After massive investments, Facebook to buy Sun Microsystems campus

Facebook is spending the $500 million that it reportedly raised from Goldman Sachs and the Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies in buying the former corporate campus of Silicon Valley pioneer Sun Microsystems which was bought out by competitor Oracle last year, as reported by a reputed newspaper.

The terms of the deal for the buildings and 23-hectare site were not available. But the report said that the property had an appraised value of $228.4 million.

Facebook currently accommodates its 1,500 workers in several rented offices in Palo Alto near Stanford University, and the move to a purpose-built headquarters would allow it to concentrate its various units in one place.

However, Facebook declined to confirm or deny the report.

ZOTAC supercharges Energy-Efficient Computing

ZOTAC International has supercharged energy-efficient computing with the new ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 series powered by the AMD E-350 APU platform. The ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 series combines discrete-class graphics processing with a dual processor cores for the perfect synergy of CPU and GPU that delivers a perfect digital media experience with unprecedented energy-efficiency.

AMD Radeon HD 6310 discrete-class graphics processing takes charge of all digital media processing tasks to enable the ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 series to deliver stunning Blu-ray and smooth streaming high-definition video playback. The ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 series is a potent casual gaming platform capable of rendering stunning 3D visuals with Microsoft DirectX 11 technology.

"The AMD E-350 APU platform combined with our ZBOX Blu-ray form factor is a phenomenal small form factor solution. The snappy day-to-day performance and superb high-definition video and DirectX 11 3D capabilities makes the ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 perfect for users that crave energy-efficiency without sacrificing premium features and capabilities," said Carsten Berger, Marketing Director, ZOTAC International.

Enhanced audio output capabilities deliver superior audio quality and features with the ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 series. The ZOTAC ZBOX Blu-ray AD03 series can send raw lossless (bitstream) audio formats - Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio -via HDMI to digital home theatre receivers for flawless high-definition audio that matches the high-definition video capabilities.

Electrotherm chooses Microsoft to help with Its Growth Plans

Electrotherm has deployed several cutting-edge IT solutions from Microsoft to ensure a seamless transition to the next level of productivity and growth. Electrotherm has streamlined collaboration across its multiple business segments and created a dynamic repository of business knowledge. The Company will deploy Microsoft's Exchange, Hyper-V, SharePoint, Microsoft Office 2010 and Office Communications Server (OCS) to help create a robust IT infrastructure that will effectively address the needs of its fast- growing business in an affordable manner.

"We are on a growth path, and we were seeking solutions which would scale up seamlessly and dynamically. Like every business, we too required IT solutions which were familiar, easy to use, and reliable and of course offered a great TCO. Microsoft's end-to-end value proposition and its vast array of secure and reliable solutions fit our requirements perfectly," said Avinash Bhandari, Joint Managing Director & CEO, Electrotherm India.

Expressing his delight at Electrotherm partnering with Microsoft in its journey of growth, Rajeev Mittal, General Manager, Small and Medium Enterprise, Microsoft India, stated, "For today's CIOs, a key factor to adopt technology is in using the power of software to make communications simpler, more open and more cost-efficient. At Microsoft, we have been working to change the way people stay connected in large and small organizations. I am delighted that Electrotherm has chosen to adopt our communication and collaboration platform which is easy to use and scales with their needs."

Kingston introduces Lucky Bunny Drive

Kingston Digital has launched its Limited Edition Lucky Bunny Drive, available in 4GB. Available in APAC region only, the Lucky Bunny Drive is the new addition to the Kingston DataTraveler Chinese Zodiac USB drive lineup.

With SecureTraveler and a joyful congratulation video preloaded, the Kingston Limited Edition Lucky Bunny Drive not only brings consumers peace and good luck from the outside, but also gives them a secure and peaceful mind from the inside. This new drive allows corporate and home users to set up public and password-protected privacy zones as well as to set Windows shortcuts to launch the programmes conveniently

"Kingston DataTraveler Chinese Zodiac series USB drives have been very popular among collectors since 2008. With the overwhelming recognition from the market, Kingston decided to present the Lucky Bunny Drive for the Year of the Rabbit," said Nathan Su, Flash Memory Sales Director, APAC Region, Kingston. "In addition, a joyful congratulation video recorded by three charming Kingston Girls preloaded in the lucky Bunny Drive also brings you good luck in the Year of the Rabbit."

The Kingston Limited Edition Lucky Bunny Drive will be presented during the Chinese New Year season to satisfy the desire of enthusiastic collectors. If you would like to own the complete Kingston DataTraveler Chinese Zodiac series USB drives, then the Kingston Limited Edition Lucky Bunny Drive is definitely the one you need to have. Like all Kingston DataTraveler products, Kingston Limited Edition Lucky Bunny Drive carries a guaranteed five-year warranty and free technical support services.

ASUS - Best Motherboard Brand 2010

The year 2010 proved to a good year for ASUS in India with the vendor bagging some of the most prestigious awards from media across the nation as well as being chosen the preferred vendor across many channel surveys. It also retained the highest market share for motherboards in India.

Vinay Shetty, Country Head, Component Business, ASUS, India, said, "We would like to thank our partners and the media fraternity for recognizing, appreciating and adopting our products. We are greatly humbled by the love and appreciation shown towards us in 2010 which has made it the best year for component business in India till date. We wish to win more hearts in 2011 and hope to continue to make our customers happy with class leading products and services."

The company took many initiatives to improve its products and services in 2010 and in the beginning of the year, launched the "Reach Us" initiative wherein partners could directly contact the Country Head for Component Business - Vinay Shetty to address any grievances or give feedback about products or services. For service enhancement, the company introduced the E.L.I.T.E. Service initiative in July this year with free pick-up and drop facility for motherboard RMA in 270 cities and in September expanded its reach to 798 cities. It also started offering a never before Burnt and Corrosion Warranty on all motherboards reinforcing confidence and faith in its customers and partners. ASUS also completed 102 partner meets across 60 cities across the country over the year and shared many of its new technological innovations with partners.

Samsung strengthens Its Channel Base

For Samsung, the Channel Partnership programme is an important asset and a distinct emphasis is laid on maintaining the growth and health of this pan-India channel network. Since 2009, Samsung has systematically been strengthening the distributor infrastructure in Tier 1, 2 & 3 markets. Besides its top distributors in Tier-1 market, it has about 100-125 IT channel partners in the Tier-2 markets. Further in the Tier-3 markets, Samsung India has deployed resources to engage retail, resellers and system integrators for enhanced efficiency and efficacy. Samsung India has organized two global offsites on the theme"Be the Best, Believe Beyond Boundaries" in South Africa and Dubai, respectively in the months of November and December 2010.

According to Ranjit Yadav, Country Head, Mobiles and IT, Samsung India Electronics, "The Channels Partners are an intrinsic part of our business model and they form the backbone of our IT presence in the country. We believe in growing together with our channel partners and these events were organized to recognize and reward the contribution of our IT partners in helping Samsung sustain and grow its IT business in the year 2010."

Samsung has followed a two-pronged strategy for growth entailing the introduction of new products with industry-leading features as well as enhancing availability across metros, tier-I and II centers.

Facebook a $ 50 billion business now!

Digital Sky Technologies co-Founder Yuri Milner recruited analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley to help him pick investments in startups such as Facebook Inc. and Zynga Game Network Inc.

Digital Sky paired with the New York-based securities firm to buy a $500 million stake that values Facebook at $50 billion, sources said. Groupon Inc., another Digital Sky-backed company, plans to take as much as $950 million in funding from a group that includes Digital Sky and Morgan Stanley, also based in New York.

"DST's investments in Facebook, Groupon and Zynga have done very well and I think Goldman and others are trying to take advantage of that," said Nick Beim, general partner at Matrix Partners, a venture capital firm based in New York.

Digital Sky invested $200 million in Facebook in May 2009 at a valuation of $10 billion. It has since increased its stake by purchasing common shares, including employee shares in a $100 million offer, according to two people familiar with the matter.

At $50 billion, Facebook would exceed the valuation of Web portal Yahoo! Inc. and online commerce site EBay Inc. The valuation is 25 times Facebook's 2010 revenue, compared with 7 times sales for Google and 4.7 times for Netflix Inc.

New Products and Celebrations at Newgen

Newgen Software Technologies has announced the launch of seven new products in the BPM and ECM space at exclusive customer meets in Delhi and Mumbai. The new product offerings include Customer Relationship Management for Customer Contact Center, CTS 2010, and Customer Communication Management. During the event, Newgen announced its inclusion in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for BPM Suites.

The Customer Meet in Delhi witnessed eminent speakers like Dr. JayaKumar from CSIR, Jayanta Chatterjee from Hindustan Zinc and D. P. Vaidya from Laxmi Kumaran & Sridharan. The speakers in Mumbai were Mridul Sharma from IndusInd Bank and V. Krishnan from L&T Finance.

"We are glad to acknowledge the fact that Newgen has been able to cater to the requirements of its large corporate customers. Providing end-to-end solutions has been appreciated by all our customers and probably it is the single most reason for our continuous growth," said Diwakar Nigam, Newgen Software's Managing Director & CEO. "We take this opportunity to thank our customers for displaying absolute trust in us and would continue to focus on customer satisfaction in the upcoming years," he added.

Newgen also conferred special awards to long-standing customers, at the customer meets. Both the events attracted reputed leaders of the Indian business and industry, who shared their experiences regarding the business benefits from Newgen's BPM and ECM solutions.

VIA launches VIA eH1 Graphics Card

VIA Technologies has announced the world's first graphics card designed specifically for the embedded market with the VIA eH1, a DX10.1 compliant, multi-display card that thrusts any system with a PCI Express slot into a new realm of graphics and video capability.

The VIA eH1 comes with a three-year product longevity guarantee. The VIA eH1 AIB features an advanced DirectX 10.1, OpenGL 3.1, OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible 64-bit architecture and offers multi-stream 1080p HD video decoding and Stereoscopic 3D rendering capability. This makes it the ideal solution for a range of embedded applications that require advanced graphics and video on multiple displays.

"The VIA eH1 hits a real sweet spot for the embedded industry as a whole," said Daniel Wu, Vice-President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. "Offering technologies like DX10.1, OpenGL/CL, plus multi-channel HD video playback on an extremely low power, AIB will excite system integrators who want to bring the latest features to existing platforms."

The VIA eH1 is a low-profile PCI Express add-in-board designed for next-generation embedded applications in a range of segments including digital signage and advertising, POS, POI, gaming or any embedded application where sophisticated graphics and HD video is streamed on two displays.

The VIA eH1 features the S3 Chrome 5400E GPU, the industry's most power-efficient a 64-bit discrete graphics solution and is complemented with 512MB of DDR3 memory.

Hip Street appoints New General Manager - Sales & Marketing

Hip Street has appointed Sukhesh Madaan as General Manager - Sales & Marketing, South Asia. He will be responsible for creating new market opportunities in South Asia by leading all strategic efforts focussed both on establishing the new channel and creating the Hip Street brand in the minds of the end-consumers. Commenting on the appointment, Sandeep Ramani, Country Manager, Hip Street, informs, "India is one of Hip Street's most strategic markets. With a veteran like Sukhesh, I believe, we will be able to accelerate and consolidate our leadership position in the Indian market." "I am very excited to have the opportunity to drive Hip Street's market-leading Digital Lifestyle and Accessory product range in South Asia and take the business to the next level of growth. I am confident and looking forward to work with an organization which is at the forefront of bringing in some of the most innovative products," said Sukhesh Madaan. Madaan brings with him a rich experience of sales, distribution, marketing, business development and corporate strategy. He has held several important positions during his 15 years of working with category leaders like Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, Intel and Jindal Photo films. Prior to his role at Hip Street, he was associated with Sony Ericsson, where he was heading the Retail & Channel Marketing initially and later on was responsible for Business Planning & Strategy.

Winter Scheme for Dealers & Resellers from Simmtronics

Simmtronics Semiconductors has announced a channel incentive scheme "Hot Offer in Cold weather", for its dealers and resellers. The scheme covers the entire range of Simmtronics products purchased from Authorized Distributors. This offer is valid from 1st January till 31st March, 2011.

Under this offer, every Simmtronics product will have some points and channel partner will get those points on buying Simmtronics products from any Authorized Simmtronics Distributor. Channel partners can redeem all accumulated points in the form of rewards like Ray Ban Glasses, Nokia Mobile phones, Play Station 3, 40" LCD TV and many more after 31st March, 2011. The highest award consists of a Star Cruise Trip for Singapore and Malaysia for 5 days/4 nights.

"The Indian market plays an important role in our global business strategy. So, we are looking forward for new ways to reward our distributors, dealers and resellers," says Indrajit Sabharwal Managing Director, Simmtronics Semiconductors Ltd. He also announced a bumper award for distributors of Simmtronics. The distributor, who sells maximum VIA motherboards, will be awarded a brand new car "Chevrolet Spark".

NASSCOM to provide Free Advanced Computer Training to NGOs

NASSCOM Foundation, in partnership with Microsoft, has announced "ConnectIT Workshops" for NGOs and Government Officials in Karnataka in the months of January and February 2011. ConnectIT is a series of capacity building workshops to utilize information technology for everyday advanced level development work. The workshops will be held in Bangalore, Belgaum, Hubli and Mangalore Bangalore

Speaking on the ConnectIT initiative, Rumi Mallick, Associate Vice-President, NASSCOM Foundation, said, "With ConnectIT, NASSCOM Foundation further enhances the capabilities of NGOs and enable them to build a better infrastructure in their efforts to change lives. The ConnectIT workshops have been a major success in the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Orissa. We hope for the same in Karnataka too."

Considered to be an important catalyst in bringing change, IT use can support NGOs by increasing their productivity; cut down operational costs; improve communication and collaboration; organize critical information and facilitate skills development training of others.

Under the ConnectIT programme, NASSCOM Foundation has previously conducted successful workshops for non-profits and government officials in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Orissa and Gujarat.

For more details see

www.varindia.com

McAfee Labs outlines Top Threats in Its Latest Predictions

McAfee has unveiled its 2011 Threat Predictions report, outlining the top threats that researchers at McAfee Labs foresee for the coming year. The list comprises 2010's most buzzed about platforms and services, including Google's Android, Apple's iPhone, foursquare, Google TV and the Mac OS X platform, which are all expected to become major targets for cybercriminals. McAfee Labs also predicts that politically motivated attacks will be on the rise, as more groups are expected to repeat the WikiLeaks paradigm.

"We have seen significant advancements in device and social network adoption, placing a bulls-eye on the platforms and services users are embracing the most," said Vincent Weafer, Senior Vice-President, McAfee Labs. "These platforms and services have become very popular in a short amount of time, and we are already seeing a significant increase in vulnerabilities, attacks and data loss."

The use of abbreviated URLs on sites like Twitter makes it easy for cybercriminals to mask and direct users to malicious websites. With more than 3,000 shortened URLs per minute being generated, McAfee Labs expects to see a growing number used for spam, scamming and other malicious purposes. McAfee Labs also predicts that cybercriminals will increasingly use locative services such as foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places that can easily search, track and plot the whereabouts of friends and strangers, across the most popular social networking sites in 2011.

The popularity of iPads and iPhones in business environments, combined with the lack of user understanding of proper security for these devices, will increase the risk for data and identity exposure, and will make Apple botnets and Trojans a common occurrence, as predicted by McAfee.

McAfee Labs predicts that the recent merger of Zeus with SpyEye will produce more sophisticated bots due to improvements in bypassing security mechanisms and law enforcement monitoring. Additionally, McAfee Labs expects to see a significant botnet activity in the adoption of data-gathering and data-removal functionality, rather than the common use of sending spam

For More Details see

www.varindia.com

Virtualization and Cloud Technologies add complexity to Disaster Recovery Initiatives

Symantec has announced the India findings of its sixth annual Symantec Disaster Recovery Study. The study demonstrates the growing challenge of managing disparate virtual, physical and cloud resources because of added complexity for organizations protecting and recovering mission-critical applications and data. In addition, the study shows that virtual systems are not properly protected.

"While Indian enterprises are adopting new technologies such as virtualization and the cloud to reduce costs, they are currently adding more complexity to their environments and leaving mission-critical applications and data unprotected," said Anand Naik, Director, Systems Engineering, Symantec. "We expect to see enterprises adopt tools that provide a holistic solution with a consistent set of policies across all environments. Data center managers should simplify and standardize so they can focus on fundamental best practices that help reduce downtime."

As Indian enterprises increasingly adopt virtualization, it is having a big impact on their disaster recovery plans. The study highlights that in India nearly 50 per cent of data on virtual systems is not regularly backed up and only 10 per cent of the data and mission-critical applications in virtual environments is protected by replication. The data also highlights that 70 per cent of those surveyed were concerned about data loss as an impact of a disaster. The study indicated that virtualization led 71 per cent to reevaluate DR plans in 2010. This is up from the 61 per cent reported by respondents in 2009.

Further More Details See

www.varindia.com

Cyberstar presents Creative D100 Bluetooth Speaker System

Cyberstar Infocom has announced the availability of Creative D100, a modern-day boombox speaker that delivers wireless audio from any compatible Bluetooth device such as mobile phone, notebook, iPhone or iPad from a range of up to 10 metres from the speaker.

Speaking on this opportunity, Raj Rathi, Founder & CEO of Cyberstar Infocom (P) Ltd., said, "Creative D100 is a very small wireless boombox which can play wireless music from any Bluetooth device. The versatile connectivity and power options coupled with the lightweight design makes it the perfect solution for music on the go at the park, on the beach or at impromptu parties."

Opening a whole world of possibilities unbound by wires and blending harmoniously into any environment, it also allows for wired connections with other portable devices via its integrated AUX-in port even while it works seamlessly with wireless Bluetooth devices. Offering versatile power options, the Creative D100 runs on four AA batteries, ideal for an exciting day of outdoor use and can also be connected to the mains when indoors.

Further more details see

www.varindia.com