Cisco beats Wall Street forecasts on fiscal Q3 2014, with revenues growing by 5.4% Y-o-Y to $12.2 billion and net incoming reaching $2.7bn with 4.7% Y-o-Y growth. 

"Cisco is executing at a very high level in a slow, but steady economic environment," CEO John Chambers says. "We have the right products, the right solutions and our customers are coming to us to solve their biggest business problems."

However Cisco only sees good signs in some parts of the world-- EMEA revenues remain flat, even as it rebounds in the US with 7% Y-o-Y growth in sales. In fact, Chambers points out concerns over S. European demand is one of the reasons the company is not issuing more positive guidance despite 4% growth in order backlog.  Read more...

HP tried to pull out of the October 2011 $11.1 billion Autonomy acquisition just weeks before the deal was sealed, a shareholder class-action lawsuit claims-- one suing HP execs past and present for no less than $1bn in damages. 

Clearly, it is never over until the fat lady sings...

In part based on a January 2013 Wall Street Journal report, the suit accuses 8 defendants (including HP CEO Meg Whitman, then-CEO Leo Apotheker, former HP chairman Ray Lane, Autonomy founder Mike Lynch, and HP banking aides Barclays Capital and Perella Weinberg Partners) of "cursory due diligence on a polluted and vastly overvalued asset." In other words, paying too much for way too little. 

Then again one surely recalls the November 2012 $8.8bn writedown on the value of Autonomy, one HP blamed on "serious accounting improprieties" (read cooked books) before acquisition. The writedown wiped $3.1bn off HP's ledgers, causing shares to plummet.  Read more...

Intel unveils its latest take on low-power, high-performance CPUs-- Silvermont, an x86-based architecture using the 22nm Tri-Gate manufacturing process, designed for applications ranging from smartphones to data centres.

"Silvermont is a leap forward and an entirely new technology foundation for the future that will address a broad range of products and market segments." Intel says. "Early sampling of our 22nm SoCs, including "Bay Trail" and "Avoton," is already garnering positive feedback from our customers."

"Bay Trail" quad-core SoCs aimed for tablet and entry-level PC use will be the first products on the market featuring the architecture, followed by dual-core "Merrifield" smartphone SoCs. By H2 2013 Intel should also release the microserver-targeted "Avoton" and the "Rangeley" network/communications infrastructure chips, as well as an unnamed SoC optimised for in-vehicle applications.

Intel names its 6th CEO in 45 years-- COO Brian Krzanich, who takes over following the stepping down of Paul Otellini at the annual shareholders' meeting on 16 May 2013. 

An Intel veteran of nearly 30 years, Krzanich is a perhaps predictable choice for company boss, with leadership experience the Intel Technology and Manufacturing, Custom Foundry and NAND Solutions groups. He was promoted to COO on January 2012, following a company management shake up.

The grapevine has it Intel reached out for people outside of the company for the post-- names include Oracle president Mark Hurd, VMware CEO Patrick Gelsinger, ex-Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha and former IBM head of services Michael Daniels. 

Then again, Intel has never named a company outsider CEO.  Read more...

In a bid to rely less on a declining PC market and return to profitability AMD finds a new job-- chip maker for hire, integrating own and 3rd party processor, graphics and multimedia IP to build one-of-a-kind SoC solutions. 

AMD has high hopes for the newly formed Semi-Custom Business Unit and expects it to make up to 20% of overall AMD revenues by end 2013 through the design of hardware fit for applications ranging from tablets, smart TVs and PCs to high-performance computing and infrastructure. 

“Innovation in computing over the next decade will come from deep knowledge and integration of hardware, software and system expertise,” AMD Senior VP and GM of Global Business Units Lisa Su says. “The charter of the Semi-Custom Business Unit at AMD is to provide OEM customers access to leading-edge IP to create tailored and differentiated solutions. AMD’s high-performance heritage, strategic investments in IP, and SoC design methodology enable customer-specific solutions that are truly one-of-a-kind.”

Corporate VP Saeid Moshkelani, who joined AMD last year from Trident Microsystems, leads the business unit. Read more...

IBM plans to sell its x86 server business, The Wall Street Journal reports-- with Lenovo as one of the top acquisition candidates, at least according to unnamed sources.

CRN has a similar story, with an anonymous high-ranking industry executive as source. The news site says IBM product engineering (PE) lab employees are to become Lenovo employees from 1 June 2013. 

The PE lab supports all IBM server lines, including System x, System i, System p and System z, and is located at Research Triangle Park just 5 miles away from Lenovo's N. American HQ in Morrisville, North Carolina. 

Such a sale is potentially work "billions" of dollars ($5-6 billion according to CRN) and covers the IBM System x line (Intel- and AMD-based tower, rack and blade servers.  Read more...