Friday, December 27, 2013
Thursday, December 26, 2013
BlackBerry Founder Walks Away From Possible Takeover Deal
BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY) co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer Mike Lazaridis walked away from a possible takeover plan and reduced his stake in the struggling smartphone maker after it ended an attempt to sell itself.
Lazaridis now owns 26.3 million shares, or 4.99 percent of its outstanding shares, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The former BlackBerry executive, who earlier this year had considered making a bid for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company, sold more than $26 million of stock this week, according to the filing. Together with co-founder Doug Fregin, he had controlled about 8 percent of the stock.
Following the collapse of a $4.7 billion buyout by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. last month, BlackBerry ended its strategic review, opting instead to raise $1 billion in convertible debt and seek a new CEO. Former Sybase Inc. chief John Chen was named executive chairman and interim CEO. The $1 billion infusion helped stabilize the unprofitable company, giving Chen time to craft a turnaround plan.
More:http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-24/blackberry-former-ceo-lazaridis-cuts-stake-in-smartphone-maker.html
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Atheists are good if they do good, Pope Francis says
He told the story of a Catholic who asked a priest if even atheists had been redeemed by Jesus.
"Even them, everyone," the pope answered, according to Vatican Radio. "We all have the duty to do good," he said.
"Just do good, and we'll find a meeting point," the pope said in a hypothetical conversation in which someone told a priest: "But I don't believe. I'm an atheist."
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Microsoft Security Essentials misses 39% of malware in Dennis test
While the other eight packages all achieved protection scores of 87% or higher - with five scoring 98% or 99% - Microsoft's free antivirus software protected against only 61% of the malware samples used in the test.
Microsoft conceded last year that its security software was intended to offer only "baseline" performance, saying it wanted to "give customers a good reason to pay for their [security] products" because that would create greater diversity in the market and make life harder for malware writers.
Nevertheless, the company insisted that Security Essentials provided "strong, comprehensive defence against malicious code and attacks".
Read more: Microsoft Security Essentials misses 39% of malware in Dennis test | Security | News | PC Pro http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/386185/microsoft-security-essentials-misses-39-of-malware-in-dennis-test#ixzz2o80ADd6R
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Why the Web Won't Be Nirvana - Newsweek circa 1995
Then there's cyberbusiness. We're promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We'll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn't—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Monday, December 2, 2013
BlackBerry CEO's open letter to enterprise customers: 'We are very much alive'
"In short, reports of our death are greatly exaggerated." BlackBerry CEO.
Ouch! I'm pretty sure it is a bad sign when you have to tell your customers that you are still alive...
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/blackberry-ceos-open-letter-enterprise-customers-we-are-very-much-alive/2013-12-02