Dell Inc, the world’s No. 2 maker of personal computers, said speculation over IBM Corp’s possible purchase of Sun Microsystems Inc creates opportunities for customer gains.
“Just the rumor of IBM potentially purchasing Sun creates an enormous opportunity, because all of the Sun accounts are very concerned about what will happen” to its proprietary products for server computers, Dell chief executive officer Michael Dell said at a briefing in Tokyo yesterday.
The Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker is “actively working with large numbers of Sun customers to move those from Sun’s Solaris, SPARC platforms to x86 Linux platform,” where Dell has strong market share, he said.
The executive declined to elaborate when asked whether there was an increase in companies switching specifically to Dell because of the speculation about Sun.
IBM, the world’s biggest computer services provider, is in negotiations to buy Santa Clara, California-based Sun, two people familiar with the matter said this month.
IBM would pay about US$10 a share, more than twice Sun’s March 17 closing price, people familiar with the talks said, giving the Armonk, New York-based services company almost half the global market for servers, computers that run networks and Web sites.
Dell declined to say whether the company was interested in buying Sun. Servers and networking equipment accounted for 10 percent of Dell’s US$13.4 billion in sales in the fiscal fourth quarter.
In related news, Taiwan’s Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團), parent of the world’s largest contract maker of handsets, denied a report in the Chinese-language Commercial Times that it received orders from Dell to produce smartphones.
Dell has placed the orders at Hon Hai and may introduce the smartphones as early as the first half, the paper reported yesterday, without saying where it got the information.
“This report is false,” Hon Hai spokesman Edmund Ding (丁祈安) said by telephone from Suzhou, China.
Michael Dell declined at a briefing in Tokyo to comment on the report.
Dell said in September that it may eventually sell smaller devices with features similar to smartphones.
Hon Hai Group unit Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is the world’s largest contract maker of electronics including mobile phones.
Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康控股), also a group unit, assembles handsets for other companies.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS