IBM has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the California-based IT security software firm BigFix, with the details of the acquisition largely being kept private.

BigFix Inc. develops security and compliance software that companies implement in order to oversee and monitor computer networks, and to create policies for various machines to follow.

With infrastructure powered by BigFix, firms can implement numerous complex IT policies across hundreds of thousands of machines globally, including various administrative and control privileges, can execute tasks based on time/actions, can directly monitor and control machines across various operating platforms, among other complex tasks.

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International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation today confirmed it would acquire the Internet-based marketing analytics company Coremetrics, with the financial terms being kept private.

Coremetrics has developed proprietary cloud-based analytical and tracking software to allow companies to gain intelligence from online social networks, including Twitter, and Facebook, among even regular blogs, to give firms insights as to what consumers are saying about their offerings, all in real-time.

The idea is as firms gain insights into what consumers thoughts are about their brands or offerings, marketers could better understand buying patterns hence deliver more targeted campaigns and capitalize by changing to better meet consumer wants faster.

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International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation, has finalized a deal to purchase the business software unit, Sterling Commerce, from AT&T in an all cash deal valued at $1.4-billion.

The unit develops B2B software that makes communication between businesses more efficient by automating redundant tasks such as refilling inventory orders from suppliers, among other automated tasks businesses can customize to their needs, even through cross channels.

According to AT&T, the unit has 18,000 global customers, with more than 1-billion interactions on an annual basis across various sectors including manufacturing, retail and financial services.

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Oracle has announced today they will acquire Sun Microsystems at $7.4 billion ($9.50 per share), or $5.6 billion net of Sun’s cash and debt.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said today in a conference call, “With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle is now able to make all of the pieces of the technology stack fit together and work well,”

Oracle expects Sun to add $1.5 billion to non-GAAP operating profits for 2009, and $2 billion for 2010. Read the full story

Microsoft today has just announced Amalga Unified Intelligence System (UIS) 2009. The system can be used to aggregate patient healthcare data from existing systems to make the data easily accessible for both professionals and patients via Microsoft’s HealthVault technology (HealthVault was firstly announced in 2007).

The new version includes many new features, including added plugins and IT tools that will lower the total cost of ownership, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft today also unveiled new prototypes of applications aimed at assimilating health care patient data on Microsoft Surface tables. Thirteen hospitals in the U.S. are currently testing the technology in a live environment.

There are various included applications that allow doctors to easily access records, utilize images and video to help in better explaining information to patients. With the multi-touch technology, more than one person can use the device at the same time. Doctors can easily zoom, change sizes, and rotate photos.

Microsoft Surface also features the ‘vision system’ that can identify objects placed on the surface of the display. As an interesting side note, Sony recently filed for a printer patent that uses similar technology as the Microsoft Surface vision system, where gadgets placed on the surface of the Sony printer are identified, allowing the user to print directly from supported devices.

A new app in Microsoft Surface for health care lets doctors know the number of beds available, the status of pending laboratory results (with alerts), the number of patients arriving and with what type of emergency, among other useful information for emergency physicians. Another app includes a patient scheduling and check-in system.

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The $7 billion IBM Sun Microsystems acquisition talks have failed.

The NYT says IBM lowered its offer to $9.40 per share, down from $9.55, on Saturday, prompting Sun’s board to reject the offer. Sun later said it would void an exclusive negotiation clause with IBM giving opportunity for a buyout with another company.

IBM ultimately completely withdrew itself from the acquisition talks.

IBM lowered its offer to $9.40 per share after an extensive review with a legal team of more than 100 lawyers (not to mention all the other analysts and personnel involved) considered possible antitrust issues. Additionally, IBM lowered its offer because of extensive Sun executive payments that would have been required that IBM somewhat overlooked.

The acquisition would have strengthened IBM’s position as the most dominant supplier of high-end Unix servers.

A deal is still possible over the coming weeks assuming a mutually beneficial agreement can be determined, and given increased pressure from significant Sun investors who favor the deal.

IBM has just been awarded a U.S. patent (7,484,451) straight from science fiction. The device essentially emits electromagnetic waves that reflect off of fast incoming projectiles, and then uses the data to position the body armor to move to avoid being hit.

A method of protecting a target from a projectile propelled from a firearm comprises detecting an approaching projectile, continuously monitoring the projectile and transmitting an actual position of the projectile to a controller, computing an estimated projectile trajectory based upon the actual position of the projectile, determining an actual position of a target with a plurality of position sensors and a plurality of attitude sensors, determining whether the estimated projectile trajectory coincides with the actual position of the target…

IBM has just completed its $340 million acquisition of ILOG Inc. ILOG is a Pairs based business rules engine maker. The systems provide business intelligence and allow executives to make better decisions based on events analysis. IBM was interested in taking over ILOG as IBM felt the merger would allow businesses to process and monitor more complex events with the ILOG systems. More companies are beginning to enter the events planning space, including Oracle and Streambase.

IBM was not previously as successful in this field because none of the products “amounted to a real strategy. We didn’t have tight engineering, focused on business event management,” said Kramer Reeves, IBM manager of business process management marketing. IBM failed to disclose any product plans a result of the acquisition.