Oracle's Larry Ellison downshifts, but leadership remains the same
Don't mistake Larry Ellison's decision Thursday to step down as CEO of Oracle as a big change.
Don't mistake Larry Ellison's decision Thursday to step down as CEO of Oracle as a big change.
What can incoming Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure do to reverse the carrier's declining subscriber base?
Politics collided with the world of technology this year as stories about U.S. government spying stirred angst both among the country's citizens and foreign governments, and the flawed HeathCare.gov site got American health-care reform off to a rocky start. Meanwhile, the post-PC era put aging tech giants under pressure to reinvent themselves. Here in no particular order are IDG News Service's picks for the top 10 tech stories of the year.
Gartner is forecasting some major changes in technology, especially in areas like 3D printing, machine learning and voice recognition. They are all powerful trends that will reduce the need for workers, and, as a consequence, bring social unrest, the analyst firm said.
Intel hasn't signaled a change in strategy with the appointment of Brian Krzanich to CEO, but it is likely that the company will take steps to outrun its foundry competition by opening its industry-leading manufacturing facilities to more third parties.
As it has in the past, SAP spilled the beans a bit early on its fourth-quarter and year-end performance with the release of preliminary results last week. Now the vendor is about to do a full announcement along with the usual conference calls with press and analysts.
I had already submitted my last column when I heard about Aaron Swartz's death. Some might say that it's too late to comment on this story since the crowd has moved on, but it's never too late to write about someone you knew.
Some of the most memorable IT-related quotes were uttered in courtrooms this year, which involved a steady stream of legal challenges about intellectual property. In no particular order, these are some of the comments that stuck with us as 2012 winds to a close.
Hewlett-Packard's bombshell revelation that it would take a US$8.8 billion non-cash writedown after allegedly discovering major accounting fraud related to its Autonomy business unit has rocked the tech world.
Stop me if you've heard this one: Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave from Apple.
Ah, AOL -- just when it looked like you were about to slip into boring mediocrity, you surprise us yet again with your antics.
By now everyone knows that HP CEO Mark Hurd was forced to resign following an investigation into an alleged sexual harassment scandal.
IT infrastructure and services are not the first things to come to mind when you think of Danone Group, the US$3.5 billion company known for its Evian water and Dannon and Stonyfield yogurt brands. But when it comes to packaging and delivering water and yogurt, IT services and the automation they provide are indispensable.
We dread hearing the news that something once considered unique or innovative has turned into a commodity, where the only differentiator is price. We especially don't like it when that transformation happens in our own careers -- when a prized skill becomes so ubiquitous that it can be had for pennies on the dollar. We might as well admit that this shift has happened to another treasured asset: our ability to solve any problem by simply whipping ourselves into a coffee-drenched frenzy and working harder.
Every time the economy turns downward, IT shops take a hit.