Today’s topics include Oracle’s proposed purchase of NetSuite in an effort to bolster the company’s cloud presence; BlackBerry’s new ultra-secure Android smartphone, the DTEC50; Microsoft’s plan to launch an education market edition of Windows 10 Pro; and Apple’s announcement that it sold its 1 billionth iPhone.
Oracle made another aggressive move to expand its cloud application portfolio by spending $9.3 billion to acquire NetSuite, one of the first companies to market a fully cloud-based enterprise resource planning package via subscriptions.
The deal, which was announced July 28 and is expected to close this month, will bring a broad array of complementary cloud ERP applications into the fold, according to Oracle co-CEO Mark Hurd.
Along with having to clear the usual regulatory hurdles, a condition of closing the deal calls for the majority of NetSuite’s outstanding shares not owned by executive officers or directors of NetSuite or by people affiliated with Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, his relatives or affiliated entities be tendered in the buyout offer. Ellison was an early investor in NetSuite when the company was founded.
BlackBerry’s latest smartphone, the DTEK50, an ultra-high security touch-screen Android handset that doesn’t include the company’s iconic QWERTY physical keyboard, has made its debut and will go on sale Aug. 8 for $299.
The company said in a July 26 announcement that the DTEK50 is “the world’s most secure Android smartphone.” It is the vendor’s second Android phone, coming after the $649 Priv, which debuted in September 2015.
The DTEK50, which is available for preorder through ShopBlackBerry.com, features a 5.2-inch full HD display with a scratch- and smudge-resistant glass screen, a 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 octa-core processor, an Adreno 405 graphics processor, 3GB of memory, 16GB of on-board flash storage, a microSD card slot for additional storage up to 2TB and a user-programmable convenience key.
Apart from the Bash Unix shell and other highly anticipated features, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is set to bring an entirely new edition for schools to the Windows 10 family.
On July 27, Microsoft announced Windows 10 Education Pro based on the upcoming Anniversary Update, or Windows 10 version 1607. But at least one feature, an improved Cortana virtual assistant, won’t be asked to enroll.
“Windows 10 Pro Education is effectively a variant of Windows 10 Pro that provides education-specific default settings, including the removal of Cortana,” wrote Microsoft content developer Celeste de Guzman in an online support document announcing the new offering.
A day after Apple announced that its global iPhone sales were down 15 percent, taking down revenue and profits with them, CEO Tim Cook met with employees to share the news that the company had just sold its one billionth iPhone.
It was indeed an ironic moment for the iPhone, which first went on sale in 2007. The one billionth iPhone was actually sold by Apple the week of July 18, according to Cook, but the announcement of this “major milestone” was saved until the day after the company’s third-quarter earnings call on July 26.