Microsoft has just announced that it will offer an entry-level version of XP and Office, as well as Windows Live Mail and Math 3.0, for only 3 USD. Microsoft wants to make deals with governments to provide hardware with this software to students.
Officially, Microsoft wants to get itself an extra 1 billion users by 2015, and wants to tackle piracy in developing countries. For example, why would students in China buy an illegal copy for 1 USD when they can buy a legitimate copy for 3 USD ?
Here is more information:
WebMethods, one of the last pure play SOA/BPM vendors just got acquired by Software AG.
No surprise, I was talking with Rick van der Lans at our seminar "Van Procesmodel tot Dynamische Applicatie" about who would buy webMethods and Tibco. These companies have great SOA/BPM/BAM stuff that many others (including IBM, BEA, Oracle, Sun, SAP, Software AG, HP, ...) are lacking or are not very strong in... By the way, the seminar that we organised at that moment emphasized on the intersection of SOA and BPM, exactly what is demonstrated by the acquisition of WebMethods by Software AG.
Beth Gold-Bernstein of ebizQ has a great analysis about this acquisition, the implication on Software AG's deal with Fujitsu, the strengths and weaknesses of the Software AG/WebMethods combination.
Personally, I think this acquisition increases the chances that Tibco gets acquired sooner rather than later by one of the big SOA/BPM guns. Furthermore, it makes Software AG as an acquisition target all the more interesting.