Microsoft Corp. has filed 26 lawsuits against alleged dealers of pirated software in seven U.S. states. Microsoft claims that the companies sold pirated software or computers loaded with pirated software. The suits were filed in federal courts against businesses in Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and South Carolina. Microsoft said it filed the suits to protect itself and its resellers.

Ingres acquires German reseller

Ingres Corp. last week acquired Thinking Instruments AG , one of its resellers and service providers, for an undisclosed sum. Officials said the purchase of the Ilmenau, Germany-based company will help Ingres expand in Germany and the Middle East. The move marks the open-source database company's first acquisition since it was spun off from CA Inc. last November. Thinking Instruments resells Ingres software to the public sector and to the steel and energy industries.

Infineon to spin off Qimonda chip unit

Infineon Technologies AG plans to file an initial public offering in the U.S. for its memory chip unit, Qimonda AG, that could fetch as much as US$1.1 billion. About 33 percent of the proceeds from the stock sale will go to Infineon, while Qimonda will take the rest. The dynamic RAM maker said it intends to use money from the stock sale to finance investments in chip factories, equipment and research and development.