. The study, made by Credit Suisse First Boston's (CSFB) global equity strategy team released on Thursday, forecasts the US dollar value of Chinese consumption spending in 10 years will represent 37 per cent of the US and 11 per cent of global consumption spending, versus nine per cent and three per cent respectively in 2004. For 2004, the CSFB estimates that the US dollar value of Chinese household...

CULTURAL EVOLUTION December 9, 2004 Margaret Warner discusses IBM's sale of its personal computer business to one of China's top PC makers with a technology expert and a China analyst. MARGARET WARNER: The company that pioneered the personal computer is leaving the business. IBM, which brought the first PC to market in 1981, announced this week it's selling its PC business to China's top personal computer company, Lenovo. The $1.75 billion deal will make Lenovo number three in the global PC Market, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Lenovo will move its headquarters to New York City. And the deal gives IBM...

To some major Massachusetts employers, this year's advent of same-sex "marriage" means the end of their domestic-partnership benefit programs. The decision by IBM Corp., the New York Times Co. and Northeastern University to offer health benefits only to "married" same-sex couples pleases some advocates, but troubles others. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's Goodridge decision, which legalized same-sex "marriage" as of May 17, "leveled the playing field," said Candace Quinn, vice president of Baystate Health System, which employs 90,000 people. Years ago, she said, Baystate started offering domestic-partner benefits to its homosexual employees, because "they had no other option to cover...

IBM will sell its PC division to China-based Lenovo and take a minority stake in the former rival in a deal valued at $1.75 billion, the companies announced Tuesday. The two companies announced a plan to form a complex joint venture that would make Lenovo the third-largest PC maker in the world, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard, but still give IBM a hand in the PC business. The acqusition is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2005. Under the deal, IBM will take an 18.9 percent stake in Lenovo. Lenovo will pay $1.25 billion for the IBM PC...

Lenovo Group, China's Biggest Computer Maker, Acquires IBM's PC Business for $1.75 Billion BEIJING (AP) -- China's biggest computer maker, Lenovo Group, said Wednesday it has acquired a majority stake in International Business Machines Corp.'s personal computer business for $1.75 billion, one of the biggest Chinese overseas acquisitions ever. ADVERTISEMENT The deal shifts IBM to a peripheral role in a corner of the technology industry it pioneered. It creates a joint venture in which Lenovo Group Ltd. takes over the IBM-brand personal computer business, including research and development and manufacturing, while IBM will keep an 18.9 percent stake in the...

China's biggest computer maker, Lenovo Group, said Wednesday it has acquired a majority stake in International Business Machines Corp.'s personal computer business for $1.25 billion, one of the biggest Chinese overseas acquisitions ever. The deal shifts IBM to a peripheral role in a corner of the technology industry it pioneered. It creates a joint venture in which Lenovo Group Ltd. takes over the IBM-brand personal computer business, including research and development and manufacturing, while IBM will keep an 18.5 percent stake in the company, said Lenovo's chairman, Liu Chuanzhi. The deal makes Lenovo the third-largest PC company in the world,...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's largest personal computer maker, Lenovo Group Ltd., said Wednesday it is buying control of IBM's PC-making business for US$1.25 billion, capping the U.S. tech giant's gradual withdrawal from the business it helped pioneer in 1981. The agreement, which forms the world's third largest PC business, calls for Lenovo to pay IBM $650 million in cash, $600 million in Lenovo Group common stock and for Lenovo to assume $500 million in net balance sheet liabilities from IBM.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Tech giant IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is selling its PC-making business to China's largest personal computer maker, Lenovo Group Ltd. (0992.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) , for $1.25 billion, Lenovo said on Wednesday. "Lenovo has acquired IBM's personal services business for $1.25 billion," Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Lenovo Group Ltd., told reporters in Beijing. He said the deal would make Lenovo the world's no. 3 personal computer maker.

China's largest personal computer maker, Lenovo Group Ltd., could announce as early as Tuesday that it is buying control of IBM's PC-making business for up to US$2 billion, a source familiar with the situation said. In its first disclosure that a deal may be imminent, Lenovo said it was in acquisition talks with a major technology company, without identifying the firm. It asked the Hong Kong stock exchange to suspend trading in its shares for a second day, reversing an earlier announcement that trade would resume on Tuesday. "Such discussions are at an advanced stage but no definitive agreement or...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - Its name certainly doesn't carry the recognition of Dell, Hewlett-Packard or Apple Computer, but China's Lenovo Group could climb up the personal-computer food chain if it ends up buying IBM's PC business. Lenovo (HK:992: news, chart, profile), which sells low-margin PCs in China under the Legend brand, is reportedly negotiating for IBM's PC business for as much as $2 billion. IBM officials declined to comment. Lenovo's Legend line is still relatively unknown outside of China, and research firm Gartner Group pegs the company's share of worldwide PC shipments at 2 percent, placing it in 9th place...

International Business Machines, whose first I.B.M. PC in 1981 moved personal computing out of the hobby shop and into the corporate and consumer mainstream, has put the business up for sale, people close to the negotiations said yesterday. While I.B.M. long ago ceded the lead in the personal computer market to Dell and Hewlett-Packard so it could focus instead on the more lucrative corporate server and computer services business, a sale would nonetheless bring the end of an era in an industry that it helped invent. The sale, likely to be in the $1 billion to $2 billion range, is...