Insider Dealings: All the Gossip That's Fit to Read

Poor Intuit. Not long ago it was lauded as the company that beat off Bill and even now Quicken kicks Microsoft Money into touch. Less happy days now, at least in the UK, with staff down to bare bones after a re-org and not every exec impressed with the reduction. Salt on the cut this week was the discovery of a bug that caused incorrect tax returns. Those with a good memory may remember that this isn't the first time Quicken has had to apologise for faulty forms -- a similar incident happened a few years ago, prompting an apology from top brass.

Tennis-loving, Sussex-born Corel chief Mike Cowpland was in town this week for a series of meetings looking tanned and fit. Less fortunate was one journalist who struggled with food poisoning after consuming a bad egg at a top London hotel during a breakfast interview. Cowpland was amused to see that a trade paper had named the leaders of the NC bandwagon as his firm, Sun and IBM - bad news for Larry Ellison and Oracle who kicked off the original NC hoo-ha.

Sipping Compaq's white wine at the Penthouse suite of the Dorchester, the Luncher noted the Texans were about to step on the toes of new found friend Tandem with its set of mission critical servers. Anyone for cannibalisation?

Microsoft is so impressed with SQL Server sales that it held a party for press at a central London bar this week. The Compaq bundling deal is described by both parties in glowing terms but Gates's foot soldiers are unable to answer one key question: if it's such a good thing, how come it's only for a few months?

IBM may still be suffering from dwindling PC sales but UK PC boss Mike Lunch is still talking a good fight. He's challenging rivals to publicise their notebook QA testing. But PC Mag's recent survey found Tosh tops. Back to the drawing board.