Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft will invest US$250 million over three years on a product integration strategy meant to "significantly simplify" technology deployments for companies of all sizes, they said Wednesday.

Netbook shipments worldwide are expected to have jumped by 103 percent this year compared to last year, although the fast growth rate could slow down in 2010 as prices for portable PCs fall, research firm DisplaySearch said on Tuesday.

IBM on Wednesday said it has signed a deal to buy Lombardi, an Austin, Texas, BPM (business process management) vendor. Terms were not disclosed.

One day after warning of a new attack on its Reader and Acrobat software, Adobe issued a security advisory Tuesday offering users some advice on how to mitigate the problem.

Microsoft's Juku service in China did indeed steal code from Plurk, a popular Twitter rival in Asia, the software giant admitted on Tuesday.

Cisco Systems tried to partner with major server vendors several years ago before coming out with its own blade servers earlier this year, and it's still open to a partnership with IBM, Chairman and CEO John Chambers said Tuesday.

Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell plans to leave the company at the end of the year after managing the software giant?s finances for nearly five years, Microsoft said Tuesday.

Microsoft is set to move its Windows Azure cloud platform to a production environment stage, Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect, said on Tuesday morning.

Logitech plans to acquire LifeSize Communications, a company that makes HD video communications equipment, for US$405 million in cash, the companies said Tuesday.

Adobe Systems will lay off 680 staff, or 9 percent of its workforce, in its latest move to cut costs, the company confirmed Tuesday.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), China's biggest chip maker, replaced its CEO on Tuesday, just one day after it settled an intellectual property lawsuit that was seen as a major blow to the company.

Intel expanded its chip shipment lead over Advanced Micro Devices during the third quarter as the rivals battle for larger market share, according to a survey released by Mercury Research on Tuesday.

Google on Tuesday released an SDK for Android 2.0, revealing some new features that will come with the upgraded mobile operating system.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled US$3.4 billion in grants to update the nation's electrical grid, but the benefits could reach to the broadband sector as well, one community broadband adviser said.

Mio Technology will launch a new version of its MiBuddy 4.7-inch touchscreen Internet and navigation device next year running Google's Android mobile software, a company representative said Tuesday

Oracle plans to launch its long-awaited Fusion Applications in 2010, and they will be deployable both on-premises and as SaaS (software as a service), CEO Larry Ellison said Wednesday during a keynote address at the OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.

Acer overtook Dell as the world's second-largest computer vendor during the third quarter, as the PC market showed signs of coming back to life, IDC said on Wednesday.

Corporate security and network administrators face a "nightmare" task just trying to figure out what to patch and what to let slide after Microsoft issued its biggest-ever batch of updates today, researchers argued.

Cisco Tuesday announced its second multibillion dollar deal this month: a definitive agreement to acquire Starent Networks, a provider of IP-based mobile infrastructure for carriers, for about $2.9 billion.

Despite Google's phenomenal growth, the Internet search giant does not appear to be worried about taking on too many projects, judging from comments made at a media roundtable Wednesday with company cofounder Sergey Brin and CEO Eric Schmidt.