Did anyone say that politics makes strange bedfellows?

Ah, how true. How true.

Beleaguered Pakistan President and military chief Pervez Musharraf has held secret talks for a second time with his bitter foe Benazir Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party and former Prime Minister of the country.

The secret meeting is believed to have taken place in Abu Dhabi on Friday, July 27, 2007.

Both sides are mum on the discussions.

Reporting on the meeting between Musharraf and Benazir, the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) wrote on Monday:

A senior Pakistani cabinet minister said the meeting between the two leaders was part of an effort to develop a consensus on major political issues.

Benazir is currently in exile and divides her time between London and Abu Dhabi.

News reports say that this is the second hush-hush meeting Continue Reading…

VMware scores again. 

EMC’s virtualization unit VMware has now snagged a $150 million investment from Cisco.

Virtualization is a hot technology that lets companies save on hardware costs by running multiple operating systems and applications on a single machine. It’s a key enabler of server consolidation, crucial for large corporations.

VMware is the leader in the virtualization market with an estimated 85% marketshare.

Cisco’s investment gives it a 1.6% stake in VMware and comes close on the heels of Intel’s decision on July 9 to invest $218.5 million in the virtualization outfit.

After VMware’s upcoming IPO and upon closing of the deal, Intel will own 2.5% of VMware’s total outstanding common stock.

Other key players in the virtualization market include Virtual Iron and SWsoft.

Software Goliath Microsoft is also working on a Windows Server virtualization technology called Continue Reading…