NEWS&ANALYSIS
the
buzz
DEVELOPMENT
IBM Rational turns
to open source
IBM’S RATIONAL DIVISION LAST
week laid out plans to standardize
its automated software quality
tools on an open-source platform.
Rational is standardizing the
tools on the Hyades open-source
software quality platform. Hyades
is a subset of the Eclipse opensource development platform.
The Hyades Project began in
2002 and provides an infrastructure for tool interoperability to unify
software quality efforts across development projects. IBM is making
its Rational testing tools Hyadescompliant. —Darryl K. Taft
said the sales and channel units
lost a number of people.
The layoffs, which took effect
June 30, represent about 3 percent of McAfee’s work force of
3,200 people. Many McAfee
employees sensed the layoffs
coming and began inquiring
about openings at other technology companies late last month,
sources said.
In January, the company laid
off an undisclosed number of people in its Sniffer unit, mainly due
to its outsourcing efforts. McAfee
has since sold Sniffer. And in May
2003, the company let go of 150
employees, including a number in
the sales unit. —Dennis Fisher
EXECUTIVES
Ballmer optimistic
but cites issues
SECURITY
More layoffs
at McAfee
MICROSOFT CEO STEVE BALLMER
MCAFEE HAS LAID OFF ABOUT 100
employees from several groups—
its third round of layoffs in the last
14 months. Last week, the security software vendor changed its
name from Network Associates.
Sources close to the company
told staffers in his annual e-mail
update last week that he is “excited” and “incredibly optimistic”
about the future but that he wants
to refocus on the company’s culture, values and accountability.
“Nothing breeds confidence like
success—success in the hearts
and minds of our customers, and
quarter, which ended June 30.
success versus competitors, be
The company said it anticipates
they established, open source or
poorer-than-expected earnings,
startups,” Ballmer wrote. “We
thanks in large part to Oracle’s
must continue to compete as
$7.7 billion bid for PeopleSoft.
relentlessly as ever, while also
For the past year, PeopleSoft
reflecting our industry leadership
has been resisting Oracle’s hostile
responsibilities.”
takeover attempt, a bid the U.S.
Ballmer addressed Microsoft’s
Department of Justice seeks to
vision of “integrated innovation”
block through a federal injunction.
and how this would
A ruling isn’t explay out in the next
pected for at least
generation of Wina month.
dows products,
The company
code-named Longexpects to report
horn. Integrated
on July 27 total
innovation, he said,
revenues of $655
is about an experimillion to $665
ence in which a
million. Software
customer using
license revenues
Microsoft products
are expected to be
together gets a
$129 million to
Ballmer: It’s time to renew
whole greater than
$133 million.
Microsoft’s core values.
the sum of its parts.
PeopleSoft CEO
“It is not about creating techni- Craig Conway said in a statecal dependencies across groups
ment that he blames Oracle.
for their own sake. Longhorn will
“Although we have been able
be another major step forward on
to meet or exceed our financial
which we can add value to cusprojections since Oracle launched
tomers through integration,” Balltheir hostile tender offer more
mer said. —Peter Galli
than a year ago, the extensive
publicity of the antitrust trial during the last month of our quarter
FINANCIALS
was impossible to completely
overcome,” said Conway, adding
that he expects that business will
return to normal once the trial is
over.
PEOPLESOFT LAST WEEK ANNOUNCED
preliminary results for its second
—Renee Boucher Ferguson
PeopleSoft warns
on Q2 earnings
BY THE NUMBERS
Security dissatisfaction
WHAT ARE YOU MOST DISSATISFIED WITH IN YOUR CURRENT
NETWORK SECURITY SOLUTION?
Vendor’s customer
service responsiveness
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
It’s time for an entirely new regulatory
framework for Internet communications.
Product reliability
18 e W E E K n J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 0 4
10%
11%
37%
Scalability
Price
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., who introduced a measure on
advanced Internet communications services last week
VAR’s
customer
service
responsiveness
5%
16%
21%
Ease of
installation
and/or
management
Source: Sage Research survey of 109 professionals who have responsibility for network
security from U.S. businesses with more than 100 employees
w w w. e w e e k . c o m