Google Acknowledges Need To Enhance Search

After years of ignoring context-sensitive search in major vertical categories, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) finally entered vertical search within the travel domain earlier this month with a bang. It acquired ITA Software, the Boston-based specialist in organizing airline data, flight times, seat availability, and pricing, for $700 million. While the move is sure to be subject to scrutiny

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Intel In The Price War Era

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) just reported the best quarter in its history with a record profit of $2.9 billion driven by the boost in corporate PC buying. Intel has been eyeing the smartphone microprocessor market, which is dominated by ARM. Let’s take a closer look.

Red Hat And NetApp Reap Cloud Computing Momentum

According to Gartner, 2010 IT spending on cloud computing is expected to increase 17% over the year to $68.3 billion. By 2014, that number is expected to grow to $148.8 billion. The open source leader Red Hat (NASDAQ:RHT) is already benefiting from the addition of a virtualization layer to its software products with giants such as

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Apple Showers Riches On Component Vendors

The iSuppli teardown analysis of the iPhone 4 is out. It estimates the bill of materials (BOM) on a $600 16GB iPhone 4 to be $187.51. That is a fat profit margin of more than 60% for Apple. Samsung, Infineon, Broadcom, and LG Display are the major beneficiaries in the supply chain. This estimate does

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Electronic Arts On Digital Gear

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report for 2010–14 predicts the global entertainment and media (E&M) market to grow 5% annually to $1.7 trillion by 2014, with the U.S. market to grow 3.8% annually to $517 billion in 2014 from $428 billion in 2009. Globally, the online and wireless video game market will grow 10.6%, compounded from $52.5

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Online University Sector Booming

A recent study by the Lumina Foundation projects that the United States needs to add a million graduate students a year for the next 16 years if it wishes to remain a competitive nation. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that in the coming 10 years, jobs requiring higher education will be among the

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Micron And NSM In Acquisition Mode

Chipmakers Micron (NYSE:MU) and National Semiconductor (NYSE:NSM) have been in acquisition mode. Micron acquired NOR flash maker Numonyx for $1.27 billion while National Semi recently acquired fabless chipmaker GTronix for an undisclosed sum. Let’s take a closer look.

Google Enters Vertical Search With Travel

Something really major happened today. The New York Times reports: “Google has acquired ITA software, a 14-year-old company that makes software that organizes flight and pricing information, for $700 million in cash. ITA, based in Boston, specializes in organizing airline data, including flight times, seat availability and pricing.”