Stacy Cowley

As part of its bid for a foothold in the enterprise applications market, Microsoft Corp. initiated merger discussions late last year with enterprise resource planning leader SAP AG. The talks ended several months ago after Microsoft decided the deal and the post-union integration would be too risky.

As part of its bid for a foothold in the enterprise applications market, Microsoft Corp. initiated merger discussions late last year with enterprise resource planning leader SAP AG. The talks ended several months ago after Microsoft decided the deal and the post-union integration would be too risky.

Microsoft Corp. this week released its Windows Template Library (WTL) technology under an open-source license, marking the second time the company has turned one of its projects over to the SourceForge.net development site.

IBM Corp. is looking to broaden its Workplace architecture for component-based application delivery beyond the Lotus portfolio in which Workplace got its start.

PeopleSoft Inc. is preparing a major sales push and technology update for the World software it inherited in its July acquisition of J.D. Edwards & Co. The company will soon release PeopleSoft World Express, a small business-aimed repackaging of the World software, with new features tailoring the suite for customers in four industrial markets, it said Monday.

PeopleSoft Inc. is preparing a major sales push and technology update for the World software it inherited in its July acquisition of J.D. Edwards & Co. The company will soon release PeopleSoft World Express, a small business-aimed repackaging of the World software, with new features tailoring the suite for customers in four industrial markets, it said Monday.

Management software maker BMC Software Inc. will spend US$239 million to buy configuration software developer Marimba Inc., the companies announced Thursday.

Computer Associates International Inc. appointed board member Kenneth Cron its interim chief executive officer on Monday, and promoted recent hire Jeff Clarke to chief operating officer.