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| | | February 15, 2004
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Sunday, February 15, 2004 |
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Comcast proposes to Disney
Surprising pretty much everybody, U.S. cable giant Comcast Corp. launched a hostile merger bid for The Walt Disney Company in a deal worth $66 billion, according to the proposal. Comcast publicly announced its intentions to pursue Disney after Michael Eisner, Disney's Chief Executive Officer, utterly rejected the idea in private talks with Comcast's President and CEO Brian Roberts.
Under the proposed merger, Disney's shares will be swapped for 0.78 of a Comcast share, totaling $54 billion, or a $5 billion premium above the stock price at the time of the announcement. In addition, Comcast would also cover Disney's debt currently standing at $11.9 billion.
Comcast angered Disney executives with its hostile proposal, reminiscently of Oracle's unsolicited acquisition offer for PeopleSoft. Still, if the deal goes through, the merger would produce one of the largest conglomerates in the area of creating and distributing media content and communications services, rivaling big names such as News Corp. and Time Warner. The combined company would have over 179,000 employees and a market capitalization of nearly $130 billion. But in the meantime, any plans for merger between Comcast and Disney would be subject to stringent regulatory review from the U.S. government.
Comcast has had a long and periodically-proven record of being a company growing by acquisitions. Just recently, in 2001, the cable service provider launched a hostile bid for AT&T Broadband which, although initially rejected, was later agreed to at the hefty $72 billion price tag.
More from: AP (via eWeek) | CNET News.com 1 2 3 | Computerworld | eWeek 1 2 | InternetNews.com 1 2 | The Mercury News | Reuters 1 2 3 | TechWeb | The Washington Post 1 2 3 4
Windows source code leaked on the Internet
Windows source code was leaked this week on the Internet. The carefully guarded code made its way onto underground web sites, peer-to-peer networks and IRC channels and swiftly circulated the globe. Microsoft confirmed portions of Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 source code were leaked, but said that the code was neither complete nor capable of being compiled into a working version of the popular operating system.
On Friday, BetaNews.com reported that the code was originally downloaded from a Linux-running server operated by California-based Mainsoft, a Microsoft software partner and licensee. Mainsoft, which creates software that enables cross-platform software development, has been a Microsoft partner since 1994. In a statement, Mainsoft chairman of the board Mike Gullard said the company "takes Microsoft's security matters [...] seriously, and we recognize the gravity of the situation. We will cooperate fully with Microsoft and all authorities in their investigation." Microsoft declined to comment on a potential Mainsoft link in the leak, but a spokesman for the software giant said that the leak had not resulted from an internal breach.
Unlike open-source development, Microsoft is guarding its intellectual property from the public eye and it is illegal to post and posses Windows source code without Microsoft's permission. The software maker has launched a large-scale investigation into the matter, but according to experts the damage has already been done. Some voiced their concerns about a potential spike in online attacks against Windows-running systems as source code was more than certainly in the hands of hackers and virus writers, but others said such fears were unsubstantiated and were merely being used to cause panic.
More from: AP (via SiliconValley.com) | CNET News.com 1 2 | Computerworld | CRN 1 2 | InternetNews.com 1 2 3 | NewsFactor | The Register 1 2 | Reuters | TechWeb | VNUNET.com 1 2 | The Washington Post 1 2
Novell aims to gun down SCO's claims
Novell made its biggest attempt to date to intervene in the SCO-vs.-IBM multibillion-dollar litigation over UNIX intellectual property. On February 6, Novell claimed in a letter to SCO that when it purchased UNIX from AT&T the agreement excluded the rights over "derivative works", and therefore when Novell sold UNIX to The SCO Group it transferred only limited rights over the operating system.
In the letter, Joseph LaSala, Novell's Senior Vice President, using a provision in its Asset Purchase Agreement with SCO, demanded that the company withdraw certain claims against Sequent and IBM, as its successor, by Wednesday, February 11. SCO declined to do so and responded that Novell has no right to intervene. Yet Novell used its right according to the provision and "on behalf of the SCO Group, hereby waives any purported right SCO may claim to require Sequent (or IBM as its successor) to treat Sequent code as subject to the confidentiality obligations or use restrictions."
The SCO Group said it will dispute Novell's right in court.
More from: CNET News.com 1 2 | Enterprise Linux IT | InformationWeek | InternetNews.com | LinuxInsider | The Register | SearchEnterpriseLinux.com
In Other News...
 The antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice recommended that the government block Oracle's hostile acquisition bid for PeopleSoft as inconsistent with U.S. antitrust laws. A refusal by the federal authorities to allow a potential takeover of the enterprise software maker, would most likely prove lethal to Oracle's unsolicited campaign to take over its rival.
Experts are saying that the third variant of the widespread MyDoom worm, also known as Doomjuice, may be an attempt by the author of the original virus to "hide in the crowd". When infecting PCs, Doomjuice places a copy of MyDoom's source code on the victim's PC creating a huge population of computer systems where the source code could be found and thus covering the tracks of the worm's creator.
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission against Mailwiper Inc. and its marketing partner Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. for deceptively trying to convince users to buy Spy Wiper, an anti-spyware product developed by Mailwiper. According to CDT, the company changes users' web homepages without their consent and then attempts to persuade them they need Spy Wiper to clean their PCs from spyware software.
A U.S. District Court judge ruled that the jury of the legal spat between Microsoft and Linux distributor Lindows should consider whether the term 'Windows' was generic before the software maker's product debuted in 1985. Microsoft is suing Lindows for trademark infringement, while Lindows claims Redmond cannot claim an English language word to be a corporate trademark.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association has filed court papers seeking the identities of 29 Canadian file-swappers in preparation to launch a campaign against illicit trade of songs on file-sharing networks similar to that of the U.S. recording industry. Since September last year, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued hundreds of individuals for trading copyrighted music files on peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa and Grokster.
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