Corporate Acquisitions, Tech Executives & Books

Vinod Dahm is often incorrectly credited as the creator of the Pentium chip in circulated lists. The Pentium processor was actually developed by a team at Intel led by Vinod Dham, who was the VP of the Pentium processor division. The name in the question has a typo.

Oracle acquired Primavera, a project management software company, in 2008 for approximately $1.2 billion. This acquisition strengthened Oracle's project portfolio management capabilities. Google, Microsoft, and IBM did not acquire Primavera.

Sabeer Bhatia co-founded Hotmail in 1996, which became the world's first web-based email service. Microsoft acquired Hotmail in 1997 for approximately $400 million, making Bhatia a prominent figure in the early internet industry.

Arthur C. Clarke wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey" (often referred to as simply "A Space Odyssey"). The novel was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film and is considered one of the most influential science fiction works ever written.

Google acquired Picasa in 2004 from Idealab. Picasa was a popular photo organizing and editing software that Google eventually integrated into Google Photos before discontinuing the Picasa desktop application in 2016.

Arun Netravalli served as the President of Bell Labs (then part of AT&T and later Lucent/Alcatel-Lucent). He was a prominent Indian-American engineer and researcher who contributed significantly to digital signal processing and video compression technologies.

Irving Stone wrote "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1961), a biographical novel about the Renaissance artist Michelangelo. Stone was known for his biographical novels about famous historical figures, and this book is considered one of his masterpieces.

Microsoft acquired Hotmail in 1997 for approximately $400 million, which was Microsoft's first major acquisition and helped establish MSN (Microsoft Network) as a web portal. Hotmail was rebranded as MSN Hotmail and later became Windows Live Hotmail before evolving into Outlook.com.

Rajiv Gupta served as the General Manager of Hewlett-Packard during the early 2000s. He was a prominent Indian-American executive in the technology sector and later served on the board of several major corporations.

Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems in 2010 for approximately $7.4 billion. This acquisition gave Oracle control over Java, Solaris, and MySQL, and was part of Oracle's strategy to compete more comprehensively with IBM in the hardware and software markets.

Robert Ludlum wrote "The Bourne Supremacy" (1986), the second novel in the Bourne series featuring Jason Bourne, an amnesiac assassin. Ludlum's thriller novels have been adapted into successful films, and the Bourne series became a major action movie franchise starring Matt Damon.

Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2008 for approximately $13.9 billion, significantly expanding HP's technology services division. This acquisition made HP one of the largest technology services companies globally.

The Bridges of Madison County is a bestselling novel by Robert James Waller, published in 1992. It was later adapted into a famous 1995 film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. Arthur C Clarke wrote science fiction, Irving Stone wrote biographical novels, and Robert Ludlum wrote thrillers.

Perot Systems was acquired by Dell in 2009 for approximately $3.9 billion. This acquisition significantly expanded Dell's enterprise technology services capabilities, positioning it as a stronger competitor against IBM and HP in the IT services market.

Business @ the Speed of Thought is a book written by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, published in 1999. It discusses how businesses can use technology to improve their operations and competitive advantage. Irving Stone, Robert Ludlum, and R.J. Waller are fiction writers, not business authors.

Victor Menezes was former CEO of Citibank, Rajat Gupta was former Managing Director of McKinsey & Company, and Rana Talwar was former CEO of Standard Chartered Bank. All three were prominent Indian-origin executives who led major global financial institutions in the late 1990s and early 2000s.