Winterflood Securities deploys Cisco unified computing system
Working with Logicalis, a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, Winterflood Securities has undertaken a project to migrate its VMware infrastructure to the new platform. The solution includes four Unified Computing System (UCS) chassis; Nexus 1000, 2000 and 5000 series switches; Catalyst 6500 series 10 gigabit Ethernet switches; and services and support.
The company said its UCS unites computational, network, storage access and virtualization resources in a single energy-efficient system that can reduce information technology infrastructure costs and complexity, help extend capital assets, and improve business agility.
Grant Davidson, manager of IT special projects at Winterflood, said: "Capitalizing on new market opportunities as and when they arise marks the difference between success and failure in the capital markets. We see this as a strategic implementation that will provide us with the flexibility, agility and reliability that will allow us to adapt with the demands of the market and our clients, delivering the services they require.
"With Cisco Advanced Services working in concert with Logicalis' services, the integration of the Cisco platform with our existing network has been a simple and straightforward process and we look forward to a continued successful relationship."
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.
SOURCE:
Monday, May 31, 2010
Trawling for best deals
Trawling for best deals
Don't be surprised if you see a few limos driving slowly down Elliott Avenue, doing a little window shopping.
Big tech companies are expected to be on the prowl again for acquisitions this year, and the Elliott corridor along Seattle's waterfront is lined with prime targets.
Actually, companies around the region could be acquired in the coming year as bigger tech companies feel comfortable that the recovery has taken hold and begin spending the cash they've been accumulating.
"Now that the equity market is back up they're jumping in and catching up," said Nat Burgess, president of Corum Group, a Bothell firm that advises companies on mergers and acquisitions. "If you look out for the next six to nine months, it's going to be fantastic in terms of deal volumes, in terms of valuations."
Venture capitalist Matt McIlwain at Madrona Venture Group is expecting deals to roll over the next year or two.
The biggest tech companies, such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Google, did a remarkable job managing costs through the downturn and may now be realizing that they "underinvested in innovation," he said.
"To get growth and innovation, next-generation products, they're going to have to make some acquisitions," he said.
Interest rates are still low and the seven biggest tech companies together have $200 billion in cash and could generate $75 billion more this year, he said.
"That sets the stage for at least a 12-to-18-month cycle of acquisitions," McIlwain said.
Deals may be good for investors, but there's also a chance the acquiring companies will cut employees or even relocate the businesses.
Buyouts would also continue the Seattle syndrome that leaves the region with an uneven mix of tech companies — a few giants and lots of smaller ones, but not much in between. Companies with promising technologies tend to be sold before they get too big, creating a void in the middle.
But that won't stop the pinstriped buyers from cruising Elliott with trunks full of cash.
advertising
The unusual cluster of tempting opportunities begins with F5, the crown jewel with a market valuation of $4.4 billion as of Friday.
F5 dominates the market for application delivery systems, creating what it calls "strategic points of control" in corporate networks. It's expecting sales of about $200 million this quarter.
Rumors about F5 being sold have come and gone for years. Some analysts said the big opportunity passed in November when likely buyer Hewlett-Packard bought 3Com instead.
One of those analysts is Jeff Evenson, a Bremerton native at Bernstein Research in New York.
Evenson said F5 would be a strategic fit with a number of companies, but he thinks it could be a challenge to get a deal done.
"The most obvious buyers have an issue that I think is almost insurmountable for them," he said.
Cisco would be a natural, he said, but it might have trouble getting antitrust approval for a deal if regulators focused on the niche F5 serves.
Within that segment of the network-switching market, the combination of F5 and Cisco would control 80 percent of the market.
But if regulators looked at the broader sector, it may not be as issue.
HP, Dell and even Oracle could be interested, but the stock's recent climb into the $55 range could cool their enthusiasm.
As expected, F5 wouldn't say much about the topic.
"F5 is a strategic point of control within people's data centers so I can understand why our name may surface in those discussions," said Dan Matte, senior vice president of marketing and business development.
"I can say that the management team at F5 is pleased with the achievements the company has made, and we intend to continue to be a vibrant part of the Seattle technology scene."
Casual-games giant
In the building right next to F5 is Big Fish Games, a quiet giant in the casual-games business that's been hugely profitable for most of its eight years in business.
Big Fish has about 400 employees creating and publishing games and running a Web portal that handles 1 million downloads a day.
Founder Paul Thelen has said he'd like to take the company public someday, but anything could happen.
Especially after Electronic Arts last fall paid $400 million to buy another piscine casual-game giant, London-based Playfish.
Jeremy Lewis, a Goldman Sachs veteran who became Big Fish's chief executive in 2007, declined to comment specifically, but said he's expecting more deals in the industry.
"As a practice we do not comment on rumors," he said via e-mail. "In general, we expect M&A activity within digital media and entertainment to continue."
Storage systems
A bit further south is the headquarters of Isilon Systems, the maker of storage systems used by movie studios, media companies, government agencies and others to add huge storage volumes to their networks.
Storage is a hot sector, Isilon has promising technology and it turned its first profit last quarter after working through a painful restructuring and Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.
The company, valued by the market at just under $500 million, seems like an easy target, but Chief Executive Sujal Patel told me last month the company is "very, very focused on growing our business into an independent, large storage company."
Isilon has been giving investors a similar message.
"These guys really believe there's a substantial long-term opportunity — everything they're trying to do is not focused on the near term," said Sid Parakh, an analyst at Seattle's McAdams Wright Ragen who watches both Isilon and F5.
"Isilon sees a big opportunity in front of them, so unless it's a substantial premium to where the stock is, I don't think that's a company that will be sold."
But you never know.
Buyers who really want to shop should keep heading south on Elliott.
A few blocks further they'll come to RealNetworks, which is practically holding a garage sale, putting its music subscription and games businesses into play.
SOURCE:
Don't be surprised if you see a few limos driving slowly down Elliott Avenue, doing a little window shopping.
Big tech companies are expected to be on the prowl again for acquisitions this year, and the Elliott corridor along Seattle's waterfront is lined with prime targets.
Actually, companies around the region could be acquired in the coming year as bigger tech companies feel comfortable that the recovery has taken hold and begin spending the cash they've been accumulating.
"Now that the equity market is back up they're jumping in and catching up," said Nat Burgess, president of Corum Group, a Bothell firm that advises companies on mergers and acquisitions. "If you look out for the next six to nine months, it's going to be fantastic in terms of deal volumes, in terms of valuations."
Venture capitalist Matt McIlwain at Madrona Venture Group is expecting deals to roll over the next year or two.
The biggest tech companies, such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Google, did a remarkable job managing costs through the downturn and may now be realizing that they "underinvested in innovation," he said.
"To get growth and innovation, next-generation products, they're going to have to make some acquisitions," he said.
Interest rates are still low and the seven biggest tech companies together have $200 billion in cash and could generate $75 billion more this year, he said.
"That sets the stage for at least a 12-to-18-month cycle of acquisitions," McIlwain said.
Deals may be good for investors, but there's also a chance the acquiring companies will cut employees or even relocate the businesses.
Buyouts would also continue the Seattle syndrome that leaves the region with an uneven mix of tech companies — a few giants and lots of smaller ones, but not much in between. Companies with promising technologies tend to be sold before they get too big, creating a void in the middle.
But that won't stop the pinstriped buyers from cruising Elliott with trunks full of cash.
advertising
The unusual cluster of tempting opportunities begins with F5, the crown jewel with a market valuation of $4.4 billion as of Friday.
F5 dominates the market for application delivery systems, creating what it calls "strategic points of control" in corporate networks. It's expecting sales of about $200 million this quarter.
Rumors about F5 being sold have come and gone for years. Some analysts said the big opportunity passed in November when likely buyer Hewlett-Packard bought 3Com instead.
One of those analysts is Jeff Evenson, a Bremerton native at Bernstein Research in New York.
Evenson said F5 would be a strategic fit with a number of companies, but he thinks it could be a challenge to get a deal done.
"The most obvious buyers have an issue that I think is almost insurmountable for them," he said.
Cisco would be a natural, he said, but it might have trouble getting antitrust approval for a deal if regulators focused on the niche F5 serves.
Within that segment of the network-switching market, the combination of F5 and Cisco would control 80 percent of the market.
But if regulators looked at the broader sector, it may not be as issue.
HP, Dell and even Oracle could be interested, but the stock's recent climb into the $55 range could cool their enthusiasm.
As expected, F5 wouldn't say much about the topic.
"F5 is a strategic point of control within people's data centers so I can understand why our name may surface in those discussions," said Dan Matte, senior vice president of marketing and business development.
"I can say that the management team at F5 is pleased with the achievements the company has made, and we intend to continue to be a vibrant part of the Seattle technology scene."
Casual-games giant
In the building right next to F5 is Big Fish Games, a quiet giant in the casual-games business that's been hugely profitable for most of its eight years in business.
Big Fish has about 400 employees creating and publishing games and running a Web portal that handles 1 million downloads a day.
Founder Paul Thelen has said he'd like to take the company public someday, but anything could happen.
Especially after Electronic Arts last fall paid $400 million to buy another piscine casual-game giant, London-based Playfish.
Jeremy Lewis, a Goldman Sachs veteran who became Big Fish's chief executive in 2007, declined to comment specifically, but said he's expecting more deals in the industry.
"As a practice we do not comment on rumors," he said via e-mail. "In general, we expect M&A activity within digital media and entertainment to continue."
Storage systems
A bit further south is the headquarters of Isilon Systems, the maker of storage systems used by movie studios, media companies, government agencies and others to add huge storage volumes to their networks.
Storage is a hot sector, Isilon has promising technology and it turned its first profit last quarter after working through a painful restructuring and Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.
The company, valued by the market at just under $500 million, seems like an easy target, but Chief Executive Sujal Patel told me last month the company is "very, very focused on growing our business into an independent, large storage company."
Isilon has been giving investors a similar message.
"These guys really believe there's a substantial long-term opportunity — everything they're trying to do is not focused on the near term," said Sid Parakh, an analyst at Seattle's McAdams Wright Ragen who watches both Isilon and F5.
"Isilon sees a big opportunity in front of them, so unless it's a substantial premium to where the stock is, I don't think that's a company that will be sold."
But you never know.
Buyers who really want to shop should keep heading south on Elliott.
A few blocks further they'll come to RealNetworks, which is practically holding a garage sale, putting its music subscription and games businesses into play.
SOURCE:
Saturday, May 8, 2010
HP Buys Palm and Now CISCO BUYS NOKIA?!?!?!?
HP Buys Palm and Now CISCO BUYS NOKIA?!?!?!?
Cisco to buy Nokia? speculates a little-known UK Sunday paper (pub. Andrew "Brillo" Neil; circ. 204,005). I'm saying nothing after my blog melted from a blizzard of hits from Finland after I criticized the Nokia 770. So here's what other bloggers are saying...
Merging the two would be quite a challenge, and the most likely situation would be Cisco leaving much of Nokia as is, while slowly working to merge the equipment areas where they overlap (similar to the way they've handled the Linksys acquisition).
But French blogger-journalist Luc Saint-Elie defends the idea (if my French is up to the job):
The rumor's not so stupid. Cisco and Nokia collaborate on VoIP: a hot sector right now. Cisco has the infrastructure and Nokia has the handsets. See how it makes sense?
Darrell Houle runs the numbers:
Nokia certainly has global reach, a solid reputation, and has been smarting recently which makes it a good target for acquisition. Nokia’s market value sits around $71 billion US, whereas the Cisco’s value is around $123 billion.
As El Reg's Tony Smith points out, this isn't the first time:
They have also been rumoured to be looking at merging before. Most recently - February 2005 ... The rumours may have been revived following Nokia's management reshuffle pre-announced last week.
Unstrung's Justin Springham spots the arrival of the wireless industry’s silly season:
As much of Europe shuts up shop for the next few weeks and heads to the nearest beach, the rumor mill is cranking into action. Analysts have been quick to dismiss the idea of a deal, declaring it "unlikely" in light of Cisco's acquisition history. Ah, summer! Roll on September...
Engadget howls "but why?" and then jokes,
What would they name their spawn—Ciscokia, or Nocisco?
NO dude its CisKia...
SOURCE:
Cisco to buy Nokia? speculates a little-known UK Sunday paper (pub. Andrew "Brillo" Neil; circ. 204,005). I'm saying nothing after my blog melted from a blizzard of hits from Finland after I criticized the Nokia 770. So here's what other bloggers are saying...
Merging the two would be quite a challenge, and the most likely situation would be Cisco leaving much of Nokia as is, while slowly working to merge the equipment areas where they overlap (similar to the way they've handled the Linksys acquisition).
But French blogger-journalist Luc Saint-Elie defends the idea (if my French is up to the job):
The rumor's not so stupid. Cisco and Nokia collaborate on VoIP: a hot sector right now. Cisco has the infrastructure and Nokia has the handsets. See how it makes sense?
Darrell Houle runs the numbers:
Nokia certainly has global reach, a solid reputation, and has been smarting recently which makes it a good target for acquisition. Nokia’s market value sits around $71 billion US, whereas the Cisco’s value is around $123 billion.
As El Reg's Tony Smith points out, this isn't the first time:
They have also been rumoured to be looking at merging before. Most recently - February 2005 ... The rumours may have been revived following Nokia's management reshuffle pre-announced last week.
Unstrung's Justin Springham spots the arrival of the wireless industry’s silly season:
As much of Europe shuts up shop for the next few weeks and heads to the nearest beach, the rumor mill is cranking into action. Analysts have been quick to dismiss the idea of a deal, declaring it "unlikely" in light of Cisco's acquisition history. Ah, summer! Roll on September...
Engadget howls "but why?" and then jokes,
What would they name their spawn—Ciscokia, or Nocisco?
NO dude its CisKia...
SOURCE:
Friday, May 7, 2010
IBM to buy VC-backed IT company Guardium IBM to buy VC-backed IT company Guardium
IBM to buy VC-backed IT company Guardium IBM to buy VC-backed IT company Guardium
The company was founded in Israel in 2002, but moved to Boston in 2003, and offers real time database monitoring, auditing and compliance solutions, vulnerability management solutions, and database leak protection.
Guardium has reportedly raised $21m from venture capital funds such as Ascent Venture Partners, Israel’s StageOne Ventures and Veritas, and Cisco Systems. The company was named as a “hot pick” by Information Security magazine. Guardium is a subsidiary of Israel’s Log-On Software.
The company is currently expanding its presence across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Andrew Lawton vice president of EMEA sales, said, “The realisation is dawning across EMEA that corporations and governments need to have greater visibility and control over who accesses their sensitive data, and they need to prove to regulators and the public that these controls exist and are effective.”
SOURCE:
Global technology services giant IBM is preparing to purchase venture-capital-backed database security company Guardium for $225m, according to Israeli newspaper TheMarker. The deal is expected to close in the next few days.
The company was founded in Israel in 2002, but moved to Boston in 2003, and offers real time database monitoring, auditing and compliance solutions, vulnerability management solutions, and database leak protection.
Guardium has reportedly raised $21m from venture capital funds such as Ascent Venture Partners, Israel’s StageOne Ventures and Veritas, and Cisco Systems. The company was named as a “hot pick” by Information Security magazine. Guardium is a subsidiary of Israel’s Log-On Software.
The company is currently expanding its presence across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Andrew Lawton vice president of EMEA sales, said, “The realisation is dawning across EMEA that corporations and governments need to have greater visibility and control over who accesses their sensitive data, and they need to prove to regulators and the public that these controls exist and are effective.”
SOURCE:
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Cisco Announces Mobile WebEx Meeting Center Application for BlackBerry
Cisco Announces Mobile WebEx Meeting Center Application for BlackBerry
Cisco (News - Alert), a global provider of networking solutions, recently announced its latest free downloadable Cisco WebEx Meeting Center application for BlackBerry (News - Alert) smartphones. This application will help Cisco to expand their mobile business collaboration services, and to improve the online meeting experience for its users.
For its users, Cisco’s WebEx Meeting Center for BlackBerry smartphones offers the flexibility and ease to participate in online meetings. Also, it gives the ability to view shared documents and desktops directly from their smartphones.
"Cisco continues to show its commitment to business customers through enhanced availability of online meetings on mobile devices,” said Debra Chrapaty, the senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Collaboration Software Group. “This mobile application makes participating in online meetings accessible for the millions of BlackBerry users who rely on Cisco WebEx for collaboration. It's very user friendly and completely intuitive."
When the user clicks the URL to join the Cisco WebEx online meeting from their BlackBerry smartphone, they are called back by WebEx audio conferencing to join the meeting. If the user answers the audio call, the data portion of the meeting is automatically launched on their smartphones. Other audio configurations also can be supported with the help of this application. Now, this application enables the meeting participants to use the menu options to access the features and shortcuts for fast navigation at the time of travel.
In addition to that, with this new application, the meeting hosts gets the flexibility to start a scheduled meeting that has been previously scheduled on a computer and to pass the presenter control to another attendee who participates from a computer. Also, with live annotations, the meeting participants are able to view shared presentations, applications, and desktops. It also enables the users to view the attendee list to find out who's on conversation at a particular time, and chat privately with one or all of the attendees.
"Together, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center and BlackBerry smartphones provide a highly secure, rich, and intuitive experience for mobile business users,” Jeff McDowell, the senior vice president of Business Segment Marketing and Alliances at Research In Motion.
Cisco’s WebEx Meeting Center application for BlackBerry smartphones is available for download at webex.com or at www.blackberry.com/appworld.
SOURCE:
Cisco (News - Alert), a global provider of networking solutions, recently announced its latest free downloadable Cisco WebEx Meeting Center application for BlackBerry (News - Alert) smartphones. This application will help Cisco to expand their mobile business collaboration services, and to improve the online meeting experience for its users.
For its users, Cisco’s WebEx Meeting Center for BlackBerry smartphones offers the flexibility and ease to participate in online meetings. Also, it gives the ability to view shared documents and desktops directly from their smartphones.
"Cisco continues to show its commitment to business customers through enhanced availability of online meetings on mobile devices,” said Debra Chrapaty, the senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Collaboration Software Group. “This mobile application makes participating in online meetings accessible for the millions of BlackBerry users who rely on Cisco WebEx for collaboration. It's very user friendly and completely intuitive."
When the user clicks the URL to join the Cisco WebEx online meeting from their BlackBerry smartphone, they are called back by WebEx audio conferencing to join the meeting. If the user answers the audio call, the data portion of the meeting is automatically launched on their smartphones. Other audio configurations also can be supported with the help of this application. Now, this application enables the meeting participants to use the menu options to access the features and shortcuts for fast navigation at the time of travel.
In addition to that, with this new application, the meeting hosts gets the flexibility to start a scheduled meeting that has been previously scheduled on a computer and to pass the presenter control to another attendee who participates from a computer. Also, with live annotations, the meeting participants are able to view shared presentations, applications, and desktops. It also enables the users to view the attendee list to find out who's on conversation at a particular time, and chat privately with one or all of the attendees.
"Together, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center and BlackBerry smartphones provide a highly secure, rich, and intuitive experience for mobile business users,” Jeff McDowell, the senior vice president of Business Segment Marketing and Alliances at Research In Motion.
Cisco’s WebEx Meeting Center application for BlackBerry smartphones is available for download at webex.com or at www.blackberry.com/appworld.
SOURCE:
Cisco dives deeper into the data center
Cisco dives deeper into the data center
Lest anyone forget, Cisco's broad data center sweep this week is a reminder that the networking giant's network-centric approach to data center transformation includes giving the network administrator more control over IT operations. Further evidence of that is found in the Nexus 1010 appliance, a virtual service control plane for provisioning services to virtual machines (VMs).
The Nexus 1010 hosts virtual services, such as the Nexus 1000V virtual switch, to ease installation and bestow "ownership" of virtual services to the network administrator, according to Cisco, instead of the server administrator. The Nexus 1010 also supports network analysis down to the VM layer, giving the net admin granular visibility into the virtual workload - perhaps the same visibility the admin would have into network traffic.
At the same time, though, Cisco is attempting to make its data center offerings more appealing to server admins as well. This week's launch also included enhancements to its Unified Computing System platform and blade and rack servers that make the products more suitable for general purpose computing - handling physical workloads as well as virtual.
As Jonathan Eunice of Illuminata points out, this broadens Cisco's initial focus, which was on only the virtualized data center and virtualized workloads. Now Cisco's going after the whole shebang, which will only turn up the competition with server incumbents IBM, HP and Dell.
The HP bridge has already been blown up. Time will tell what ultimately happens with the relationship with IBM. And Dell's already feeling the increase in temperature.
"(This week's) announcement by Cisco demonstrates the bifurcation in the market with some vendors pushing a closed and propriety approach to the data center and Dell's differentiated approach of delivering choice and solutions that are open, capable and affordable," said Dell's Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager, Server Platforms, in an e-mailed statement. "We've heard loud and clear customers are looking to reap the benefits of virtualization and reduce datacenter complexity but not at the expense of handing their infrastructure over to a single vendor as Cisco is asking them to do."
SOURCE:
Lest anyone forget, Cisco's broad data center sweep this week is a reminder that the networking giant's network-centric approach to data center transformation includes giving the network administrator more control over IT operations. Further evidence of that is found in the Nexus 1010 appliance, a virtual service control plane for provisioning services to virtual machines (VMs).
The Nexus 1010 hosts virtual services, such as the Nexus 1000V virtual switch, to ease installation and bestow "ownership" of virtual services to the network administrator, according to Cisco, instead of the server administrator. The Nexus 1010 also supports network analysis down to the VM layer, giving the net admin granular visibility into the virtual workload - perhaps the same visibility the admin would have into network traffic.
At the same time, though, Cisco is attempting to make its data center offerings more appealing to server admins as well. This week's launch also included enhancements to its Unified Computing System platform and blade and rack servers that make the products more suitable for general purpose computing - handling physical workloads as well as virtual.
As Jonathan Eunice of Illuminata points out, this broadens Cisco's initial focus, which was on only the virtualized data center and virtualized workloads. Now Cisco's going after the whole shebang, which will only turn up the competition with server incumbents IBM, HP and Dell.
The HP bridge has already been blown up. Time will tell what ultimately happens with the relationship with IBM. And Dell's already feeling the increase in temperature.
"(This week's) announcement by Cisco demonstrates the bifurcation in the market with some vendors pushing a closed and propriety approach to the data center and Dell's differentiated approach of delivering choice and solutions that are open, capable and affordable," said Dell's Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager, Server Platforms, in an e-mailed statement. "We've heard loud and clear customers are looking to reap the benefits of virtualization and reduce datacenter complexity but not at the expense of handing their infrastructure over to a single vendor as Cisco is asking them to do."
SOURCE:
New foundation to manage Cisco funds
New foundation to manage Cisco funds
The Board of Trustees for the Hattiesburg Public School District has asked for legislative permission to transfer money from the district's general fund into a recently created foundation.
The American Red Cross
The twist: The $174,457 to be transferred had accrued in an earlier foundation incarnation that was dissolved at the request of the state auditor.
Trustees voted to send along a request to Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg, to introduce a local and private bill to "allow the district to relinquish that money back to the new foundation," said Eddie Holloway, president of the reconstituted nonprofit entity, the Hattiesburg Public School District Foundation.
The original foundation, Hattiesburg Public Schools Foundation, was created in 2006 to manage a multi-million dollar grant from Cisco Systems Inc.
Cisco grant money, which became available in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, primarily was used to upgrade technology in the district's classrooms.
That included the purchase of Activboards, a whiteboard that functions as a touch screen and Internet portal.
But in 2008, the state auditor's office ruled that the foundation had been flawed in its structural inception.
"The original ruling by the state auditor was that (the foundation) was seen as an arm of the school board," Holloway said.
That meant that the old foundation had to cease operations. The money left in trust was transferred to the district to be held until a new foundation was created in compliance with state guidelines.
The board was asked to pass the resolution this past week because the Legislature is to reconvene April 20.
"Business will be conducted from one day to three days," said board attorney Percy Watson, who is a long-time member of the state House of Representatives as well.
"There is a window for this to go through."
Holloway said the foundation money is expected to be awarded to HPSD teachers in the form of mini-grants to enhance classroom education.
"The way that it's worded (in the document creating the foundation) is that all proceeds will be used for education," Holloway said.
SOURCE:
The Board of Trustees for the Hattiesburg Public School District has asked for legislative permission to transfer money from the district's general fund into a recently created foundation.
The American Red Cross
The twist: The $174,457 to be transferred had accrued in an earlier foundation incarnation that was dissolved at the request of the state auditor.
Trustees voted to send along a request to Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg, to introduce a local and private bill to "allow the district to relinquish that money back to the new foundation," said Eddie Holloway, president of the reconstituted nonprofit entity, the Hattiesburg Public School District Foundation.
The original foundation, Hattiesburg Public Schools Foundation, was created in 2006 to manage a multi-million dollar grant from Cisco Systems Inc.
Cisco grant money, which became available in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, primarily was used to upgrade technology in the district's classrooms.
That included the purchase of Activboards, a whiteboard that functions as a touch screen and Internet portal.
But in 2008, the state auditor's office ruled that the foundation had been flawed in its structural inception.
"The original ruling by the state auditor was that (the foundation) was seen as an arm of the school board," Holloway said.
That meant that the old foundation had to cease operations. The money left in trust was transferred to the district to be held until a new foundation was created in compliance with state guidelines.
The board was asked to pass the resolution this past week because the Legislature is to reconvene April 20.
"Business will be conducted from one day to three days," said board attorney Percy Watson, who is a long-time member of the state House of Representatives as well.
"There is a window for this to go through."
Holloway said the foundation money is expected to be awarded to HPSD teachers in the form of mini-grants to enhance classroom education.
"The way that it's worded (in the document creating the foundation) is that all proceeds will be used for education," Holloway said.
SOURCE:
Starent to settle lawsuit over Cisco deal
Starent to settle lawsuit over Cisco deal
Starent Networks Corp. (Nasdaq: STAR), a maker of equipment for wireless networks, Friday said it had agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit over its pending acquisition by Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO).
Tewksbury-based Starent has agreed to pay the plaintiff's legal costs and provided some clarifications to the financial analysis that underpinned the board's decision to accept Cisco's offer of $2.9 billion in cash. That deal was announced Oct. 13.
The lawsuit, which sought class action status on behalf of Starent shareholders, was filed Oct. 20 in Delaware's Chancery Court by a union pension fund. It alleged that Starent's board failed in their duty by accepting an offer price that was too low.
Starent made a regulatory filing on Nov. 9 with a detailed chronology of the deal and an analysis of the board's reasoning.
With the settlement, it provided some supplemental explanations of the financial analysis.
Two other suits seeking class action status have been filed against the company over the terms of the Cisco deal.
Cisco employs some 4,000 people at its campus in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
SOURCE:
Starent Networks Corp. (Nasdaq: STAR), a maker of equipment for wireless networks, Friday said it had agreed to settle a shareholder lawsuit over its pending acquisition by Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO).
Tewksbury-based Starent has agreed to pay the plaintiff's legal costs and provided some clarifications to the financial analysis that underpinned the board's decision to accept Cisco's offer of $2.9 billion in cash. That deal was announced Oct. 13.
The lawsuit, which sought class action status on behalf of Starent shareholders, was filed Oct. 20 in Delaware's Chancery Court by a union pension fund. It alleged that Starent's board failed in their duty by accepting an offer price that was too low.
Starent made a regulatory filing on Nov. 9 with a detailed chronology of the deal and an analysis of the board's reasoning.
With the settlement, it provided some supplemental explanations of the financial analysis.
Two other suits seeking class action status have been filed against the company over the terms of the Cisco deal.
Cisco employs some 4,000 people at its campus in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
SOURCE:
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