Datatec Web Log

Just hours after die-hard fans finally got their hands on a copy of “Halo 3,” blogs brimmed with reports that special limited-edition packaging is scratching the video game disks.
While the scratches don’t appear to be keeping gamers from playing the last installment of the popular trilogy, it’s a rough patch that Microsoft Corp., which has faced several Xbox 360 glitches in recent months, could have lived without.

OUR CommentsCan you believe this, our office has been waiting in anticipation to play this latest “shoot em up” So I hope the one we get at the weekend works fine.

We’ll let you know
Datatec gamers

The SCO Group Inc., licenser of the Unix operating system, filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, drained by unsuccessfully filing lawsuits claiming its software code was misappropriated by developers of the open-source Linux operating system.
The Lindon, Utah, company said it is seeking protection from creditors under Chapter 11 as it continues to license and improve Unix for corporate servers.

“We want to assure our customers and partners that they can continue to rely on SCO products, support and services for their critical business operations,” Darl McBride, president and chief executive, said in a statement Friday.

McBride has blamed competition from Linux for operating losses and the ongoing slide in company revenues. The company said its operating loss in the quarter ending April 30 was $1.1 million. A year earlier, it lost $3.9 million.

In August, U.S. District Court Dale Kimball ruled that Novell Inc., not SCO, owns the copyrights covering the Unix operating system. SCO licenses the Unix software for corporate servers.

The case could leave SCO with a bigger liability: Kimball said SCO may owe Novell software royalties.

09/15/2007 Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn on Friday called for the sale of BEA Systems Inc., a business software maker whose stock price has sagged with the growth in open-source software and under pressure from larger competitors such as IBM Corp. and Oracle Corp.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn reported owning 33.4 million of BEA’s shares, or an 8.5 percent stake in the San Jose-based company.

Icahn’s stake was worth $426.5 million based on the stock price before the filing. After the filing, BEA shares rose 49 cents, or nearly 4 percent, to close at $13.25 Friday.

BEA’s stock has declined steadily over the past year. Before Icahn’s filing, the stock price was down 24 percent since its 52-week high last October, a drop that wiped out about $1.5 billion in shareholder wealth.

In the filing, Icahn blamed consolidation in the technology industry for hurting the business of independent software companies like BEA.

He said BEA’s stock is undervalued and a sale would help drive up the price if BEA were bolstered by the resources of a larger company that could boost sales while stripping out duplicate costs.

Icahn said he intends to meet with BEA’s management to discuss possibly selling the company and might seek to nominate people to the board of directors.