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News

• Jonathan Schwartz's new business is a Picture of Health

  Jonathan Schwartz ended six months of silence on his Twitter feed on Thursday with the words "Started a new company."

• Wall Street beat: Tech fails to lead markets

  Good macroeconomic news on jobs, trade and European sovereign debt is helping to buoy the markets this week in the unofficial post-Labor Day start of the fall trading season, but tech stocks are still down for the year.

• 10G Ethernet vendor Myricom taps new CEO, expands beyond HPC

  Myricom, a pioneer in high performance computing that has shifted its focus to more mainstream networking applications in recent years, has named co-founder Nan Boden as its new president and CEO.

• Making smart IT decisions: Simple steps small businesses should take for smart IT investments

  According to a recent report from Forrester Research, IT spending in the United States is expected to ramp up in the second half of the year with an estimated 19 per cent increase in computer equipment spending, 11 per cent growth in software spending, seven per cent hike in communications equipment spending, and six per cent uptick in consulting services. As the overall IT industry starts to show signs of growth, small businesses -- often the last to display confidence -- are exhibiting cautious optimism as many anticipate increased IT investments in the next six months.

• RIM buys documents to go, it should have been Microsoft

  RIM has confirmed that it purchased a significant portion of DataViz, along with the intellectual property and coding skills behind the popular Documents To Go app. The move will help RIM improve its BlackBerry platform as a business productivity tool, and represents a significant missed opportunity for Microsoft.

• Ciena's loss deepens after Nortel metro Ethernet acquisition

  Ciena plunged deeper into the red following its acquisition of Nortel Networks' metro Ethernet business, with sales of its legacy products stagnating, it reported Wednesday.

• Oracle board against sustainability proposal

  Oracle's board of directors has weighed in against a shareholder proposal calling for the creation of a board-level committee on sustainability, according to the proxy statement for the vendor's upcoming annual meeting.

• Outsourcing: Brazil blossoms as IT services hub

  CapGemini's announcement last week that it would invest $298 million in Brazilian IT service provider CPM Braxis attracted a lot of attention in outsourcing circles. The move will give the Paris-based company a 55 percent stake in CPM Braxis, the option to buy the company outright within three to five years of the close of the deal, and the chance to leapfrog its global competitors already entrenched in the country.

• Red Bend buys VirtualLogix for mobile virtualization

  Red Bend, a mobile software management company, has acquired VirtualLogix to stake its claim in the emerging field of mobile virtualization.

• Sony to end TV manufacturing in Europe

  Sony plans to end manufacturing of televisions in Europe this year and will sell its TV manufacturing plant in Spain to two local companies, it said Tuesday. The move, which is part of Sony's ongoing restructuring, will increase the company's reliance on outsourcing companies and it part of a plan to return its core TV operations to profitability.

• Hurd's job: Sell Oracle's Exadata vision

  The ascendancy of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd to a co-president slot at Oracle could give the vendor's strategy of selling integrated systems a boost, according to some industry observers.

• Oracle calls HP's lawsuit against Hurd 'vindictive'

  Oracle called Hewlett-Packard's lawsuit against its former CEO "vindictive" and said it threatened the companies' close relationship.

• Oracle stock rises 5 per cent on news of Hurd hire

  Oracle's stock price has climbed about 5.5 per cent so far Tuesday on news that ousted HP CEO Mark Hurd is joining the company.

• Microsoft gaming director moves to Amazon

  Amazon may be preparing a move into gaming after hiring away Microsoft's director of games platform strategy.

• Hurd putting HP secrets in peril, lawsuit claims

  HP has sued its former CEO Mark Hurd, claiming his new position as president of Oracle "has put HP's most valuable trade secrets and confidential information in peril."