back to article Europe greases US probe of IBM mainframe biz

The European Commission is assisting the US in ramming an antitrust probe into IBM's mainframe business - but it's only helping, mind you. "We are in contact with the DoJ but it's not like there is some sort of joint investigation," an EC spokesman told Reuters Froday. The US Department of Justice has begun an investigation …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Investigate Oracle's ownership of Sun

    Oracle already owns Sun

    "it must be careful not to present integration with Sun as a fait accompli or suggest the companies have begun collaborating - a move that would be classed as unfair to the competition"

    What a joke.

    Oracle changed T2+ pricing to .5

    Oracle dumped HP Exadata for Sun

    Oracle has started interviewing everyone in Sun to see if they should be kept or fired

    Oracle has pushed out Jonathan...he is now hanging out in town

    Oracle is about to release a TPC-C with SPARC which Sun said they would never do

    Oracle has been trying to sell the Sun hardware business to HP and Fujitsu to no avail

    Oracle has customers over a barrel

    http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_38/b4147052120632.htm

    Oracle makes more money on Maintenance than new sales.

    Customers get ride of 500 licenses and Oracle tells them they cannot decrease their maintenance costs? Investigate this!!!!!

  2. /dev/me
    Pint

    Don't get me wrong...

    But I had a lengthy conversation one day with some top brass in IBM Europe. He told me the mainframe has lost most of its significance and wont see any kind of revival. If this is true, then I don't know what the fuss is about.

    Mind, we both had something to drink. Can anyone verify?

  3. Crazy Operations Guy
    FAIL

    Late to the game, as usual

    An investigation like this may have been valid back in the 1970's. I haven't seen in years, and even then, it was when the rest of IT department was trying to get the thing down to the loading dock for recycling. I suppose they are just trying to look useful again....

  4. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    "IBM is consistently each year awarded the most patents of any company in the US..."

    Are any of the patents any good ? Can anyone mention a few that have made it into mainstream IT or home life ?

  5. Dick 3

    Tunneling Microscope

    One for example was the Tunneling Microscope and IBMer Leo Esaki also won the Noble Prize in Physics for his work on the development... Does that meet your criteria of being "any good"??

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @Dick 3

    Nobel Prize = good

    I'm not in favour of trying to patent business processes etc. It seems that IBM are still an engineering company - it's just that Apple, Microsoft et. al get most of the publicity regarding "innovation"

  7. Ronald J Riley

    Washed Up Tech Companies v. Real Inventors

    “Big Blue said the current bill strikes a "careful balance" among the varied users of the US patent system. "The debate over patent reform has been both lengthy and constructive, but now it is time to act," stated Weber.”

    Make no mistake, this bill does not strike a balance. I believe that IBM and the other companies pushing this bill are trying to turn America’s patent system into a king’s sport which only serves their interests.

    Over thirty percent of US patents filed by domestic entities are by small entities. Those small entities consistently produce the breakthrough inventions while large corporations produce large quantities of marginal incremental improvement patents. I believe that IBM personifies how older large corporations attempt to substitute quantity for producing quality inventions.

    Compare IBM’s current situation to their heyday. Am I they only one who sees a steady decline?

    I believe that IBM and quite a number of other tech companies are suffering from the same problems which destroyed the auto industry and that over the next decade or two that most of those companies will suffer the same fate as the auto industry.

    The reason is simple, as companies age those who started as inventors virtually always lose the ability to produce significant inventions. The right way to cope with this problem is to either license inventions from those who are producing them or to acquire smaller companies which are based on significant inventions.

    Unfortunately, big companies have equally big egos which are often inversely proportional to their ethics.

    What happens to companies who cannot produce significant inventions who also alienate those who are producing the inventions they need?

    Take a close look at America’s auto industry.

    Ronald J. Riley,

    I am speaking only on my own behalf.

    Affiliations:

    President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org

    Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org

    Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org

    President - Alliance for American Innovation

    Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel

    Washington, DC

    Direct (810) 597-0194 / (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 8 pm EST.

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