The plot thickens at Dell where the SEC has now charged three accountants with insider trading in 2005. Using put options they basically sold short ahead of poor numbers coming out. Two of them have settled already. Salvador Chavarria is paying ~$325,000 including $153,240 in illegal profits; John Nieto will pay ~$35,000 including $16,677 in illegal profits. A case is still pending against Glenn Leftwich.

Microsoft Mum on Second EC Appeal
In France Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wouldn't tell the AP whether Microsoft is going to appeal the decision of the Court of First Instance supporting the European Commission's antitrust finding to a higher authority or not. The company has until mid-November to make a move. The Justice Department, which criticized the court's decision, continues to defend its own settlement with Microsoft and to warn the EC about draconian measures.

Morgan Stanley Hangs Black Crepe over MPU Market
Morgan Stanley thinks it's spotted telltale signs of doubling ordering in MPUs - like the fact that processor shipments were up 12% in the June quarter but PC shipments were only up 1% - and is expecting a "below-seasonal quarter in either December or March" - on top of which it figures that between them Intel and AMD have enough capacity to supply 110% of the market and, with AMD being cash flow-challenged - even to the point of maybe having to cut back on R&D, frets that it might try to max out production next year, exacerbating the overcapacity problem.

Ingres Acquires Integrators
Ingres has acquired two system integrators: Luminary Solutions Ltd in Leeds, England and Management Information Systems (MIS) in Perth in Australia for their enterprise application skills. Terms were not disclosed.

Lotus Symphony Claims 100k Downloads
IBM claims 100,000 downloads of its free Lotus Symphony software the first week the repackaged OpenOffice suite was out.

Microsoft Could Always Spend Itself Out of the Box
Microsoft could do more multibillion-dollars deals like its $6.1 billion acquisition of online ad house aQuantive, CEO Steve Ballmer said at a press conference in Zurich. Reuters quotes him as saying, "We do not rule out any more deals like this. But this something we are not doing every day." According to figures just released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, US online ad revenue hit nearly $10 billion in the first half, up 27% year-over-year, with the top 50 sites collecting 90% of the money.

Computer Measure Group Sets Meeting
The Computer Measurement Group, the folks responsible for planning, measuring and managing the world's largest IT infrastructures, want us to tell you that they'll be having their annual conference in San Diego December 2-7 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. The nearly 100 presentations cover zSeries, Unix/Linux and Windows platforms as well as non-server topics like networking, the Internet and storage. See www.cmg.org/PRNewswire06-Register.

Microsoft Mum on Second EC Appeal
In France Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wouldn't tell the AP whether Microsoft is going to appeal the decision of the Court of First Instance supporting the European Commission's antitrust finding to a higher authority or not. The company has until mid-November to make a move. The Justice Department, which criticized the court's decision, continues to defend its own settlement with Microsoft and to warn the EC about draconian measures.

Morgan Stanley Hangs Black Crepe over MPU Market
Morgan Stanley thinks it's spotted telltale signs of doubling ordering in MPUs - like the fact that processor shipments were up 12% in the June quarter but PC shipments were only up 1% - and is expecting a "below-seasonal quarter in either December or March" - on top of which it figures that between them Intel and AMD have enough capacity to supply 110% of the market and, with AMD being cash flow-challenged - even to the point of maybe having to cut back on R&D, frets that it might try to max out production next year, exacerbating the overcapacity problem.

Ingres Acquires Integrators
Ingres has acquired two system integrators: Luminary Solutions Ltd in Leeds, England and Management Information Systems (MIS) in Perth in Australia for their enterprise application skills. Terms were not disclosed.

Lotus Symphony Claims 100k Downloads
IBM claims 100,000 downloads of its free Lotus Symphony software the first week the repackaged OpenOffice suite was out.

Microsoft Could Always Spend Itself Out of the Box
Microsoft could do more multibillion-dollars deals like its $6.1 billion acquisition of online ad house aQuantive, CEO Steve Ballmer said at a press conference in Zurich. Reuters quotes him as saying, "We do not rule out any more deals like this. But this something we are not doing every day." According to figures just released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, US online ad revenue hit nearly $10 billion in the first half, up 27% year-over-year, with the top 50 sites collecting 90% of the money.

Computer Measure Group Sets Meeting
The Computer Measurement Group, the folks responsible for planning, measuring and managing the world's largest IT infrastructures, want us to tell you that they'll be having their annual conference in San Diego December 2-7 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. The nearly 100 presentations cover zSeries, Unix/Linux and Windows platforms as well as non-server topics like networking, the Internet and storage. See www.cmg.org/PRNewswire06-Register.