Tech companies anticipate ownership changes

As competition continues to increase and companies battle to win new customers, executives of technology companies are not ruling out a possible change of ownership in the next decade, reports a survey conducted by Chicago-based Grant Thornton LLP, the accounting, tax and business advisory firm.

According to the Grant Thornton Survey of U.S. Business Leaders, 42 percent of technology respondents expect a change in company ownership in the next 10 years, while only 30 percent of all companies nationally feel the same. Among those who expect this change, 39 percent believe a merger is most likely, while 30 percent anticipate a trade sale.

UK law firm picks Interaction

Oak Brook-based Interface Software said London-based law firm Farrer & Co selected InterAction as the firm's CRM solution of choice.

The law firm is planning to integrate InterAction with Microsoft Outlook and Axxia practice management system to provide lawyers and staff with access to relationship intelligence directly from their desktop environments.

Kanbay buys New Jersey firm

Rosemont-based Kanbay International Inc. recently bought Accurum Inc. of Jersey City, N.J., for $5 million plus $7 million in payments contingent on performance targets being met.

Accurum develops technology for Wall Street firms.

Kanbay, which operates outsourcing centers for U.S. and European banks and financial services companies, will operate Accurum as a subsidiary.

OWC, NewerTech debut iPod battery

Woodstock-based Newer Technology Inc. and Other World Computing introduced a new high-capacity 750mAh replacement battery for all fourth-generation clickwheel iPod models from Apple Computer.

The NewerTech NuPower 4G 750mAh battery model offers the maximum capacity possible with 20 percent more capacity than the factory-installed battery shipped with 4G iPod models.

Survey: CIOs see security as job one

Technology executives now see enhancing network security as job one, a new survey shows.

Thirty-five percent of chief information officers (CIOs) polled by Menlo Park, Calif.-based Robert Half Technology said improvements to network security are their highest priority. Operating-system upgrades were the second-most frequent response, cited by 16 percent of executives.

The national poll includes responses from more than 1,400 CIOs from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees.

Among Chicago-area executives, network security was cited as the highest priority by 31 percent, followed by database upgrades and OS upgrades (both 15 percent).

Eolas-Microsoft verdict overturned

A federal appeals court overturned a $521 million patent infringement ruling against Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, and ordered that the case be retried in a lower court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said that the original verdict, which found that parts of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser had infringed on technology developed by Wheaton-based Eolas Technologies Inc. and the University of California, had ignored two of Microsoft's key arguments.

Saltzman new ReView Video CEO

Aurora-based video-conferencing product maker ReView Video named Barry Saltzman as CEO.

Formerly vice president of Services and Marketing for ReView, Saltzman was previously vice president of North America Services for Storage Technology Corp., where he was responsible for the overall management of the North America Services business as part of StorageTek's Global Services business.

Kirix honored at LinuxWorld

Elmhurst-based Kirix Corp.'s new product, Kirix Strata, was given the Product Excellence Award for Best Desktop/Productivity/Business Application at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo recently held in Boston.

Like similar desktop database applications, Kirix Strata enables users to manipulate data in a graphical environment, create queries and generate reports.

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