HP to Expand Data Center Services with Acquisition of Global Consulting Company EYP Mission Critical Facilities

HP today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire EYP Mission Critical Facilities Inc. (EYP MCF), a consulting company specializing in strategic technology planning, design and operations support for large-scale data centers.

By acquiring EYP MCF, HP will be better able to help customers to transform their data centers, optimize energy efficiency and position them for future business growth. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in New York, EYP MCF has approximately 350 employees with 13 offices in the United States and the U.K. The firm provides mission-critical services to enterprises around the world in business sectors including financial services, telecommunications, technology, broadcast, manufacturing and healthcare, as well as numerous federal, state and county government agencies.

From data centers and command and control centers, to trading floors and supercomputing sites, EYP MCF has designed hundreds of technology-intensive, high-performance facilities where monitoring, operational and energy efficiencies are top-priority business requirements.

EYP MCF’s capabilities – particularly its expertise in energy-efficient operations – complement HP’s extensive Data Center Services and cost-saving power and cooling solutions, such as Dynamic Smart Cooling.

“The data center is the foundation of IT for enterprises, an essential building block for driving business growth and adapting to changing business objectives,” said John McCain, senior vice president and general manager, HP Services. “Acquiring EYP Mission Critical Facilities boosts HP’s ability to help customers transform their data centers and build dynamic computing environments from the ground up.”

Peter Gross, chief executive officer of EYP MCF, said, “Worldwide data center requirements are rapidly growing, with significant year-over-year increases in power consumption, which is fueling demand for energy-efficient power and cooling strategies. HP and EYP Mission Critical Facilities will drive innovation by integrating IT infrastructure into the planning and design of the data center, enabling the customer’s whole organization to be more energy efficient and adaptive.”

The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions and is expected to be completed within HP’s first fiscal quarter.

Dell Completes Acquisition of ASAP Software

Dell announced today that it has completed the acquisition of ASAP Software, a leading software solutions and licensing services provider and a former subsidiary of Corporate Express.

The acquisition will help simplify information technology by combining Dell’s reach as a leading supplier of commercial technology and services and ASAP’s expertise in software licensing and asset management. Dell is strengthening its software business by integrating ASAP’s complementary expertise in managing software licensing, purchasing, renewals, and compliance.

The purchase price was approximately $340 million.

“The completion of this acquisition, which is strategically significant for Dell, represents another important step in our initiative to help our customers use technology to innovate and grow,” said Paul Bell, president, Dell Americas. “We believe we have a unique and compelling offering for our customers and an opportunity to make a significant impact on the IT industry.”

The two companies will be combining to develop and implement customer-focused solutions designed to make technology more efficient, manageable and flexible. The acquisition of ASAP extends Dell’s long-term initiative to simplify IT for customers by removing cost and complexity.

In recent months, the company has announced several other initiatives to support IT simplification, including Dell On-Demand Desktop Streaming, which provides tighter security, easier manageability and better reliability in desktop environments, and Unified Communications, which helps customers reduce complexity and improve their productivity with myriad communications options. Dell’s Data Center Solutions Division is addressing the unique needs of hyper-scale data centers for customers whose businesses rely on enterprise computing solutions. Additionally, Dell’s recent acquisition of SilverBack Technologies, Inc., a service delivery platform provider, and announced plan to acquire EqualLogic, a leading provider of high-performance iSCSI storage area network (SAN) solutions, further underscore Dell’s commitment to simplify IT.

ASAP provides products and services to help corporations and government agencies evaluate, acquire, and manage IT assets. Its subsidiary, License Technologies Group, specializes in licensing and e-commerce services for software publishers and their partners.

“Our expertise in software licensing solutions and our legacy of delivering a high level of customer satisfaction has been the foundation of our business,” said Paul Jarvie, ASAP president. “We’re excited about the opportunity to broaden our reach and to provide our unique capabilities to serve an expanded group of customers.”

Additional information on Dell’s IT simplification efforts can be found at www.dell.com/simplify.

Microsoft Intends to Acquire Musiwave

Microsoft Corp. today announced it has entered into an exclusivity agreement around its intention to acquire Musiwave SA, an Openwave company and a leading provider of mobile music entertainment services to operators and media companies. The acquisition would bring Musiwave’s relationships with music labels, device makers and mobile operators that deliver digital entertainment to consumers, together with Microsoft’s Connected Entertainment technologies and services, including Windows Mobile, Zune, MSN and Windows Live. Should the transaction proceed, Musiwave would continue to operate out of its current headquarters in Paris.

“Microsoft and Musiwave share the same philosophy in working with hardware and mobile operator partners to deliver great experiences for mobile device users,” said Pieter Knook, senior vice president of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft. “Bringing Musiwave on board would provide an opportunity for Microsoft to explore new areas in the mobile space previously untapped, and to showcase the power of software plus services. This contemplated acquisition reflects Microsoft’s recognition of the software and technology expertise in Europe.”

“Musiwave would bring key assets to us as we continue to bring our vision of Connected Entertainment to life,” said J Allard, corporate vice president in charge of music at Microsoft. “Its software expertise and extensive relationships with operators and music companies would help us take our products and services to the next level, giving people access to whatever entertainment content they want, whenever and however they want it.”

Today, Microsoft mobile technology runs on a variety of mobile platforms, featured on more than 140 mobile phones made by 50 handset-makers, sold by more than 160 mobile operators around the world.

Demand for Mobile Music Services Drives Innovation

Today, the mobile music device market is growing at a rapid rate. According to technology research firm Ovum, 1,106 million mobile music phones will be shipped worldwide in 2010. Mobile operators are continually looking for ways to deliver digital entertainment to their customers, and have looked to companies such as Musiwave to deliver music services that help provide the necessary infrastructure. As a provider of white-label music solutions to mobile operators in Europe, Musiwave has helped to bring a rich selection of millions of ringtones, full-track downloads and music videos to consumers.

Musiwave also has a rich history of working with a wide variety of device-makers, across a diverse group of software platforms that produce music and data-capable mobile devices. Today, software developed by Musiwave can be found on most handsets available in Europe.

About Musiwave

Musiwave, an Openwave company (Openwave Systems Inc. NASDAQ: OPWV), is a leading provider of mobile music entertainment solutions, including software, marketing and content management, to operators and media companies worldwide. For more information, please visit www.musiwave.net.

IBM to Acquire Cognos to Accelerate Information on Demand Business Initiative

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Cognos® (NASDAQ: COGN) (TSX: CSN) today announced that the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Cognos, a publicly-held company based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately $5 billion USD or $58 USD per share, with a net transaction value of $4.9 billion USD. The acquisition is subject to Cognos shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.

The acquisition of Cognos supports IBM's Information on Demand strategy, a cross-company initiative announced on February 16, 2006 that combines IBM's strength in information integration, content and data management and business consulting services to unlock the business value of information. Integrating Cognos, the 23rd IBM acquisition in support of its Information on Demand strategy, will enable new business insights to be delivered to a broader set of people across an organization, beyond the traditional users of business intelligence.

IBM said the acquisition fits squarely within both its acquisition strategy and capital allocation model, and that it will contribute to the achievement of the company’s objective for earnings-per-share growth through 2010.

“Customers are demanding complete solutions, not piece parts, to enable real-time decision making," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group. "IBM has been providing Business Intelligence solutions for decades. Our broad set of capabilities – from data warehousing to information integration and analytics – together with Cognos, position us well for the changing Business Intelligence and Performance Management industry. We chose Cognos because of its industry-leading technology that is based on open standards, which complements IBM's Service Oriented Architecture strategy.”

Together, IBM and Cognos will become the leading provider of technology and services for Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management, delivering the industry’s most complete, open standards-based platform with the broadest range of expertise to help companies expand the value of their information, optimize their business processes and maximize performance across their enterprises.

The acquisition of Cognos accelerates IBM’s global Information on Demand initiative to unlock the business value of information for our customers. IBM will provide broader reach for Cognos solutions across multiple industries and geographies with a more complete set of offerings, including consulting services, hardware, and other middleware software.

Cognos provides the only complete BI and performance management platform, fully integrated on an open-standards-based service oriented architecture (SOA), and has a strong history of supporting heterogeneous application environments, consistent with IBM’s approach. With Cognos, customers can turn data into actionable insight for coordinated, information-driven decision-making to improve overall performance. Cognos will also extend IBM’s reach further into the CFO office with powerful financial planning and consolidation capabilities.

“This is an exciting combination for our customers, partners, and employees. It provides us with the ability to expand our vision as the leading BI and Performance Management provider,” said Rob Ashe, president and chief executive officer, Cognos. “IBM is a perfect complement to our strategy, with minimal overlap in products, a broad range of technology synergies, and the resources, reach, and world-class services to accelerate this vision. Furthermore, this combination allows Cognos customers to leverage a broader set of solutions from IBM to advance their information management driven initiatives.”

Together, IBM and Cognos will expand IBM’s ability to provide customers with the right information they need when they need it, to optimize operational performance, and to quickly respond to changing market demands. The combination of IBM’s information management technology and Cognos will also help organizations discover new ways to use trusted information spread across their enterprises to identify new business opportunities and significantly reduce the expense and time required to address industry-specific business challenges.

Following completion of the acquisition, IBM intends to integrate Cognos as a group within IBM's Information Management Software division, focused on Business Intelligence and Performance Management. IBM also will appoint current Cognos President and CEO, Rob Ashe, to lead the group, reporting directly to General Manager, Ambuj Goyal.

Cognos has approximately 4,000 employees worldwide and serves more than 25,000 customers. IBM and Cognos have partnered for more than 15 years, with extensive technical integrations and eight pre-integrated joint solutions already supporting many joint customers, such as New York City Police Department, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Tennessee, Canadian Tire, MetLife, and Bayer UK.

Other strategic acquisitions in support of IBM’s Information on Demand initiative include Princeton Softech (data archiving and compliance), FileNet (enterprise content management), Ascential Software (information integration), DataMirror (changed data capture), SRD (entity analytics), Trigo (product information management), DWL (customer information management) and Alphablox (analytics).

More information on IBM’s acquisition of Cognos is available on IBM’s investor Web site at: http://www.ibm.com/investor/viewpoint/ircorner/2007/07-11-12-1.phtml.

About IBM

For more information about IBM’s Information on Demand strategy, go to: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/information-on-demand/ . Additional details about the combination of IBM and Cognos are available at: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/cognos

About Cognos

For more information, visit the Cognos Web site at: http://www.cognos.com/

Information About the Transaction

The transaction will be completed through a plan of arrangement, which will require the approval of shareholders representing two thirds of the shares cast. Shareholders will be asked to vote on the transaction at a special meeting, the details of which will be announced in due course.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of Cognos following delivery of a fairness opinion, which will be included in a proxy circular to be prepared and mailed to Cognos shareholders over the coming weeks providing shareholders with important information about the transaction. A material change report, which provides more details on the transaction, will be filed with the Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and will be available at www.sedar.com and at www.sec.gov.

Novell Settles One Antitrust Claim with Microsoft for $536 Million, Plans to File Suit on Second Claim

Novell today announced an agreement with Microsoft to settle potential antitrust litigation related to Novell's NetWare operating system in exchange for $536 million in cash. Novell also announced that by the end of this week it will file an antitrust suit against Microsoft in the United States District Court in Utah seeking unspecified damages in connection with alleged harm to Novell’s WordPerfect application software business in the mid-1990s.

Under terms of the settlement, in exchange for the cash payment, Novell has agreed to a general release of claims that it has as of the date of the agreement, with certain exclusions that include patent claims and claims associated with Novell's WordPerfect business. The agreement also includes a release by Microsoft of claims that would have been compulsory counterclaims to the NetWare claims asserted by Novell. Finally, Novell has agreed to withdraw its intervention in the European Commission’s case with Microsoft.

“We are pleased that we have been able to resolve a portion of our pending legal issues with Microsoft,” said Joseph A. LaSala, Jr., Novell's senior vice president and general counsel. “This is a significant settlement, particularly since we were able to achieve our objectives without filing expensive litigation. While we have agreed to withdraw from the EU case, we think our involvement there has been useful, as it has assisted the European proceedings and facilitated a favorable settlement with Microsoft. With the EU case now on appeal, we are comfortable with our decision to withdraw from the proceeding. There is simply not much left for us to do.

“We regret that we cannot make a similar announcement regarding our antitrust claims associated with the WordPerfect business. We have had extensive discussions with Microsoft to resolve our differences, but despite our best efforts, we were unable to agree on acceptable terms. We intend to pursue our claims aggressively toward a goal of recovering fair and considerable value for the harm caused to Novell's business,” LaSala said.

The WordPerfect suit that Novell will file seeks unspecified damages arising from Microsoft's efforts to eliminate competition in the office productivity applications market during the time that Novell owned the WordPerfect word-processing application and the Quattro Pro spreadsheet application. The suit is based in part on facts proved by the United States Government in its successful antitrust case against Microsoft. In that suit, Microsoft was found to have unlawfully maintained a monopoly in the market for personal computer operating systems by eliminating competition in related markets.

GE Provides $225 Million Credit Facility to United Agri Products, Inc., the Largest Independent Distributor of Agricultural and Non-Crop Inputs

GE Commercial Finance’s Global Sponsor Finance business today announced it served as administrative agent for a $225 million term loan Add-on facility to United Agri Products, Inc. GE Capital Markets served as sole lead arranger and sole bookrunner.

The Add-on provides additional liquidity to fund future acquisitions and capital expansion opportunities for UAP’s growth strategies.

UAP is the largest independent distributor of agricultural and non-crop inputs in the United States and Canada. The Company markets a comprehensive line of products including chemicals, seed, and fertilizer to growers and regional dealers. As part of the Company's product offering, it provides a broad array of value-added services including crop management, biotechnology advisory services, custom blending, inventory management and custom applications of crop inputs.

“Once again it was our pleasure to work closely with UAP and their outstanding management team,” said Tony McCord, Managing Director at GE Global Sponsor Finance. “Our team quickly and reliably delivered a capital structure in very uncertain markets, and upsized the Add-on facility from $150 million to $225 million. Given today’s capital markets, it is a true testament to UAP’s financial performance and standing in the market.”

Dennis Roerty, UAP’s Treasurer said, “Given our operational momentum in recent years, we expect this successful Add-on to support our current growth strategy. We appreciate how GE has proven that it is responsive and supportive of UAP and our management team’s plans for growth.”

About United Agri Products, Inc.

UAP is the largest independent distributor of agricultural and non-crop products in the United States and Canada. The Company markets a comprehensive line of products, including chemicals, fertilizer, and seed to farmers, commercial growers, and regional dealers. UAP also provides a broad array of value-added services, including crop management, biotechnology advisory services, custom fertilizer blending, seed treatment, inventory management, and custom applications of crop inputs. UAP maintains a comprehensive network of approximately 370 distribution and storage facilities and three formulation plants, strategically located in major crop-producing areas throughout the United States and Canada. Additional information can be found on the Company's website, www.uap.com.

About GE Commercial Finance, Global Sponsor Finance

With over $8 billion in assets, and offices in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, London, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, GE Commercial Finance, Global Sponsor Finance represents a “one-stop ” source for the comprehensive range of GE’s lending and other structured financial services offered to the private equity sponsor market. For more information, please visit www.gegsf.com.

About GE Commercial Finance

GE Commercial Finance, which offers businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services, has assets of over $250 billion and is headquartered in Norwalk Connecticut. GE (NYSE: GE) is Imagination at Work – a diversified technology, media and financial services company focused on solving some of the world’s toughest problems. With products and services ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing and security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing, media content and advanced materials, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ge.com.

China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. Celebrates IPO on NYSE

China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd., the largest retail drugstore chain in China based on the number of directly operated stores, today opened for trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “NPD” after its successful IPO in which it raised $334 million.

"China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. is a welcome addition to our fast-growing family of Chinese listed companies," said NYSE Euronext CEO John A. Thain. "NYSE Euronext looks forward to providing China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. and its shareholders with the superior services, market quality and brand visibility provided by listing on NYSE Euronext markets."

To celebrate today’s special occasion, China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. Chairman Simin Zhang rang today’s opening bell, joined by Nepstar CEO Jiannong Qian, Nepstar CFO Andrew Weiwen Chen, and NYSE Euronext CEO John A. Thain.

Background on NYSE Euronext-China:

China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. is the first Chinese Mainland pharmaceutical retailer to be listed on the Exchange.
The NYSE now has 47 companies listed from the Greater China Region, including 35 from Mainland China , 7 from Hong Kong , and 5 from Taiwan .
Year to date, the NYSE listed 16 companies from Greater China. The listing of China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. represents the 15th NYSE listing from Mainland China in 2007 to date.
The total global market capitalization of the 35 NYSE-listed Chinese companies from the mainland is $1.1 Trillion, and for the 47 companies from greater China , $1.6 Trillion.


China Nepstar Chain Drugstore Ltd. (NYSE: NPD)

China Nepstar chain drugstore is the largest retail drugstore chain in China based on the number of directly operated stores. As of September 30, 2007 , its store network was comprised of 1791 directly operated drugstores located in 62 cities in China .

Nepstar provides customers with high quality professional and convenient pharmacy services and a wide variety of other merchandise. Nepstar also offers products under its own brand names.

Nepstar stores are generally located in well-established residential communities and prime retail locations in major cities in China 's coastal and adjoining provinces. Nepstar has established leading market positions in a number of the most developed cities in China , including Shenzhen, Guangzhou , Dalian , Hangzhou , Ningbo , Suzhou and Kunming .

About NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX)

NYSE Euronext, a holding company created by the combination of NYSE Group, Inc. and Euronext N.V., commenced trading on April 4, 2007 . NYSE Euronext (NYSE Euronext: NYX) operates the world’s largest and most liquid exchange group and offers the most diverse array of financial products and services. NYSE Euronext, which brings together six cash equities exchanges in five countries and six derivatives exchanges in six countries, is a world leader for listings, trading in cash equities, equity and interest rate derivatives, bonds and the distribution of market data. Representing a combined $30.3 trillion/€21.3 trillion total market capitalization of listed companies and average daily trading value of approximately $139 billion/€103 billion (as of September 30, 2007), NYSE Euronext seeks to provide the highest standards of market quality and integrity, innovative products and services to investors, issuers, and all users of its markets.