$1.8bn offered for Novell

Elliott Associates has offered to acquire software maker Novell, writes CNET.

The acquisition offer, delivered in a letter to Novell's board of directors, is valued at $1.8 billion, or $5.75 per share. Elliott Associates already owns 8.5% of Novell's shares, which it began buying up in January.

Elliott Associates told Novell's board that the stock has "meaningfully underperformed" and called recent acquisitions and changes in strategies “unsuccessful”. Novell confirmed its board had received the letter and "anticipates that its board of directors will review Elliott's proposal in consultation with its financial and legal advisors".

The mayor of Kansas's capital has temporarily changed his city's name to Google, reports PCWorld.

The decision to change Topeka's name to Google was made via a proclamation signed at a city council meeting. In the proclamation, mayor Bill Bunten declares the city will be known as Google for the entire month of March.

Google plans to build its broadband networks in a limited number of communities. It's calling upon city leaders and others to nominate their hometowns for inclusion. After all the nominations have been received, Google will select a handful of places best suited for its experiment.

Apple executives are mulling the idea of enabling iTunes users to back up movies, music and television on the company's servers, and access them from any Internet-connected device, states The Register.

Movie studio representatives have reportedly been approached by Apple over creating a possible free streaming service for iTunes. Apple has supposedly been proposing a similar scheme to major music labels as well.

The service would encourage owners of mobile devices with limited storage space to purchase more digital content, without having to worry about filling up the hard drive.

Sony has fixed a software glitch with its PlayStation 3 (PS3) that had prevented some users from accessing its PlayStation Network for more than 24 hours, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The company says the problem stemmed from the internal clock on some of its older PS3 consoles. The clock on affected models incorrectly recognised 2010 as a leap year, calling into mind the Y2K-type of calendar change software problems feared at the turn of the century.

Sony had warned customers to stop using their PS3 machines, because there were some instances where turning on the console would result in the loss of data such as trophies, or accomplishments, earned through game play.