Briefs: September 18, 2006

MICROSOFT TAPS BURGUM'S SUCCESSOR

An MBS veteran, Nadella for the past five years has been responsible for the group's research and development worldwide. He will report to Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division.

Burgum had previously announced plans to step down as operational MBS chief once a replacement was found. He will stay on as MBS senior vice president for several months to ease the transition.

"I've decided to help with the transition but leave at the end of the fiscal year. We made the decision that it's not necessary to invest meaning in a new role," Burgum told reporters in a conference call Tuesday.

MBS just came off its first-ever profitable year earning $24 million on sales of $919 million compared with a loss of $171 million on sales of $784 million for the previous fiscal year.

MICROSOFT'S WINDOWS LIVE SEARCH ENGINE DEBUTS
Microsoft's much-anticipated Windows Live Search Web search engine was officially launched Sept. 12.

The search engine is now available at Live.com and replaces the current MSN search engine, which trails behind Google and Yahoo in third place with roughly 10 percent market share, according to Nielsen's NetRatings.

Windows Live Search offers a redesigned, customizable user interface, related search feature, Image search and SmartScroll, Live Local Search and a Live Q&A feature.

As part of the launch, Microsoft also introduced a Live.com Web site for customizing one's personal search Web page with news, images, video, RSS feeds and blogs, Microsoft said. Windows Live Search, which moved into beta testing in March, represents the next generation of Web search from Microsoft.

KUMAR'S SENTENCING DELAYED UNTIL OCT. 12 IN CA FRAUD CASE
Former CA CEO Sanjay Kumar has been given an extra month before being sentenced for his admitted role in securities fraud and obstruction of justice at the developer.

Kumar pleaded guilty to a nine-count indictment in April and was scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 12. Now he is slated to receive his sentence Oct. 12, according to a Department of Justice spokesman.

The sentencing for Kumar's co-defendant Stephen Richards, once a top CA sales executive who plead guilty alongside Kumar, has been delayed until Oct. 16. The extensions were granted at the request of the defense. Kumar's lawyer, Jack Cooney of the law firm Davis Polk and Wardwell, was unavailable for comment.

RED HAT ENTERPRISE LINUX 5 ENTER BETA TESTING
Red Hat released its Xen-enabled Enterprise Linux 5 code into beta testing on Sept. 8 and plans to issue a release candidate in late fall. The product launch now is slated for early in the winter. Red Hat originally committed to shipping the code by end of 2006.

A Red Hat spokeswoman issued a statement last week indicating that the product timetable has changed to allow for more testing of the open-source Xen virtualization technology, which is considered the biggest new feature. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Beta 1 release contains virtualization on the i386 and x86_64 architectures, as well as a technology preview for IA64.

Aside from Xen, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Beta 1 features AutoFS and iSCSI network storage support, smart card integration, SELinux security, clustering and a cluster file system, Infiniband and RDMA support, and Kexec and Kdump, which replace the current Diskdump and Netdump. Beta 1 also incorporates improvements to the installation process, analysis and development tools called SystemTap and Frysk.

INCENTRA SOLUTIONS CONTINUES VAR ACQUISITION SPREE
MSP Incentra Solutions has bulked up its IT and storage management services muscle with yet another solution provider acquisition.

Incentra last week acquired Tactix, a storage, networking and security solution provider, for $3.6 million in cash, subject to certain post-closing working capital adjustments.

Thomas Sweeney, chairman and CEO of Incentra, said the acquisition gives the company a growing $12 million business with offices in Portland, Ore., and Alaska. The Tactix deal brings to Incentra a strong group of people headed by Brian Linse, president of Tactix, who's expected to stay with Incentra after the acquisition closes, Sweeney said.

Incentra, one of the few survivors of the storage service provider (SSP) part of the dot-com era, currently manages about 1,500 Tbytes worldwide. That capacity is in place in data centers worldwide and managed from the company's network operating center in Boulder, Colo.

Tactix is the fourth solution provider acquisition Incentra has made in two years. In April, the company acquired NST, a $25 million VAR with 300 customers. And in March 2005, Incentra bought PWI Technologies, which followed the acquisition of Star Solutions a month earlier. The Star deal nearly doubled Incentra's revenue, company executives said.

CALIFORNIA AG SAYS ENOUGH EVIDENCE FOR HP INDICTMENTS
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said he has enough evidence to indict people at Hewlett-Packard in an investigation into whether the computer maker had illegally obtained the private phone records of directors and reporters.

Lockyer made the remarks hours after HP Chairman Patricia Dunn said Tuesday she had agreed to step down, in a board shake-up aimed at defusing a deepening scandal over the company's probing of media leaks. "Crimes have been committed," Lockyer said. "People's identities being taken falsely is a crime. People gaining access to computer records that have personal information—in California, that's a crime."

Lockyer did not say if indictments would be issued or to whom, in an interview broadcast last Tuesday.

HP's turmoil began two weeks ago, when it said its board had commissioned outside investigators to root out the source of media leaks dating back to 2005. It said the investigators had used false identities to obtain telephone records of directors and nine journalists.