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A recent Gartner research shows 85 percent of firms use at least one piece of open source software in their business IT infrastructure, with the remaining 15 percent expected to do so over the next twelve months. But while most of us would assume this is a good thing, the market researcher apparently thinks otherwise.

According to the report, 69 percent of these companies don't have a formal open-source management team and this apparently opens up huge potential liabilities for intellectual-property violations, inadvertent or not.

The Gartner survey results also indicated that open source software in new projects is being deployed nearly equally in mission-critical and non-mission-critical situations; and that the top three reasons for using OSS were total cost of ownership, cheaper development and the fact that it is easier to embark on new IT projects or software initiatives using an open-source base.

Following a tumultuous year and a half at the forefront of one of web’s biggest properties, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping down from his chief executive role as soon as the board of directors appoints a replacement for him. Yang failed to bring either a viable merger partner or a strong revenue-generating deal in his short tenure as Yahoo CEO, so his resignation doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

Earlier this year, Yahoo rejected a $33 per share buyout offer from Microsoft and decided to focus on a search advertising partnership with Google instead. The move was met with disapproval by many share-holders and since then the company’s stock share price has plunged incessantly – reaching $13 earlier this month when Yahoo’s planned deal with Google also fell apart.

Once its successor as CEO is appointed, Yang will remain as a Yahoo board member and resume his previous role as “Chief Yahoo” – whatever that means. His impending step down leaves much unresolved for the Internet company, which has been struggling to remain independent for months, but could perhaps pave the way for a deal of sorts with Microsoft.

We’ve all faced the frustration of buying a shiny new toy only to find ourselves struggling with a lack of herculean strength – or a toolbox – to get through the packaging. Even worse, over 6,000 U.S. citizens per year make hospital visits because of injuries provoked by opening the potentially dangerous hard plastic shell designed to curb theft.

With that in mind, online retailer Amazon started a campaign earlier this month to abolish the consumer unfriendly plastic packaging in favor of the old-fashioned cardboard box. And while it is relatively easy for them to adopt the new scheme considering they don’t have to deal with shoplifting, even those who sell from shops are coming up with solutions to this seemingly trivial but often infuriating problem.

Microsoft, for instance, has unveiled an unusual container for the Explorer computer mouse it sells at Best Buy stores that is easily opened using a zipper on the side. Meanwhile, Sony has adopted a new method that allows packages to be easily opened but emitting a loud Velcro-like noise intended to deter thieves. Could this be the beginning of the end for clamshell packages? I certainly hope so.

More emails have surfaced in an ongoing class action lawsuit against Microsoft, revealing how a Hewlett Packard executive was irate over Microsoft’s decision to loosen the minimum chipset specifications for a PC to carry the ‘Vista Capable’ label in order to help Intel. Microsoft’s Jim Allchin, in charge of Vista’s development and delivery was also left outraged.

As it turns out, up until the end of 2005, WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) was listed as a requirement of Vista, but a last stage decision mandated a downgrade of the program’s requirements to include Intel's outdated 910 and 915 graphics chipsets.

The decision of course pleased Intel as it saved them billions of dollars in potential lost revenue – the non compliant Intel i915 chipset was being deployed in a huge number of laptops back then – and a shift of business to AMD and Nvidia. On the other hand, HP was enraged given the significant investments it had made to upgrade to newer PC graphics technology based upon Microsoft's initially more demanding specs.

Ars Technica has summed up the contents of the emails in a recent article – quite an interesting read. The lawsuit, which began nearly a year and a half ago, was granted class-action status last February and is currently set to go to trial in April.

Merely a week after closing down 155 retail stores in 28 states and announcing plans to cut around 17% of its staff, Circuit City has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and obtained a $1.1 billion credit lifeline to battle a sharp decline in sales. The retailer said it’ll continue operating “without interruption” as management focuses on developing and executing a comprehensive corporate restructuring plan.

The credit replaces Circuit City’s current asset-based credit facility and will provide additional immediate liquidity to pay vendors and other suppliers while the company reorganizes. No additional store closings were announced, but the company did say it will eliminate some 700 more positions in an effort to cut costs. Circuit City's Canadian operations will also be seeking bankruptcy protection under the Creditors Arrangement Act in the country.

In addition to filing a patent infringement lawsuit against Nvidia back in July, technology licensing company Rambus has seen it fit to ask the International Trade Commission for an import ban of graphics cards that use Nvidia chips – which includes products from Asustek, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA and others.

The company alleges that Nvidia and its partners are infringing on nine patents covering DDR, DDR2, DDR3, LPDDR, GDDR, GDDR2, and GDDR3 memory controllers. The ITC is expected to decide whether to initiate an investigation under this complaint within 30 days, according to Rambus, which has a long history of lawsuits against companies relying on memory technology – many have gone to their favor and several against, so we’ll have to wait and see where this goes.

Continuing with the Microsoft-Yahoo melodrama, Steve Ballmer has dismissed Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang’s suggestion earlier this week that it would be in their “best interests” to look at acquiring Yahoo. The Microsoft executive put an end to all speculation, while at a business lunch in Sydney, by saying it is not interested in making another offer for the failing Yahoo.

Of course, Yahoo stock surged in price earlier this week when it was rumored that a new deal may be on the cards, so whether Ballmer is truly saying no or simply waiting to see if Yahoo’s stock drops even more remains to be seen. In any case, he didn’t completely shut the door on a search partnership, something Yahoo will have to consider if it wants to stay alive following the demise of its much-needed search partnership with Google. The full video of Ballmer’s speech to developers in Sydney is available here.

AMD has announced plans to cut 500 jobs as part of its ongoing “asset light” effort to reduce expenses and reach a break-even point of $1.5 billion in quarterly revenue. This is their second round of job cuts this year, following an announcement in April to layoff around 1,600 staffers, or about 10% of its workforce at the time.

AMD has been trimming the fat lately, and is currently in the process of splitting into two businesses: one that focuses on microprocessor design and another that will manufacture them. The company now has some 15,000 employees and plans to have the majority of them handling processor designs, while roughly 3,000 will head to newly-formed The Foundry Company early next year.

In the coming weeks AMD will be releasing their new 45nm server and desktop processors, codenamed Shanghai and Deneb respectively, so asset light or not the struggling chipmaker better shape up and bring something interesting to the table if it wants to level the playing field with Intel.

After being rebuffed multiple times, Microsoft made it clear that they are no longer interested in a Yahoo deal. Now that the Google-Yahoo search deal has fallen apart, however, the pressure is back on chief executive Jerry Yang and he is running out of options.

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit, Yang said he was willing to sell the company at the right price and suggested that Microsoft might be a good candidate, yet the software giant is probably leery of re-engaging negotiations as long as he is running the show. Yahoo is currently trading at around $14.50, a lot less than the $33 per share offered earlier this year. In other words, Microsoft is the big winner here, either it gets to buy Yahoo on the cheap, or it can focus on improving its online business and steal market share from Yahoo while the latter continues to struggle.

Dell has begun asking employees to “voluntarily” take up to five days off without pay as part of an effort to cut costs this quarter. The unusual request was made via a memo from CEO Michael Dell, in which he highlighted a 10 percent workforce cut announced in 2007, and suggested a new round of layoffs could begin if these measures don’t achieve the desired results.

The company also instituted a global hiring freeze, is offering an enhanced severance package for employees who voluntarily leave the company, cutting travel budgets, and reducing the number temporary and contract employees. Dell did not provide a monetary figure for the savings it expects from these moves, though it’s being reported that these latest efforts are intended to result in additional savings beyond the $3 billion in annual expenses the company previously pledged to cut over the next three years.

It seems Logitech has had a busy week. Shortly after announcing its premium wireless guitar controller for the wildly popular Guitar Hero video game, the peripheral maker has revealed plans to enter the software market by acquiring internet video services provider SightSpeed for $30 million in cash.

Logitech already sells high-end video cameras, so the acquisition makes sense for the company as it vies to distinguish itself from competition by tying its hardware to software from SightSpeed. According to Logitech, the deal should help them “move more quickly toward [their] goals for video services” and take video-conferencing “beyond the PC.”

Logitech did not elaborate on the “beyond the PC” part, but we can probably expect stand-alone peripherals with SightSpeed technology built-in hitting the market after the acquisition is over.

AMD has completed the sale of its digital television technology unit to Broadcom for $141.5 million in cash, about 27 percent less than the two companies originally agreed upon. The parties reportedly agreed to reduce the transaction price from the $192.8 million announced in August because of new, lower estimates for the unit's business.

Broadcom says it now anticipates that AMD's DTV business will have fourth quarter revenue of between $15 and $20 million, lower than previously expected. Unsurprisingly, investors are not at all pleased about the $51 million price reduction, and this morning sent AMD’s stock down 18 cents, or 6.1%, to $2.76. Nevertheless, the sale is yet another step in the right direction for AMD as it strives to slim down and regain profitability.

At the Convergence 2008 automotive electronics conference this week, BMW has revealed that it is looking for partners to develop an open-source car computing platform that would allow third-party suppliers to develop plug-and-play applications for their vehicles. The company is enthusiastic about the potential for such a system, particularly mentioning how open platforms are able to keep pace with the rapid advances in technology.

Though no other car makers are yet officially on board, it seems BMW will be moving ahead with or without any assistance, claiming it plans to have the open-source system in a vehicle selling 200,000 or more units over the next five to seven years. It’s good to see BMW is keeping an open mind with the software they use in their cars, not to mention this could be an important development for Linux in the mobile and embedded system markets.

A number of other automakers have also expressed interest in open platforms, including Honda and Ford, which currently use Microsoft-developed systems for their vehicles.

SanDisk's stock value took a nosedive yesterday following Samsung's decision to withdraw their offer to buy the company. Shortly after Samsung claimed that a lack of progress in discussions and financial losses on SanDisk's part killed the deal, shares of the flash memory manufacturer dropped nearly 31% in a single day.

While SanDisk certainly isn't alone in value losses, with many companies in the U.S. and around the world suffering financial setbacks, their loss was still significantly large. The company's stock value was down to $9.91 per share, a bit more than a third of the $26 Samsung originally offered. SanDisk rejected that bid earlier this year considering it was too low an offer, similar to how Yahoo and Microsoft have reacted to each other.

Samsung has backed out of its $26 per share bid to acquire the world’s largest supplier of flash storage card products, SanDisk, citing a lack of progress after six months of discussions between the two companies. Not surprisingly, Toshiba may have also played a part in repelling the offer.

In a letter to SanDisk’s board, Lee Yoon Woo, CEO of Samsung Electronics, explains their withdrawal followed a worst than expected operating loss announcement by SanDisk, a hurried renegotiation with Toshiba and major job losses across the organization, all of which point to a considerable increase in the target’s risk profile. SanDisk, for its part, questioned Samsung’s commitment to follow through with the transaction, suggesting they were using it as ploy to gain leverage in license renewal negotiations.

The deal would have strengthened Samsung’s position as the number one maker of flash memory chips, but could have been difficult to pull-off in part because of potential anti-trust concerns and the close co-operative relationship between rival Toshiba and SanDisk.

Circuit City is weighing its options in order to avoid filing for bankruptcy. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, citing the ever-ubiquitous “people familiar with the matter,” one such option would be to shut down at least 150 of its locations and cut thousands of jobs.

The move would reportedly free up $350 million from inventory that could be used to pay off some of the company's debt. If the retailer does announce store closings, you can almost certainly count on fire sale prices as part of that $350 million liquidation – but consumers will probably be hesitant to buy big-ticket flat screens, computers, and other items if they think Circuit City won’t be there to take returns and honor warranties.

It would be a shame to see Circuit City disappear, but perhaps their own management is to blame given their history of refusing buyout offers – the company turned down an $8 a share offer in 2003 and $17 per share in 2005 from Highfields Capital Management, and recently blew a shot at being acquired by Blockbuster for “at least” $6 a share.

Apple and Psystar have agreed to pursue a mediated settlement to their legal dispute over the Open Computer. As you may recall, Apple sued Psystar earlier this year for copyright infringement after latter began selling Mac OS X clones, to which Psystar responded with a countersue against Apple on antitrust grounds.

By involving themselves in an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process, basically the companies have agreed to meet and work out a resolution in lieu of going through a costly legal process. ADR is also a good way to work things out privately as the outcome is not disclosed, but of course, if Psystar has to stop selling Mac clones it will be pretty apparent to everyone. Both parties have agreed to begin holding sessions by January 31, 2009.

Yahoo is expected to announce further job layoffs this week as it prepares for a tough road ahead amidst a climate of financial recession and expenditure cutting that could severely impact online advertising revenues. The exact number of layoffs are still unknown, but at least a thousand from the 14,300-employee company is rumored.

The Internet's second largest search engine will also be announcing its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, which will hardly mirror the surprising results from main competitor Google last week whose Q3 earnings raised 31 percent year over year. Yahoo's advertising revenues are considered more vulnerable to the financial crisis since a large share of it comes from display advertising, versus Google's dominant performance-based per click ads.

It's been a harsh year for Yahoo, that despite of managing to turn in a healthy profit has failed to raise as a true contender to Google, and hence receiving the disapproval from analysts and investors alike. Just last May Microsoft rescinded its offer to buy Yahoo for $47.5 billion, a sizable premium over today's company market cap of $17.88 billion. Last Friday Yahoo's shares closed at $12.90.

Early this year, Microsoft decided to fork over $1.2 billion to acquire a Norwegian search company known as Fast Search and Transfer. The company specialized in enterprise search, where Microsoft was and is still trying to expand. Fast Search and Transfer was left to operate in Norway, and until recently hasn't been really heard from.

Now, however, Microsoft is dealing with a legal crisis as the company has been charged with fraud following a raid on the Fast Search and Transfer offices. No specific details as to what type of fraud Microsoft or FS&T is being accused of was mentioned, only that accounting irregularities were noticed. These problems date back to before Microsoft acquired the company, so it's possible they may get to sidestep this issue. Microsoft did mention that they will be “correcting” FS&T accounting practices in the future.

The U.S. Department of Justice has called off a probe into AMD and Nvidia’s alleged price-fixing and marketing practices. The agency had subpoenaed both vendors in late 2006 as part of an anti-trust investigation into the market for graphics processors and graphics cards.

The claims of lack of competition between the two companies were somewhat surprising, since the chipmakers were as fierce competitors with each other as ever. At the time the investigation was launched, AMD had just finished its acquisition of ATI for $5.4 billion, whereas Nvidia launched its GeForce 8800 graphics card. This recent decision allows AMD and Nvidia to keep challenging each other and Intel without the risk of monetary penalties or restrictions to their marketing practices.

A similar private antitrust class action was also started against ATI and Nvidia and settled earlier this year. Both AMD and Nvidia denied the allegations, but stumped up $850,000 each as part of the settlement.