Daily Archives: October 8, 2008

Symantec plonks down $695m on MessageLabs

October 8, 2008 11:08 pm

Symantec made its fifth acquisition of the year on Tuesday, continuing a spate of consolidation in the IT security sector with a $695m deal to buy MessageLabs of the UK. 

MessageLabs, which has offices in Gloucester, uses a software-as-a-service model to deliver security for online chat, email and web applications. The company’s software allows customers to block malware, prevent access to certain web sites, and stop the unauthorised transfer of sensitive information. It claims to be the number one such company in the world, with more than 19,000 customers. Read more

Posted in Internet |

The daily carnage report

October 8, 2008 8:55 pm

Downbeat news about the technology sector is getting to be a regular feature around here. Today’s instalment comes courtesy of Citigroup, which published a note this morning slashing its forecasts for PC shipment growth in 2009.

Citi’s IT hardware analysts expect PC shipments to grow just 5 per cent next year, down from a previous estimate of 10-12 per cent. They also trimmed their guidance for this year, to 13 per cent from 15 per cent. hpq-chart.jpg Read more

Posted in Tech |

Richard Waters Enjoyed that dog howling to “My Way”? Then buy the song

October 8, 2008 1:40 am by Richard Waters

howling-dog.jpgOn Thursday it will be two years since Google shelled out $1.65bn for YouTube, and sometimes it feels like all it’s had in return are escalating legal bills and bandwidth costs that would have bankrupted any other company.

So it was sobering today to talk to Shishir Mehrotra, the former Microsoft executive whose job it is to find ways to make money out of YouTube, and hear him say that the video site is “early in the experimentation process.” Read more

Posted in Digital media, Games, Internet |