Briefly: Greens on price gouging, SLI Systems loss

Price gouging raises its ugly head again after a Green Party survey showing New Zealanders pay on average 40 percent more than Americans for software and hardware products.

There’s not much governments can do about price-gouging other than naming and shaming guilty parties. That might not seem effective, but shining a light on the behaviour can have positive effects. Following revelations made during Microsoft’s submission to the Australian parliamentary price gouging inquiry earlier this year, that country negotiated a A$100 million a year reduction in software licence fees.

• The prospectus for recently-listed New Zealand software-as-a-service provider SLI Systems anticipated a loss this financial year. In the event the company came in $150,000 ahead of forecast. The business provides cloud-based search tools for online shops.
• Microsoft says it plans to boost the Skydrive Pro storage it provides for Office 365 and Sharepoint users to 25GB. There are also new apps for the business-focused cloud storage service.
• Red faces at SAP Australia and Fujitsu as another huge project falls over: the asset management system for the government of Australia’s Northern Territory.