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News

• Google’s patent count spikes 170%, beats Apple’s 2012 tally

  Google kicked its inventors into high gear in 2012, earning 1,151 U.S. patents and more than doubling its 2011 patent count.

• Extreme Networks cutting 13% of workforce

  Extreme Networks is laying off 13% of its workforce, or about 90 employees, in an effort to reduce expenses by $7 million per quarter.

• Citrix: What kind of company is it anyway?

  Citrix is many different things to many people. It's a cloud company, it's a virtualization player, it's a mobile technologies vendor and it's a collaboration products provider. But according to Mark Templeton, Citrix CEO since 2001, all of that blends together and fits with where enterprise IT shops are headed. Here, speaking with IDG Enterprise Chief Content Officer John Gallant, Templeton dishes on Citrix's overall strategy, its relationships with Cisco, Microsoft and Apple, its rivalry with VMware, and its controversial take on open source cloud computing.

• Cisco makes fourth acquisition in a month

  Cisco this week announced its intent to acquire BroadHop, a developer of network management servers and software for carriers.

• Blue Coat second company to buy Crossbeam Systems in recent weeks

  Blue Coat Systems Monday announced an agreement to acquire Crossbeam Systems for an undisclosed amount by year-end. This would mark the second time Crossbeam has been acquired in 2012, with private equity firm Thoma Bravo acquiring it just last month.

• Sprint confirms plan to buy rest of Clearwire for $2 billion

  Sprint today formally announced its plan to shell out $2.1 billion to buy the remaining 49% of Clearwire that it doesn't already own. The move gives Sprint direct access to Clearwire's extensive spectrum portfolio, just as the carrier is set to reap some $20 billion on cash from its acquisition by SoftBank.

• Juniper buys SDN startup for $176M

  Juniper Networks this week acquired Contrail Systems, a startup that makes controllers for software-defined networks, for $176 million in cash and stock.

• Outlook for IT bonus pay murky: survey

  IT pros are divided when it comes to bonus expectations, according to tech jobs site Dice.com, and most believe company performance determines bonus payouts, not individual performance.

• Cisco acquires network planning company for $141M

  Cisco this week announced its intent to acquire privately held Cariden Technologies, a Sunnyvale, Calif., developer of network planning, design and traffic management software for service providers.

• Cisco's wireless chief: Meraki simplifies customers' lives

  Meraki Networks, the tiny, privately held WLAN vendor that Cisco earlier this week announced it will buy for $1.2 billion, is as different from Cisco as night is from day.

• Meraki buy more than cloud Wi-Fi to Cisco

  Even though Meraki made a name for itself in cloud-based WLANs, Cisco's long-term goals for its new acquisition go beyond just Wi-Fi.

• Cisco acquires data center management company

  Cisco today announced its intent to acquire privately held Cloupia, a software company that develops products for automating data center operations for the deployment and configuration of physical and virtual resources.

• Cloud security vendor Crossbeam bought by private equity firm

  Crossbeam has been bought by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, opening up the door for the security company to expand its product line both in-house and via acquisitions.

• Brocade buys Cisco nemesis Vyatta

  Brocade has announced its acquisition of Vyatta, a privately held maker of open source-based network software, for an undisclosed amount of cash.

• Riverbed's billion-dollar Opnet buy could pay off big, analysts say

  Despite a substantial decline in Riverbed's stock price after the news of its $1 billion acquisition of Opnet this week, industry experts say that the buyout leaves Riverbed in a uniquely strong position in the network management arena.