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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) late on Wednesday rolled out a new version of its database software aimed at users of Linux (news - web sites) and Unix (news - web sites) operating systems that it hopes will help the company take away market share from market leader Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq:ORCL - news). IBM said the latest version of its DB2 software that runs on Linux and Unix automatically self-manages databases, allowing companies to better manage, process and retrieve data such as product pricing. Armonk, New York-based IBM said that the latest database software,...

Revisiting the Technology Generals A look at the Technology Generals, posted on October 9, 2003 included my fundamental overview of Intel Corp., and technical analyses of the large capitalization technology leaders of the rally from the October 2002 “bottom.?At that time Intel and Dell Computer were looking technically strong, while Cisco was facing technical resistance, which it subsequently broke to the upside. Microsoft and Oracle were weak; however, with the backdrop of a strong Nasdaq continuing into mid January of 2004, each of the five stocks posted significant gains, before topping with the broader market. Tonight I will revisit the...

SOPHISTICATED INVESTOR Emperor Buffett has no clothesHis buy-and-hold strategy deprives investors of useful tools By Thomas Kostigen, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 8:34 PM ET March 15, 2004 SANTA MONICA, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- Warren Buffett may be the most overrated money manager in history. Last year, his investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA: news, chart, profile) (BRKB: news, chart, profile) underperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 Index by nearly 8 percentage points. Some $36 billion of his holdings are in cash, or cash equivalents. He sidestepped the dot.com bubble (and all those gains too). He barely participates in the technology sector (besides a...

<p>A state investigation into the Davis administration's troubled 2001 software deal with the Oracle Corp. showed "no evidence of illegality" or corruption relating to the contract, Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Tuesday.</p> <p>What Lockyer called the "possible conclusion of the Oracle investigation" came as he filed 12 felony counts against former Gov. Gray Davis' policy director, Kari Dohn, for allegedly falsifying computerized documents nearly a year after the deal was completed in May 2001 - just as investigations were getting under way.</p>

SACRAMENTO - Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Tuesday filed a dozen-count obstruction-of-justice complaint against a central figure in the last gubernatorial administration's Oracle debacle -- but his investigators unearthed no criminal wrongdoing in the awarding of a no-bid contract to the software giant. Kari Dohn, a policy adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis, is accused of doctoring her computerized schedule and internal progress reports after they were requested by a legislative audit committee investigating the state's $95-million contract for Oracle database software. Dohn is scheduled for arraignment in Sacramento Superior Court on Wednesday and is expected to plead not guilty....

<p>Attorney General Bill Lockyer today will file multiple felony charges of falsifying documents against a key aide to former Gov. Gray Davis, stemming from her involvement in the state's troubled bid to buy Oracle Corp. database software, sources said.</p> <p>The charges against Kari Dohn, the Democratic governor's former director of policy, will be announced at a morning press conference and come after more than 18 months of investigation.</p>

<p>It was only a couple of years ago that Larry Ellison, the charismatic CEO of Oracle Corp., was urging the dogs of antitrust to chase down Bill Gates and Microsoft. How things have changed. Somewhere along the way, the pups got loose and turned on him. Now Oracle itself may wind up feeling the antitrust bite.</p>

LARRY ELLISON IS one of the richest men in the United States. But as an investor, I'm not jealous of the founder of Oracle (ORCL). Let me tell you why. I happen to live quite near him in a town in Silicon Valley, and almost every day I drive by the site of the astonishing new home he has spent the last several years building. On what is perhaps the most expensive residential acreage not just in California but in the world, he has built a 45-acre Japanese palace and installed himself as shogun. You can't drive by it without...

Bill Gates must be laughing his head off. Following a months-long investigation, the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday said that it would seek to block Oracle's hostile bid to acquire PeopleSoft, arguing that it would result in higher prices for technology, fewer choices and less innovation. Setting aside the question of whether Uncle Sam has a case or not, Gates surely must be savoring the moment as Larry Ellison, one of the handmaidens to the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, is finally being hoisted on his own petard. Ellison was one of the most outspoken figures in Silicon Valley...

J.D. Edwards, PeopleSoft deal came in fits and starts By Jennifer Beauprez Denver Post Business Writer Sunday, June 08, 2003 - Robert Dutkowsky flew out to his son's high school graduation in Boston on Thursday thinking that after eight months of cloak-and- dagger negotiations with PeopleSoft Inc., his work was done. It wasn't. The next day, just four days after the chief executive of J.D. Edwards & Co. inked a $1.7 billion deal to sell the Denver software firm to competitor PeopleSoft, Oracle Corp. swooped in. Redwood City, Calif.-based Oracle made an unsolicited $5.1 billion bid to take over PeopleSoft...

Whew! For a minute there I thought the growing trend of sending technology jobs overseas was another example of Silicon Valley companies caring more about profits than people. But no, no, no. Such thinking is wrong-headed. Ask the companies that are moving work to India, China and elsewhere. They're doing it to ``be close to our customers'' or to ``follow the sun'' or to ``free workers up to do more exciting jobs.'' They are definitely not -- and this is important -- they are not doing it to find cheap labor and bigger profits. In fact, such thinking is hurtful....

Oracle opens Beijing R&D center Oracle announced the official opening of its new Beijing research and development center Wednesday, part of the database software maker's ongoing expansion into China. The Beijing center is the second major engineering facility that the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company has set up in China in the past two years. Last year, it opened an R&D office in the southern city of Shenzhen that employs about 100 software developers. Oracle didn't disclose the size of it new Beijing staff. China is Oracle's fastest growing market. The company has seen sales of its products rise 50...

Sunday, 12 October , 2003, 12:38 Oracle Corporation will move 27 per cent of jobs from its Rocklin facility in California in the US to India. Oracle will move 175 of the 650 positions at its Rocklin facility to India within the next seven months, reports said quoting sources. The jobs that will be moved to India will be in payroll and accounting and data entry. The company has also taken steps that would make it easier to sell real estate it owns in Rocklin, the reports said. Oracle, based in Redwood Shores, California, is one of the world leaders...

Maybe it's a coincidence that the worst blackout in U.S. history occurred the same week as Hollywood released its latest horror blockbuster, Jason vs. Freddy. But the stark images of America's (and Canada's) major cities gone dark, people having to choose between exhaustion or sleeping on the sidewalk, and the terrifying experience of walking in darkened subway tunnels is reminiscent of that stock theme of scary movies: ordinary, everyday events turn into horror spectacles — and no one saw or heeded the warnings. The missed signs of the blackout and, less seriously, those of the standard horror picture, serve as...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO—A bomb scare on Wednesday caused the evacuation of two technology conferences being held at the Moscone Center here, sending about 14,000 attendees onto the nearby streets and sidewalks.</p> <p>After searching the emptied convention center for about two hours, San Francisco police said they had found no indications of a bomb and cleared the center for re-entry at 4:20 p.m. Pacific time. The evacuation cancelled the OracleWorld and the Seybold Seminars San Francisco 2003 conferences for the rest of the day, and managers of both shows said they planned to resume their conferences on Thursday morning.</p>

<p>Larry Ellison is chairman and chief executive officer of Oracle Corp., a business softwaremaker in Redwood City. The company reported net income of $2.3 billion on revenue of $9.47 billion for the fiscal year ended May 31.</p> <p>Oracle, with a current market capitalization of about $72 billion, employs 40,000 people, including 18,000 in the United States and 22,000 in other countries. Ellison, who co-founded Oracle in 1977, controls about 25 percent of the company's common shares and exercisable options, and has a net worth of at least $18 billion. He was ranked as the ninth-richest American in 2002 by Forbes magazine.</p>

Connecticut's attorney general got the market's attention when he announced his intention to file an antitrust suit against Oracle (ORCL) on Wednesday. But he'd better enjoy it while he can. Making the case stick won't be easy. "It sounds as though Connecticut's criticism is that, as a customer, the successor to his supplier is not as desirable as the one he has now. That's a fair concern for a customer to raise, but it's not an antitrust issue. It's a matter of contract rights," said Emmett Stanton, an antitrust specialist and partner in the Silicon Valley law firm of Fenwick...

NEW YORK (AFP) - Software giant Oracle announced a 5.1 billion dollar hostile takeover offer for business software maker PeopleSoft, offering a six percent premium to PeopleSoft's current share price. Oracle said would support PeopleSoft's previously announced acquisition of rival software maker J.D. Edwards for 1.7 billion dollars.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oracle Corp., the world's No. 2 software maker, said on Friday it offered to buy rival PeopleSoft Inc. for $5.1 billion, a move designed to bolster its flagging position in business software programs. The deal signals the growing readiness by software executives to consolidate the struggling sector as corporate spending on technology has waned amid the slumping economy. Oracle said it would bypass management and go directly to shareholders on Monday with a cash offer of $16 a share, a 6 percent premium over PeopleSoft's closing price of $15.11 in Thursday's Nasdaq trading. PeopleSoft shares rose...

<p>A grand jury investigation into obstruction of justice allegations against the Davis administration has run into trouble as key witnesses have "covered their tracks," cited their Fifth Amendment rights against incriminating themselves and balked at turning over evidence, according to state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.</p>