Happy holidays!

We’re taking a short break during the holiday season, and will be back in Jan 2007.

Meanwhile, have a great Christmas, and a wonderful New Year!

- The Editor, Track That 

Seagate to Acquire EVault

In case you missed this:  SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.—21 December 2006— Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX) today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held EVault, Inc., a leading provider of online backup services, as part of its effort to extend the company’s storage solutions offerings and strengthen the Seagate Services group. The company’s strategy for Seagate Services includes offering market-leading services in the areas of data recovery, online backup/recovery and archiving for small-medium businesses (SMB).

“Today’s announcement highlights a strategic next step into services, which is a natural extension of Seagate’s core business and will leverage our brand leadership and channel expertise to deliver solutions to the SMB market,” said Bill Watkins, Seagate CEO. “Over the past three years, Seagate has been executing a strategy designed to broaden its customer base and increase growth opportunities by expanding beyond its core hard disc drive business into the broader storage solutions category. Our objective for Seagate Services is to become a leading provider of services to manage and protect our customers’ digital content throughout its lifecycle.”

Exponential Broadband Growth and Demand for Interactive Services Fuels IPTV Market in Asia-Pac

Singapore, December 21, 2006 — Dwindling wireline revenues, consumer demand for greater control over viewing preferences, and the explosion of broadband in various high growth markets across Asia-Pacific represent the impetus for the development of IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) in the region. While service providers across Asia-Pacific have invested heavily in the network infrastructure required to offer such services, the key success factor for IPTV lies in the gamut of content that service providers are able to provide consumers.

New analysis from global growth consulting company, Frost & Sullivan (www.frost.com/communicationsservices), Asia Pacific IPTV Market, reveals that revenues in this market – covering 12 major Asia-Pacific countries ex-Japan – is estimated to increase from US$353.4 million in 2006 to US$512.4 million next year. Growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 37.5 percent (2006-2013), the region’s IPTV market is forecasted to be worth US$3.3 billion by end-2013.

Pacific Internet Launches Data Centre Service in China

SINGAPORE, Dec. 20 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Pacific Internet Limited (Nasdaq: PCNTF), Asia Pacific’s largest telco-independent Internet Communications Service Provider by geographic reach, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific Internet (Hong Kong) Limited, has launched a Data Centre Service in China. The service is specifically tailored to serve Hong Kong enterprises with cross-border communications needs across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and the Asia Pacific region. The launch of Pacific Internet’s Data Centre Service has successfully bridged Internet interoperability between the Southern and Northern parts of China, facilitating data transfer and secure seamless connections within the Chinese mainland and the rest of the world.

Check Point to Acquire NFR Security; Expands Intrusion Prevention Capabilities to Fortify Enterprise Networks

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. and ROCKVILLE, MD — December 19, 2006 — Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP), the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced the company has signed a definitive agreement to acquire NFR Security, a leader in real-time threat prevention.With the acquisition of NFR, Check Point will enhance its technology leadership and raise the security bar in defending enterprise networks against today’s most dynamic threats. Check Point’s SmartDefense and NFR’s Hybrid Detection Engine (HDE) will offer customers precise, real-time attack prevention by combining pre-emptive type-based protection (SmartDefense) with the highly granular and accurate attack detection provided by the HDE.