Google, which is reportedly building its own DoubleClick-like ad-serving mechanism, is now supposed to be trying to buy DoubleClick since Microsoft was reported to be in talks with the online media buyer. The competition is supposed to make any deal more expensive. Last week they were already talking about the price for the $100 million-$150 million business being an exorbitant $2 billion. The Wall Street Journal, which originally broke the story, says Yahoo and AOL, one of DoubleClick's biggest accounts, have also kicked the tires. DoubleClick's alternative to a sale is to IPO.

Dell Earnings Down 26%
Dell can't manage a 10-K but it told the SEC Wednesday that it expects its 2006 earnings to be around $2.6 million, or $1.16 a share, down roughly 26% from the $3.5 billion it earned in 2005. It said revenues would be around $57 billion, up from $55.9 billion. It's still unclear whether its preliminary results for the first nine months will change because of the trouble with its books.

Red Hat's Controller Resigns
Red Hat's controller and principal accounting officer Gabriela Gonzalez resigned March 22. CFO Charlie Peters is temporarily picking up the slack.

Vista Goes to Boot Camp
Apple's Boot Camp now supports Vista. Boot Camp is Apple's beta widgetry for running Windows on its Intel machines. Leopard, the upcoming rev of Mac OS, is where Boot Camp graduates to a final version and gets integrated in the operating system.

Sun Loses China Chief
Sun is losing the head of its China operation Daniel Yu, who is leaving the company after 22 years. Sun owns 9.3% of China's server market behind IBM with 40%, HP and Dell. Lionel Lim, president of Sun Asia South and COO of Sun Asia Pacific will pick up Yu's responsibilities.

Google Carries Coal to Newcastle
There is now a free beta Google Desktop available for the Mac that basically does what Apple's Spotlight already does and that's to index the user's drive and make it searchable. One thing it does that Spotlight doesn't is search your Gmail account if you have one.

Sun Quarter Believed Weak
Sun's recent flirtation with profitability may be short-lived. Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi downgraded the company Monday saying, "Our channel checks suggest that Sun's third quarter - especially in the US - was weaker than prior quarters, especially in high-end servers and storage." He thinks fiscal Q3 revenues "could miss consensus expectations or show signs of strain." Sun posts its numbers April 24.

AMD Chip in iPhone Rival
AMD says its ATI-derived Imageon media processor is inside the Apple iPhone-like LG touch screen Prada phone that will be sold everywhere, it seems, but the US starting this quarter.

Best Buy To Expand Apple Sales
Best Buy will be selling Apple computers in 200 stores this fall after piloting the gear at 57 shops, a pretty little increase in Apple distribution points. They'll be shops-within-shops.