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After seven years' preparation and a two-month trial, Novell's US$1.3 billion antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft ended Friday in a hung jury.

"It is confirmed that the jury could not come to an accord and that no length of further deliberation would alter that," said a spokesman for Microsoft at the court.

Novell filed its lawsuit seven years ago, claiming Microsoft abused its dominant position in the PC OS market to harm Novell's desktop applications business.

The jury at the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, Utah, had been deliberating the case for almost three days after closing arguments were presented earlier this week. On Friday the 12-member panel informed the judge they were unable to reach a unanimous decision and the judge declared a mistrial.

At least one juror was in tears as the jury was dismissed, the Microsoft spokesman said.

The jury had asked for clarification on several points during their deliberation, including questions about the definition of "middleware." The terminology apparently caused some confusion. At one point, the jury asked whether Windows 95 was considered "an operating system or middleware," court filings show.

"While Novell is disappointed that the Jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision, Novell still believes in the strength of its claim," the company said in a statement. "Clearly, this is a complicated technical case and Novell is hopeful that a re-trial will allow the opportunity to address any uncertainties some of the jurors had with this trial."

Novell's lawsuit accused Microsoft of misleading it about certain technical details prior to the release of Windows 95, to the detriment of Novell's WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and other applications. Microsoft's behavior ran afoul of U.S. antitrust laws, according to Novell, which is seeking approximately $1.3 billion in damages.

Prior to the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft invited Novell to work on versions of its applications for the new Microsoft operating system. But Novell ran into a variety of problems that it claimed were caused by Microsoft.

Microsoft had removed a key set of internal APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that Novell's software needed to function properly. Novell also found a number of bugs in Windows 95 that caused problems for its software, and which Microsoft was allegedly slow to address. Novell also accused Microsoft of hiding certain system calls that could only be used by other Microsoft applications, such as Microsoft Office, speeding their performance.

Last month, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates took the stand and denied his company had acted to deliberately harm Novell. The changes to Windows 95 were required to make the OS stable, he told the jury. Novell could have produced a more competitive version of its software but acted too slowly, Gates said.

The case was originally filed in the U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, but was moved to Maryland to combine pretrial proceedings with other lawsuits filed against Microsoft. Novell had filed six claims against Microsoft, five of which were dismissed, with the U.S. Court of Appeals in May reversing the dismissal of the sixth claim and moving the case back to the District Court in Utah.

Clearwire's big payday on Tuesday, when it raised US$734 million through a stock offering and a new investment by majority owner Sprint Nextel, helped the WiMax carrier but didn't seal the deal on its planned LTE network.

A new offering of Clearwire stock brought in $402.5 million, the company announced on Tuesday. By raising more than $400 million, Clearwire triggered an additional investment by Sprint that was built into a multifaceted deal the two companies reached earlier this month. Sprint exercised its pre-emptive right to buy 173.6 million more shares of Clearwire, injecting $331.4 million into the company.

But Clearwire's plan to build an LTE network, which Sprint would use as part of its overall LTE strategy, is still contingent on the company raising additional funds, Clearwire spokesman Mike DiGioia said on Thursday.

The WiMax network that powers Clearwire's own Clear branded service and Sprint's 4G offerings was the first 4G system in the U.S. But because the world's mobile industry is shifting toward LTE, that technology is expected to offer more options in terms of devices, equipment and future enhancements.

EMC has tied its fortunes to the future of cloud computing and is working hard to change the hearts and minds of IT executives so they will embrace the same vision, according to the firm's chief marketing officer.

To that end the company is promoting college degree programs for data scientists, helping service providers develop cloud services and trying to lessen the perception that cloud adoption threatens traditional IT jobs, says Jeremy Burton, EMC's CMO.

TECH ARGUMENT: Private cloud vs. public cloud vs. hybrid cloud

In the new year, EMC will push cloud curriculum into colleges to prepare a workforce that can support Big Data, Burton says. EMC proposes creating data science as a major in select colleges that will lead to a degree similar to the computer science degree. This will help respond to a need and develop advocacy for EMC's vision in the corporate world, he says. (See also: "Computer science is hottest degree on campus")

Meanwhile the company has been working with service providers to develop cloud infrastructure that is compatible with the same types of infrastructures being built privately. That way the providers can readily offer up services that businesses can buy to create hybrid clouds that offer better costs and flexibility, he says.

EMC already promotes cloud administrator and cloud architect certifications for current IT workers. There are 1,200 certified cloud architects now who bring knowledge about the infrastructure to their workplaces. As IT departments become more cloud savvy, adoption of cloud services will increase, he says.

Once IT staff is familiar with the practicalities of cloud and views it as a career opportunity, their fears that it threatens their jobs will fade. "It will become an unemotional economic decision, and use of cloud will be managed to a service level. There won't be turf wars over who will build it and whether jobs will be lost," he says.

IT departments will be run as service providers with a catalog of services needed for applications to run. They will be able to set a price for the cost of each application because IT will be more transparent. This would support chargeback to business units for services they consume. And if a service provider offers the same service for a set price, IT will be able to say whether that is a good deal, Burton says.

As IT looks at its application portfolio and manages for costs versus business value, the line between what can be trusted to the public cloud will move, with more applications being trusted to public clouds, he says.

EMC and its virtualization partner, VMware, are working with 30 to 40 reputable providers including AT&T, Rackspace, SingTel and Verizon to develop cloud services, Burton says. If businesses and service providers use similar architectures, it becomes easier for businesses to move applications between private and public clouds as needed.

With this type of transparency, it becomes possible to manage for cost, he says. Large service providers are working with EMC to do workload classification and determine which applications should be handled in public vs. private clouds.

University accuses Oracle of extortion, lies, 'rigged' demo in lawsuit

New details have emerged in Montclair State University's lawsuit against Oracle in connection with a troubled ERP (enterprise resource planning) project, in a court filing that includes more information about Oracle's alleged failings and also accuses the vendor of extortion as well as "inducing" the institution to take on the implementation.

Montclair's amended complaint, which was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, states that Oracle made an array of "intentionally false statements" regarding the functionality of its base ERP system, the amount of customization that would be required, and the amount of "time, resources, and personnel that the University would have to devote."

BACKGROUND: Oracle sued by university for alleged ERP failure

Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger declined comment.

In a response earlier this year to Montclair's original complaint, Oracle said the university was to blame for the project's woes.

"When issues arose during the course of the project, it became clear that MSU's leadership did not adequately understand the technology and the steps necessary to complete the project," it stated. "Instead of cooperating with Oracle and resolving issues through discussions and collaboration, MSU's project leadership, motivated by their own agenda and fearful of being blamed for delays, escalated manageable differences into major disputes."

But much like its original filing, MSU's revised complaint tells a much different tale.

MSU wanted to replace its legacy systems with a new one requiring minimal customization, according to its revised complaint. The school spent a year developing a detailed requirements list that ended up totaling some 3,200 items.

This list was given to vendors, including Oracle, who responded to the school's original request for project bids several years ago, it adds.

In January 2008, Oracle told the school that its base PeopleSoft system for higher education institutions would satisfy 95 percent of MSU's business requirements, the complaint states. "This representation was false."

Before it won the bid, Oracle also conducted live demonstrations of its software that used test scripts prepared by the university. One demonstration involved "a robust on-line application process for Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions ... that it falsely represented was an existing part of the base system and satisfied the University's requirements," the complaint states.

But in fact, "Oracle's ultimate implementation plan was to sell the University a third-party product called 'Embark' to satisfy those requirements, suggesting the initial 'live' demonstration was rigged," it adds. A "substantial" amount of customization was needed in the end, according to the complaint.