Even tech heavyweights such as Google, Apple and Yahoo are going topless in an effort to cut down on distractions. The problem? Meeting attendees in this increasingly wireless-connected world, spend group time texting or shopping when they should be paying attention. (Gulp…guilty.)

ABCNews.com also reports that laptops are verboten in some classrooms at the USC law school.

Note: Controversial American Apparel CEO Dov Charney never got the memo that toplessness was a metaphorical notion. In a wrongful termination suit, a former IT staffer charged that Charney held staff meetings while “completely naked” and “paraded in the workplace in his underwear.”

Nonetheless, the term “topless meeting” was a finalist in  the New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2008 competition. For the record, it lost out to “hypermiler.”

 Thanks to eagle-eyed Elisa Gabbert for spotting this very important trend!

HP will integrate Colubris’ product line into ProCurve’s networking portfolio, and Colubris partners are invited to join the ProCurve channel, ProCurve said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

It is still unclear whether there will be special training and certification for incoming Colubris channel partners or whether they will maintain their previous status in the channel. An HP ProCurve spokesperson said Wednesday evening that the company will update partners with specifics as soon as the product roadmap is finalized.

ProCurve will continue to offer its own mobility products in addition to Colubris’ Intelligent Mobility Solution. That way partners can offer integrated and overlay technology. Existing ProCurve and Colubris users will continue to receive customer support for both product lines.

HP first announced it would acquire Colubris in August, aiming to round out ProCurve’s existing wireless portfolio with Colubris’ 802.11n technology, management and security products. ProCurve said at the time that Colubris would help it penetrate vertical markets, such as hospitality, transportation, healthcare, manufacturing and education.

When the acquisition was first announced, Colubris partners said they were hopeful about joining the ProCurve team, but wanted to be sure they received the same “great service” that Colubris had given them.

These days competition is tough in the wireless LAN (WLAN) market, so HP ProCurve will have to work swiftly to ensure that there are no bumps in the road toward channel or product integration.

Already one of the few remaining independent WLAN players, Ruckus Wireless, is offering an incentive program that compensates partners for convincing customers of Colubris and Trapeze Networks to trade out their existing equipment for Ruckus’ 802.11n technology at dirt cheap prices. Trapeze was recently acquired by Belden Cable.

That move could be seen as a threat or an act of desperation at a time when independent WLAN players are being snapped up by larger companies quickly, leaving only a few smaller players behind. Companies like Colubris and Trapeze are now part of mega-channels that could easily crush independent competitors. Nevertheless, Ruckus is gambling that partners from these formerly independent players will become disgruntled as they get folded into larger companies that pay them less attention.

Financial terms of the ProCurve-Colubris deal have not yet been disclosed and are not required to be since Colubris was a private company.

FT attributes the rumors to sources close to the company, but also quotes two analysts that support the speculation.

A WLAN acquisition for Juniper wouldn’t be shocking. At this point, Juniper needs to secure its place in the WLAN market if it intends to take on Cisco. Cisco controls a dominant share of that market sector, which it bought its way into through the acquisition of Airespace in 2006. Juniper is in the process of reorganizing its executive team and strategy, and has made no bones about its goal of stealing a dominant share of the enterprise networking market from Cisco.

What’s more, Juniper has already taken steps into the WLAN market. In 2006, Juniper invested in WLAN provider Trapeze Networks, launching an alliance between the two companies that had the channels cross-selling product. Many speculated then that Juniper would end up acquiring Trapeze. Instead Belden Cable stepped in and picked up Trapeze, making it one of a long string of WLAN companies to be acquired by major players.

Meanwhile, if a Juniper WLAN acquisition goes down, it will put to rest any doubt that consolidation is prevailing in the market, leaving little room for the independent players. The WLAN sector is increasingly characterized by heavy hitters like Hewlett-Packard (which recently acquired WLAN provider Colubris), Cisco, Belden and Motorola that have WLAN divisions based on acquisitions.

Meru is one of the few remaining privately held WLAN companies with a large channel presence besides Extricom and Ruckus. Ruckus is scrapping for attention, releasing upgraded technology this week to push its way into the enterprise. Aruba went public in 2007 and is considered a market leader.

Juniper has yet to comment on these rumors.

Wednesday morning Cisco senior vice president and corporate controller Jonathan Chadwick spoke at the Citibank Citi Technology Conference where analysts were on the hunt for potential acquisition tidbits.

In perfect Cisco executive form, Chadwick dropped just enough info to keep folks questioning … and nothing more.

Whetting VMware hopes, Chadwick marked virtualization as the most important destination on Cisco’s roadmap, noting its role in the emergence of enterprise video and the enabling of converged network access via any device.

“When you think about the underpinning of all of that … the network empowers all of it and that is what virtualization is for,” Chadwick said.

Analysts were quick to grill Chadwick on Cisco’s acquisition strategy, specifically inquiring about whether it would buy its way into market adjacencies.

Chadwick confirmed that Cisco would, in fact, buy its way into technologies that would “round out” current offerings, but that it would also keep the emphasis on building in-house.

Asked why the number of Cisco acquisitions has fallen this year (Cisco purchased only four companies this year compared to 11 last year), Chadwick replied: “I would not read anything into that.” He added, “It’s about buying a company that we can insert into our technology portfolio.”

When pressed to expound on the size or type of company Cisco might acquire, Chadwick said: “There are very few companies that can pull off a like-for-like [acquisition].” Cisco’s moves will be in the medium to small space, he added, but he would not “rule out” deals with companies of other sizes.
Clearly, the speculation continues.

Colubris is the latest in a string of WLAN players to be snapped up by major networking companies in a race to diversify offerings and offer end-to-end solutions.

As for ProCurve, executives said the move is a sign that the company is taking its WLAN push seriously.

“This demonstrates HP’s commitment to this space,” Marius Haas, senior vice president and general manager of HP ProCurve said.

ProCurve may not have the marketing might that its major competitor Cisco has, but HP’s networking arm has gained a huge share of the LAN technology market — some say ranking second. Adding wireless to the mix, gives it more competitive edge.

Haas said HP ProCurve figured it had some gaps and decided the best way to fill them was with Colubris.

“HP now has a full set of wired and wireless capabilities that few in the market can deliver on,” Haas said. “Customers and channel partners will have a full breadth of product opportunities. Together we now cover a much bigger share of the market.”

Haas said details on how the product portfolios and channels will be combined are not yet available, but he expects there to be a full integration of Colubris’ 802.11n wireless technology into ProCurve’s networking portfolio as one brand.

The ProCurve-Colubris deal comes just week after the finalized acquisition of Trapeze Networks by cabling and access technology company Belden. Before that, Cisco acquired Airewave, Motorola acquired Symbol Technology and Aruba Networks went public. When the Belden-Trapeze deal closed, analysts pointed to Meru Networks and Colubris as the next up for acquisition.

So why did ProCurve choose Colubris?

“From an architecture standpoint — from the basic platform up to manageability software — this was the best possible fit for where we were going. We really focus hard on open architecture and standards,” Haas said. “From a go to market standpoint, we wanted someone that had end-to-end value … and had made some good inroads in verticals.”

Colubris has made tracks into a number of verticals, including hospitality, transportation, health care, manufacturing and education, as well as service providers.

The deal is expected to close in October.

Jha will also serve as co-chief executive office with Gregory Q. Brown, who will lead the company’s home and enterprise broadband business.

Jha’s appointment immediately boosted Motorola’s share price. By the end of Monday, shares jumped more than 11% to $9.82. The upswing also moved some investment analysts to categorize the stock as buy instead of under-perform.

Jha has been chief operating officer of Qualcomm since 2006, but he was with company for more than a decade before that.

The former Qualcomm exec is enormously respected in the industry and Motorola said in statements that he was hired because of his extensive operational experience. But Jha has a tall order to fill. Motorola has been smacked around in the handset market by smart phones like Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, and Apple’s iPhone, as well as other phones from competitors Nokia and Samsung.

In fact, Motorola hasn’t had a seriously successful phone since the Razr, and now analysts say if the company doesn’t come out with something equally popular, the handset unit doesn’t stand a chance.

Jha seems confident. He told analysts during a conference call Monday that within 90 days he would announce which software platform Motorola’s next generation of phones would use.

Even still, there are internal battles brewing at Motorola that could overshadow Jha’s best efforts. At this point execs haven’t even decided which side of the company will get the Motorola brand name. The phones obviously need a recognizable name, but the company’s home and enterprise networking divisions are doing a much stronger business.

Some also wonder if it is smart to separate the handset business from the enterprise broadband division considering the ever-growing number of mobile workers that depend on smart phones and other devices. A few channel partners have said in the past that the obvious move would be to eventually sell groups of handsets along with networking equipment.

Published statements from Belden still don’t make clear how, or even if, Trapeze’s 200 partners will be worked into Belden’s much larger channel. In fact, a published quote from Trapeze president Jim Vogt avoids any mention of the company’s channel, but does laud Belden’s sales and marketing organization.

“Our customers can be assured that Trapeze Networks will aggressively continue to deliver the innovative, customer-centered systems and platforms they depend on for constant connectivity and reliable mobility. More than 4,000 organizations around the world have installed Trapeze wireless platforms. We look forward to expanding our customer relationships by working with the worldwide Belden sales and marketing organization,” said Vogt in a statement.

Belden, a supplier of copper and fiber optic cabling and access technology, acquired Trapeze in order to become a unified wired and wireless transmission player. A number of vendors have expanded to offer unified wired and wireless capability inside the network, including Cisco, Siemens and Nortel.

Trapeze is one of a long line of WLAN companies that got snapped up by larger players in the past couple of years. Some of the more notable deals included Cisco’s acquisition of Airewave and Motorola’s of Symbol. Now the race is on among the channels to see who can obtain the quickest market penetration for this relatively young technology.

To learn more about the scuttle in the WLAN market the Trapeze acquisition originally sparked, click here.

A Belden spokesperson said the company will clarify what the acquisition means to the two companies in a more detailed manner shortly.

Needless to say, I am HUNGRY for the July 11 update iPhone software, which will mean that I can download e-mail from my work accounts transparently. But I am dreading the onslaught which MUST becoming of security threats released by both the nefarious and naughty. Data from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) suggests that my feeling of dread is not unfounded. Here’s the blog entry that I wrote last month.

This Tekrati article about an ABI Research report is dated, but it presents a more complete picture about the exact nature of the threat as well as the managed services that are rising up to address it.

I also just found out about a new service from SMobile Systems that is worth your notice. The company offers something called the integrated Security Shield. The applications (which you get billed for on a monthly basis) can scout out viruses and malware delivered by e-mail, Bluetooth or WiFi. SMobile also has a spam filter, which is REALLY welcome by iPhone users like me who have no way right now of getting rid of the junk on our iPhone e-mail client. By the way, that’s the other cool thing: the SMobile software works across a really wide range smart phones and mobile phones.

Most people I talk to pooh-pooh the notion that they should be worried about security on their handheld. At the very least, encryption is a good investment as the wall between corporate and private data blurs. Every lose your BlackBerry?

Heather Clancy is a business journalist and strategic communications advisor with channel consulting company SWOT Management Group. She can be reached at hclancy@swotmg.com.

The wireless protocol for broadband access — known in long form as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access — started off the week on a high note. On Monday, six tech heavy hitters, including Cisco Systems, Samsung Electronics, Alcatel-Lucent, Intel, Sprint and Clearwire formed the Open Patent Alliance.

The coalition aims to stabilize the cost of access to patented WiMax technology. That would make it less expensive to develop technology across networks and devices, keeping it cheap enough to bring to market.

But even that good news had its dark cloud since a couple of major WiMax-committed players, namely Motorola and Qualcomm, have thus far refused to sign on and won’t commit to doing so in the near future.

In addition, there is no guarantee that patent alliances work to further a technology.

“It only takes one crazy guy who wants to sue everybody,” said Farpoint Group founder Craig Mathias. Then the six companies in the alliance won’t be able to do much about intellectual property rights barring progress.

But more discouraging for WiMax supporters, Nortel announced this week it would move its long-term 4G R&D focus toward a competing standard, Long Term Evolution (LTE). Nortel is keeping its bases covered by continuing a smaller focus on WiMax development in conjunction with Israeli company Alvarion. Previously Nortel had all its eggs in the WiMax basket.

Just six months ago, WiMax seemed a no-lose proposition. Sprint had invested heavily in building out a nationwide network and technology development was way ahead of LTE. AT&T and Verizon are both developing LTE networks. Since then, Sprint ran into major financial troubles, giving the technology a setback. This past May, Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Intel, Google, Bright House Networks and Clearwire formed an alliance to build out a massive WiMax network. The alliance will be called Clearwire Corp.

Clearwire Corp. is aiming to complete that network by 2010, which is when AT&T and Verizon are expected to be ready to launch LTE services.

The race is on. It’s not likely though that the road will get any smoother for WiMax — or the companies behind the technology — along the way.

Here’s a great recap of the Sprint WiMax history.

The deal, which points back to Tech Data’s Wireless Specialized Business Unit, will let Tech Data VARs “purchase, brand and resell” BIG Wireless’s services. The company’s specialty is outdoor wireless for municipalities, corporate campuses or universities. These include wireless site surveys, point-to-point path studies, voice/video over wireless, GPS location, Federal Communications Commission licensing compliance and so on. Many of the more obscure requirements for outdoor wireless that a traditional solution provider might not have been able to invest in. If the reseller chooses, they can brand BIG Wireless’ services as their own.

How much business is in outdoor wireless? My gut is that it’s going to be sort of like Wi-Fi adoption: It will creep up in adoption for the right reason, it helps people do their jobs better. There will be some debates over format of course (ala the WiMax specification I wrote about in January), which is all the more reason why you might choose to team up with a company like BIG rather than investing in your technical skills right now.

Heather Clancy is a widely published business journalist and strategic channel communications consultant with SWOT Management Group. You can reach her at hclancy@swotmg.com.