HP recruits tech reporter to fix corp comms

This is a little inside baseball but it still bears noting.

Hewlett-Packard, fresh off its latest CEO scandal, has brought in a reporter–a very good reporter–to lead corporate communications. HP said today that Connie Guglielmo of Bloomberg News is coming aboard.

David Shane, who had been HP’s top flack resigned at the end of July, purportedly to start his own company. Mark Hurd’s much-more-public resignation happened the following week.

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Intel forks over $7.7B on McAfee, but why?

So the big get bigger.

Intel will buy McAfee and its security portfolio for $7.68 billion. The rationale, according to a statement by Intel CEO Paul Otellini, is that there is insufficient security for the booming number of non-PC endpoints–phones, TVs, other consumer electronics attached to the Internet. Continued »

Oracle/Sun hits just keep on coming

The aftermath of Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems is proving to be a full-employment act for bloggers and journalists.

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Freebies if you buy former VAR’s business tome

Don’t normally do the promo thing, but figured some of the solution providers who read ChannelMarker on a semi-regular basis might be interested in this information. If you buy a business book on August 17 written by one of your own — Charles Nault, the founder of network integrator Atrion Networking — you’ll be able to get a whole bunch of additional business management materials. Free. You like free, right?

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HP v. Hurd reverbs continue

If HP’s beleaguered board thought the unpleasant Mark Hurd headlines would evaporate soon, it has another think coming.

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Uh-oh. Oracle sues Google over Java use

This one raises lots of eyebrows: Oracle just sued Google over Android’s use of Java.

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Despite broader economic jitters, IT sector continues to improve

Even if the broader U.S. figures suggests that economic uncertainty lingers, the IT sector continues to show signs of a turnaround both in the United States and in Europe.

According to data from The Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC), U.S. hardware sales in the second quarter grew sequentially by 10 percent compared with the first quarter. On a year-over-year basis, 2Q revenue for IT hardware increased by 20 percent, the organization reports. The GTDC says sales in Europe were up by 15 percent year-over-year for the period.

The numbers are part of the NPD Group Distributor Track, which is based on sales-out information provided by GTDC members.

Here’s some commentary from the press release provided by the council’s CEO, Tim Curran:

“Among other key trends, we’re seeing SMB and larger enterprises invest more heavily in networking, storage and other IT infrastructure to support current and future growth. The range of solutions and services provided by IT distributors is also increasingly diversified, including a growing number of products that would have sold exclusively through other channels in the past.”

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Hurd out at HP

Mark Hurd is out as CEO of HP. That little stunner dropped after close of business today when Hewlett-Packard disclosed an internal investigation into a relationship between Hurd and an unnamed marketing consultant.

In a statement, Hurd said:

“As the investigation progressed, I realized there were instances in which I did not live up to the standards and principles of trust, respect and integrity that I have espoused at HP and which have guided me throughout my career.”

 

For its part, HP said the company’s sexual harassment policy was not violated but its standards of business conduct were.

HP partners are no doubt stunned by this. Members of HP’s VAR councils were big fans of Hurd’s leadership and cited his willingness to meet with them over their concerns. He helped temper HP’s “double down” mantra by telling them that they, too, would profit more if they worked more with HP.

HP’s CFO Cathie Lesjack will fill the interim CEO slot and has taken her name out of consideration for the full-time gig.

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Forrester: Growing opp in energy management software

Forrester Research’s latest survey on green IT trends (its seventh) highlights a big jump in the number of businesses that are planning to invest in some sort of software or solution for tracking their carbon footprint or energy consumption. Continued »

Clearing up the Gold mess at Microsoft

Still have questions about the Microsoft Gold, Advanced, no Gold competencies? Here’s an explanation of the branding changes that took place on the cusp of this week’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference.

To re-iterate: What was to be the new Advanced Competency and plain ol’ Competency levels will now be Gold and Silver competencies. And the Gold and Silver designations will come within a certain area of expertise, or business solution area. So you can be a  Gold partner within content management or business intelligence or whatever. You can also be a Silver partner in other solutions area.

Got it? Get it? Good!

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