But Wait, There's More

Microsoft Issues Security Patches, Including Fix for WINS Flaw

Yesterday was "Patch Tuesday" for Microsoft, and the day yielded five security updates for Windows, all of which Microsoft rated as "important." Here's the rundown on the security updates issued yesterday.

Security Bulletin MS04-041 describes a vulnerability in WordPad that could allow code execution on systems running Windows NT 4 SP6, NT 4.0 Terminal Services Edition SP6, Windows 2000 SP3 and SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, two 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2003 64-bit edition.

Security Bulletin MS04-042 describes a vulnerability in DHCP that could allow remote code execution and denial of service on NT 4.0 SP 6 and NT 4.0 Terminal Services Edition SP6.

Security Bulletin MS04-043 describes a vulnerability in HyperTerminal that could allow code execution on the same versions of Windows described in Security Bulletin MS04-041.

Security Bulletin MS04-044 describes "important" vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel and LSASS that could allow elevation of privileges on the same versions of Windows described in bulletins MS04-041 and MS04-043.

Security Bulletin MS04-045 fixes the vulnerability in Windows Internet Naming Service that could allow remote code execution on Windows NT Server 4.0 SP6a, NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition SP6, Windows 2000 Server SP3 and SP4, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2003 64-Bit Edition. For more information on the WINS flaw, see "Microsoft Looking Into New WINS Security Flaw," in last week's issue of The Windows Observer newsletter.

PeopleSoft Relents, Agrees to Oracle Acquisition

After a bitter 18-month battle, PeopleSoft's board of directors agreed today to sell the company to Oracle for $26.50 per share, or $10.3 billion. The merger agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and should close by early January. As part of the deal, the two companies will cease all legal actions against each other, including a Delaware court trial to determine the legality of PeopleSoft's anti-takeover poison pill, as well as a case that PeopleSoft was bringing against Oracle for allegedly damaging its business. It's still not clear what will become of PeopleSoft's employees and customers. As part of the deal, Oracle will obtain 12,750 PeopleSoft customers, about half of which PeopleSoft obtained in its acquisition of J.D. Edwards in the summer of 2003. At one point, Oracle had plans to fire about half of PeopleSoft's roughly 12,000 employees, but it has since softened that stance, according to reports.

George "Skip" Battle, chairman of PeopleSoft's transaction committee, said the company believes Oracle's revised offer of $26.50 provides good value for PeopleSoft stockholders. "PeopleSoft is a strong and vibrant company," he says. "This has been a long, emotional struggle, and our employees have consistently performed well under the most challenging of circumstances." The agreed-upon price of $26.50 per share represents a 10 percent premium over PeopleSoft's closing price on Friday, and a 75 percent premium over PeopleSoft's market value before Oracle first launched the takeover battle, in 2003. Oracle, which also announced its quarterly financial results today, said the merger should add about 1 cent per share to its bottom line starting in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, and 2 cents per quarter in fiscal 2006. For its third quarter ending November 30, the company earned $815 million, or 16 cents per share, a 32 percent increase from the same period last year.

LTO Roadmap Extended Two More Generations, but Transfer Speed Increases Scaled Back

The Linear Tape-Open (LTO) format is alive and well, as the LTO Program yesterday tacked two new generations onto the end of its LTO Ultrium roadmap. The roadmap calls for the doubling of tape capacity, and a near doubling of data transfer speeds, every generation. In the first three LTO generations, tape capacity and transfer speeds doubled every year, and the LTO-3 tape drives, which are just starting to come to market, offer 400 GB native capacity (800 GB at 2:1 compression) and 80-MB-per-second data transfer speeds (160 MB-per-second compressed). By the sixth generation, LTO will offer 3.2 TB of native capacity and 270 GB-per-second native data transfer speeds. The group says that compression rates will stay at 2:1. The LTO Program also scaled back its anticipated native data transfer speeds for the future of its LTO drives. Instead of an anticipated 160 GB-per-second native data transfer speed, the group said LTO-4 drives will instead offer a 120 GB-per-second native data transfer speed, which represents a 50 percent improvement, as opposed to the 100 percent improvement LTO has made in each generation up to LTO 3. The new LTO roadmap shows that top data transfer speeds will increase by 50 percent for each successive generation.

WRQ Acquired by Venture Capitalists

Host connectivity vendor WRQ announced last week that it has been acquired by two venture capitalist firms. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, since WRQ is a privately held company, as are the two venture capitalists, Francisco Partners and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners. The deal is expected to close in a few weeks.

"With WRQ's financial performance, reputation and large loyal customer base, the company now has even greater growth potential," Doug Walker, cofounder and CEO of WRQ, said in a statement. "The resources and expertise of Francisco Partners and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners will better enable WRQ to deliver on that potential and further position WRQ as a market leader. WRQ looks forward to continuing to serve our customers and offer new products and services to them in the future." After the deal closes, Walker plans to retire, and Shaun Wolfe, the company's president and chief operating officer, will become CEO.

WRQ, which sells its Reflection host access software for clients and Verastream host integration middleware, has about 6 million customers. The company was founded in 1981. In 2003, WRQ had sales of nearly $100 million, was profitable (but how much is unclear), had no debt, and enjoyed an 87 percent renewal rate in its Reflection licenses and a 50 percent growth rate on its Verastream product, which is a pioneer product in the services-oriented-architecture approach to building applications. The company sounded more like one that was looking to go public once the stock market picked up than one looking for backers. But with the stock market still rocky and Walker wanting to retire, it's possible that selling was quicker and easier than going public.

'The Dawg' Chases Away Bad Decisions for Trucking Companies

Hide the cats and chickens, for "The Dawg" is on the loose. TMW Systems, a developer of OS/400 and Windows fleet management software for the trucking industry, has unveiled a new business activity monitoring tool called The Dawg, which scans every transaction and automatically flags exceptions so that managers can take immediate corrective action. The Dawg works with another new TMW product called ResultsNow, which constantly measures and reports the carrier's performance versus established key performance indicators. Together, the two products can give trucking companies greater control over field activities. For example, The Dawg could be programmed to send a real-time alert (via e-mail or a pop-up message) if the accumulated empty miles for a dispatched truck is going to exceed 400 miles. Management could then opt to revise the load plan to make the trip more profitable. "The Dawg acts as a safety net that catches human errors before they lead to unnecessary expenses," said Tom Weisz, president and chief executive of TMW Systems.

Firefox Continues Raid on IE's Henhouse

Mozilla's new Firefox Web browser is continuing to take market share away from Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to the most recent data from WebSideStory. In the United States, use of Firefox increased 34 percent from early November to early December, from about 3 to 4 percent of the total market. At the same time, IE dropped a point of market share, from about 93 percent to 92 percent. While a 1 percent swap in market share for Firefox and against IE does not indicate a huge upswell of change in the browser market, the survey shows that the pace of change is accelerating, which is something to keep an eye on, especially if you're developing server applications that people access from browsers.