Stacy Cowley

IBM Corp. will create a US$25 million, two-year training fund to assist employees who fear their that jobs are at risk of being shipped away to lower-cost locations, company executives said Monday at IBM's PartnerWorld conference.

Salesforce.com Inc. unleashed a high-profile executive poaching, a pair of significant customer wins, and details of its product road map for the next year, as it positioned for a public offering likely to be one of the IT industry's splashiest since the dot-com meltdown.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit Thursday to block Oracle Corp.'s attempted hostile takeover of PeopleSoft Inc.

Pivotal Corp. held its long-delayed shareholders' meeting Monday, giving its investors a chance to ratify at last the company's plans to sell itself. Pivotal closed Wednesday on its acquisition by Chinadotcom Corp. unit CDC Software, according to a Pivotal spokesman.

Siebel Systems Inc. executives used a day-long meeting with analysts on Friday to reiterate many of the themes mapped out at Siebel's User Week conference in October.

Avidian Technologies LLC, a company targeting the smallest end of the market for CRM (customer relationship management) applications, on Tuesday released an update that adds new synchronization and data-sharing features to its sales-management software.

Analytics and reporting software vendor Cognos Inc. released the latest version of its Enterprise Planning Series suite on Tuesday, boosting the integration between Cognos' flagship applications and its newer additions based on technology the company picked up in its acquisition last year of Adaytum Inc.

Software and services vendor Compuware Corp. announced Thursday plans to acquire Michigan neighbor Covisint LLC, an automotive industry e-services firm. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Compuware said it expects the acquisition to close within 30 days.