In case the speculation of a Microsoft-Nortel acquisition wasn’t enough to keep partners talking, now there are rumors that IBM could snap up the networking company, according to Mark Evans at the All About Nortel blog.

Those rumors (and Evans stresses that they are rumors) aren’t exactly shocking. For one, as Evans points out, Nortel is trading at under $6 now. That makes me think two things: 1. If I were Nortel, I might spin these rumors just to raise my share value. 2. (The more likely one) If I were IBM, I would be thinking two words: fire sale. OK, maybe I would be thinking a full phrase: Fire sale on a once-solid company that still has incredible potential. Read more »

These days, Cisco’s name in the news is generally accompanied by major acquisition speculation (read EMC or VMware). But anyone looking for something more concrete may have an easier time finding affordable gas.

Wednesday morning Cisco senior vice president and corporate controller Jonathan Chadwick spoke at the Citibank Citi Technology Conference where analysts were on the hunt for potential acquisition tidbits.

In perfect Cisco executive form, Chadwick dropped just enough info to keep folks questioning … and nothing more. Read more »

Last week videoconferencing company Tandberg confirmed that it had received a takeover bid by an unnamed private equity firm. Since then rumors have been flying that major networking equipment manufacturers — Cisco, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Ericsson — could step up with competitive bids.

Only one of those companies seems an obvious bidder. Read more »

Wow, poop rolls downhill really quickly at Cisco.

It’s just been a few days since the company officially announced it would fold its Linksys small business staff and channel into the Cisco small and medium-sized business (SMB) practice and already there are complaints coming from partners. Read more »

HP ProCurve announced Monday it will buy wireless local area network (WLAN) company Colubris Networks. The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.

Colubris is the latest in a string of WLAN players to be snapped up by major networking companies in a race to diversify offerings and offer end-to-end solutions. Read more »

AT&T’s announcement last week that it has entered cloud computing is a sign that software as a service (SaaS) players will see heavy competition from a powerful source — telecom network operators.

In June, Verizon also announced a so-called on-demand computing program, and analysts say other network operators are soon to follow.

For systems integrators trying to find their place in the already precarious SaaS market, it means going to bat against telecom operators that already have deep relationships with enterprises.

“There are companies out there that want hosted solutions, and they are going to say [to network operators] ‘you’ve got my circuits already, so you can host too,’” Chris Thompson, Cisco senior director of solutions marketing, said. Read more »

Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers said Tuesday that regardless of “challenging macroeconomic times,” the company would make major acquisitions in the coming year — though he didn’t indicate that one of those purchases would be EMC.

Chambers made the comments during a fourth quarter earnings call. Read more »

Motorola said Monday that it appointed former Qualcomm executive Sanjay Jha to head its struggling wireless handset business. Appointing Jha was the first major step toward spinning of the handset unit, a move Motorola announced in the spring.

Jha will also serve as co-chief executive office with Gregory Q. Brown, who will lead the company’s home and enterprise broadband business. Read more »

It looks like the odyssey leading to Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) acquisition of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) is finally over. This morning, EDS shareholders overwhelmingly approved the $13.9 billion purchase, The Dallas Morning News reported. Shareholders owning 98.8% of shares voted in favor of the deal. Read more »

Juniper Networks fished an executive out of its own sea of channel partners this week, hiring Philip O’Reilly, former CEO of Solunet, as the new senior vice president of U.S. enterprise sales.

O’Reilly will replace Hayley Tabor, who left the position earlier this year. Working with Juniper’s executive team, O’Reilly will drive sales through the company’s direct, indirect, federal and distribution channel, and he’ll report to the newly appointed executive vice president of worldwide field operations John Morris. Read more »