Five Companies That Dropped The Ball This Week

Google Docs Hit With Another Cloud Outage

Google Docs, Google's cloud-based suite of productivity applications, suffered an outage this week that rendered the services inaccessible for an hour.

According to the Google Apps Status Dashboard, Google began investigating an issue with Google Docs Lists at 5:18 p.m. EST. About 10 minutes later, the search giant began probing hiccups with Google Documents and Google Drawings. By 6:18 p.m. EST Google said it had fixed the issue and restored access to Google Docs. "The problem with Google Docs List should be resolved," Google wrote. "We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support."

Cloud outages are inevitable, and Google's response in this case appears to have satisfied customers, but the outage -- and ones that have preceded it -- will no doubt be used as fodder for cloud critics.

Microsoft Deems Diginotar's SSL Certificates Untrustworthy

Microsoft this week labeled all DigiNotar certificates as untrustworthy and moved the Dutch certificate authority’s SSL certificates to a Windows' block list called the Untrusted Certificate Store. While not unexpected, Microsoft's decision is a major blow to Diginotar's ability to stay in business, according to security experts.

"It’s game over for DigiNotar," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at security firm nCircle, told CRN this week. "Very soon they will officially no longer be a valid entity to issue certificates."

RIM's Future Murky As Shareholders Getting Antsy

RIM shareholder Jaguar Financial told RIM this week the company should consider selling itself or spinning off its patents. "It is time for transformational change," Jaguar Financial CEO Vic Alboini said in a statement this week.

Meanwhile, Best Buy has slashed the price of the 64GB Playbook tablet by $150 and is offering a $50 discount on the 64GB and 32GB models, according to a report from AppleInsider this week. It's unclear if this will spark Playbook sales, but Best Buy tablet price cuts are an ominous sign -- just ask HP.

Yahoo On The Ropes After Firing CEO Carol Bartz

Yahoo's board this week fired CEO Carol Bartz and installed CFO Tim Morse as interim CEO while it searches for Bartz's replacement. In addition to looking for a new CEO, Yahoo will undergo "a comprehensive strategic review that the board has initiated to position the company for future growth," the company said in a statement.

Carol Bartz may not have been the best CEO Yahoo could have picked to save the struggling company, and her firing this week sparked a brief rally with the company's investors. But there are plenty of industry watchers who believe the move to ditch Bartz won't change the reality that Yahoo may be too far gone to save.

T-Mobile's Future Uncertain After Sprint Sics DOJ Cops On AT&T Merger

Last week, the U.S. Justice Department this week moved to block AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile with a civil antitrust lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. The DOJ claimed the merger would lead to reduced competition, increased prices, and lower quality products and services for mobile telecommunications customers.

This week, Sprint chimed in with a lawsuit of its own, calling the proposed deal a ’takeover’ that would ’entrench the duopoly of AT&T and Verizon…of the almost one-quarter of a trillion dollar wireless market."

Meanwhile, T-Mobile may decided to split its business into multiple parts and sell them off, Mizuho Securities analyst Michael Nelson said in a research note this week.