James Niccolai

IBM Corp. hopes to do for its Power processor what it helped do for Linux: create a bigger market in which lots of vendors can play, and earn more money for IBM in the process. At an event in Barcelona last week it announced that 11 new members have joined Power.org, a consortium set up in December for organizations developing Power-based chips, systems, software and tools.

Oracle Corp. has agreed to buy TimesTen Inc., a privately held company that makes software for boosting the performance of database applications used for stock trading, airline reservations and other areas where fast response times are important, Oracle announced.

EBay Inc. continued its recent acquisition spree by agreeing to buy comparison shopping site Shopping.com Inc. for about $620 million in cash. The move by the two companies, is designed to benefit eBay's sellers by giving them access to a new sales channel and a new set of buyers, while Shopping.com will be improved by the addition of eBay's listings on its site, the companies said.

Microsoft Corp. will begin distributing a modified version of its Windows XP operating system to PC makers in Europe on June 15, more than a year after it was ordered to do so as part of the European Commission's antitrust ruling against the company.

Microsoft Corp. will begin distributing a modified version of its Windows XP operating system to PC makers in Europe on June 15, more than a year after it was ordered to do so as part of the European Commission's antitrust ruling against the company.

Fresh from its takeover of PeopleSoft Inc., Oracle Corp. was recently in discussions about the possibility of buying out another applications rival, Siebel Systems Inc., although the talks are no longer active, according to published reports.

Oracle Corp. recovered ground in the worldwide relational database market last year to draw roughly level with IBM Corp., thanks in part to Oracle's strong performance in the fast-growing Linux segment, according to new figures from Gartner Inc.

Nortel Networks Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Canada's Nortel Networks Corp., plans to buy government IT services provider PEC Solutions Inc. for about US$448 million, Nortel announced Tuesday.