Adelaide based games developer, Ratbag, has been acquired by Chicago-based interactive entertainment publisher, Midway Games in a share swap deal worth about $7.5 million.

Global outsourcing provider EDS has barely produced a profit for the second quarter, announcing results that are more than 90% down on the 2004 result for the same quarter. However, the outsourcer insists its transformation is on track.

NEC Australia today announced the completion of stage two of its $34 million critical systems integration project with Airservices Australia, working with the government agency to install the primary communications system for air traffic control in Australia.

Oracle has promoted Brian Mitchell to senior vice president for strategy/business planning and mergers/acquisitions for Asia Pacific. Mitchell was most recently leading the regional merger and acquisition activity for Asia Pacific and Japan, together with additional responsibility for developing and leading Oracle's strategic planning processes for the senior management team, as well as chairman of Oracle Australia. Prior to this role, Mitchell was Oracle's longest serving regional managing director for Australia and New Zealand. Prior to joining Oracle, Mitchell worked in a range of roles working for major technology companies including sales manager at IBM Corporation, chief operating officer at Digital Equipment in Australia, managing director at BIS Banking Systems in Australia and head of global marketing and development in London.

Enterprise data management provider SAS Australia has announced two senior appointments. Peter Hong has been appointed to the role of sales director, public sector business (ANZ) and Les Davey takes up the position of sales director, commercial and financial business (Australia). Hong joined SAS Australia and New Zealand in October 2003 as the general manager, public sector. Prior to joining SAS, he held the position of sales and marketing director with Moore Business Systems following a four year period during which he was the managing director of Enigma Solutions, a company focused on IT security and lobbying. Davey joined SAS in January, 2005 as NSW state manager, finance and insurance sectors. He has a long career in the IT industry, starting in 1977, and has extensive sales experience commencing during a nine year period at Wang. He has held a number of senior positions, which include sales director at Bearing Point, general manager of business development and marketing at Tandem and director of sales and marketing at Compaq (Professional Services). He also worked to re-establish the Australian operations of Peregrine Systems in Australia.

Content management system vendor, Vignette, has appointed Gina Burman as marketing manager of the Asia Pacific region. Burman previously worked as marketing manager at Australian data storage and integration specialist SecureData Group. Prior to joining SecureData Group, Burman worked as an software developer headhunter for Rosch Recruiting, a position she held for six years.

Digital imaging vendor Canon has appointed Andrew Cooper as national general manager consumer imaging products group. Cooper, who held the position of sales manager for the consumer imaging products group in Canon, has been promoted to the new role.

Fuji Xerox Global Services has appointed Jamie Leggate as FXA national account manager. Leggate is responsible for establishing and leading the company' strategy with four of the company's largest accounts. Prior to his appointment with FXGS, Leggate worked for a number of years with IBM and StorageTek managing various software, services and market development initiatives.

Internet security vendor, Sophos, has found that during the first six months of 2005 dangerous new categories of spam are growing in prevalence, with the most damaging being company share price scams.

Software and services provider, Powerlan Limited (ASX: PWR), has signed an agreement with share registry provider Computershare Limited (ASX: CPU) to negotiate the sale of Powerlan’s subsidiary FinancialBPO Pty Ltd.

Accounting software provider, MYOB Limited (ASX:MYO) has acquired a 16.3% equity holding in UBS Corporation Berhad for a cash purchase price of approximately $4.5 million.

Australia's largest enterprise software and services company, Mincom, has appointed a new executive team, which will report to Richard Mathews, who was appointed CEO of Mincom in January 2005. The appointment is aimed at reflectings the company's new focus on international growth.

VoIP provider, engin (ASX:ENG), has reduced its call rates and cut the price of its monthly plan, with new prices taking effect immediately.

Online portal Yahoo! Australia and New Zealand has relaunched its finance site at http://au.finance.yahoo.com, promising visitors a wealth of new content relating to Australian stocks. The site is certainly an improvement on the previous effort but falls short in some key areas.

Video security systems maker, Innovonics (ASX:INO), believes it is the front-runner to win an estimated $50 million contract to supply CCTV security camera systems for all the trains in the London underground rail network.

Air traffic systems provider Adacel (ASX:ADA) has won a contract with Italy’s air traffic authority, ENAV (Ente Nazionale de Assistenza Al Volo), for Air Traffic Control Tower simulators to be installed at ENAV’s facility in Forli, Italy.

While more Australian employees spend time browsing the internet at work than other countries they tend to spend less time on non-work related browsing, according to a new survey.

Toshiba Australia Information Systems Division (ISD), and a number of other Australian and New Zealand organisations, has launched a guide to flexible working with the aim of reducing mistrust by employers of home workers.

Email security provider MessageLabs plans to expand beyond email security and into web security to address the growing threat of malware, spyware and inappropriate content transmitted in web traffic.

Intel and Connexion by Boeing, a business unit of The Boeing Company, have announced an agreement to enhance and promote high-speed, in-flight wireless Internet service.