The next major version of OS X took center stage at an Apple press event Wednesday, but it wasn?t the only Mac-centric news to come out of Cupertino. In addition to previewing Mac OS X 10.7?which Apple calls ?Lion??the company also released an updated version of iLife, rolled out a desktop version of its FaceTime video-conferencing application, and revamped its MacBook Air lineup. Apple CEO Steve Jobs called Mac OS X Lion the ?entrée? of Wednesday?s press event, though the company didn?t offer extensive information about its next major OS X update. Lion is slated to arrive in summer 2011.

IBM said Monday that third-quarter net income rose 12 percent to US$3.6 billion, buoyed by strong performance in Brazil, Russia, India and China as well as solid sales of analytics software and services.

A Venezuelan man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday for stealing and then reselling more than 10 million minutes of Internet phone service.

Expanding its business analytics offerings yet again, IBM is acquiring data warehouse appliance vendor Netezza for approximately US$1.7 billion in cash.

Oracle's first-quarter revenue jumped 48 percent over the same period last year to US$7.5 billion, the company reported Thursday. Net income was up 20 percent to $1.4 billion.

Hewlett-Packard will soon purchase security vendor ArcSight for $1.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

The bidding war between Dell and Hewlett-Packard for virtualized storage vendor 3PAR continued on Thursday, with Dell increasing its bid to US$24.30 per share, or about $1.6 billion.

Hewlett-Packard has offered to buy 3PAR, a vendor of virtualized storage systems, for US$1.6 billion in cash, topping a bid of $1.15 billion made by Dell last Monday.

Intel said Thursday it plans to acquire security vendor McAfee in a cash deal valued at about $7.68 billion and aimed at enhancing the chip maker's mobile strategy.

An Apple manager with responsibilities for the company's contract manufacturing in Asia was arrested Friday and charged with accepting kickbacks.

Dell on Monday announced it has agreed to acquire virtualized storage provider 3PAR for about US$1.15 billion, a move that will boost its capabilities for building public and private cloud computing environments. The deal is expected to close later this year.

Google and Verizon Communications have released a proposal that would give the U.S. Federal Communications Commission limited power to enforce network neutrality rules, including levying fines up to US$2 million for violations by broadband providers.

Two labor unions have asked Dell shareholders to withhold their votes for Chairman and CEO Michael Dell to remain as a director on the company's board following a US$100 million accounting practices settlement the company made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Apple launched the iPhone 4 Case Program app in the App Store a few days ago, and is expected to invest somewhere in the neighborhood of $175 million on the free bumper program aimed at reluctantly addressing reception issues with the iPhone 4. There is something that doesn't add up, though, about the timing that makes the program seem like a bait-and-switch designed to brush the problem under the rug.

Dell will pay US$100 million to resolve an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into the company's past accounting and financial reporting practices, it said Thursday.

AT&T reported net income of US$4 billion for the second quarter of 2010, up nearly 26 percent from the second quarter of 2009, driven largely by increasing demand for Apple's iPhone and other smartphones, the company said Thursday.

Yahoo's second-quarter revenue was US$1.60 billion, coming in on the low end of the company's expectations and falling short of analyst predictions.

Oracle reported fourth-quarter earnings of US$0.46 per share on Thursday, a 24 percent jump over the same period last year. Revenue rose 39 percent to $9.5 billion.

Viacom's US$1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against Google's video-sharing site YouTube has been dismissed by the court, ending for now an acrimonious legal battle between the companies that has been going on for more than three years.

Oracle is being sued by the U.S. government for allegedly overcharging it by millions of dollars, according to documents on file in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.