software maker

During the tech industry's last big slump, software and hardware vendors were slow to cut costs as falling demand pummeled profits.

This time around, Oracle isn't taking chances. Oracle, the world's No. 2 software company, hit Wall Street's earnings target when it reported fiscal second-quarter results on Dec. 18, by aggressively cutting research and development, travel, and other costs as its customers curtail spending.

Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices is among the most recent casualties of the slowdown in technology spending. On Dec. 4 the chipmaker drastically cut its sales outlook, saying fourth-quarter revenue will drop about 25 percent from the third quarter's $1.59 billion.

Opera Software has just unleashed the first public preview of its next-generation browser for personal computers and Internet-enabled mobile devices.

Called Opera 10 alpha, the new release is not intended to show off the full feature set of Opera 10.0, which the software maker says is still "a while off." Instead, the download is intended to give Web designers some initial hands-on experience with significant Opera 10 improvements, especially those relating to page rendering and Web-standards compliance.

Microsoft Corp. is no longer interested in buying all of Yahoo Inc., CEO Steve Ballmer said Wednesday, though he told shareholders that the company would still be "very open" to a collaboration on Internet search. His comments sent Yahoo shares diving more than 20 percent.

"Let me be clear," Ballmer said at Microsoft's annual shareholder meeting. "We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo."

A Japanese software maker says it's doing its part to help fight crime -- by launching an online game featuring mug shots of Japan's most-wanted fugitives.

However, the country's police aren't so crazy about the game "Slot Detective," which has already been played by more than 100,000 people.

Software designer Famista Inc. said Friday that it introduced the free, slot-machine-style game to publicize photographs of suspects in high-profile murder cases, hoping to tap into Japan's obsession with games to help police catch killers.

Adobe Systems has released a security fix to address eight major vulnerabilities in version 8.12 of its free Adobe Reader application. The flaw was first reported to Adobe five months ago.

Core Security Technologies on Tuesday issued an advisory disclosing the vulnerability, which could affect millions of individuals and businesses that use the popular PDF file-viewing software. Specifically, CoreLabs engineers discovered attackers could exploit Adobe Reader to gain access to vulnerable systems by using a specially crafted PDF file with malicious JavaScript content.

Antivirus software maker Trend Micro Inc. has found that reported computer virus infections via USB flash memory drives more than doubled in September, Jiji Press learned.

Infections in the month with the Otorun worm, which propagates via removal drives such as USB drives, surged 140 percent from the previous month to 347 cases, Trend Micro said in a monthly survey report.

Battered by competition and slowing demand, Sun Microsystems Inc. swung to a big loss in its fiscal first quarter, dragging the server and software maker's results below Wall Street's forecast.

Sun also plans to write down the value of its business, a sign of the company's deteriorating competitive position and vulnerability to the economic meltdown. Shares fell more than 8 percent in after-hours trading.

At a time when consumers are worried about the nation's economy, IBM wants everyone to know it is financially sound. The Armonk, NY-based company released a preview of its earnings Wednesday, a week before its scheduled earnings announcement on Oct. 16, and said it remains confident in its financial outlook for the year.

Analysts say the move was a silver lining in a dark cloud and helped reassure shaken technology investors who have been selling stocks because of fears of a decrease in spending.

As first-year CEO Brad Smith tries to reshape software maker Intuit for the online age, he has opened his Rolodex and is cribbing ideas from some tech industry icons.