Fahmida Y. Rashid

After weeks of speculation, Seagate Technology has ended discussions with private equity firms about taking the company private. Instead, it will start a $2 billion stock repurchase program. The company made the announcement after the stock market closed Nov. 29. Seagate canceled talks “principally because it determined that the indications of the valuation range were […]

Apple is notoriously reticent about providing information about upcoming products, but that doesn’t stop the Apple faithful from speculating. The latest rumor making the rounds of Apple blogs predicts the next MacBook Pro notebook will move to solid-state drives. Mark Reschke from the Three-Guys-And-A-Podcast blog wrote Nov. 24 that Apple will be launching the “all-new […]

A report on virtual security management underscores the wide gap between what needs to be done to secure virtualized environments and what IT managers are actually doing, said CA Technologies on Nov. 29. Business and IT executives across 15 countries reported serious security concerns about data sprawl, hypervisor privilege, and other privacy and compliance issues […]

Comcast subscribers up and down the East Coast lost Internet access on Nov. 28. While the company said access was restored, there were still a handful of users reporting issues as of Monday morning. Comcast’s customer service initially reported an “Internet-related issue” on Twitter under the account Comcastcares late Sunday evening before following up with, […]

Expanding their focus from Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, cyber-criminals are also targeting invitations to Thanksgiving dinner, security researchers warned Nov. 24. Users searching for Thanksgiving Day invitations online may encounter dangerous malware, according to a security alert posted by CyberDefender Research Labs. The researchers found a “high concentration” of fake antivirus products that […]

More online storage companies are increasing storage limits for free accounts in order to attract new users and to keep existing ones from switching elsewhere. The latest storage service to boost storage limits for free accounts from 2GB to 5G is Pro Softnet, with its IDrive Online Backup product. Mobile Media also said its Jupiter […]

Novell’s ZENworks PC management suite illustrates the unsettled times in which many Novell customers now find themselves. The company Nov. 11 released the latest version of the software, which offers businesses greater manageability and virtualization capabilities. Then, less than two weeks later, Novell announced that it was being bought by Attachmate. Now users are beginning […]

Microsoft has decided to remove its Drive Extender storage technology from the upcoming versions of Small Business Server Essentials, Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials and Windows Home Server. The decision was announced Nov. 23 on the Windows Home Server blog by Michael Leworthy, a Microsoft product manager. Noting that “large hard drives of over […]

What’s going to happen to Seagate Technology? No one seems to know for sure, as rumors swirl that instead of going private, the company may be an acquisition target for Toshiba or one of its rivals. However, Wedbush Securities analyst Kaushik Roy said a strategic buyout doesn’t make sense. “It is possible, but the probability […]

With the distractions of the past year finally over, LANDesk Software is looking ahead to expand its desktop and security management offerings on top of its automation platform, according to CEO Steve Daly. The past year has been an uncertain one, with the company focusing on business as usual while awaiting a buyer. LANDesk had […]