technology industry's top 5 biggest mergers and acqusitions

Dell's $67 billion purchase of EMC is the biggest pure tech acquisition ever. (AOL's $162 billion buy of Time Warner in 2000 was larger, but Time Warner was a media company, not a tech company.) This chart from Statista shows some of the largest tech acquisitions of the past decade, measured in 2015 dollars.

The Dell : EM2 merger remains the biggest till date a $67 billion deal , followed by HP and Compaq's $33.6billion. Facebook's buyout of whatsapp for $19billion was another milestone along with Google and Motorola deal in 2011 for $13.2billion

CEO compensation face off : Microsoft vs Oracle

Compensation levels compared between the 2 tech giants : Microsoft's satya Nadella vs  Oracle's Lawrence Elison

LARRY ELLISON

Executive Chairman of the Board and CTO at Oracle
Total Annual Compensation: $67,261,251
Reported Accumulated Compensation: $622,002,138

SATYA NADELLA

director and CEO of Micrososft
Age: 47 ETotal Annual Compensation: $84,308,755
 Reported Accumulated Compensation: $91,977,707

How to prepare for your Certification - Oracle

Oracle University gives us some tips and key step in earning your Oracle Certification. Although the video is only designed for Oracle certifications, it still is very relevant to all certification types.

Paul Sorenson explains that by following the 5 steps below, you will be well prepared for your exam and ready to receive your certification.

1) Research the certification's requirements

2) Review the test objectives and identify gaps

3) Build your personal study plan

4) Execute your study plan completely!

5) Practice!

What steps do you take to prepare for your exam?

Oracle offers Beta Exams

Oracle offers a series of Beta exams, which they use to test and evaluate new exam questions. The exams are offered at discounted prices and contain about 120-200 questions. If you pass the beta version of the exam in an Oracle certification path, you will gain your Oracle certification and will receive it via mail.

To know more about the Beta exams and the availabilities, visit: http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=182&p_org_id=1001&lang=US

Job opportunities for professionals certified in Oracle

Oracle has released a new resource for Oracle Certified professionals to find job opportunities in the cloud.


Oracle has partnered with Elance – an online employment platform for freelancers and consultants - to help Oracle Certified professionals find work in the cloud. 
Thousands of projects for Oracle Certified professionals are available on Elance.


Elance is free to join and offers Oracle Certified professionals and Learning Partners the opportunity to find relevant work, which can be performed online and you can also get paid via Elance.

How to prepare for your next certification

Oracle University has created a video which teaches you how to efficiently prepare for your Oracle Certification. It is valid for all other certifications as well.


Paul Sorenson, Global Director of Oracle Certification, gives some recommended guidelines to study for a certification.

Decreased Time, Increased Salary

IT professionals are earning more than ever. Salaries have increased by 7.5% in 2011, compared to 2010. A report on Computing.co.uk reveals that average salary in the industry has increased from £43,000 to £46,000. As if that wasn’t enough, more than half of professionals receive a bonus, with the average payment now at 19% of their annual salary.

The IT industry is officially back on track.

Even during the height of the recession, Firebrand continued to grow. Time is money, and more and more professionals needed to spend little time outside the office and more time earning.

IT is booming and now is the time to grab your next IT cert. So why not get certified faster than anywhere else?

Courses like Oracle - Certified Professional / Administrator 11g, Microsoft - MCTS / MCITP Enterprise Messaging Administrator (Exchange 2010), VMware® - Vsphere 4.1 Certified Virtualization Expert will help boost an IT professional's marketability and demand substantially, as revealed by the survey.