IT Stock Updates: Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)’s Competition, Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) & International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)’s Hyperscale Computing

Hewlett-Packard dropped from Dow Jones (PaloaltoOnline)
Citing lower performance of its stock, Palo Alto technology company Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) is being dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC announced today. The change is part of a shakeup in the Dow that includes also dropping Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) Visa Inc (NYSE:V) will replace Hewlett-Packard; sports equipment company Nike Inc. replaces Alcoa and The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will replace Bank of America, the Dow announced.

IBM Lets SoftLayer Keeps Its Hardware Edge (InformationWeek)
SoftLayer has become part of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), but the Big Blue Smart Cloud hasn’t taken over SoftLayer. It’s not suddenly grafting Power servers into its x86 server hegemony. On the contrary, SoftLayer is keeping some unique-in-the-industry cloud computing characteristics that made it a valuable acquisition in the first place. For one thing, SoftLayer CTO Duke Skarda isn’t backing off SoftLayer’s special emphasis on dedicated servers — virtualized or unvirtualized hardware dedicated to a single tenant — as part of cloud computing. Instead of a multi-tenant motel, he’s offering single-tenant chalets.

HP Poland involed in international anti-corruption probe (TechCentral)
The Polish Central Anti-Corruption Bureau and US agencies are investigating potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by an employee of an indirect subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) in Poland, the company said in a filing Monday. The Polish agency along with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating the employee of Hewlett-Packard Polska in connection with certain public sector transactions in Poland, HP said.

IBM’s BPO business sell-off to affect Indian employees (Business-Standard)
With global IT major International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) deciding to sell its low-value customer care services business to Synnex Corp, a major chunk of employees that will be transferred to the acquirer are expected to be from India. According to highly placed industry sources, this is primarily because India has been at the forefront of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) Global Process Services (GPS), the BPO services business of the company because of the huge presence it got in the country with the acquisition of Daksh eServices in 2004.