topics include a rumored merger between Dell and EMC, Amazon Web Services releases new

hardware and services, AT&T will soon offer Wifi calling, and investor Elliot Management

is urging Polycom and Mitel to merge. According to an Oct. 8 report in The Wall

Street Journal, Dell and EMC apparently are in merger talks. Dell has been reported to

be talking to banks so it can raise $40 billion. The merger of these two giants would result

in one huge—and unwieldy—corporation. It would bring Dell, EMC, VMware, RSA Security,

Pivotal, Documentum and a bunch of smaller entities into the same corporate garden.

On day two of Amazon Web Services’ re:Invent 2015 conference in Las Vegas, the company

laid out news item after news item for a full house of attendees. One of the biggest announcements

included Amazon QuickSight, a cloud service that immediately makes Amazon a starting player

in the business intelligence cloud service market. Among other services, AWS also revealed

some hardware, the AWS Snowball. About the size of a portable drink cooler, the Snowball

is a 50-terabyte data transport appliance. AT&T has received a waiver from the FCC for

rules that require accommodations for hearing-impaired customers who rely on teletypewriter, or TTY,

services. The waiver means AT&T can now offer Wifi calling. Issued October 6, the waiver

was required because TTY services don't operate properly over WiFi networks. TTY services

under FCC rules must be provided for telecommunications networks.

Elliott Management, the activist hedge fund that has roiled the operations of tech companies

like EMC, Citrix Systems and Juniper Networks over the past few years, is now turning its

attention to two vendors in the communications space, Polycom and Mitel. On Oct. 8 the firm

disclosed that it has bought large stakes in both companies, and is urging the two to

merge in hopes of creating a larger and more powerful player in the crowded unified communications

and collaboration market.

Thanks for watching. Follow the links on this page to learn more about the stories mentioned

in this broadcast. And check back every weekday for another Daily Tech Briefing from eWEEK.com.