IBM exceeds analyst forecasts during Q4 2012, with net income growing by 10% Y-o-Y to $6.1 billion and total revenues dipping by -1% Y-o-Y to $29.3bn. 

EMEA revenues are also down, dropping by -5% Y-o-Y to $9.1bn. 

One can attribute such earnings to the IBM bet on vertical hardware and software integration. According to Discern analyst Cindy Shaw IBM is strong in "hot growth markets" (data analytics, cloud, emerging markets) and investments in so-called "smarter planet" solutions such as traffic, power grids and food production. 

IBM sees growth in Read more...

According to both CNBC and the Financial Times Microsoft is set to join a group planning to buyout Dell-- and is putting between $1 and $3 billion of mezzanine funding.

Mezzanine financing is a hybrid of debt and equity.

Unnamed sources "familiar with the matter" say private equity firm Silver Lake Partners and Dell CEO Michael Dell are bringing together a group ready to take the 3rd biggest PC maker in the world private.

Such a task might cost up to $25bn, the FT says.

Being a large software supplier to Dell, Microsoft has an interest Read more...

Former Microsoft senior VP Joachim Kempin tells Reuters Microsoft needs a change in leadership-- even if CEO Steve Ballmer "systematically" forces out any potential challengers to his leadership.

"For Microsoft to really get back in the game seriously, you need a big change in management," Kempin says. "As much as I respect Steve Ballmer, he may be part of that in the end."

Kempin worked at Microsoft from 1983 to 2002 and is the author of "Resolve and Fortitude: Microsoft's 'Secret Power Broker' Breaks His Silence". His leaving Microsoft was mired in controversy following the use of a number of contracts he crafted with PC makers as ammo against Microsoft in the 1998-2002 antitrust prosecutions by the US government.

According to Kempin, Ballmer has repeatedly ousted potential rivals to the CEO throne he occupied since 2000. This was first seen in 2002 departure Richard Belluzzo (former Microsoft COO and Xbox console creator), and more recently with the November 2012 leaving of Windows boss Steven Sinofsky.

AMD files serious allegations against one former VP and three former managers-- the transfer of sensitive AMD documents before joining rival Nvidia and the violation of a "no-solicitation of employees" promise.

Talk about some good old fashioned corporate skulduggery...

The chip maker says former strategic development VP Robert Feldstein, together with ex-managers Manoo Desai and Nicolas Kociuk, copied over 100000 company documents (including "two licensing agreements with significant customers, and a document outlining proposed strategies Read more...