Microsoft’s new web services

Microsoft Corp, on Tuesday, released a suite of free Web services that connect to its Windows operating system, delivering a major element of its strategy to maintain the dominance of its software while extending its reach on the Internet, reports Reuters from Seattle.

As part of new software suite, users can access their free Web e-mail through a downloaded desktop application instead of using a Internet browser to check, reply or write e-mails. Similarly, Windows PC users with a single click can either save photos to the computer's hard drive .

MTAR gets $65 m funding

US-based private equity fund Blackstone announced on Wednesday an investment of US$ 65 million in the Hyderabad-based MTAR Technologies Pvt Ltd, subject to regulatory approval. MTAR manufactures precision machined parts for nuclear power reactors, and engine & structural components for aerospace and defense applications.

Under the terms of the transaction, the funding will be a mix of primary and secondary equity. MTAR will continue to be led by the original founders and the existing management team.

Lenovo’s new ThinkStation  

Lenovo announced on Wednesday that it partnered with the AT&T Williams Formula One team to launch the new ThinkStation brand - a powerful new entry in the workstation PC marketplace.

As the first new Think brand introduced in more than five years, the ThinkStation S10 and D10 workstations offer the ultimate performance and reliability for professionals in the most demanding data and graphics intensive environments, claimed the company.

The workstations are based on the Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 5400 series and Intel Core2 Extreme processors, the first processors based on new 45-nanometer manufacturing process.

FirstApex’s new solutions 

FirstApex Group announced on Tuesday its plans to launch J2EE solutions at the 9th Singapore International Reinsurance Conference. It announced the launch of two new IT solutions - FirstGen Neo 5j, a property & causality insurance policy management system and FirstRe Neo 5j, a fully integrated Reinsurance System.

These new products have been designed and architected using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) on J2EE platform and the design inculcates the ease of extensibility, interoperability and configuration to suit any deployment, said the company in a release.

Yatra.com ties up with Sify

Yatra Online, on Wednesday, announced in New Delhi that it has tied up with Sify Technologies to increase penetration of travel related services, including air tickets and hotels at retail level, via Sify’s 7,000 retail points across 220 cities in India.  

Through this alliance, Sify retail centres will act as extended retail points to offer Yatra.com’s travel services with an integrated offline cash acceptance model of Sify.

Videocon’s NEXT buys Planet M

Videocon Industries’ consumer electronics retailing arm NEXT has acquired Planet M reportedly for Rs 200 crore with an aim to leverage the brand to tap the young generation. The company also aims to clock a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore by the next year. NEXT plans to open 500 stores in next 18 months entailing an investment of Rs 1,000 crore.