Five Companies That Came To Win This Week

Dell Swaggers Into Enterprise Software With $2.4 Billion Quest Deal

Dell this week completed its long running pursuit of Quest Software by ponying up $2.4 billion to acquire the company.

Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Quest offers six categories of software, including database management, data protection, performance monitoring, user workspace management, windows server management, and identity and access management. Dell plans to integrate Quest's software offerings with current Dell hardware and software.

VMware Adds To Cloud Management Arsenal With DynamicOps Deal

VMware's acquisition of DynamicOps, a Burlington, Mass.-based cloud management startup, is an acknowledgement that its customers need to be able to manage other vendors' public and private clouds from within their VMware environments.

DynamicOps, which started out as a spinoff from Credit Suisse’s IT unit, extends VMware's vCloud Director management capabilities to other vendors' public and private cloud resource pools, Ramin Sayar, VMware's vice president and general manager of cloud infrastructure and management, told CRN.

VMware customers will use vCloud Director to define multi-tenancy, and DynamicOps will coordinate the business logic and placement of which users get access to which resources. "This brings the ability to govern and control the provisioning of apps and services across heterogeneous pools," Sayar said.

Ixia Shells Out $160 Million To Acquire Security Vendor BreakingPoint

Network testing vendor Ixia acquired BreakingPoint Systems for $160 million in cash, a move that brings Ixia the technology for identifying security threats on networks.

BreakingPoint posted $33.5 million in revenue in 2011 and is expected to grow 40 percent this year, according to Ixia. It also has a large global solution provider channel and serves enterprise, government and service provider customers as well as a number of network equipment vendors, including Cisco and Juniper.

Samsung's Profit Jumps On Handset Sales In Q2

Samsung this week issued a second-quarter profit forecast of $5.7 billion -- a number that would exceed the company's previous quarterly profit record by more than 14 percent -- and revenue of $41.4 billion. The results were driven in large part by booming demand for Samsung's Galaxy S smartphone. Samsung, now the world's largest mobile device vendor by volume, expects to sell more than 10 million Galaxy S smartphones this month, according to the Associated Press.

Microsoft Offering Windows 8 Professional Upgrades For $39.99

Microsoft this week said it is planning to sell Windows 8 Professional upgrades for $39.99, and it will throw in Windows Media Center for free. This price is part of a promotion set to run through Jan. 31, 2013, that's aimed at building market share in aggressive fashion.

The $39.99 price, available to owners of PCs running Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7, applies to customers who download Windows 8 from Windows.com. A packaged DVD version of the upgrade will be available through retail channels for $69.99 during the promotion.

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