Nokia Siemens Networks will buy Apertio, which specializes in network management applications for telecommunications operators, for €140 million (US$205 million), the companies said Wednesday.
Apertio, in Bristol, England, sells a software application suite with components for managing mobile phone subscribers. Features allow operators to authenticate and deliver applications to users, shut off lost handsets and collect real-time data on subscribers.
The management and consolidation of subscriber data is becoming more important, particularly as operators offer "converged" services, the term for offerings that combine mobile, fixed-line and Internet-based services, the companies said.
The deal is expected to close by May. When complete, Paul Magelli, Apertio's CEO, will head a new section within the Converged Core business of Nokia Siemens.
Apertio's software and equipment is used by operators such as Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone. Apertio, a private company, estimates its 2007 revenue at €28 million.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Personal information record losses reach new heights
More than 120 million people in the U.S. had personal data exposed in 2007 as identity theft reached record heights. That's according to research from the nonprofit organization the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) which reported 446 separate breaches exposing 128 million records.
The data shows a more-than sixfold increase over its 2006 figures, when 312 incidents were recorded, involving more than 19 million individuals.
Another group, attrition.org, shows 319 personal information data loss incidents in 2007 in its database, both in the U.S. and other countries.
Criminals can fraudulently use other another person's identity data to buy goods, take out loans, take money from savings accounts, and hire cars. That person has to recover from the loss and endure badgering by debt-recovery organizations and bailiffs.
In the U.K. in 2007 we saw:-
- HMRC and Standard Life - 15,000 records exposed
- HMRC child benefit database - 25 million records lost
- HMRC and Countrywide Assured - 6,500 records leaked
- Northern Ireland Driving Agency - 6,500 records exposed
- Driving Standards Agency - 3 million records lost.
This means that U.K. government agencies alone lost over 28 million people's identity data in 2007. Additional medical data records were lost due to NHS errors.
The number of new identity fraud victims contacting credit reference checking agency Experian continues to grow: 2,570 victims of identity fraud contacted it for assistance in the first half of 2007; a 68 percent year-on-year increase.
Helen Lord, Experian's fraud and regulatory compliance director at Experian, said: "The rate of identity fraud growth continues to be scary."
Identity theft criminals are being caught and punished. However, ITRC founder, Linda Foley, herself an identity theft victim, said: "Identity theft is like the never-ending story. It acts like an oil spill that spreads in yet another direction with the ocean currents and wind despite best efforts to contain it."
The data shows a more-than sixfold increase over its 2006 figures, when 312 incidents were recorded, involving more than 19 million individuals.
Another group, attrition.org, shows 319 personal information data loss incidents in 2007 in its database, both in the U.S. and other countries.
Criminals can fraudulently use other another person's identity data to buy goods, take out loans, take money from savings accounts, and hire cars. That person has to recover from the loss and endure badgering by debt-recovery organizations and bailiffs.
In the U.K. in 2007 we saw:-
- HMRC and Standard Life - 15,000 records exposed
- HMRC child benefit database - 25 million records lost
- HMRC and Countrywide Assured - 6,500 records leaked
- Northern Ireland Driving Agency - 6,500 records exposed
- Driving Standards Agency - 3 million records lost.
This means that U.K. government agencies alone lost over 28 million people's identity data in 2007. Additional medical data records were lost due to NHS errors.
The number of new identity fraud victims contacting credit reference checking agency Experian continues to grow: 2,570 victims of identity fraud contacted it for assistance in the first half of 2007; a 68 percent year-on-year increase.
Helen Lord, Experian's fraud and regulatory compliance director at Experian, said: "The rate of identity fraud growth continues to be scary."
Identity theft criminals are being caught and punished. However, ITRC founder, Linda Foley, herself an identity theft victim, said: "Identity theft is like the never-ending story. It acts like an oil spill that spreads in yet another direction with the ocean currents and wind despite best efforts to contain it."
IBM buys Israeli storage startup XIV
IBM has bought XIV, an Israeli manufacturer of SAN (storage area network) equipment. XIV's main product is Nextra, a storage system based on a grid of standard hardware components.
Nextra's self-healing, self-tuning and dynamic scaling capabilities will give IBM new technology to address the growing requirement for high-performance storage for digital archives, digital media and Web 2.0 applications, IBM said.
Around 4 petabytes (4 million gigabytes) of Nextra storage are already in service, XIV said.
XIV employees will join IBM's system storage business unit, the companies said. Moshe Yanai, chairman of XIV, previously worked at EMC.
The companies would not put a price on the deal, but reports in the Israeli financial press earlier this week valued it at US$300 million to $350 million.
This is the latest in a line of storage-related acquisitions for IBM, which recently bought Softek, FileNet and NovusCG to beef up its storage offering.
Nextra's self-healing, self-tuning and dynamic scaling capabilities will give IBM new technology to address the growing requirement for high-performance storage for digital archives, digital media and Web 2.0 applications, IBM said.
Around 4 petabytes (4 million gigabytes) of Nextra storage are already in service, XIV said.
XIV employees will join IBM's system storage business unit, the companies said. Moshe Yanai, chairman of XIV, previously worked at EMC.
The companies would not put a price on the deal, but reports in the Israeli financial press earlier this week valued it at US$300 million to $350 million.
This is the latest in a line of storage-related acquisitions for IBM, which recently bought Softek, FileNet and NovusCG to beef up its storage offering.
Qualcomm maneuvers around court's chipset ban
Qualcomm is shipping four new wireless chipsets that do not infringe on a video encoding patent held by competitor Broadcom. Qualcomm expects the WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) handsets containing the chips to go on sale in the U.S. by April, it said Wednesday.
The announcement comes two days after a U.S. federal judge issued an injunction that stops Qualcomm from selling some wireless chipsets found to infringe on the Broadcom patent.
Under a special provision of the injunction, Qualcomm can continue to use Broadcom's patented technology in some existing QChat push-to-talk and 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Only) products through Jan. 31, 2009, as long as it pays royalties to Broadcom. New products, or existing products sold to new customers, are not covered by the automatic license.
Qualcomm is still developing workarounds for infringing technology included in the QChat and 1xEV-DO products, it said.
Broadcom won a patent infringement suit against Qualcomm in May and was awarded US$19.6 million in damages. However, Broadcom said the injunction -- which only applies to chipsets sold in the U.S. -- was far more important than the money.
Monday's injunction, issued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, also prohibits Qualcomm from some marketing and customer support activities related to WCDMA and EV-DO chips.
Qualcomm said it still wants further clarification on some aspects of the injunction, saying it could affect the company's product development. The company said it is also considering filing an appeal or for a stay of the injunction.
The two companies still have other patent infringement and antitrust claims pending.
The announcement comes two days after a U.S. federal judge issued an injunction that stops Qualcomm from selling some wireless chipsets found to infringe on the Broadcom patent.
Under a special provision of the injunction, Qualcomm can continue to use Broadcom's patented technology in some existing QChat push-to-talk and 1xEV-DO (Evolution-Data Only) products through Jan. 31, 2009, as long as it pays royalties to Broadcom. New products, or existing products sold to new customers, are not covered by the automatic license.
Qualcomm is still developing workarounds for infringing technology included in the QChat and 1xEV-DO products, it said.
Broadcom won a patent infringement suit against Qualcomm in May and was awarded US$19.6 million in damages. However, Broadcom said the injunction -- which only applies to chipsets sold in the U.S. -- was far more important than the money.
Monday's injunction, issued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, also prohibits Qualcomm from some marketing and customer support activities related to WCDMA and EV-DO chips.
Qualcomm said it still wants further clarification on some aspects of the injunction, saying it could affect the company's product development. The company said it is also considering filing an appeal or for a stay of the injunction.
The two companies still have other patent infringement and antitrust claims pending.
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