IBM has announced a cloud-basedbusiness analytics service to challenge more established cloud computing players such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without." That adage from the Great Depression is making a comeback these days among corporations that are digging deep to maintain profitability using business tools they already have in-house.

Europe's head of competition has criticized Oracle for what she characterised as a lack of cooperation over the investigation of Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, a spokesman for the European Commission said.

The high tech Titans - IBM (IBM), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), SAP (SAP) and EMC (EMC) – have been buying software firms at an amazing pace over the last half decade. According to BusinessWeek the tally is: Oracle $30 billion for 56 companies, Microsoft 79 companies, IBM 60 companies, EMC 40, and HPQ 34. Many of these acquisitions have been “tuck-ins” where the Titans have added the purchased company’s product capabilities into their product portfolio. This is a time honored practice the Titans and their smaller brethren, have used to expand beyond organic growth and tap the innovative ideas of entrepreneurs.

IBM has announced a BI (business intelligence) and planning suite aimed at midsized companies that need more insight into their business than a spreadsheet can provide, but not the complexity of an enterprise-level product. Dubbed Cognos Express, the applications are meant for businesses with between 100 and 999 workers, said Ben Plummer, general manager of the IBM Cognos midmarket business unit.