Tech Roundup: Cisco to Introduce New Larger Tablet, Morgan Stanley Issues Buy Recommendation on SanDisk and More

It was a slower-than-usual news week for Milpitas tech businesses following the Thanksgiving holiday, but here are a few tidbits Milpitas Patch came upon.

A Cisco executive announced this week that the company will be introducing a new, larger version of its Cius tablet within the first half of 2012. The tablet will have a screen larger than the Cius’ current 7-inch screen, and will be the first in a long-term plan to put out several versions of the tablet with various screen sizes, up to 10 and 11 inches. The Cius, which first came out in July, is not available in retail stores and is largely targeted at businesses. It debuted for $799, higher than the $499 iPad 2.

Government Computer News (GCN) recently named the Milpitas-based company FireEye’s new malware protection software one of the best products of 2011. The publication touted the software’s abilities to stop advanced persistent threats (APTs) and zero-day attacks as the main reasons for the honor. GCN called the product a “no brainer” for federal agencies, "given the sophistication and malicious nature of hackers these days.”

Morgan Stanley analyst Atif Malik issued a “tactical buy recommendation” on stock for Milpitas-based SanDisk Tuesday morning. Malik explained, short-term evaluation on the stock price has become “much more compelling,” and that post-Thanksgiving sale checks indicate demand outlook on NAND flash memory chip sales is more positive than recently predicted. He wrote, “We believe the share price will rise relative to the industry over the next 60 days.” In light of Malik’s prediction, SanDisk’s share price rose 5.6 percent, or $2.60, on Tuesday.