BDV-887039-BDV

BDV-887039-BDV

Alibaba Earns A Voice In Micro-Hoo Deal

Alibaba founder Jack Ma didn't need to rub a magic lamp in order to chime in over talks of a potential Micro-hoo marriage. After all, Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) owns 39% of Ma's Chinese eBay, so if Yahoo! gets a new owner, so does its high-performing Sino-subsidiary.

Hangzhou-based Alibaba announced Monday it will have a say at the negotiating table and is reported to have recently hired consultants to help it strategically influence the terms of Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) 's potential sale. Alibaba might be used to majority rule in China, but it's making sure that strong connections fortify its minority voice in this possible buy-out.

Alibaba, the number one B2B site in China, has a right to speak up because a majority of its shares will change hands if the deal goes through. It can also get some air-time by leveraging its existing ties, including ones to would-be buyer Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ). Japanese telecommunications company, Softbank, owns 30% of Alibaba and has an existing "strategic partnership" with Microsoft dedicated to business communication services for small businesses. Further up the food chain, Softbank also owns 3.9% of Yahoo!

Not only does Softbank have a stake on paper, its president, Masayoshi Son, has some friends in high places making it that much easier to go over Yahoo!'s helmet. He and Bill Gates, both uber-rich tech billionaires, are reportedly quite friendly. Son and Yahoo! Chief Executive Jerry Yang, also are linked as buds. Yang has one of only four seats on Alibaba's board. Having buddies on both sides of a merger and money vested in two entities on the table puts Son in a sweet spot when it comes to a possible union between the two companies.

Yahoo! closed Friday at $29.66 down 32 cents, or $1.07%. Softbank closed Thursday in Hong Kong at $19.90.

Yahoo! made a good call when it bought into Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba. (See "Open Sesame:Alibaba Boosts Yahoo" ) The English language site connects importers and exporters in China and around the world. Business is booming with over 24 million registered users in 200 countries. (See "Chinese Freed to Shop an Overseas" )
Alibaba was worth an estimated $7.3 billion when it went public in November 2007 and today it's valued at $13 billion dollars. The company's IPO was met with great excitement; shares of Alibaba jumped 192% on the company's first day of trading to $5.06 from $1.73.

Weave your threads for the web!

Weave your threads for the web! Participate in Intel's Thread for the Web contest and win $ 200 USD Suggest a web 2.0 application that will benefit from parallel programming and how, in not more than 100 words. If your entry is creative and effectively uses parallel programming, youcould walk away with gift vouchers worth $200 USD . That's not all. Some of the best entries will be featured on the Intel® Software Network. You get to vote for these entries and choose a winner. So look out for what your peers have posted and vote for what you think is the best idea. The entry which gets the most number of votes will win by popular choice! Two grand prizes worth $200 USD each to be won: >> The Best Threaded Web Application - Judge’s Choice >> The Best Threaded Web Application - By Popular Choice(with the most number of votes) Click here and submit your entry today! Contest closes 22nd Feb 2008
Looking forward to your active participation, Best wishes, The Intel® Software Network Team Terms and conditions Legal Information and Privacy Policy © 2008 Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Software Network are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Java EE SDK & Java Application Platform SDK at a Glance

Java EE 5 SDK Update 4 and Java Application Platform Update 3 Beta are free integrated development kits that one can use to build, test, and deploy Java EE 5-based applications. Included in the SDKs is the Sun Java System Application Server 9.1 (Sun's supported distribution of GlassFish V2), which implements the latest Java EE 5 technologies and provides features aimed at improving developer productivity.

The Java Application Platform SDK features additional runtimes such as Open ESB, Portlet Container, and Sun Java System Access Manager. Download Java Application Platform SDK Update 3 Beta and Java EE 5 SDK Update 4.

JavaFX Script - At a Glance

JavaFX Script is a highly productive scripting language that enables content developers to create rich media and content for deployment on Java environments. JavaFX Script is a declarative, statically typed programming language. It has first-class functions, declarative syntax, list comprehensions, and incremental dependency-based evaluation. It can make direct calls to Java platform APIs. that are on the platform.

Creating an Application With JavaFX Script in the NetBeans IDE Plug-in

Although JavaFX Script makes it very easy to create simple GUIs, it is designed to be capable of supporting GUIs of any size or complexity. JavaFX Script is statically typed, so it has the same code structuring, reuse, and encapsulation features (such as packages, classes, inheritance, and separate compilation and deployment units) that make it possible to create and maintain very large programs using Java technology.

In addition, JavaFX Script is intended to have the same level of IDE/tool support that Swing programmers are familiar within Java technology: an editor with code completion, refactoring, a Javadoc-like documentation tool, a source-level debugger, a profiler, and ultimately a visual builder.

JavaFX Script will work with all major IDEs, including NetBeans, which is the reference implementation IDE for Java development.

JavaFX Script is specifically designed to optimize the creative process of building rich and compelling UIs, leveraging Java Swing, Java 2D, and Java 3D for developers and content authors. These RIAs and next-generation services that can be proliferated across virtually any device — from phonetop or desktop browsers and mobile devices, to set-top boxes and Blu-ray Discs — securely and without local installation.

JavaFX Script applications will run on JavaFX Mobile software, making these types of applications a reality for the mobile world.

Java Everywhere

Java Technology Facts

The Java platform specifications and compatibility standards are controlled by the independent industry members of the Java Community Process Java software runs on more types of consumer and embedded devices, smart cards, ATMs, thin clients, PCs, servers, and mainframes than any other software Today's six million Java developers are one of the largest communities of software developers The annual JavaOne Developers Conference has been the largest gathering of software developers for over 10 years Sun estimates the total Java Economy to be more than (USD)$100 billion in sales annually driving an additional $110 billion in related IT spending The Java economy includes 2.5 billion smart cards, 800 million PCs shipped with Java, 1.85 billion Java Powered phones (source: Ovum), and over 180 telecom providers who deploy Java technology based content/services. Sun has recently released the source code for Java Platform Standard Edition, Java Platform Micro Edition and Java Platform Enterprise Edition under open source licenses.