Another Indian makes it big in the Valley
Mumbai: Following in the illustrious footsteps of several other Indian geeks, Moti Jiandani and his partner, Ajit Shelat, sold their California-based SwitchedOn Networks in an all-stock deal to the Nasdaq-listed PMC Sierra for a price of $450 million, which works out to about Rs 2,070 crore. The deal puts Jiandani, president and CEO, and co-owner Ajit Shelat, chief technology officer of SwitchOn, near the top of the league.

Unlike the earlier high-profile mega-deals, though, SwitchOn isn’t in the dotcom or B2C space, and PMC Sierra is said to have paid this amount for the company is because of the proprietary technology that the company has developed in the networking arena.

SwitchedOn, described as a packet content processor company, has developed a breakthrough technology for a packet analysis engine.
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Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, leaves board
San Francisco: In a surprise move, Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft announced that he would leave the board of the software giant. The move ends a formal relationship with the group he helped to found 25 years ago.

It is understood Mr Allen’s departure is not the result of any boardroom battle. Mr Allen, who is actively involved in a large number of philanthropic and corporate activities, is said to be battling Hodgkin’s disease and wants to spend less time involved in the day-to-day running of the company. He will remain a senior strategic advisor.

Bill Gates praised Mr Allen’s role at Microsoft. He said that Mr. Allen was instrumental in the creation of Microsoft and has played an important role in the success and direction of the company throughout the years. He reiterated that he would continue to value his friendship and counsel in the years ahead.

Mr Allen co-founded Microsoft with Mr Gates in 1975. The two men shared the title of general partner until 1977, when Mr Gates became president and Mr Allen became vice-president. Mr Allen has been a director of Microsoft since 1990.
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