Industry News Desk

Cloud Pumping
Rumor has it that Salesforce.com, that CRM paean to cloud computing, is going to start selling Gmail and Google Docs integrated into its system. The pair cut a deal nine months ago for Saleforce to include Adwords in its applications.

Albany Better Be Better for Microsoft than for Eliot Spitzer
Microsoft has a project code named Albany that IDG News Service thinks is its answer to Google Docs and Google Apps and describes as a combination of some version of Office, Office Live Workspaces hosted services, Windows Live OneCare and Windows Live services like maybe hosted e-mail, search and photo-sharing that will eventually be pushed into the retail channel. Albany is reportedly going out to beta testers under NDA.

Dell To Go Cheap
Dell has been telling people that it’s going into the very cheap, very small laptop business like Asustek’s Eee and HP’s new Mini-Note. The Dell widget should reportedly have a 8.9-inch display and start at $399. Compal Electronics, the Taiwan ODM that’s building the thing for Dell, told the Wall Street Journal that it expects to ship one-two million of them to Dell this year.

Judge Throws Out HP Hush Money Suit
A district court judge has thrown out a case against HP brought by several pension plans because it paid ousted CEO Carly Fiorina $40 million in severance. The plaintiffs alleged that HP needed shareholder approval and that the king’s ransom was hush money meant to keep Carly’s mouth shut about certain allegedly dicey codicils in the Compaq merger.

Internet Crime Up
The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) says that nearly $240 million was lost last year to cyber crime – and that’s just the ones it knows about and investigated. The number is up $40 million from 2006. IC3 is a joint operation between the FBI and the Justice Department’s National White Collar Crime Center.

Now There’s a Couple
Google is using Frank Quattrone, the ex-Credit Suit superstar investment banker and veteran of the federal court system, as an adviser on the Microsoft-Yahoo! machinations, according to Reuters and the New York Times. Quattrone just started Qatalyst Group peddling merger and corporate finance advice.