eWEEK EDITORS

After an intense 18-month battle that brought some bitter recriminations from PeopleSoft customers, Oracle in December 2004 succeeded in acquiring its rival PeopleSoft. With the purchase, Oracle also acquired J.D. Edwards, a midmarket enterprise-resource-planning company that PeopleSoft had acquired earlier that year. At the Oracle Applications User Group Connection Point conference in Grapevine, Texas, last […]

Since taking over the CEO post at Gateway Inc. in March 2004—after the companys $289 million acquisition of eMachines Inc.—Wayne Inouye has remade the computer maker into a lean, financially viable company. He slashed the payroll, trimmed the management ranks, shuttered Gateways stores, outsourced manufacturing and streamlined the product portfolio. After 13 losing quarters, Gateway […]

Microsoft is continuing to drop new clues about what users can expect in Longhorn Server, the version of its Windows Server product slated to ship in 2007, and beyond. During an online Web chat on Wednesday, Windows Server Senior Vice President Bob Muglia touched on everything from a possible new home version of Windows Server, […]

Home Depot has taken a $43 million hit for gift cards that are unlikely to be redeemed. The gift card “breakage” report is the first from the nation’s second largest retailer. “Since we had not reported breakage before, this was essentially just catching up,” said Diane Linke, Home Depot marketing manager. “Going forward, there will […]

On the heels of its recent acquisition of Brazilian Linux vendor Conectiva and name change from Mandrakesoft to Mandriva, Mandriva will announce Wednesday that it has acquired Lycoris, a U.S. maker of user-friendly desktop Linux distributions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Mandrivas February acquisition of Conectiva SA was valued at $2.3 million […]

Welcome, XXX.com readers, but I bet youve surfed to the wrong place: Despite the racy headline, were talking Monad (with an “m,” not a “g”). So whats with the spanking reference? Some Microsoft advocates over on the Channel 9 Web site seem to think thats what I deserve for telling the truth about whats happening […]

Steven Calderon had a clean record, a clean conscience and no reason to think that his new employers routine background check would cause any problem at all. Then the sheriff showed up at the office and took him to jail on warrants for child molestation and rape. A nightmare? Sure, but Calderon figured it was […]

In my last column, I was telling you about Savage Beast and the Westergren/Glaser model. The model approaches automation issues by establishing what mix of automation and manual work will product the greatest efficiency—not on automating everything one might be capable of automating. It parses lists of functions the way youd do it with a […]

Gerald Cohen is the president and CEO of Information Builders Inc., a business intelligence software company he co-founded more than 30 years ago. On the eve of the New York companys Summit user conference last month, Cohen sat down with eWEEK Senior Writer Dennis Callaghan to discuss the state of the industry and Information Builders […]

Netscape 8.0: Less Than Meets the Eye On the surface, the release last month of Netscape Communications Netscape 8.0 seems to be fairly significant. After all, its a major release and the first to be based on the popular Firefox browser. In addition, Netscape 8.0 gains several features not found in Firefox, including improved name […]

Always on the lookout for ways to continue to build the buzz around Windows, Microsoft on Monday launched a beta release of a new community-outreach initiative, called “The Hive.” Microsoft officials denied that the company is trying to build a Windows version of Slashdot. Unlike Slashdot and other Microsoft community-building projects such as Channel 9 […]

Offering quicker transactions and cheaper transaction fees than credit cards, biometric payment systems are beginning to catch on among consumers and retailers, such as Lowes Food Stores and Piggly Wiggly. “It keeps me from having to carry cash or a checkbook,” said Darren Hiers, who uses his fingerprint to pay at a convenience store. “It […]