BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Technology giant Oracle Corp said software sales growth will stay strong into the new year despite fears that there could be big tax hikes and U.S. government spending cuts that could cause a slump in spending by customers.

Shares of the world’s No. 3 software maker rose 1.3 percent after it reported fiscal second-quarter revenue and earnings that surpassed Wall Street forecasts.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Oracle Corp’s quarterly profit beat Wall Street expectations on strong software sales growth, suggesting that the approach of the “fiscal cliff” has yet to crimp corporate spending on technology.

Shares of the world’s No. 3 software maker rose 2.6 percent on the news.

“I would call it an early Christmas present,” FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives said. “It’s a positive sign for the overall technology sector.”

Dec 14 (Reuters) – U.S. software pioneer John McAfee said
that he will not return to Belize where police want to question
him about a murder case, but that he is willing to let
authorities from the Central American nation interview him in a
“neutral country.”

McAfee, 67, went into hiding after his American neighbor
Gregory Faull was fatally shot in November. He made his way
secretly to neighboring Guatemala, but the authorities there
deported him to Miami on Wednesday.

BOSTON/CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co and U.S. Bancorp and other major U.S. banks seem to have stopped a group of hacker activists from seriously disrupting their online banking operations.

A financial services industry organization and several cyber security companies said a group of “hactivists” that impeded access to some major U.S. online banking sites in September had so far failed to gain traction in a second campaign that began this week.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Democrat Elizabeth Warren defeated incumbent Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown on Tuesday in one of this year’s most expensive and closely watched congressional races.

The victory of the 63-year-old Harvard University professor and architect of a new U.S. agency to police consumer finance gives Democrats back a seat held for almost five decades by liberal stalwart Edward M. Kennedy and helped prevent Republicans taking a majority in the Senate.

BOSTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is considering setting up a “Cyber Reserve” of computer security experts who could be called upon in the event of a crippling cyber attack.

The idea came from a task force the agency set up to address what has long been a weak spot – recruiting and retaining skilled cyber professionals who feel they can get better jobs and earn higher salaries, in the private sector.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Intel Corp’s McAfee security division is planning to lay off a “small percentage” of its workforce of about 7,100 employees, a company spokesman said on Monday.

McAfee spokesman Ian Bain said he could not provide more information about the planned job cuts, which the world’s No. 2 maker of anti-virus software disclosed in response to an inquiry from Reuters.

BOSTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Intel Corp’s McAfee
security division is planning to lay off a “small percentage” of
its workforce of about 7,100 employees, a company spokesman said
on Monday.

McAfee spokesman Ian Bain said he could not provide more
information about the planned job cuts, which the world’s No. 2
maker of anti-virus software disclosed in response to an inquiry
from Reuters.

BOSTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Oracle Corp CEO Larry Ellison said he intends to drive growth at the world’s No. 3 software maker by promoting its current suite of cloud computing products and not through an acquisition.

The billionaire, who boosted Oracle revenue dramatically over the past decade through a series of purchases, said, however, he would not rule out a big deal “down the road”.