Media reports have said that Cisco plans to sell computer servers equipped with virtualization software by VMWare Inc, a move that could position Cisco into more competition with Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM.
The company would not disclose details of the March 16 announcements on Monday, but a spokeswoman acknowledged that the event would be related to the speculation. Chief Executive John Chambers and other Cisco executives will unveil new technology and partnerships, it said.

Cisco has been expanding into a wider range of products and services as growth slows in its traditional routers and switches business.

Analysts have long speculated a new server product aimed at data centers, which Cisco has identified as a key growth area due to the explosion of consumer-generated content and a shift to Web-based software in business operations.

Cisco’s expansion into unified communications systems, which tie together e-mail, phones and other tools over Web networks, has already led to greater competition with another partner Microsoft Corp.

The dispute concerned patents that Klausner holds covering so-called visual voicemail, which makes voicemail work more like email by sending visual alerts of voice messages to computers or phones, allowing users to selectively retrieve the messages.

Visual voicemail is a key feature of many of the latest touchscreen phones on the market, including Apple’s iPhone. New York-based Klausner holds several patents relating to the technology in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Klausner grabbed the attention of the mobile phone industry in late 2007 when his company, privately held Klausner Technologies Inc, sued Apple and six other companies for $360 million for violating patents on visual voicemail technology.

Klausner declined to comment on Monday on the terms of the deal with Google, but said the Internet giant was now free to use the technology.

“Google has a license to Klausner’s visual voicemail patents,” he told Reuters by telephone.

As part of the deal, Klausner’s lawsuit against Google has been dismissed with prejudice, meaning that the issues cannot be later revived in court action between the two parties.

Google owns two types of services that could be broadly affected by Klausner’s patents.

It offers Web-based phone services through a start-up it acquired, Grand Central, and it has also built the Android open software platform for smartphones, which it has licensed to companies including T-Mobile and Vodafone.

Klausner did not say to what degree the agreement covered Android software when it was sublicensed by other parties.

Separately, Klausner said T-Mobile had agreed to license his European visual voicemail patents in 17 European countries. The agreement covers a new visual voicemail service that T-Mobile’s German unit announced at the CeBIT IT trade fair last week.

Klausner has never had a legal dispute with T-Mobile.

The deal would result in the first time a European operator has licensed visual voicemail technology for a mobile phone other than the iPhone.

A T-Mobile spokesman said: “We want to offer what currently has a working title of ‘visual mobile box’ to all our customers, not just those using the iPhone, for example.”

“The visual mobile box will be available in Germany soon, definitely in the first half of the year,” he said. “The application will be available on all phones that have the hardware to support it.”

Klausner licensed patents on personal electronic organizers, for example for address books, to Japanese consumer electronics makers in the 1970s and 80s. His company is currently working on patents for turning cellphones into movie or video projectors.

With the free application, available on Apple’s application store, consumers can synchronize Kindles with iPhones and iPod Touch, giving those users access to more than 240,000 books available on Kindle, Amazon said in a statement on Wednesday.

With the “Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch” application, a user can read a few pages of a book on the Kindle or its newer version, Kindle 2, and continue reading from where they left off on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Users can shop for books on their Kindle or online and wirelessly transfer the books to the iPhone or iPod Touch. They will also be able to access all previously bought Kindle books, adjust the text size or add bookmarks.

Though a tiny fraction of Amazon’s business, the Kindle draws strong interest from investors and gadget lovers, amid speculation that the device might eventually be enhanced to compete with devices like the iPod.

Last month, Amazon unveiled a slimmer Kindle 2 with more storage, but kept a high price tag at $359 that is likely to limit its appeal to a mass audience.

Analysts say Amazon may not want to push the device too quickly into the market, so it can preserve a much higher revenue base from selling printed books and avoid direct competition with companies like Apple.

The move represents a major departure for Intel, which has always manufactured its own microprocessors but is now forced to bring in partners, analysts said.

The world’s largest chip maker and the world’s biggest producer of made-to-order chips said on Monday Intel plans to combine the circuitry of its Atom, which is prevalent in ultra-small laptops, with the circuitry of other chips, creating a new architecture.

But Intel said it will not transfer its highly prized manufacturing process technology to TSMC. And neither firm would divulge targets, specifications or timeframes.

Intel will, however, allow TSMC to manufacture its Atom chips used in devices such as cell phones, set-top boxes and cameras.

“Manufacturing an Intel core other than at Intel is something that has not happened before,” said Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy. “For the first time, Intel is transferring the design technology to a third party.”

But the move also could open new markets for Intel much more quickly than the chip giant could do on its own, said Hans Mosesmann, an analyst with Raymond James.

“By coming to TSMC, it’s more humbling (for) Intel,” Mosesmann said. Intel would have preferred to do it on its own but it didn’t have the in-house technology to get into the markets quickly, he said.

“It’s more of an acknowledgment that the way we hoped to do this is not going to work out.”

But he added: “It’s the right choice. Intel has to bow to the reality that they’re not good at everything.”

The deal might also offer a lift for TSMC, which gets to make the new chips that emerge from the partnership but is now struggling with crumbling global spending on devices.

“We’re not changing our long-term strategy, our roadmap for the Atom,” Anand Chandrasekher, general manager of Intel’s ultra mobility group, told analysts on a conference call. “This is an additional market” expansion.”

The firm wanted “to go after new segments.”

Intel announced in January it would shut plants in Malaysia and the Philippines and its one surviving factory in Silicon Valley, cutting as many as 6,000 jobs. At the same time, the firm plans to spend $7 billion over two years to build next-generation, 32-nanometer chip manufacturing capacity.

Atom is the Intel chip used on low-cost, low-power laptops called netbooks, one of the fastest-growing electronics markets amid a deepening global recession.

Top global chip maker Intel has maintained it will manufacture its own microprocessors, though it had previously outsourced some processes, including chipsets and wireless devices, to TSMC and other foundries.

But as the cost of chip manufacturing has skyrocketed, many peers, including graphics chip maker Nvidia, have migrated to fabless or fab-lite strategies. A deepening recession is now curtailing tech spending while exerting pressure on companies to safeguard profit margins by shaving costs.

Distant rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc is spinning off its own foundry company.

Intel said in an emailed statement on Friday that sales chief Sean Maloney and general manager of Ultra Mobility Anand Chandrashekar will announce details alongside TSMC CEO Rick Tsai in Santa Clara, California on March 2.

Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy would not elaborate, while TSMC — the world’s biggest manufacturer of made-to-order chips — was not immediately available for comment.

Intel announced in January it would shut plants in Malaysia and the Philippines and its one surviving factory in Silicon Valley, cutting as many as 6,000 jobs. At the same time, the firm plans to spend $7 billion over two years to build next-generation, 32-nanometer chip manufacturing capacity.

Top global chip maker Intel has steadfastly maintained it will manufacture its own microprocessors, but had previously outsourced some processes, including chipsets and wireless devices, to TSMC and other foundries, Mulloy said.

As the cost of chip production has skyrocketed, its peers and rivals, including graphics chip maker Nvidia, have migrated to fabless or “fab-lite” strategies. A deepening recession is now curtailing tech spending while exerting pressure on companies to safeguard profit margins by shaving costs.

Distant rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc is spinning off its own foundry company.

Speculation in technology publications from PC Magazine to EEtimes ranged from Intel outsourcing its Atom microprocessor — found in ultra-small laptops called netbooks — to a deal to transfer capacity.

Shares in Intel held steady in after-hours trade.

The upgrades include metro optical rings with up to OC-192 (10 Gbps) capacity and will allow Covad and its wholesale partners to meet the demanding needs of small businesses and distributed enterprises.

“Businesses are increasingly using broadband to deploy IP-based services to reduce costs and to increase productivity,” said William Ferriauolo, senior vice president and general manager of Covad Wholesale. “Covad’s new MPLS infrastructure will allow our partners to deliver revenue-generating, value-added services on a national broadband network that is competitive with what the very largest carriers can offer.”

MPLS provides a significant improvement over ATM in terms of both network efficiency and management. The MPLS backbone will allow Covad to provide Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities that can be customized for real-time applications such as voice and video. Covad will announce plans for specific new services when they are closer to availability.

“Covad continues to move forward on its commitment to building a Tier 1 carrier network our partners can leverage to deliver advanced revenue-generating services,” said Young-Sae Song, vice president of marketing of Covad Wholesale. “Covad’s continued investment in our network since our acquisition by Platinum Equity is something we really feel will be a competitive advantage going forward, both in our direct business and for our wholesale partners.”

Covad is the “easy to do business with” choice for partners who benefit from the company’s streamlined provisioning and ordering systems, scalable, cost-efficient support infrastructure, and nationwide, facilities-based network. Covad Wholesale customers include a broad spectrum that spans market leaders like Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, and EarthLink to regional customers and smaller nationwide carriers.

Time Warner and Time Warner Cable continue to expect that the separation will be completed by the end of the current quarter.

Verizon unveiled suppliers for its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network at the Mobile World Congress trade show in on Wednesday.

LTE is an emerging technology that promises to make mobile Web surfing about four times faster. There is increasing urgency worldwide for faster wireless networks as growing demand for mobile data is driven by smartphones and embedded laptops.

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications and Britain’s Vodafone, is the largest operator to date to commit to LTE, following Japan’s NTT DoCoMo last year.

Sweden’s Ericsson would be the second supplier for radio network equipment, while Nokia Siemens Networks would be the second supplier for IMS technology — which enables multimedia services.

Starent Networks, together with Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, would provide core network technology, Verizon said.

“The relevance is much more important for Nortel and Motorola, which have not been selected,” said Thomas Langer, analyst with WestLB.

“It is up to Alcatel-Lucent to drive the LTE business forward, but we think the competition will be very fierce.”

Analysts had expected Verizon to choose Alcatel-Lucent as a key LTE infrastructure vendor since it is already a major supplier to the venture.

“It is a validation that we have a solid portfolio,” Philippe Keryer, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s Carrier Product Group, told Reuters.

“It’s putting us in a pretty good position in the new technology. It is giving a good momentum and a good start,” Keryer said, adding the firm was in talks with several operators about deployment of LTE networks.

Ericsson had also been named as one the top contenders.

The company is also looking at offering a $10 plan that includes limited outgoing calls to local numbers and compares with Verizon’s current cheapest calling plans of $20 to $25 a month. For nationwide calls it charges about $40 a month.

Both offers may only be available to customers who also subscribe to Verizon high-speed Internet services.

Verizon said that while it was looking at its options for keeping customers it had made no firm decisions yet.

“This is something we are looking at,” company spokesman John Bonomo said. “Any of the details could be changed. Things along those lines are things we’re looking at.”

The Wall Street Journal reported in a story citing unnamed sources that the company may offer the new options as early as this summer, but company spokesman William Kula said it had not yet decided on a timeframe.

“We’re merely considering a wide range of offers,” he said. “We will continue to compete very aggressively against the cable companies as well as the voice over the Internet companies.”

Kula said that the main reason people want to keep their wired home phones is for reliability and safety.

“We’re looking at a number of different types of plans that would encourage people to continue to use their landline phones,” Kula said.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Chris King said it made sense for Verizon to offer less expensive options to people who were planning to disconnect their home phone anyway.

“It’s $5 or $10 they wouldn’t already have,” if that customer had disconnected, King said, but he noted that such options would have limited appeal.

“I think you’re talking about a small percentage of the population who’d want to keep a landline to just dial 911, maybe for the elderly population if (they) don’t have a cell phone,” he said.

“If you can’t call anybody back I don’t think you’re talking about a sizable population base it would appeal to,” he said.