Global vendor strategies - 19/11/05

Georges Soros has increased its stake in Motorola to 633k shares (from 55k) and in Microsoft (+130%) to 1.85m shares.

Nokia is buying Intellisync, a leader in platform-independent wireless messaging and applications for mobile devices, for €360m. Nokia looks to become a far more prominent player on the crowded wireless e-mail playground and go head-to-head with RIM..

Oracle is buying two new firms: Thor Technologies et OctetString. It will reinforce its identity management software suite,

IBM announced IMS (Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystems) offerings to help telecommunications service providers transition to Next Generation Networks. It bought Collation, an IT graphic info aggregator firm.

Thales (France) acquires Wynid Technologies, and enters the secured electronic payment system market.

Cisco is buying Scientific-Atlanta for about $7bn.

Italy's Italtel may launch IPO in January (Cisco already owns about 20% in Italtel).