1. FAQ: What the Dell-Perot merger means for the IT industry, Dell-Perot deal: Big price tag, small industry impact and

Dell-Perot deal spells trouble for tier-two outsourcers: Dell will spend US$3.9 billion to buy Perot Systems and expand its IT service offerings. The deal, announced Monday, further increases the rivalry between Dell and Hewlett-Packard. The companies currently face off in the hardware market and will now compete on services. HP purchased Electronic Data Systems in 2008 to bolster its services division. Some analysts praised the deal, saying Dell needs additional revenue streams as hardware sales are decreasing.

2. EU reveals 'smoking gun' e-mails from Intel antitrust probe and Intel slams EC over antitrust evidence: The E.U. and Intel on Monday squared off on the government's antitrust probe against the company. The E.U. revealed e-mails from computer makers showing how Intel tried to block rival Advanced Micro Devices from the hardware market. One e-mail discussed a deal between Lenovo and Intel that resulted in AMD's chips being excluded from Lenovo notebooks. Intel responded the same day and accused European regulators of trying to find the company guilty and ignoring evidence that went against its "predisposed view."

3. FCC chairman calls for formal net neutrality rules and FCC net neutrality proposal is 'dramatic shift' in policy: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission chairman will seek to formalize net neutrality rules that bar Internet service providers from blocking or hindering traffic on their networks. Current FCC broadband policy allows the regulator to investigate supposed net neutrality violations on a situational basis, but official regulations are lacking. In a new move, applying net neutrality to mobile broadband would be studied under the FCC's proposed terms. Predictably, telecom carriers questioned the need for regulation and claimed the rules would stifle innovation while public-advocacy groups cheered the measure.

4. IE8 runs 10 times faster with Google plug-in: A Google plug-in speeds up the way Internet Explorer (IE) handles JavaScript, according to a test Computerworld conducted. Results showed that Microsoft's IE 8 worked 9.6 times faster with the Chrome Frame plug-in, which uses the WebKit rendering and JavaScript engines from Google's Chrome browser to give a speed boost. Google claimed that the plug-in will speed up the lethargic IE and allow it to support additional standards, both of which are necessary for running Google's online collaboration applications.