Big Blue News:Rometty Begins IBM CEO Tenure

There has been very positive feedback so far to Ginni Rometty's accession to the CEO position at IBM on January 1.She has already filled the position she previously held at IBM,Senior Vice President and Group Executive,IBM Sales,Marketing and Strategy,as well as another Senior Vice President opening.I absolutely think she's capable of filling her predecessor Sam Palmisano's shoes to lead a nearly 400,000 employee firm,said Brad Zelnick,a Senior Analyst at Macquarie Capital.
Born in 1958,Ms.Rometty began her IBM career in 1981.She was number seven on Fortune magazine's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2011,and has made the list for seven consecutive years.Ms.Rometty has a B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering with honors from Northwestern University,and serves on the University's Board of Trustees.
IBM is very well-positioned to perform against any number of economic backdrops,Mr.Zelnick feels.It has consistently reinvented itself.In the end,it comes down to intellectual property.IBM spends six billion dollars a year on R&D,as opposed to Oracle's four billion.The company is the number one U.S. Patent Office awardee.
We expect IBM to continue consolidating the software industry.It has roughly 12 billion more to spend on that,to acquire and drive that growth agenda.
We think IBM's road map is conservative.The stock is worth considerably more than what it trades for.Warren Buffett invested in it,and he isn't known for tech investing,Mr.Zelnick pointed out.
International Business Machines(IBM),Oracle(ORCL)

Oracle Needs Staff

Oracle says that,to make their acquisition of Sun Microsystems successful,they need more smart and savvy employees.They are seeking Sales Consultants and Sales Representatives specializing in servers and storage.Also being sought are first class chip designers,hardware engineers and software developers.If interested,submit your resume to oracle-sun-hiring ww@oracle.com

Swedish Firm Rounds Out Sun Micro

The best thing I can do is publish the story I wrote,because it remains true.The companies I mentioned are open for business today,regardless of share prices.That should tell you something about today's flash in the market.Sun Microsystems(JAVA) has purchased Swedish firm MySQL for one billion dollars.MySQL is a vendor of open source database software.Its customers include Google(GOOG),You Tube,IKEA and Facebook.The software itself is free,but integration and maintenance services for it are not.It is with these that Sun,which has a deep commitment to the open source concept,intends to make a profit.MySQL provides platforms for the Web economy,and the Web's enabling of cost reductions and efficiency are making the Internet very attractive to consumers and businesses,according to Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz.MySQL gives peace of mind to customers.The acquisition of MySQL make's Sun's Solaris the only operating system with database software.Together with Java technology,Solaris and MySQL give Sun a fuller circle of software products to complement its breadwinner server systems.Prior to acquiring MySQL,Sun relied on Oracle(ORCL) for databases.The open source concept championed by Sun is both more economical and flexible for Internet companies.Given these advantages,Sun expects to meet or exceed analysts' expectations for its fiscal second quarter earnings and revenue,which will be reported on January 24.Sun has seen 7% bookings growth,with real strength in Asia,Africa and the Middle East.Its products are in the right phase of their life cycles to generate profits as great as,or greater than,expected.Shares of the Santa Clara,California firm were among the best performers in last week's dismal market.