Global vendor strategies - 10/06/07

IBM will buy Watchfire, a US company dedicated to web access security.

Intel and Asus are jointly working on a PC, priced less than $200.

The US International Trade Commission has banned imports (in the US) of mobile phones containing chips made by Qualcomm, following court decision of Qualcomm infringing Broadcom patents. This decision is a huge setback to Qualcomm, but also to some handset vendors (Motorola and Samsung) or operators (ATT, Sprint, Verizon).

Ericsson continues its shopping. The latest acquisition is Drutt, a provider of service delivery platforms for telecom operators.

Nortel faces a fine of about $100m over its accounting scandal.