IT Executive news

• IDG Contributor Network: The ACA and the death of medical privacy

  02-08-2016 23:21
  
  I’m not signing this
  I never sign medical release forms anymore. That’s because I read them. These forms tend to be lengthy documents which ultimately state that your medical records can be shared with just about everyone on the planet.Don’t believe me? Here's the first paragraph of a 2,000-word explanation of how PHI (protected health information) can be used by a nationally recognized pediatric provider:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Top 10 cities for tech workers

  02-08-2016 23:15
  
  Top 10 cities for tech workersImage by ThinkstockA lot goes into finding a new job. You want to make sure the job is a good fit, you want a decent salary and you want to make sure you can afford to live in the city where you'll be working. CareerCast pulled salary data from 200 careers it tracked through its Jobs Rater report, broken out by metropolitan areas. Next, it measured the data against the cost of living in those cities using data from both PayScale and the Council for Community and Eco
  
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• MIcrosoft opens up HoloLens sales to anyone in the US or Canada

  02-08-2016 21:57
  
  Microsoft has opened up sales of the HoloLens development kit to anyone with $3,000 to spare, a move that could significantly expand the community of developers building apps for the augmented reality headset.Until now, HoloLens was available only to developers and companies through Microsoft sales reps, but from Tuesday, anyone in the U.S. or Canada can buy up to five headsets online through the Microsoft Store. There was no word about availability in other countries.HoloLens can overlay three-
  
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• 85% off Business Intelligence & Data Science Online Course Bundle - Deal Alert

  02-08-2016 21:56
  
  Become Your Office's Data Analytics Hero with These 4 Interactive Courses, discounted 85% for a limited time, from $276 down to just $39.
  Successful businesspeople make the most out of the numbers available to them. If you're to succeed in the business world, you're going to need how to crunch and effectively analyze data. This course bundle teaches you how to interpret critical data, walks you through exercises, shows you how to present complex data to business and customer stakeholders, gives
  
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• 85% off Business Intelligence & Data Science Online Course Bundle

  02-08-2016 21:56
  
  Become Your Office's Data Analytics Hero with These 4 Interactive Courses, discounted 85% for a limited time, from $276 down to just $39.
  Successful businesspeople make the most out of the numbers available to them. If you're to succeed in the business world, you're going to need how to crunch and effectively analyze data. This course bundle teaches you how to interpret critical data, walks you through exercises, shows you how to present complex data to business and customer stakeholders, gives
  
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• Microsoft delivers Windows 10's 1607 upgrade

  02-08-2016 21:55
  
  Microsoft today began distributing 2016's major Windows 10 upgrade to customers via the operating system's update service.
  Labeled "Anniversary Update" in a nod to the July 29, 2015, release of the inaugural edition, it was officially tagged as version 1607 to denote year and month. The build number assigned to today's code was 14393.10.
  Although the upgrade can be downloaded immediately by impatient users -- they simply manually trigger a check for updates in the Settings panel -- the majority
  
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• Instagram takes aim at Snapchat with disappearing 'Stories'

  02-08-2016 21:55
  
  If Snapchat is still just a little too confusing for you, Instagram might have a solution. The Facebook-owned company today revealed a new feature that resembles one of Snapchat's most popular attributes: "disappearing" photos and video. "Instagram Stories" could help you find a happy medium between over-sharing and under-sharing. As the feature rolls out globally via Android and iOS during the coming weeks, Instagram's 500 million monthly active users will gain access to a daily feed of ph
  
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• Pokémon Go FAQ: The beginner's guide on how to catch 'em all

  02-08-2016 21:50
  
  By now, you must be familiar with Pokémon Go, the latest Pokémon game for iOS and Android that uses VR and real-world locations to send players on an IRL quest to catch Pokémon. But considering it’s a global phenomenon, Pokémon Go is surprisingly lacking in beginner instruction. This may be on purpose—Pokémon Go has a huge social element, and fewer instructions means more people turning to each other for help.To read this article in full or to leav
  
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• Virtual reality needs U.S. gov't backing

  02-08-2016 21:29
  
  As virtual reality and augmented reality gain popularity with consumers, attention is turning to ways these immersive technologies can be used in U.S. schools and in the work force.
  Panelists at an event on Tuesday called Virtual Reality Meets Capitol Hilldiscussed the emerging role thatfederal, state and local governments will face to keep the U.S. competitive with China and other countries in fostering VR growth.The event was held at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
  Speakers called for greate
  
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• 27% off TotalMount Apple TV Mount - Deal Alert

  02-08-2016 21:22
  
  Apple TV is an amazing product, but it's hard to find the right place for it. Its cables are often not long enough, or look messy when exposed. And routing them through the wall isn't an easy task. This Apple TV mount from TotalMount is unique in that it mounts your Apple TV to the back of your TV, out of site. Once mounted, your Apple TV remote functions normally, simply bouncing its signal off your ceiling. It may sound too good to be true, but the mount averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Ama
  
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• Google's parent company will begin testing delivery drones in the US

  02-08-2016 20:45
  
  Google parent company Alphabet will begin testing a drone delivery service in the U.S. in a bid to overcome any hurdles to rolling out the technology, the White House said Tuesday.Alphabet will kick off a research study for Project Wing at a Federal Aviation Administration test site "to help regulators answer critical safety and human factors questions" for drone deliveries, the White House said in a statement.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• IRS warns on super summer scam scourge

  02-08-2016 20:43
  
  In the ideal world the infamous Internal Revenue Service call scam should have faded away replaced by some other stupid ploy but alas…
  The IRS said today that the scammers have ramped up their efforts to grab even more money -- over $26 million -- and rip-off even more people -- -- 5,000 or so since last count.
  +More on Network World: IRS: Top 10 2015 identity theft busts+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Hot products at Black Hat 2016

  02-08-2016 20:20
  
  Demisto Free EditionKey features:  The free edition of Demisto’s  ChatOps platform automates and streamlines security operations and incident management processes. It includes the ability to create playbooks that can be shared to collaborate among organizations to combat cybercrime and imported to other products. orchestration and automation, advanced investigations, improved collaboration and much more. More info.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click h
  
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• Selfie fits modern politics like a handshake

  02-08-2016 20:05
  
  The selfie as a political toolImage by ReutersHolding or running for a political office in 2016? You had better be able to take a decent selfie, or at the very least understand your need – responsibility may not be too strong of a word – to abide by the voting public’s thirst for that smartphone snap. It’s like knowing how to properly lift and eat a local delicacy, or name-drop the state university’s football coach. Politics 101. It’s a non-partisan, worldwide
  
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• Microsoft's Windows 10 Anniversary Update is rolling out, but not to phones—yet

  02-08-2016 20:01
  
  As expected, Microsoft said Tuesday that its Windows 10 Anniversary Update is beginning to roll out. Surprisingly, perhaps, Windows phones aren’t on the approved list.
  We found the Windows 10 Anniversary Update to be a positive step forward for users, with substantial updates to features you use the most. Since the AU is a standard update, you really don’t have to do anything to receive it: It will be downloaded and installed automatically.To read this article in full or to leave a
  
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• Office 365 training courses to increase your expertise

  02-08-2016 19:27
  
  Microsoft's Office 365 subscription service makes the company's most popular apps and business tools available via the cloud, which means the features change often. Office 365 users, including beginners and veteran IT professionals, have a wide range of options for related training tools, depending on their needs and levels of expertise. Many free, basic training classes are available to teach the ins and outs of Office 365, but IT professionals will likely benefit more from intensive, and somet
  
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• CIO reflects on a career of successful turnarounds

  02-08-2016 19:26
  
  Marty Miner, CIO of Leidos, a $5 billion national security, health, and infrastructure solutions company, has led his share of turnarounds. Over the years, Miner has been CEO, COO, CIO and in various P&L manager positions charged with bringing companies and organizations back from the brink. Among his many lessons learned, Miner found that organizational design is key to success. Leidos CIO Marty MinerI caught up with Miner and asked him to reach back through his experiences and share s
  
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• Connected medical device makers need to step up security

  02-08-2016 18:57
  
  The healthcare industry is adopting internet of things (IoT) devices at a rapid rate. But while the value of connected devices in the medical sphere is becoming increasingly clear, device makers and hospitals need to step up their game in a big way when it comes to security.Management consulting firm McKinsey & Company estimates that by 2025, just the remote monitoring enabled by IoT medical devices could create as much as $1.1 trillion a year in value by improving the health of chronic-dise
  
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• Kill a smartphone password with a scan of your eye

  02-08-2016 18:37
  Remembering passwords can be a headache; instead, why not log into your computer with a scan of your eye?The hardware and software to make iris scanning a key feature is now reaching smartphones and PCs. The process is simple: An infrared scanner on a device will scan your iris, and verify its authenticity against encrypted information stored on the device.It's a notable feature in Samsung's Galaxy Note7 smartphone, which was announced on Tuesday. The smartphone has an iris scanner -- used to lo
  
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• Instagram Stories is Facebook's most obvious shot at Snapchat

  02-08-2016 18:35
  
  Facebook has been after Snapchat and its huge userbase of teens for years, but nothing can slow the growth of the super-popular ephemeral messaging app. As the old adage goes, if you can’t beat ’em or buy ’em, take their best features and put them in your own product. This time, Facebook is blatantly copying Snapchat Stories and adding an identical feature to Instagram that starts rolling out to iOS and Android on August 2. It’s called Instagram Stories. Yep.
  Like Snapch
  
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• This tiny device can infect point-of-sale systems and unlock hotel rooms

  02-08-2016 18:00
  
  Millions of point-of-sale systems and hotel room locks can be hacked by temporarily placing a small, inexpensive device several inches away from their card readers.The device, due to be presented Sunday at the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas, is the creation of Weston Hecker, a senior security engineer at Rapid7. It was inspired by MagSpoof, another device created last year by security researcher Samy Kamkar.MagSpoof can trick most standard card readers to believe a certain card was swiped by ge
  
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• Windows 10 finishes first year on 1-in-4 Windows PCs

  02-08-2016 17:56
  
  Windows 10 wrapped up its first year powering nearly one-in-four Windows PCs, a record adoption pace fueled by the now-expired free upgrade for consumers and many businesses.
  According to U.S. analytics vendor Net Applications, Windows 10 was on 21.1% of the planet's personal computers in July, and on 23.5% of those machines running Windows. The difference between its user share of all PCs and only those running Windows stemmed from the fact that Windows powered 90% of all personal computers, n
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Five tips for leading agile data management development teams

  02-08-2016 17:49
  
  One of the principles behind the Agile Manifesto states:
  The best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
  This is a key success factor in agile data management, whether the team is developing a traditional data warehouse or any other type of enterprise data management solution.
  Self-managing teams can be very effective due to the following factors:Better, faster communication.
  More trust between client and product team.
  Less conflict.
  Increased motivation.
  Inf
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: 4 ways to be wildly successful with local content

  02-08-2016 17:30
  
  In 2016, trying to gain traction with a content marketing strategy can seem nearly impossible. This is especially true if you’re a small business without resources. The good news is that there’s an answer to your woes, and it comes in the form of local content.Content marketing saturation
  The past ten years have been a fundamental decade for the content marketing industry. It’s grown from a marketing niche that was spammy and black hat by nature and evolved into one of the sing
  
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• Enterprise NOSQL: Ken de klant!

  02-08-2016 17:20
  Door Roelof Reinders – De tijd dat klanten maar via één kanaal in contact stonden met een bedrijf is niet meer. Tegenwoordig verloopt communicatie via meerdere kanalen: naast de traditionele post, e-mail en telefoon zijn er webportalen en sociale media bij gekomen. De behoefte om alle data die... lees meer
  
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• 7 surprises in Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 smartphone

  02-08-2016 17:02
  
  This morning at a glitzy event in New York City's famed Hammerstein Ballroom, Samsung unveiled its latest phablet phone, the Galaxy Note 7. The device builds on the successes of the company's previous Galaxy smartphones, including the Galaxy S7s — the Galaxy S7 edge was the "world's best-selling Android smartphone model in the first half of 2016," according to research firm Strategy Analytics — as well as the last-generation Note 5. (The company skipped the sixth generation Note nam
  
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• 7 things you need to know about Samsung's Galaxy Note7

  02-08-2016 17:00
  
  There's a lot to like in Samsung's new Galaxy Note7, which will ship on Aug. 19. 
  The sharp screen is accentuated by a slight curve on the edges that makes the device easy to handle. It has a snappy, 64-bit processor, and it can rock games and virtual reality with the companion Gear VR headset. Samsung's attention to smaller details makes it a fine device. Here are seven things you need to know about Note7:
  Many similarities with Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge
  The Galaxy Note7 is a large-
  
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• Juniper swallows silicon photonics player Aurrion

  02-08-2016 16:40
  
  With an eye towards better handling bandwidth-ravenous video streaming and data center to data center traffic, Juniper today said it would buy fabless photonics manufacturer Aurrion for an undisclosed price.
  “We expect that Aurrion’s breakthrough technology will result in fundamental and permanent improvements in cost per bit-per-second, power per bit-per-second, bandwidth density, and flexibility of networking systems,” said Pradeep Sindhu, co-founder and CTO of Juniper Netwo
  
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• Microsoft wins battle for Boeing in war with AWS

  02-08-2016 16:00
  
  Boeing's decision to run its aviation analytics applications on the Azure cloud computing software is a big win for Microsoft, which is chasing Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the high-stakes race to sell computing, storage and other infrastructure software over the internet. The aerospace giant based its choice largely on Microsoft’s willingness to help it develop applications to serve its 300 airline customers, which are starved for ways to optimize fuel efficiency and better manage fleets.
  
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• 12 tips for creating a must-read business blog

  02-08-2016 14:59
  
  Too often business owners start blogging in the hope that it will drive traffic to their business, only to quickly fall into the trap of posting stale or sales-heavy content that gets no or few views. Then they become frustrated and either blog less frequently or abandon their blog, wondering why they bothered.But it doesn’t have to be that way. Business blogs, when done right, can help businesses (of all sizes) attract potential customers – and increase sales. Just follow these simp
  
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• Privacy Shield certifications begin trickling in

  02-08-2016 14:00
  
  The U.S. Department of Commerce is not just rubber-stamping applications to join the new Privacy Shield data protection program: 24 hours after companies began certifying their compliance, the administration's website still listed no approvals.Microsoft was among the first businesses to certify that it complied with the new rules for transferring European Union citizens' personal information to the U.S. when the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration began accepting application
  
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• IDG Contributor Network: Do you still use your Apple Watch?

  02-08-2016 14:00
  The technology media world is awash with rumors about the Apple Watch 2 possibly being released this fall. Many people are eagerly looking forward to an Apple Watch with upgraded hardware and new features.But what about the current Apple Watch? Are people still using it? And will they upgrade to the Apple Watch 2? These questions came up in a recent thread on the Apple subreddit, and there were some interesting comments posted.I’ll share my own thoughts below, but here’s a sample of
  
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• SaaS risks come into focus

  02-08-2016 13:00
  
  My company is pretty much all in with software as a service (SaaS). At this point, in fact, only three major applications live on our corporate network: our source code repository, bug tracking system and departmental fileshares. And most of our users don’t need those applications to get their jobs done, instead relying on another 90 or so applications, all of which live on the internet and thus are available from anywhere in the world. (There are a few exceptions, for applications that a
  
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• 3 ways annoying coworkers kill productivity

  02-08-2016 12:47
  
  "She constantly snaps her chewing gum while talking on the phone all day to her friends.""He eats yogurt every day, and even when the cup is empty, he continues to scrape the bottom with a plastic spoon.""She wipes her nose on her sleeve.""He has a bizarre style of laughing, and seems to laugh at everything."
  These are real complaints about real people's coworkers sent to career coach, author and speaker Ford R. Myers -- and boy, do they sound annoying."This is definitely a hot-button issue. I g
  
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• Why you need a strong authentication platform

  02-08-2016 12:12
  
  Common challengesImage by PexelsAs the security landscape is changing, so are the business challenges that organizations are facing. With data breaches and information theft on the rise, it’s becoming even more crucial to protect your data from unwanted third parties. According to Symantec’s annual Internet Security Threat Report, up to 80 percent of breaches could be eliminated with strong authentication.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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• Windows 10 Anniversary Update: The good, the bad and the 'meh' (with video)

  02-08-2016 12:00
  
  The Windows 10 Anniversary Update has been a year in the making, with more than two dozen public previews made available so that we could get a taste of what was to come. As of August 2nd, it is finally here.
  This new version will be delivered via Windows Update -- although at the time of writing, it was not yet clear whether it would be available immediately to everyone or whether there would be a slower rollout.
  So after all the time, all the work and all the hype, how does it stack up? Will
  
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• What if Apple is actually phasing out the pro-level Mac?

  02-08-2016 12:00
  As if the 80 or so minutes he spent showing off the iPhone weren’t enough, Steve Jobs concluded his 2007 Macworld Expo keynote in San Francisco with one final bombshell unveiling. It wasn’t a piece of hardware or an OS update, but it was just as significant: As he was summing up Apple’s increasingly diverse product line, Jobs announced a change that signaled a new direction for the company, one perhaps even more telling than the revolutionary mobile phone unveiled moments earl
  
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• How to watch the Olympics without paying for cable TV

  02-08-2016 12:00
  Rio 2016 promises to be the “most live Olympics ever.” It may also end up being the most-streamed, thanks to a wealth of options that enable cord cutters catch all the action.
  More than 10,500 athletes from 206 countries will compete in the Games of the XXXI Olympiad this August. NBCUniversal (NBCU), which has exclusive broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games, will air 6,755 hours of Olympic programming across its channels and digital platforms. That includes NBC, NBCSN, Bravo, USA
  
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• Balans tussen innovatie, marktaandeel en kosten door Agile-transformatie

  02-08-2016 10:48
  Organisaties worden vooral ‘Agile’ om de hoeveelheid tijd besteed aan het realiseren van kostenbesparingen, het vergroten van het marktaandeel – door kortere time-to-market – en de aandacht voor nieuwe productinnovaties in balans te brengen. Hierop duidt onderzoek onder 300 organisaties door... lees meer
  
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• Pokémon Go developer sued over gamers seeking to enter private property

  02-08-2016 08:47
  
  A lawsuit in a federal court raises the ticklish issue of whether a company can be hauled to court because its augmented reality game places coveted fantasy creatures and in-game benefits in private property without permission.Jeffrey Marder, a resident of West Orange, New Jersey, found in the days after the release of the successful augmented reality game Pokémon Go, that strangers, phone in hand, had begun lingering outside his home.At least five of them knocked on Marder’s door a
  
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• 200M Yahoo accounts go up for sale on digital black market

  02-08-2016 03:50
  
  Yahoo users might want to reset their passwords. A hacker claims to have stolen the login information for 200 million Yahoo accounts and is selling them on the black market.
  The stolen records are up for sale on TheRealDeal, a darknet marketplace that offers illegal goods. For 3 bitcoins, or US$1,824, anyone can buy them.
  The hacker, known as peace_of_mind, has claimed to have previously sold login credentials for LinkedIn and Tumblr users.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, ple
  
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• Cybercrime infrastructure being ramped up in Brazil ahead of Olympics

  02-08-2016 02:52
  
  Over the past few months, cybercriminals have set up thousands of malicious domains and servers in Brazil in anticipation of the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
  Threat data collected by Fortinet from over 2 million sensors worldwide shows that between April and June, the number of malicious URLs detected in Brazil grew by 83 percent. That's an unusually large spike compared to the 16 percent growth in malicious URLs for the rest of the world.
  According to a Fortinet report due to be released Tuesday, the
  
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• HPE's cloud chief is leaving the company

  02-08-2016 02:36
  
  The head of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise’s cloud team is leaving the company in a reorg that will also see the creation of a new cloud division.Two other top executives are also departing: Manish Goel, the head of HPE’s storage business, and Robert Vrij, managing director of sales for the Americas.The changes, announced in a blog post Monday, follow the news last month that Martin Fink, HPE’s CTO and the head of HP Labs, will retire at the end of the year.To read this article in
  
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• Why Salesforce just bought this ex-Facebook CTO’s startup

  02-08-2016 01:20
  
  Hard on the heels of its Demandware acquisition in June, Salesforce confirmed on Monday that it's acquiring cloud collaboration software maker Quip.The purchase price is $582 million, plus the value of Salesforce's previous investments in the company, according to a regulatory filing late last week. According to one estimate, the total value amounts to roughly $750 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
  
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