Eventually Palm was forced to spin off its software business into a company called PalmSource.
However, its expansion into the search software business is going ahead rapidly, a company spokesman said.
Second, the Web has drained off all of the creative energy from the boxed-software business.
Can a veteran leadership team, he asks, foresee how the software business will change?
Oh, and his partner is Dave Duffield, who is a legend in the software business.
Sue also thinks gross margins can improve as the company focuses on growing its software business.
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In 2003, Electronic Data Systems (EDS) acquired its software business and Storage Technology acquired its services business.
Since then, Hurd's HP has focused on smaller fish, many of them supplementing HP's lucrative software business.
Unlike the software business, India's other world-class industry, remote services do not employ only the highly educated.
Bradley runs Palm's handheld division, now in the process of being split from its sister software business, PalmSource.
Management maintains majority control of the software business, while Cressey and SV Life own a minority stake, sources note.
But somehow the back office software business manages to mint more than its share of the super-rich, it seems.
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In the software business, the primary source of innovation is working with customers.
That's in part because the open-source software business is harder than it looks.
Mike Lynch, the firm's founder, rejected the charges and accused HP in turn of destroying his software business through its own ineptitude.
While Google can launch online spreadsheet and word processing applications, Microsoft can't respond without damaging its powerful Office software business.
Of course, the richest man in the world certainly knows a thing or two about making money--in the software business.
Both brothers subsequently built a software business that helped manufacturing companies optimize the efficiency of their plants and shop floors.
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It was a great way to learn about the enterprise software business and how it could be a huge cost saver.
This is a lot like the software business before open source became a force: everything is locked down and shut tight.
The report listed 25 leading companies in the hardware and software business.
Is it time for some consolidation in the video game software business?
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His company is going through a substantial restructuring which will see it shed its PC unit to concentrate on high-margin software business.
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"The software business, for me, is just a real kick, " he says.
One way to think about is the new software business is 17 percent bigger thanks to the pre-owned games that are being traded.
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IBM's software business, which accounted for around 20% of the company's revenues last quarter, isn't likely to suffer from a flagging economy either.
Steve Ballmer is the Winston Churchill of the software business and he has a big enough war chest to fight for a long time.
Cisco's recently announced collaboration-software business is designed to enable productivity across dispersed groups and includes Twitter- and Facebook-type software for rapid information-sharing and execution.
Eventually Palm was forced to spin off its software business into a company called PalmSource (nasdaq: PSRC - news - people ).
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