Gulf countries welcome bid fromJordan, Morocco to join GCC bloc

 

• Image Credit: WAM
• The news of the Kingdoms of Jordan and Morocco possibly joining the Gulf Cooperation Council states was met with shock and awe amongst users of social media networks within minutes of its announcement. Shaikh Mohammad leads the UAE delegation at the annual Consultative Summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh on Tuesday. Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and Abdul Latif Al Zayani, GCC Secretary General, also attended. The developments in Yemen and the GCC mediation, the situation in Libya and Syria were on the summit’s agenda.

Manama: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) could be the umbrella for all the monarchies in the Arab world after the six-member alliance on Tuesday welcomed bids by the kingdoms of Jordan and Morocco to join it, its secretary general Abdul Latif Al Zayani said.

The foreign ministers of the six countries were tasked to start negotiations with their Jordanian and Moroccan counterparts to complete the required procedures, according to media reports from Riyadh where the leaders of the GCC states held their one-day annual advisory council.

The summit has no specific agenda, unlike the official annual rotating summit, usually held in December.

Deep impact

The membership of Jordan and Morocco would also have a deep political, social, economic, security and defence impact.

Jordan is geographically linked to Saudi Arabia and both kingdoms share terrestrial borders that stretch more than 700km.

Yemen has often said since the 1990s that it wanted to join the alliance, but several factors have hampered a positive response to its requests.

The Gulf Cooperation Council includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Bloc of monarchies

The bloc of monarchies was created in 1981 to coordinate political and economic policies. Following a meeting Tuesday in Riyadh, Gulf Arab leaders welcomed Jordan's request to join.

A statement on the Jordanian news agency said Jordan is seeking a free trade agreement with the GCC.

The six countries are seen as among the most influential of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' members.

They have relied on their oil wealth to secure political and economic clout. Last month the GCC sent troops into Bahrain, which is facing a rebellion against its monarchy.

Why Microsoft Is Buying Skype for $8.5 Billion

 

 

Skype CEO Tony Bates

Updated at 12 midnight. Microsoft has bought Skype for $8.5 billion, in an all-cash deal. The deal closed a few hours ago. is close to finalizing a deal to buy Skype for between $7 billion to $8 billion. The Wall Street Journal confirmed  the news after we had first reported it yesterday. The announcement is likely to come out later today or tomorrow morning, according to several reports. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is said to be a big champion of the deal, the largest in the history of the company. Ballmer and Skype CEO Tony Bates will host a press conference in a few hours.

Skype has been up for sale for some time, thanks to some very antsy investors. My sources indicated both eBay and Silver Lake Partners have been getting nervous about the delayed initial public offering and have been pushing for a sale of Skype. Facebook and Google were said to be earlier dance partners for Skype, and Microsoft was a late entrant and is now close to walking away with the prize.

It won’t surprise me if Microsoft comes in for major heat on this decision to buy Skype — and the software company could always botch this purchase, as it often does when it buys a company. The Skype team is also full of hired guns who are likely to move on to the next opportunity rather than dealing with the famed Microsoft bureaucracy.

I also don’t believe Facebook and Google were serious buyers. Google, with its Google Voice offering, doesn’t really need Skype. In essence, I feel Microsoft was bidding against itself. Even then, I personally think this is a bet worth taking, especially for a company that has been left out in the cold for so long.

• Skype gives Microsoft a  boost in the enterprise collaboration market, thanks to Skype’s voice, video and sharing capabilities, especially when competing with Cisco and Google.
• It gives Microsoft a working relationship with carriers, many of them looking to partner with Skype as they start to transition to LTE-based networks.
• It would give them a must-have application/service that can help with the adoption of the future versions of Windows Mobile operating system.
• However, the biggest reason for Microsoft to buy Skype is Windows Phone 7 (Mobile OS) and Nokia. The software giant needs a competitive offering to Google Voice and Apple’s emerging communication platform, Facetime.

Guess Who’s the Big Winner

The biggest winner of this deal could actually be Facebook. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based social networking giant had little or no chance of buying Skype. Had it been public, it would have been a different story. With Microsoft, it gets the best of both worlds: It gets access to Skype assets (Microsoft is an investor in Facebook) and it gets to keep Skype away from Google.

Facebook needs Skype badly. Among other things, it needs to use Skype’s peer-to-peer network to offer video and voice services to the users of Facebook Chat. If the company had to use conventional methods and offer voice and video service to its 600 million plus customers, the cost and overhead of operating the infrastructure would be prohibitive.

Facebook can also help Skype get more customers for its SkypeOut service, and it can have folks use Facebook Credits to pay for Skype minutes. Skype and Facebook are working on a joint announcement, and you can expect it shortly.

Why Did Skype Want To Sell?

Skype had filed for an IPO, was going to do about a billion dollars in revenues, and was on its way to becoming profitable. So why sell? Silver Lake and eBay were both getting impatient and wanted to lock in their profits. Some sources also believe Skype’s revenues had stalled.

The company had bet heavily on is video sharing service. The premium version of video calling and sharing was a way for Skype to increase its average revenue per user and move into the enterprise market. However, given Skype’s DNA is that of a consumer Internet company, the challenges aren’t a surprise.

So Who Made What?

• Using the $8.5 billion price as the likely sale price, eBay gets $2.55 billion for its 30-percent stake in Skype. So in the end, eBay did make money on the Skype deal.

  

  The Skype Founders

• Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the co-founders, with their 14-percent stake, take home about $1.19 billion. Damn, these guys know how to double-dip!
• Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) own 56 percent of the company, and that stake is worth $4.76 billion.
• Andreessen Horowitz had three percent of the deal and made $205 million profit on their $50 million initial investment.

Oracle vs HP : Affaire Itanium : les clients HP montent au créneau

 

La décision d'Oracle de lâcher Itanium provoque l'ire des clients de HP. Le club d'utilisateurs Connect fait savoir son mécontentement dans un communiqué et interpelle la firme de Larry Ellison, lui demandant de reconsidérer sa position.

Les clients d'Oracle et de HP tout à la fois ne sont pas contents. Dans un communiqué publié vendredi le club Connect, qui revendique 52.000 clients du constructeur, dénonce l'abandon d'Itanium par l'éditeur.

« Le matériel HP occupe la deuxième position sur le marché Unix, devant les équipements d'Oracle Sun, avec des milliers de clients ayant investi des milliards dans les systèmes HP Integrity fonctionnant avec HP-UX et des logiciels Oracle. La décision d'Oracle d'arrêter ses futurs développements sur la plateforme Itanium coûtera à ces clients des millions en perte de productivité, bloquera une concurrence équitable et étouffera l'innovation dans l'industrie », peut-on lire sur le document.

On y découvre par ailleurs quelques propos bien sentis de clients mécontents. Et tous anglo-saxons..

« Vous n'avez pas à utiliser la coercition pour tenter de faire quitter à vos clients une plateforme robuste et éprouvée », s'emporte le responsable business développement de l'intégrateur Gibraltar Solutions.

« Obliger les clients à changer de plateforme impactera notre stratégie et nos partenariats. Nous sommes reliés à HP et à Oracle qui sont des partenaires significatifs de notre activité. Que l'un de ces partenaires dicte notre stratégie en matière de plateforme est inimaginable », fulmine le vice-président et responsable technique du bijoutier Suttler.

« Nous sommes actuellement en train de migrer une application vers OpenVMS I64 V8.4, utilisant Oracle 10g2R. L'annonce d'Oracle nous oblige à explorer d'autres options en matière de base de données », menace la SSII Computer Consulting System Services.

Le communiqué, qui pointe par ailleurs vers un certain nombre de témoignages vidéos d'intégrateurs et de revendeurs consternés, encourage les membres de Connect impactés par l'abandon d'Itanium à transmettre leurs doléances au club utilisateurs.

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The curious incident of Oracle and HP-UX on Itanium

 

The curious incident of Oracle and HP-UX on Itanium

Comment When I saw the news on Wednesday morning, I thought I had picked the wrong week to give up sniffing glue. Or maybe Oracle did. Either way, Oracle’s announcement that it is halting development on HP-UX/Itanium versions of its products touched off a firestorm of phone calls, emails and tweets that just won’t let up.

TPM covered the basics in his excellent story here. Snarky ‘Itanic’ jibes in the headlines aside, HP-UX based Unix systems are in use in a large number of customer data centers, as are IBM Power Unix systems and Oracle SPARC boxes.

These big iron boxes have moved from being the hot new thing a decade ago into more of a mission-critical, mainframe-esque role in mid-sized and large data centers.   What first struck me about the Oracle press release is the claim that “Intel management made it clear that their strategic focus is on their x86 microprocessor and that Itanium was nearing end of life”.

Funny, that directly contradicts what I’ve heard for years directly from Intel and HP. Intel has been more forthcoming about Itanium roadmaps, dates and specifications than at any time in recent memory. Oracle, by contrast, has reinforced its reputation as the North Korea of the server business … only without the charisma and cool Texaco flag.

Why would Intel publicly discuss Itanium roadmaps if it was near end-of-life? Why would it tell Oracle one thing about its plans and HP, industry analysts and the press another? Why would Intel do something that would make them look either deceptive or stupid? Answer: it wouldn’t. Intel doesn’t make those kinds of mistakes.

Gold in them thar processors

Intel is making good money on Itanium processors – more than enough to justify future development. HP is making good money on Integrity (HP-UX + Itanium) systems. Hell, even Oracle is making money on software installed on HP-UX systems. In fact, it is making even more since it tweaked licensing terms to jack up database pricing on HP Unix systems. So if everyone is making bank (including Oracle), why disrupt things now?

This is what Ellison meant when he said that Oracle wants to be the IBM of the 1960s

I think that Oracle simply wants to cut a competitor out of the Unix running and make a play for their installed base. I’ve been in the enterprise server business for more than 15 years now (God, I’m old). For the last five years, I’ve run comprehensive Unix vendor surveys among data center respondents.

They compare the major Unix vendors (HP, IBM and Sun/Oracle) on a wide variety of technical and customer support criteria. In general, IBM and HP tend to beat Sun/Oracle on the majority of questions, which include OS qualities, RAS, performance, and vendor support. (We’ll publish the results from our most recent survey in coming weeks.)

Our survey respondents also indicate that Oracle’s installed base isn’t very comfortable with Oracle’s plans, the way the company communicates those plans, or the support they receive This is quite a change from the Sun days, when most respondents may not have been all that wild about the systems, but they seemed to always like the company and the support it provided.

Let’s say I’m right, and Oracle is playing every card they can to build up its hardware business and drive customers away from HP. Why stop there? How long until it announces it is halting development on IBM AIX versions of its software? Or change the licensing terms to make it even more expensive to deploy on Power vs. any Oracle alternative? Taking it a bit further, is there an Oracle plan to find a way to charge customers a bit more if they run Oracle software on Dell, HP, or IBM x86 hardware? Maybe crank up the support costs a bit higher?

Lock-in

To me, this is the reality of what Ellison meant when he said that Oracle wants to be the IBM of the 1960s. Oracle wants to have the incredible margins that IBM enjoyed back then. It wants to have that lock-in that IBM had in the days when there were few alternatives and even fewer standards that would allow customers to easily move from vendor to vendor.

But we don’t live in the 1960s, or even in the 1990s. Back in the 90s and early 00s, Oracle had the power to push server vendors out of the business simply by announcing that it was moving its DB port to a vendor’s OS to second-tier status. If Oracle dropped support of an OS entirely, it was the kiss of death – something that was widely speculated about in vendor and customer communities.

But it’s a different world today. There are a lot of alternatives for HP-UX customers to consider. The current version of IBM’s DB2 database, for example, is fully supported on HP-UX.   There is also a difference in vendor scale today. It used to be easy for Oracle to bully small vendors like Sequent, Pyramid, Data General, NCR and even DEC. They could even intimidate the Unix brands of larger companies such as HP and IBM.

But  today’s systems vendors are larger, more diversified and have more options. Customers today are different too, more sophisticated and not as frightened when it comes to changing systems, databases, or applications. Perhaps most importantly, customers have greater control than ever over their IT choices.

Will Oracle’s gambit work? Will it result in greater system sales? Higher database sales on their own iron? Or will there be a backlash from customers who now see the Ghost of Christmas Future – Oracle tightening the screws and reducing their options until they buckle under and start buying Oracle iron to run Oracle software?

It’s too early to tell. But based on what I’m hearing from clients and what I’ve seen in my own research, I’m betting on backlash. ®

The curious incident of Oracle and HP-UX on Itanium

Good Mood: 10 Ways To Get Yourself Back Into On

 

Good moods are great - but sometimes it can be hard to maintain those moods. Here are some tips on keeping your days upbeat and positive.

Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Or feeling depressed for no particular reason? And are you positive that this is not the way you want to go through your day? Here are a few quick mood fixers to get you going in a better mode.

Take a bubble bath. I know that seems more like an evening treat, but that's exactly why it helps on a bad morning. The warm water soaks away any small aches and pains, and the bubbles and scent relax your mind. Close your eyes. Just inhale, feel the warm water embracing you. Take a deep breath - use scents that stimulate and yet relax, like lavender.

And then you dry off, don't forget to treat yourself to some fragrant bath powder. That way you can enjoy the lingering after-effects of your soothing bath all day long.

Put on something nice - one of those things you are saving "for good." Often the way we dress reflects our mood. Putting on shapeless, baggy clothing only reinforces the negative. Take a moment to look nicer and you'll discover that you feel nicer, too.

Give yourself permission to take a break. Take a look at your to-do list - even if it's only a mental list. Take one item off of it - and spend the time you would have spent on that chore relaxing with a cup of tea and that magazine you've been promising yourself you would get to.

Making a deliberate choice to not do something eases our conscience. Simply not getting to it often makes us feel guilty - usually without reason.

Write it out. Whatever it is. Clear your mind by getting it out of yourself and onto a piece of paper. Write out the vague worries, the chores, the things that you are frustrated with, the reasons why you think you're in a bad mood.

And now that you have all those negatives on the paper instead of just in your mind, take a few minutes more to list three good and positive things. Hold onto those and leave the rest on that piece of paper.

Reward yourself. Promise yourself a walk in the garden. When you're racing through the supermarket treat yourself to a bouquet of flowers along with the groceries. Call an old friend for a chat. Make these rewards - one reward for each chore that you manage to get through.

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Get it out of the way. Often when we wake up disgruntled it's because we know that the day holds at least one chore we're not happy about doing. So just do it. Get it out of the way and over with. The whole rest of the day will be spent with a feeling of relief instead of overhanging guilt.

Count your blessings - Yeah, I know - it sounds like sermonizing. But when we are feeling down it is because we're letting the negatives outweigh the positives. Making a list of the positives reminds us that all is not misery. While you're at it, make a list of the things you like about yourself. You can throw the paper away if you like - but remember those good things when the bad seems to be descending.

Look for that silver lining. It may sound Pollyanna-like, but in almost every situation there is a bright spot. It may be miniscule compared to everything else that seems to be pressing on you - but it is there. Find it. Concentrate on it. If you can't find it alone, call a friend and let them help you to search for the good aspects. Friends often have to listen to us bemoaning things - think how pleasant a change it will be for them to help you focus on the positive.

Name five people that you love. Take a few minutes to call one of them, or send them a postcard. Promise yourself that you will treat the next person on the list tomorrow.

Tackling the whole list will make you feel pressured instead of relieved. Remembering five people who are worth loving will make you feel better, and doing something for one of them will make you feel better still. The promise to take care of the others later is simply a matter of giving yourself permission to take time to think of nice things you could do for the others on your list.

Do something nice for someone else. It is amazing, but this one act can bring us more relief from depression than anything else. It focuses your mind on something outside of yourself, makes someone else happy - and therefore makes you feel positive and giving. It doesn't have to be something big. Just something that person will appreciate.

An even bigger spirit lifter is to do something nice for someone anonymously. Send flowers to a friend - but don't sign the card. Imagining their pleasure and all the fun they will have speculating about their mysterious benefactor will keep you smiling all day.

Of course few of us have the time to do all of these - some days are too hectic for leisurely bubble baths or long journal entries. But if you notice, some of our mood lifters are very personal treats and some involve treating others.