SKYPE HIRES CHIEF FROM CISCO
The head of Cisco's enterprise, commercial and small-business arm, Tony Bates, will become Skype's CEO at the end of October. Bates, who was considered a potential successor to Cisco CEO John Chambers, will succeed Joshua Silverman, the former eBay executive who took over Skype in early 2008. (Wall Street Journal)

SUBWAY STOPS SET TO BEGIN WIRELESS TIES IN LATE 2011
AT&T and T-Mobile USA signed 10-year agreements on Monday with Transit Wireless, a New York-based wireless company charged with building a mobile network in subway stations across New York City. At least six subway stations will receive mobile access by late 2011. Initial plans will limit access to the stations and their platforms, as opposed to moving trains. (Wall Street Journal)

WHY MICROSOFT NEEDS TO OVERCOME SMARTPHONE BLIND SPOT
CEO Steve Ballmer summed up how PC-focused his company remains in an interview in Monday's WSJ when he asserted that the PC remains “the most popular smart device on the planet.” He cited PC sales this year of 350 million units, while smartphones “might be, what?, a little less than half of that,” WSJ writes. However, according to Gartner estimates, global smartphone sales this year will increase by 56 percent, to 268.8 million, while PC shipments will increase 18 percent to 363.6 million. When Ballmer was in Stockholm yesterday to kick off a tour of Europe, he spoke about cloud computing as the next IT revolution and its role in creating new ways of doing business. At a second presentation at the Royal Institute of Technology, he emphasized the importance of being quick to act in the competitive fast-changing technology environment. (Dagens Industri, Dagens Nyheter, Wall Street Journal)