12 Companies That Should Beware the Ides of March

By eWEEK

The company whose name has become synonymous with virtualization is riding high now, but both Microsoft and Citrix are determined to give away most of what VMware charges for today.

Iomega’s 20 years as one of the best-known independent consumer data storage companies will end soon with its acquisition by EMC. What EMC wants, EMC gets.

No, really, this time SCO-

Plaxo has evolved from an address-book collector to an aggregator of social network relationships. Alas, most people already use Facebook for this, but Plaxo-

While we-

Transmeta recently won a large lawsuit against Intel, but the company has been teetering on the edge for some time. Last month, the chip maker rejected an offer by an investment firm to buy up its remaining stock, and Transmeta’s founder recently left the company to join none other than archrival Intel. Once a viable company, Transmeta now gets by on licensing its patents.

The Colorado-based telco saw its CEO quit March 10, expects to lay off numerous staff members and has reported to the FTC that it cannot fulfill orders. Expect to see Level 3 acquired soon.

At press time, Sprint-

Motorola is trying to sell its mobile unit, but the company can’t expect much for it as the unit continues to hemorrhage market share and execs.

After a terrible 2007-

Competition in the networking market is growing, and the market is maturing. Enterprises started their network refresh cycles a couple of years ago, and so growth will likely slow in the next couple of years. Extreme is not big enough to survive a shakeout.

Napster-