NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) – A strong report from IBM Corp
(IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), particularly a pick-up in technology services
contracts that have been a weak point in the past year, could
lift Wall Street’s confidence in the technology sector.

While investors on Friday looked at Intel Corp’s (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)
strong outlook with skepticism, due in part to the chipmaker’s
reversal of a bullish outlook last year, analysts said a solid
report from IBM on Tuesday could encourage them to reconsider.
[ID:nLDE70D0LR]

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, New York (Reuters) – Computer history for $400?

An IBM computer won the practice round on popular quiz show Jeopardy! against two top contestants, showing artificial intelligence has come a long way in simulating how humans think.

“We have created a computer system which has the ability to understand natural human language, which is a very difficult thing for a computer to do,” said John Kelly, the director of IBM Research.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Internet calling service Skype said its system was still down for around 20 percent of users on the second day of its biggest outage in more than three years, although service was gradually recovering.

Skype Chief Executive Tony Bates, facing his biggest challenge since being hired in early October, said Skype was focused on restoring the service and “progress is going well.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Internet phone and video service Skype went down in a global service outage on Wednesday, underscoring a weakness of the free online communication tool.

Skype, partly owned by Web retailer eBay Inc, said some users were having problems signing on. Users in the United States, Asia and Europe complained of the outage on social network site Twitter.

NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) – AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to buy
wireless spectrum from Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for $1.93 billion
and boost its 4G network, aiming to counter criticism over
iPhone service quality and a threat from rivals like Verizon
Wireless.

AT&T is the sole U.S. carrier for Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)
iPhone, but smaller rivals like Sprint Nextel (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and
Clearwire Corp (CLWR.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) have been adopting 4G, a new wireless
standard that enables better Internet access including video.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street may have underestimated a recovery in corporate spending, judging by stronger-than-expected results and outlooks from business software maker Oracle Corp (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and technology services firm Accenture Plc (ACN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Together with stronger-than-expected sales from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the announcements showed Cisco Systems Inc’s (CSCO.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) weak outlook last month may have been a lone phenomenon, analysts said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Technology outsourcing and consulting firm Accenture Plc (ACN.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue and earnings, and raised its full-year outlook as more customers sought its help to run their businesses more efficiently.

Accenture, which helps companies cut costs and improve operations through consulting, outsourcing and technology services, said conditions looked good for the rest of fiscal 2011, which ends in August. The company’s shares rose 2.3 percent after hours.

NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters) – Dell Inc (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to buy
data storage company Compellent Technologies Inc (CML.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for
about $960 million, in a bid to shake its reliance on hardware,
but it may need to do more to compete in new technologies like
cloud computing.

Dell and rivals like Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are all
trying to invest in corporate business technologies including
storage and services, as PC sales are hurt by low margins and
competition from new devices like Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) iPad.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dell Inc (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) offered to buy data storage company Compellent Technologies Inc (CML.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) for nearly $1 billion, three months after losing out to Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) in a bidding war for another storage firm, 3Par.

The computer maker said on Thursday it is bidding $27.50 a share for Compellent, an 18 percent discount from Wednesday’s closing Nasdaq price. Shares were down 14 percent at $29.01 in early trading, albeit still at a premium to Dell’s bid, indicating expectations that a higher bid could emerge.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Internet content delivery company Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) needs to give a strong sales forecast on Thursday if it wants to keep from falling out of Wall Street’s favor, amid concerns it may be losing some market share and profitability.

Akamai’s annual investor meeting comes a month after news it was renegotiating its contract with Netflix Inc (NFLX.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), jeopardizing its place as the movie rental company’s top vendor. Already, Netflix has brought on board rival Level 3 Communications Inc (LVLT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) as one of its primary vendors.