Renewed - or maybe the word is just louder since it's been pretty constant - speculation that BEA is up for grabs has Credit Suisse, for one, believing that the company is in play and that it could go for $15-$18 a share.

It says, "While management may still be hesitant about selling the business, it's our opinion that they are rapidly losing the ability to influence the decision" - a situation that would be clinched by another weak quarter after the "April Q1 disappointment [that] was the spark that set a series of events in motion that should lead to a positive outcome for shareholders."

Credit Suisse analyst Jason Maynard thinks BEA will go to Oracle or private equity in the next three-six months, "not the often mentioned HP." A strategic buyer would pay a few bucks more, he thinks, than a financial buyer.

Microsoft Sprang October Surprise on Novell
Ahh, it seems that Novell didn't know until two weeks before its infamous deal with Microsoft was announced that there was a sine qua non patent component to the thing. The poor little innocent thought Microsoft was negotiating interoperability for the sake of interoperability until Microsoft had Novell salivating like Pavlov's dogs and then Microsoft explained the fact of life. We have this tale from someone who was there and says it's true.

Tealeaf Readers Claim Ubuntu's in HP's Cup
The gossip figures HP will go down the Dell path and start pre-installing Ubuntu on some of its consumer PCs and laptops.

Microsoft Rents Office 2007
Microsoft is using the pay-as-you-go pre-paid cell phone model to peddle Office 2007 on new machines in South Africa and Romania, charging about 30 bucks, according to Reuters, for a three-month subscription with three months thrown in for free for first-time users. It's expected to broaden the scheme out to other developing countries. It tested the concept out earlier this year with Office 2003 and Windows.

Mark Logic Raises Third Round
Mark Logic and its XML content server, which works with Red Hat, Windows Server 2003 and Solaris, closed a $15 million third round compliments of Sequoia Capital and Lehman Brothers. The money is meant to push sales.

Firefox Scorches Microsoft
Firefox has 27.8% of the European Union, according to XiTi Monitor and in Poland, Hungary and Croatia it's 39%. In Slovenia it's a devastating 47.9%. Meanwhile, Mozilla chief Mitchell Baker claims the browser has been downloaded by 15% of American Internet users and accounts for 20% of US Internet usage. Worldwide the number is supposed to be 100 million people. Of course that doesn't mean exclusive use.

IBM Research Boss Retires
The head of IBM's research unit Paul Horn is retiring after 11 years in the job to become a scientist-in-residence at New York University and will be replaced by John Kelly, who's been overseeing IBM's strategies on technical standards and IP.

WebLayer Raises C Round
WebLayers has gotten $7 million in Series C funding from Ascent Venture Partners, Cedar Fund and Veritas Venture Partners. It claims to be the only game in town with a platform-independent policy management system that automates the manual governance required throughout the SOA lifecycle. The money is meant to expand sales, extend its professional services and expand its ability to deliver enterprise-class products.