It looks like Microsoft’s renamed Windows Live Search, Bing, is not a joke after all, as StatCounter has recorded that on June 4, the website managed to beat Yahoo, by taking some of the market share from Google – which is a big deal, as Google typically ranges above the 80 percent mark.
The consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, has announced that it will not oppose the proposed merger between Vodafone’s Australian operations and Hutchison Telecom Australia to create a 50/50 joint venture company.
The new company, Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), is now cleared to finalise their merger after being cleared to merge by the Foreign Investment Board and the European Commission.
The couple who listed their tractor for a dollar on TradeMe and offered to throw in their farm for free have been left “furious” after the winning bidder was denied finance by his bank and the sale fell through.
The Catlins couple Shelley and Allan Holland listed a tractor with a catch, You buy the tractor, you get a free farm.
Shelly and Allan listed the auction for $1 Reserve and within the first 10 minutes bidding was at $5500.
The Auction fetched over 380,000 views and over 1500 Comments, with over 1400 questions answered.
TradeMe business manager Mike O’Donnell said all of the top bidders had been contacted before the close of the sale, to ensure bids were legitimate. They had spoken to the eventual winner, Wainuiomata man Lance Karanga, twice, he said.
Mr Karanga raised the auction by $16968 from $233,032 to $250,000
While the auction maybe legally binding Mrs Holland said legal action was not being considered at this stage.
Mr Karanga has also had his TradeMe membership terminated.
- Lukc Chandler Reporting for TECHGEEK.com.au
IN DEPTH : European regulators have found Intel guilty and has placed a €1.06 billion fine for engaging in illegal anticompetitive practises that excluded its rival, AMD, from entering the computer chips market – the largest fine ever made since Microsoft’s anticompetitive fine in 2004.
The leader of Telstra’s ongoing program to transform their existing IT infrastructure, Tom Lamming, has said that he will be leaving Telstra and will go back to his home country, the United States of America, on 30 June, according to the telco.
Lamming is the second high-profile person to leave the company within the last two weeks, and will follow several of his US based colleagues back home. He was appointed during the tenure of previous CEO Sol Trujillo, who will be succeeded by Telstra’s Enterprise and Government division head, David Thodey.
As of today, all of US executives appointed to Trujillo have left Telstra.
“This has been one of the most challenging but rewarding jobs that anyone could ever do,” Lamming said in a press release.
“Telstra’s transformation is the largest, most comprehensive and successful I have ever seen, and we have implemented it at speed. The wider transformation has touched all parts of Telstra and the IT program has played a significant role.”
His successor has not been appointed yet.
The European Commission is set to fine the largest chip maker, Intel, on Wednesday over breaking antitrust rules within the European Union, people familiar with the case told both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters over the weekend.
As Telstra sets to bring in David Thodey as the company’s new chief executive, replacing Sol Trujillo; Telstra’s chairman Donald McGauchie has resigned his post as Chairman of the Board, effective immediately, as a surprise to many.
Board member Catherine Livingstone will assume McGauchie’s role. Livingstone has been with the board of directors since 2000 and has been a recipient of an Order of Australia – one of Australia’s prestigious awards.
In a blow to a rumoured deal with IBM, Sun Microsystems has announced that Oracle has agreed to buy the Java and MySQL owner for US$7.4 billion, or US$9.50 per share – a 10 cent increase to what IBM was bidding for, in a shocking announcement that managed to send Sun’s share up by nearly 37 percent.
The board has unanimously approved the deal – unlike the rejection of the IBM bid – and the company’s shareholders will have to vote on the merger. It has been widely thought that IBM and Sun would make a deal, but a rift was between the two companies on whether to let them have a way to back out of a deal on not.
It has been reported and confirmed on a number of news and tech sites that the software giant Sun Micro will be bought out Oracle for $9.50USD a share, equaling an approximate $5.6 Billion USD (Net) deal to be closed at the end of August.
IBM backed out of a deal earlier this year which prompted the way for Oracle to take advantage of the falling apart. It is believed that this buyout will add 15 cents a share to Oracle’s share stock and price.
Google has reported its earnings today, saying that it has earned US$5.51 billion for the first quarter of 2009, representing an increase of six percent, if compared to year by year; but also represents a decrease of three percent if compared to the fourth quarter of 2008.
This revenue growth was thanks in part to its international activities, representing 52 percent of its total revenue, compared to 50 percent in Q4 2008, and 51 percent in Q1 2008. However, the slip in its revenue between quarters is a first for the company.
Nokia, the number one maker of mobile phones in terms of market share, has reported in its first quarter of 2009 earnings today, and has said that it had a worse-than expected 90 percent drop in its net profit, as the phone maker faces a difficult year as the economic slowdown continues to hit hard.
Net profit, according to the Wall Street Journal, plummeted to €122 million, from €1.22 billion last year – missing the expectations by analysts to fall to €306 million.
Yahoo is said to be planning a new round of layoffs from the embattled company, the first for the new chief executive Carol Bartz, who succeeded co-founder Jerry Yang (who remains in the company as “Chief Yahoo”), according to the New York Times, quoting unnamed sources.
The layoffs could be announced as early as Tuesday, when Yahoo is expected to report its first quarter results for this year (Q1 2009), and could affect several hundreds of employees. Yahoo has declined to comment, citing policy not to discuss speculation and rumours.
The company previously had cut 1,000 employees in early 2008, with an additional 1,400 jobs going in the forth quarter of 2008 (Q4 2008), in an effort to limit expenditure in the troubling economy.
Yahoo’s growth has been slowed down in recent years, after losing its market share in advertising and in search. It also missed several opportunities to acquire sites like YouTube and Facebook, both becoming popular sites for younger web users. It also missed a chance to be bought out by Microsoft, after Jerry Yang and the board opted to reject the bid – sending Yahoo’s share price in a freefall.
Reports have also indicated that Yahoo is looking to sell some of its business units that do not meet the core mission that Yahoo has, including recruiting site Hotjobs.
Starting today, Telstra has announced that it will be making any calls to the Italian city of L’Aquila free; as Australians are calling the city to check on their family members and friends after the recent earthquake, measuring at a magnitude of 6.3.
“To help Australians who are concerned about their friends and family in Italy, Telstra is offering its residential customers free fixed-line telephone calls to contact loved ones during this difficult time,” Jenny Yong, Consumer Executive Director, said in a statement.
“Calls made to L’Aquila Italy during this time will automatically be billed at zero.”
To be eligible, the calls must be between a Australian fixed-line to an Italian fixed-line; using the following prefixes: +39-832 (L’Aquila), +39-863 (Avezzano), +39-864 (Pratola Peligna), +39-746 (Reiti) and +39-861 (Teramo). Please also note that you may still experience difficulties connecting to Italy, even though lines are still open.
This follows a similar thing that Telstra has done with people living in the Gaza Strip in January because of the fighting between Hamas and the Isareli forces. Telstra has also said that if you have been billed for the call, contact Telstra to have those charges rebated.
This will last until midnight on Thursday 16th of April.
Shareholders will be watching Sun and IBM shares very carefully now when the markets open tomorrow (in the US), as merger talks between the two companies have been called off; according to sources talking to both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
A merger between Sun and IBM would given them a total combined share in the computer server market of 42 percent, overshadowing rivals HP’s 29.5 percent and Dell’s 11.6 percent. Both companies also rival in productivity suites; however, OpenOffice (Sun’s offering in the market) is free and available to download for Windows, Mac or Linux.
It was a simple April Fools Day prank that sent Telstra share prices up to 5 percent. However, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission – known to not have a sense of humour – is now investigating how the spoof article managed to whip up such a frenzy.
The article, published in Computerworld, said that Telstra was going to split into two divisions – retail and wholesale divisions – in its bid to secure the national broadband contract that was to be awarded next week. However, while it was April 1 here; it was March 31 in the US. It has been reported that it also failed to contain a disclaimer.
