HP coughs out $1.2 billion for struggling Palm

HP and Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which HP will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors.

The combination of HP’s global scale and financial strength with Palm’s unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets. Palm’s unique webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as true multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications.

So where’s this marriage going to go?

My take is that while Palm has, unsuccessfully, tried to reinvent itself over the past few years with handsets such as the Pre and Pixie, the company hasn’t managed to make much of a splash. Partly this is down to Palm being outmaneuvered by competitors such as Apple, HTC, Motorola and Nokia, but the biggest problem that Palm has has been crippled by not having a large enough ad budget or broad enough distribution channel compared to its competitors. This deal with HP should give Palm an enormous leg up.

But what’s in it for HP? Well, I can’t help but feel that the companies mobile devices line is somewhat stale, and bringing Palm onboard could mean a nice refreshed line of devices.

But is this partnership too little, too late? Apple is firmly entrenched at the leader of the pack when it comes to style, desirability and has a well-established platform and network of developers churning out apps. On top of this, we can expect a new iPhone to appear in June. RIM’s Blackberry also has firm roots in the enterprise market. On top of all this, Microsoft is getting ready to launch its Windows Phone 7 Series lineup of handsets, something which users have been hoping to see for a long time. Put all this together and all of a sudden HP/Palm is faced with an enormous mountain to climb.

'Boobquake' shakes Facebook

Breasts were big on Facebook on Monday as a female blogger called on women to prove wrong an Iranian cleric who preached that cleavage causes earthquakes.

As a cyber-organised event dubbed "Boobquake" got underway, a temblor measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale hit Taiwan prompting playful online banter about whether there was merit to the cleric's contention.

More than 55 000 people were backing the official "Boobquake" page of Jennifer McCreight, a self-described "geeky, perverted atheist feminist" putting her D-cup breasts where her mouth is.

"No, the Taiwan earthquake is not statistically significant - yet," the college senior said in an update to her blog.

"If we get many of a similar magnitude in the next 24 hours, then we might start worshiping the power of immodesty."

'Leading men astray'

McCreight, who lives in the US state of Indiana, used the world's leading social network and microblogging service Twitter to enlist women worldwide to test the cleric's assertion that sexy women can make the ground shake.

"Many women who do not dress modestly... lead young men astray, corrupting their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted last week as saying by Iranian media.

What started as a barbed poke at what she saw as bad science on the cleric's part won a passionate following as it bounced around the internet, and by Monday a pair of Boobquake rallies were planned.

Online shop Zazzle.com embraced the movement, selling "Boobquake 2010" t-shirts with pink ribbon designs. Money made from selling the shirts will go towards the fight against breast cancer.

"Who can resist the opportunity to show cleavage for a good cause?" a Twitter user with the screen name MBodman 88 asked rhetorically in a tweet. "Really, everybody wins today."

Natural causes

McCreight chose a titillating low-cut red blouse with spaghetti string straps for the day, posting a photo of herself at her blog online at blaghag.com.

She rejected the notion that accentuating her breasts caused an earthquake in Taiwan, saying she would only consider taking credit for temblors in her time zone. She pointed out that there are known natural causes for earthquakes.

"I encourage other female sceptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts," McCreight said on the Boobquake Facebook page.

"Or short shorts, if that's your preferred form of immodesty."

While the Boobquake rallies were lightly attended, messages flooding Twitter and Facebook indicated that women were planning to slip on skimpier or tighter tops in solidarity with the message to keep science and sexuality separate.

A blogger at Iran.com invited about 100 men and women friends to take part in Boobquake as a provocative way to advocate support of science.

"I can just have a good laugh," Azarin Sadegh wrote at Iran.com.

"But for the women living in Iran, it is not a joke. This is just the red flag, the starting whistle for the Basij and Hejab patrols to go after them.

Source: APF

Facebook begins the construction of Data Center in Prineville, Oregon.

Written by Ifeyinka

On Friday, January 22, 2010, Facebook, the social network giant, laid the foundation block for its own data center in Prineville, Oregon.  There are over 350 million users on Facebook who has their information stored with the online social network. Data Center is a server and data storage infrastructure that used to house computer systems and associated components. Data Center is also called server farm.

Facebook’s Oregon data center would be 147,000-square-foot, and it is projected to cost $188.2 million. The construction of the custom data center is expected to be completed in 2011.

The decision of Facebook’s management to construct its own data center is an applaudable cost saving strategy. This is because the economic scale of owning and managing data center favors the fastest expanding online social network at this time because of its ever growth membership subscriptions. Facebook had leased server space from wholesale data center providers Virginia and California. The construction of the data center is vital at this point in time when Facebook is setting the stage to go for Initial Public Stock Offering (IPO) by hiring David Ebersman last year. David Ebersman was the former CFO of Genentech.

The establishment of Facebook’s data center in the city would be the largest investment in Prineville, Oregon in the last three decades.  The construction of the data center is expected stimulate the local economy of the city of Prineville which has been severely affected by the economic recession; the citation of the data center in the county seat of Crook County would create over 200 jobs during the construction and thousands of jobs after when the Data Center commence its operations in 2011.

Oregon State is a good location for Facebook because the state offers tax incentives for companies, favorable weather conditions (cold), efficiency and affordable power supply. Facebook is not the first Information Technology related company to strategically locate its data center in Oregon; Amazon and Google have their data centers in Oregon even though these companies’ headquarters were located in other states.

Facebook’s Prineville data center facilities would be equipped with energy efficiency appliances and technology such as evaporative cooling system, airside economizer, re-use of server heat and proprietary Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) technology:

Facebook’s company profile

Founder:                   Mark Zuckerberg

Founded:                  February 1, 2004

Location:                  Palo Alto, California, U.S.

Data Center:             Prineville, Oregon, U.S.

Funding:                   $716M

Users’ Population:    350 million

Acquisitions:             Parakey  and FriendFeed.   

Investments:             Wildfire Interactive and LuckyCal.