Nowhere was the anger at Google’s original digital books plan greater than in Germany, where it was seen as blatant cultural imperialism.

So you’d think that Friday night’s news that German books (along with most of the world’s non-English language publications) would now be excluded from the vast digital library would have been greeted with joy.

Not a bit of it.  According to this report, the head of the German publishers and booksellers association now thinks that being left out will only increase the global dominance of the English language. “Progress is now passing us by,” he is quoted as saying.

One of Silicon Valley’s most ambitious “green” start-ups looks like it’s about to join the consolidation that’s sweeping through the solar industry.

Ausra, which was backed by more than $90m in equity from blue-blooded venture capital firms like Kleiner Perkins and  Khosla Ventures, is in talks with three potential acquirers, according to a person familiar with the situation. Possibilities range from a full buy-out of the firm to a majority investment, this person says.

Originally from Australia (hence the name), Ausra’s founders were lured to California two years ago by the flood of VC money that was pouring into solar at the time. Their company is founded on concentrated solar thermal (CST) technology, which uses mirrors to focus the sun’s rays in order to heat water and drive a turbine. Continue reading "Silicon Valley solar pioneer considers a sale"

Despite signs that the over-heated rhetoric is cooling down a bit, it’s too soon to predict a compromise in the transatlantic falling-out over Oracle’s plan to buy Sun.

European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes was more measured in her comments to reporters on Wednesday, suggesting that some sort of agreement might be possible that would protect competition in the database market and allow the dispute to blow over. That certainly sounded less punchy than her own spokesman’s attack on Oracle earlier in the week as “facile and superficial”. Continue reading "EU gets ready to stuff Oracle’s turkey"

Cisco has been on a buying binge as it moves into the collaboration software market. But it has yet to address one overriding question: where’s the glue that will turn an interesting collection of pieces into a coherent whole?

The latest evidence of Cisco’s ambition is on display at its Collaboration Summit, which is taking place in San Francisco the first three days of this week. Among the new products it has unveiled: its first Web-based corporate email service (for as little as $3.50 a month per user) and a social-networking portal for employees to connect with each other.

All well and good. But how do all the pieces fit together? Continue reading "Cisco collaboration: nice pieces, where’s the glue?"

Things at Sun Microsystems do not seem to be quite as bad as Larry Ellison has been suggesting.

The Oracle boss said in late September that Sun was losing $100m a month as European regulators put its $7.4bn acquisition on hold. Then, a month later, Sun announced plans to sack 3,000 workers - a move that was widely seen as having been caused by the European delay.

The latest quarterly figures from Sun, filed with the SEC on Friday, paint a slightly different picture. Continue reading "Sun Microsystems’ losses narrow"

You just know that this is not the end.

It’s like one of those bad soap operas. There’s a big family wedding coming up and the distant European cousins aren’t invited. It leads to some vicious public name-calling. Eventually everyone calms down and the cousins are invited after all, though some other guests have be thrown off the list to make room for them.

But as soon as they all get in the same room again, it won’t take long for the bad feelings to return. You just know. Continue reading "Skype soap opera set to continue"

Two weeks after the launch of Windows 7 come some early data on how it is faring with consumers (while these sales are minor in the bigger scheme of things, getting early favourable buzz going with consumers is an essential part of building momentum for the new operating system).

According to research firm NPD, purchases of the software upgrade in the US were 82 per cent higher in the first few days than they were at the launch of Vista (in dollar terms). You can put most of that down to promotional offers.

However, consumers didn’t rush out straight away to buy Windows 7 PCs (despite assurances from Steve Ballmer that new PCs will be the main driver of demand for the software). Sales of PCs were up 49 per cent from the year before, which is less than the 68 per cent year-over-year bump they got with the Vista launch. You can probably put that down to the recession.

The verdict: this vital product launch has gone off pretty smoothly (while giving Apple another chance to poke fun). But it will be a long time before 7 can be declared a success.

When it comes to deal-making, predicting what Larry Ellison will do next is never easy - which is just the way he wants it.

So what to make of the fact that Mr Ellison’s pursuit of Sun Microsystems has now reached a point few expected, with the European Commission close to drawing a line in the sand with a formal objection to the deal?

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Brussels will act to block it. But it does show that things have reached an impasse in Brussels, which at the very least means a longer delay - with further detrimental effects to Sun’s business.

Assuming neither side balks before the EC issues its objection, Mr Ellison now appears to have a number of options. Continue reading "Oracle/Sun: the plot thickens"