CA Technologies Adds Aspera Software License Management to its Service Management Portfolio

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CA Technologies Adds Aspera Software License Management to its Service Management Portfolio

OEM Agreement Helps Customers Address Complexities of Software Licensing and Mitigate Audit Risk

ISLANDIA, NY and AACHEN, Germany—August 16, 2012—CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) and Aspera GmbH (“Aspera”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of USU Software AG (“USU”), today announced an OEM agreement under which CA Technologies will embed Aspera’s industry-leading SmartTrack license management technology in its industry-leading CA IT Asset Manager software.

CA IT Asset Manager helps organizations reduce the risk of license compliance and optimize the cost, management and distribution of existing assets.

Findings from the latest annual survey conducted at Gartner's IT Financial, Procurement and Asset Management Summit again show higher numbers of audits year over year.  In the same research note, Gartner recommends that “CIOs should invest the funds needed to ensure that robust asset management is in place and effective, and that asset management staff are empowered to ensure compliance."

Software license agreements with vendors can also be highly complex, making it difficult for customers to get maximum business value from them while also rigorously maintaining compliance with licensing terms.

According to Gartner analyst Patricia Adams, “Correlating license entitlement with installed software is not an easy task.  Therefore, vendors specializing in software license optimization are emerging to address this market niche.”**

“Aspera lives and breathes software license management,” said Christof Beaupoil, president of Aspera Technologies Inc., the U.S.-based sister company of Aspera GmbH. “By providing CA Technologies with both our technology and expertise, Aspera can help CA Technologies customers more quickly and easily achieve their efficiency and compliance goals.”

Aspera’s software license management technology complements the broader CA Technologies Service Management solutions portfolio, which addresses all aspects of software, hardware and network resource ownership on-premise and in the cloud—along with associated IT operations.

Aspera also delivers its technology as a cloud-based service, which aligns well with the CA Technologies IT Management-as-a-Service (ITMaas) strategy.

"IT organizations are under intense pressure to get the most out of every dollar of IT spend, even as their environments are becoming increasingly complex," said Lokesh Jindal, senior vice president, Service and Portfolio Management, CA Technologies.  "Our relationship with Aspera will help our customers worldwide fulfill this core objective by empowering them to improve utilization of all the assets that support their service delivery."

*Gartner, Inc., Software Vendor Auditing Trends: What to Watch For and How To Respond by Jane B. Disbrow, Alexa Bona, Frances O’Brien, Frank DeSalvo, Ted Friedman, Jo Ann Rosenberger, Joseph Neapolitan, Victoria Barber, Stewart Buchanan, May 23, 2012

**Gartner, Inc., Software License Optimization Vendor Overview by Patricia Adams, July 3, 2012

About Aspera

Aspera is a highly specialized provider of software license management solutions. Our unique, entitlement-centric approach has been successfully implemented in international projects for over a decade. SmartTrack is the tool of choice for large companies wishing to effectively manage software assets governed by significant volume license agreements. More than 130 world class businesses – including 20 Fortune Global 500 companies – rely on Aspera’s expertise for license management. Aspera has partners in Scandinavia, Germany, Netherlands, the UK, and Australia.

Following the industry standard ISO/IEC 19770-1 our services include but are not limited to: LaaS, software recognition engineering, license clearing, interface monitoring, and application troubleshooting, master catalog, extended catalog, ITIL certified organization and process consulting, project management, integration, and customer support.

Aspera was founded in 2000 in Aachen, Germany and currently employs 65 professionals. It is registered in the USA under Aspera Technologies Inc. Aspera GmbH and Aspera Technologies Inc. are wholly owned subsidiaries of USU Software AG. More information is available at www.aspera.com.

About CA Technologies

CA Technologies (NASDAQ: CA) provides IT management solutions that help customers manage and secure complex IT environments to support agile business services. Organizations leverage CA Technologies software and SaaS solutions to accelerate innovation, transform infrastructure and secure data and identities, from the data center to the cloud. Learn more about CA Technologies at www.ca.com.

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March 26, 2012 01:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time 

ExxonMobil Awards Multi-Zone Stimulation Technology License to Weatherford

• Well perforating and fracturing combined into one efficient operation
• Award-winning technology in commercial use since 2005
• Weatherford experienced in advanced stimulation technologies

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (URC) announced today the licensing of its award-winning Multi-Zone Stimulation Technology (MZST^SM) well treatment process to a subsidiary of Weatherford International Ltd. The MZST process can be used to rapidly and reliably stimulate multiple zones in a single operation, yielding improved well economics.

The MZST process can be particularly beneficial for hydraulic fracturing operations in tight gas, shale gas and coal bed methane wells that target multiple reservoir zones, thick reservoir sections or long reservoir intervals where multiple stimulation treatments are required.

“The MZST process is a proven technology for rapidly completing wells in tight reservoirs such as shale gas,” said URC President Sara Ortwein. “As shale gas takes on growing significance, this technology will play a key role in improving the economics of developing this unconventional resource.”

The MZST process will enable Weatherford to optimize its stimulation operations by combining the deployment of perforating and hydraulic fracturing equipment simultaneously in the wellbore to enable "single-trip" multi-zone stimulations. The technology dramatically increases the number of zones that can be fractured per day compared to traditional fracturing and stimulation operations.

“We are always looking for proven technology to reduce completion costs without sacrificing safety or well integrity,” said Gary Flock, Weatherford vice president of pressure pumping. “The MZST process is an excellent fit with our existing portfolio of completion and well stimulation technologies and services and will help us add value to our customers in the unconventional gas business.”

The MZST process was developed by ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, an affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corporation. The technology was recognized with Platts Global Energy Award for Most Innovative Commercial Technology in 2005 and has been licensed to numerous service companies.

About ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company

ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company is the Upstream research affiliate of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), a leading global oil, natural gas, and petrochemicals company with operations in nearly 200 countries and territories worldwide. ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company is charged with developing an industry-leading array of proprietary technologies that support the Corporation's continued leadership position in exploration, development, production and gas commercialization.

About Weatherford

Weatherford is a Swiss-based, multi-national oilfield service company. It is one of the largest global providers of innovative mechanical solutions, technology and services for the drilling and production sectors of the oil and gas industry. Weatherford operates in over 100 countries and employs over 60,000 people worldwide.

MZST is a service mark of Exxon Mobil Corporation.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: Statements in this release regarding future events or conditions are forward-looking statements. Actual future results, including the performance of new technology, could differ materially depending on geologic conditions, technical or operating factors, and other factors discussed under the heading "Factors Affecting Future Results" on the "Investors" section of our website at www.exxonmobil.com.

Senate Probes Verizon-Cable Deal

Excerpt from an article in

TheHill.com

Senate probes Verizon-cable deal 
By Brendan Sasso

The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will examine Verizon's $3.6 billion deal with a coalition of cable companies on Wednesday afternoon.

Verizon agreed in December to buy wireless airwave licenses, known as spectrum, from cable companies including Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House Networks. Under a separate deal announced simultaneously, Verizon and the cable companies agreed to cross-sell one another's services.

"The subcommittee carefully examines questions about competition in the wireless and video markets, with the ultimate goal of protecting consumers and reducing their cable and cell phone bills, and these deals are no exception," Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said in a statement announcing the hearing.

The witnesses will be Randal Milch, Verizon's general counsel; David Cohen, Comcast's vice president; Steven Berry, CEO of the Rural Cellular Association; Joel Kelsey, policy adviser for consumer group Free Press; and Timothy Wu, a Columbia University law professor who specializes in Internet, communications and antitrust issues.

Wu served as chairman of Free Press from 2008 to 2011.

The Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department are probing whether the deals will hurt competition in the wireless industry.

The Rural Cellular Association, other wireless carriers including Sprint and T-Mobile and consumer groups such as Free Press argue the spectrum deal will allow Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, to consolidate its control over the airwaves, stifling competition. The groups also argue that the cross-marketing deals could lead to price-fixing or other anticompetitive behavior.

Verizon said the spectrum deal will help it meet the growing demands of smartphones and tablet computers. The company pointed out that the cable companies have no immediate plans to use the spectrum licenses.

America's Next Top Energy Innovator, Round 2

News release from the U.S. Department of Energy:

Secretary Chu Announces Second Round of “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” on One Year Anniversary of the White House Startup America Initiative

January 31, 2012 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, on the one year anniversary of the Obama Administration’s Startup America Initiative, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) is kicking off a second year of “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator,” a program that allows startup companies to license groundbreaking technologies developed by DOE’s 17 national laboratories for $1,000 and build successful businesses. As part of this effort, the Department reduces both the cost and paperwork requirements for startup companies to obtain an option agreement to license some of the 15,000 patents and patent applications held by the national laboratories.

The White House Startup America Initiative is a multiagency effort across the Obama Administration to promote high-growth entrepreneurship by expanding access to capital, cutting red tape, and accelerating innovation through agency action.  Additional information on the program’s one year anniversary and new steps the Obama Administration is taking to support job-creating small businesses is available HERE.

“America's future competitiveness depends on our ability to innovate and advance American products and businesses,” said Energy Secretary Chu. “Through America’s Next Top Energy Innovator, we are allowing brilliant ideas to fully develop and giving startup companies the opportunity to bring inventions from our national laboratories to the market.”

Under the previous round of America’s Next Top Energy Innovator, thirty-six companies in total signed option agreements with the national laboratories.  An online contest for the top picks is currently underway, where Americans can vote online for the most innovative and promising technologies supported by the program by visiting www.energy.gov/topinnovator. The top startup companies– based on the public vote and an expert review – will be invited to be featured at the premier annual gathering of clean energy investors and innovators around the country, the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit at the end of February.

Under the next round of the “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” program:

1.      Wednesday, February 1, 2011, the Department will kick off the second round of the competition.  Entrepreneurs and start-ups must identify the technology of interest and submit a business plan to be considered for the program. Participants will have until December 10, 2012 to make their submission to the laboratory.
2.      Any of the 15,000 unlicensed patents and patent applications held by the national laboratories will be available for licensing by startup companies.
3.      From February 1 to December 10, the Department will reduce the total upfront cost of licensing DOE patents in a specific technology to a $1,000 upfront fee for portfolios of up to three patents from a single laboratory. This represents a savings of $10,000 to $50,000 on average in upfront fees.
4.      Other license terms, such as equity and royalties, will be negotiated on a case by case basis and will typically be due once the company grows and achieves commercial sales. These fees help support the Department's continuing research activities to develop new technologies.
5.      The Department has simplified the option and licensing process and has established a standard set of terms for start-ups, who generally lack the resources, time or expertise to negotiate individual licensing agreements.
6.      In early 2013, the Department will give Americans the chance to vote online for the most innovative and promising technologies supported by the program.

Learn more about DOE’s America’s Next Top Energy Innovator program HERE. Learn more about the Obama Administration’s Startup America initiative HERE.