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SAP to Expand Cloud Presence with Acquisition of Ariba
WALLDORF, Germany and SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- SAP AG /quotes/zigman/126928 /quotes/nls/sap SAP -0.05% and Ariba, Inc. /quotes/zigman/93582 /quotes/nls/arba ARBA +0.85% today announced that SAP's subsidiary, SAP America, Inc., has entered into an agreement to acquire Ariba, the leading cloud-based business commerce network, for $45.00 per share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $4.3 billion. The acquisition will combine Ariba's successful buyer-seller collaboration network with SAP's broad customer base and deep business process expertise to create new models for business-to-business collaboration in the cloud. The Ariba board of directors has unanimously approved the transaction.
From Silicon Valley, A New Approach To Education : All Tech Considered : NPR
Enlarge iStockphoto Four major Universities are joining forces with Coursera, a Silicon Valley start-up, to offer free online classes in more than three dozen subjects. iStockphoto Last year when Andrew Ng, a computer science professor at Stanford University, put his machine-learning class online and opened enrollment to the world, more than 100,000 students signed up. The class was interactive. There were quizzes and online forums where TAs, fellow students and Ng answered questions.
Oakley Inc. is developing technology that can project information directly onto lenses, putting the sunglass maker into potential competition with Google Inc. (GOOG) The technology would let Oakley, a division of Italy ’s Luxottica Group SpA (LUX) , make hardware that’s comparable with Google’s Project Glass, an experimental effort to build smartphone features into eyewear, Oakley Chief Executive Officer Colin Baden said in an interview. Companies are stepping up efforts to build a wider range of electronics -- including articles of clothing -- that can connect wirelessly to the Internet. The market for so-called connected devices, a broad category that includes smartphones, tablets and PCs, may surge to 1.84 billion units in 2016, more than double the figure for last year, according to research firm IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts . “As an organization, we’ve been chasing this beast since 1997,” Baden said.
Oakley Tests Technology That Would Rival Google’s Project Glass - Bloomberg
Associated Press The social networking giant has reached an agreement to buy Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. That means even before it launches its massive IPO, Facebook is using its market wealth to grow. For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family.
Facebook to Buy Instagram for $1 Billion in Cash, Stock - Deal Journal - WSJ
Google+ Hangouts Get Apps, Including SlideShare and Diagram Tools
Google+ Hangouts are great for straight-up talking , and they have some productive features, too . Now, though, the gates are open to third-party apps. The first batch is mostly games and goofiness, but two tools stand out.
Silicon Valley is a place known for inventing the future. With the stock market feeling strong again Silicon Valley and global entrepreneurs are demonstrating where the future is going – BIG DATA. This week Big Data is the topic taking center stage in Silicon Valley at the OReilly Strata Conference (StrataConf.com) and on Twitter #strataconf .
Big Data is Creating The Future - It's A $50 Billion Market - Forbes
101010: That's the number 42 represented in binary, which is the mathematical way today's binary computers see every single piece of information flowing through them, whether it's a stock price, the latest Adele track, or a calculation to generate an MRI of a tumor. But now IBM believes it's made progress in developing quantum computers, which don't use binary coding. It is not overstating the matter to say this really may be the ultimate answer in computing machines. Quick, mop your brow and don't worry: The science isn't too hard to grasp and the revolution, when it comes, could rock the world. In a very good way.
IBM's Quantum Computers Could Change The World (Mostly In Very Good Ways) | Fast Company
Some interesting findings from the report include: "As the industry continues to innovate and more consumers look to multiple devices and platforms to consume digital media, we expect the mobile and connected device landscape to be shaken up even further in 2012," said Mark Donovan, comScore Senior Vice President of Mobile. "As mobile channels present a more personal, social, and ubiquitous experience to consumers, advertisers and publishers have an opportunity to better engage target audiences, given an understanding of how to connect and leverage the unique characteristics of these emerging platforms." Meanwhile as rumors fly about the release date and options for the upcoming iPad 3, a TechBargains survey finds that not only will version 1 and 2 buyers look into an iPad 3, but about half of Kindle Fire owners are interested in buying the new product as well. Of all those surveyed 48% said they were interested in the iPad 3.
2012: All about the 'fourth' screen? - Research - BizReport
People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time. According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.
Google to Sell Heads-Up Display Glasses by Year's End - NYTimes.com
The “Unhyped” New Areas in Internet and Mobile | TechCrunch
Editor’s note: Legendary investor Vinod Khosla is the founder of Khosla Ventures. You can follow him on Twitter at @vkhosla. All Khosla Ventures investments, as well as ventures related to Vinod Khosla, are italicized. We are in a whole new world of platforms, a post-PC era, which I’d more aptly describe as the always/everywhere era, finally, and that means a whole new set of opportunities. Add to it the fact that because of a variety of factors too numerous to cover here, the cost of experimentation has gone down dramatically (one can start a web startup or write an Android app with no more than a student credit card!)
Every year IDC has a widespread top ten predictions program that starts in November with worldwide top level firm predictions generated from a group of us, and is then followed by a series from across many groups. My group always contributes our enterprise application focused predictions. The document is now available on IDC.com (#233104, subscription required to access). I will summarize the predictions for you though, since many of you can't access the actual document. In addition to me, the document was authored by: Mary Wardley , Robert Mahowald , Amy Konary and Scott Guinn.
Michael Fauscette: Top Ten Predictions for 2012
Emerging technologies are critical to building a sustainable and resilient future. But without new understanding, tools and capabilities, their safe and successful development is far from guaranteed. At the Summit on the Global Agenda 2011 in Abu Dhabi , United Arab Emirates, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies asked some of the world’s leading minds within the entire GAC Network which technology trends would have the greatest impact on the state of the world in the near future. Below, the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies presents the technological trends expected to have major social, economic and environmental impacts worldwide in 2012.
The 2012 top 10 emerging technologies | Forum:Blog | The World Economic Forum
Google Inc. is close to launching a cloud-storage service that would rival one of Silicon Valley's hottest start-ups, cloud-storage provider Dropbox Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. Like Dropbox, Google's storage service, called Drive, is a response to the growth of Internet-connected mobile devices like smartphones and tablets and the rise of "cloud computing," or storing files online so that they can be retrieved from multiple devices, these people said. Drive allows people to store photos, documents and videos on Google's servers so that they could be accessible from any Web-connected device and allows them to easily share ...
Google Near Launch of Cloud-Storage Service - WSJ.com
In today's pictures, a U.S. service member is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, a boy plays in the mud in Myanmar, Peyton Manning joins the Denver Broncos, and more. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II reaffirmed her dedication to serve in an address to Parliament Tuesday marking her six decades on the throne. A fresh wave of sanctions that is feeding panic in Iran's economy is also hitting businesses in NATO-ally Turkey, upending a boom in bilateral trade that was underpinned by improving diplomatic ties. This five-bedroom property, believed to date back to 1860, has been restored to a family home after being subdivided into apartments for many years.
Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - Wsj.com
OK, I’ve been talking with hundreds of geeks from around the world this year at three conferences, CES, DLD, and World Economic Forum. I’m seeing a trend that is worth talking about. What is it? We’re seeing the end of one of the most disruptive ages in human history. I believe that we’re seeing a pause in the disruption.
2012 brings a pause in the disruption — Scobleizer
Cloud Computing