storage technologies

Chip designer Broadcom Corp. is launching a $764 million hostile takeover offer for network gear maker Emulex Corp. Broadcom said Tuesday the deal would help it develop new technologies for corporate data centers.

The acquisition would amount to $9.25 per share, a 40 percent premium over Emulex's closing share price Monday.

A spokeswoman for Costa Mesa, Calif.-based Emulex did not immediately return a call requesting comment on the offer.

In the wake of a stalled IBM acquisition deal, Sun Microsystems on Tuesday unveiled new products and technologies in its Open Network Systems strategy. The products aim to maximize the economics of computing for data centers and clouds and include an advanced blades architecture, new networking technologies, and seven new systems based on the Intel Xeon processor 5500 series.

Long-term storage and recovery of digital information is something that everyone -- from governments and businesses to home computer users -- is struggling with today. Even as more and more information goes digital, there is currently no sure-fire way to ensure that such data will be accessible in the future. According to a Science Daily report, University of California-Santa Cruz (UCSC) scientists are working on a solution.

Apple's MacBook Air laptop features a solid-state drive (SSD). So does HP's new Mini-Note. While still a tiny part of the market, SSDs are starting to worry traditional hard-drive manufacturers. A lot.

In a sign of the showdown between old and new storage technologies, Seagate, the market leader in traditional hard drives, filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday, claiming that SSD manufacturer STEC has violated four of its patents covering the interface between storage and computer.

Data storage provider EMC Corp. said Tuesday it would acquire Iomega Corp. for $213 million (EU135.7 million), expanding EMC's offerings targeting small businesses and consumers.

The price is a 20 percent increase over EMC's initial bid of $178 million (EU113.4 million), or $3.25 per share. Iomega, a San Diego-based storage company best known for the Zip drive, had rejected that offer earlier this year, calling it inferior to a proposed all-stock transaction that Iomega had reached in December with a stockholder.