pclamp 9.2 (Molecular Device Corporation) software was used for acquisition and data analysis.
Mr. Dell has sought to move the company into the more lucrative and stable business of providing corporations with software services, spending billions of dollars on acquisitions to lead that transformation.
Two years ago, Microsoft founded the Mainframe Migration Alliance, a group of technology companies that helps corporations move software applications from mainframes to smaller computers powered by low-cost microprocessors and typically running Microsoft's Windows server operating system.
The web enabled online commerce, which meant that oodles of personal data – name and address, age, gender, credit-card details, purchases and transactions, consumer preferences, interests, hobbies, etc – could be hoovered up by corporations, while software for tracking web browsing provided all kinds of equally interesting data for advertisers.
The NetIQ Corporation, whose software monitors the Microsoft Corporation's Windows systems in corporate computer networks, agreed to buy a rival, Mission Critical Software Inc., for $1.3 billion in stock.
The Navarre Corporation, a software distributor in Minneapolis, said last week that a director, Alfred Teo, had resigned "for personal reasons".
The Inktomi Corporation, whose software speeds the flow of Internet content, said fiscal first-quarter sales and earnings missed forecasts.
The Macrovision Corporation, a software company, agreed yesterday to buy the privately held Globetrotter Software for $861 million in stock.
The Caminus Corporation, whose software helps utilities and gas producers trade energy commodities, has agreed to buy the software business of Altra Energy Technologies for $61.7 million in cash and stock.
The Quintus Corporation, a software company in Fremont, Calif., agreed yesterday to acquire Mustang.com Inc. in a stock swap valued at approximately $290 million.
