IBM reported strong preliminary fourth-quarter results that sent the technology company's shares sharply higher. IBM said earnings from continuing operations were $2.80 a share, up 24 percent from $2.26 a year earlier, while revenue rose 10 percent to $28.9 billion. Overseas sales helped results beat analysts' estimates. [WSJ]
The state of New York is launching its own investigation into Intel's anticompetitive behavior, adding to a list including the European Commission and Korea, all egged on by chipmaking rival AMD. It's only natural for New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo to want in on the action. The accusations are similar to other investigations: penalizing computer makers who purchase non-Intel chips, improperly signing exclusive contracts, and cutting off competitors' access to distribution channels. In other words, conducting business a bit too effectively for rivals' tastes. Note that IBM's main chip-assembly plant is based in New York.
CEO Sam Palmisano is proud of how "responsible" IBM has been. But don't forget: A corporation's only true duty is to its shareholders. And that's reflected in IBM's 2007 Corporate Responsibility Report. There's no cost-savings measure that can't be spun as a do-good move. Like IBM's Healthy Livings initiative, which effectively punishes employees for being fat. In 2007, Palmisano proudly writes, that program was expanded to cover employees' fat children as well. Technically, thin employees and their brood get "rebates," but it adds up to the same thing: Big Blue makes you pay for being big. After the jump, the chest-thumping brag from Palmisano, who's not that small-boned himself.
Those not initiated in the mysteries of databases, i.e. most of us, may think that Amazon.com's new SimpleDB service is competition for established databases from Microsoft, Oracle, and IBM. It's not. Nor is it, in the lofty language of Web-computing evangelists, a "cloud-based" alternative to large Web databases. But it's probably a perfect match for your stupid Web 2.0 startup, which makes it a genius move by Amazon.
IBM wants to embed advertising into your DVDs. An application filed with the Patent Office outlines a scheme to insert unskippable ads into your home viewing experience, presumably as a way to cash in on the rental market. You might not want to return that Internet-ready HD-DVD player you bought on Friday. [Ars Technica]
We were joking when we wrote about Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos' one-click patent system for taking out obvious patents. IBM — which holds more patents than anyone — just submitted an idea for "a system and methods for extracting value from a portfolio of assets, for example a patent portfolio." IBM pictures a system for purchasing licensing rights "like fire insurance." In other words, companies could buy the rights to a patent portfolio like IBM's as a legal shield against patent trolls. OK, but will we be able to do it with one click? (Photo by AP/Mark Lennihan)
As mascots go, I wouldn't have picked a cowducken. But that's what IBM is using to sell its Lotus Notes software. A marketing campaign with the slogan "Create Simplicity" lets you mix and match animal parts as a metaphor for its all-in-one office software. The unwieldy chimeras make me think of a hideous mound of software with poorly matched parts — probably not what IBM was going for.
"As the 3D Internet becomes more integrated with the current Web, we see users demanding more from these environments and desiring virtual worlds that are fit for business," says IBM's VP of digital convergence, Colin Parris, while discussing his company's partnership with Linden Lab. In other words, Second Life isn't up to snuff, and Big Blue wants to handle the upgrade. [Worlds in Motion]
Google and IBM have partnered to help teach computer-science students how to program for computing "clusters" — the large arrays of networked servers that run Google and that IBM hopes to sell to customers. Do-gooding educational philanthropy, or a scheme to get universities to sign up the student body for on-the-job training specifically designed for a career at Google? Why, a bit of both. [Google]
SCO, a company which once claimed to own the rights to the Unix operating system and all Linux derivatives, is, unsurprisingly, one step closer to its deathbed. Nasdaq has sent a notice that they will be delisted from the exchange. Refusing to admit the fight is over, SCO will appeal the delisting. But with its cases against IBM and Novell in tatters, a bankruptcy filing, and dwindling cash reserves, the persistent litigator is unlikely to reverse Nasdaq's decision, which comes after after earlier warnings from the exchange.
Italian IBM workers, angered by a $1,377-a-year salary trim, will be taking their unrest to the virtual streets on September 25. The grand plan is to converge on IBM's Second Life campus. Of course. If there's any way to raise awareness for your cause, it's in a virtual world where you aren't actually disrupting anything. [Boing Boing]
IBM marketers seem to be buying into the Second Life marketing slogan, "Engage." It's now staffing its virtual business center 24 hours a day during the working week. One hopes they're using cheap offshore labor, as we really don't want to meet people willing to work a graveyard shift in Second Life. [Virtual Worlds News]
Let's get this straight: IBM, surveying ordinary consumers like the folks pictured here, says that people are shifting from watching TV to using the Internet. Google executive Marissa Mayer, meanwhile, claims that people are shifting from surfing the Web to using cell phones. Please, someone come out with a study saying that people are tiring of their cell phones and switching on the boob tube, just to make this consumer-behavior merry-go-round come full circle.
Why can't virtual worlds just die a quiet, dignified death? Because Businessweek Online has proclaimed them the future of the Internet, that's why. Google, IBM and Second Life creator Linden Lab are currently plotting to turn the entire World Wide Web into a virtual world. God help us all. Picture this: You go on a virtual shopping trip with virtual representations of your virtual friends to virtually try on jeans that you can buy on the virtual spot. After your avatar finishes her modeling spree, you can — *gasp* — brave the sunlight to purchase the exact same pair in a brick-and-mortar store. Never mind that your avatar is 10 sizes smaller than the real you. Details.
Why is the New York Times tripping over itself to laud IBM for its "nimbleness"? Clearly visible in the accompanying chart but not mentioned in the article, IBM's total revenue and service-sector growth have been stagnant over the same period. Moreover, the transition to services has been underway for a decade, if not longer. Surely IBM's still-substantial print advertising budget and propensity for taking out full-page newspaper ads has nothing to do with the article's velvet-glove treatment of Big Blue. But how else to explain the article's un-Timesian enthusiasm over such modest change?
An IBM chip plant machinist in upstate New York has sued the company for $5 million, claiming he was wrongfully terminated after being caught logging in to sex chat rooms at work. James Pacenza doesn't deny the sextalk, but he says he's an addict who uses the chat-porn to deal with his post-traumatic stress from Vietnam. No, really:
I.B.M. take Amazon to court over a software patent which according to Big Blue's Sr. V.P. of Shakedowns and Extortion John E. Kelly III:
