IBM buys
IBM - the world's largest computer company, with a turnover of $82 bn - seems to take over another company every week, and this week's target has been a thorn in its side for a decade. IBM is buying Sequent in a deal worth $810m. Sequent will operate semi-independently under chief executive Casey Powell, who founded the company in Oregon in 1983. Sequent is attractive to IBM because of its advanced technologies. It makes powerful server computers using lots of Intel processors - Powell used to work for Intel - and these are expected to take a growing share of the server market when Intel launches its next- generation 64-bit processor, code-named Merced. IBM has 25% of the sever market (30% in Western Europe) and isn't planning to give up its market-leading position.

It's all Go at Disney Another company wielding its chequebook to stay ahead is Walt Disney, which is finally buying the 57% of Infoseek it doesn't already own. Infoseek was one of the pioneers in the internet search engine market, and combined with Disney to create a "portal" or gateway site called Go.com earlier this year. Go already acts as an umbrella for other Disney sites such as ESPN, which covers sport, and ABC News. Disney Chairman Michael Eisner said: "We are investing in this for the future. If you believe that people are watching movies in the future, not only on DVD and VHS, but on the Internet, we have to be there."

As seems so often the case, the new will be a continuation of the old by other means.