Just in case you were tired of acquisition rumours, it seems investors are buying into the idea that Oracle could be buying EMC. RIM’s PlayBook gets panned long before it ever hits the market. Overland acquires to look up-market. And will the consumerization of IT make for a naughty or nice holiday season for the channel?

Here are some of the stories that caught the eyes of the crew here at ChannelBuzz.ca Thursday.

Wall Street taking Oracle/EMC bid rumours seriously

ChannelWeb reports that investors seem to be taking the whisperings that acquisition-hungry Oracle is looking to grab storage giant EMC seriously. While the merger might seem out of left field, Wall Street took it seriously enough to spike the storage vendor’s stocks Thursday.

Sun has been rumoured to be in the market for a storage vendor of late, but buying EMC would be a game-changer that could put Larry Ellison in charge of not only the massive storage vendor, but of virtualization juggernaut VMware and RSA’s security portfolio.

Follow the money

Computer Dealer News’ Maxine Cheung offers a good look at where Canadian SMBs are, in fact, spending their hard-earned IT budgets and offers some solid advice from the experts at IDC Canada, Gartner, Microsoft and others on where solution providers should take their shovels to find the most gold in the market today.

The piece also frames up the evolving needs and interests of Canadian small business owners as they choose a solution provider to work with.

No Play for PlayBook

Channel Insider throws cold water on RIM’s PlayBook before it launches with its slideshow featuring Ten ways it’s (inadvertently) making the iPad an enterprise hit. While the article makes some compelling arguments for the error of RIM’s way – the lack of baked-in 3G connectivity most notably – some of the arguments are a little wanting, like taking RIM to task for being too consumer-focused compared to the iPad.

Is CI just stirring things up, or has Research in Motion bungled its attempt to break into the red-hot tablet space? Check out the whole list and make your own conclusions.

Overland buys MaxiScale

eChannelLine covers storage vendor Overland Storage’s purchase of startup MaxiScale in a bid to build a scalable network-attached storage business. Does the focus on scalability mean SMB-focused Overland is looking to move up in the world. Maybe, but not right away, according to Jillian Mansolf, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Overland.

“Our goal is not to get into the $30,000-50,000 NAS market with this,” Mansolf said. “Never say never, but it’s not going there now.”

Merry Christmas for IT?

The VAR Guy suggests that IT managers and VARs might be facing a post-Christmas nightmare as they look to connect and secure a tsunami of the year’s hottest tech toys arriving thanks to the wonders of the consumerization of IT.

Have to admit, ChannelBuzz.ca heard the same train of thought from a McAfee channel exec this week, but The VAR Guy states the case more eloquently – and anonymously – than we ever could.

But to offer a contrarian view: with all the money companies will be saving on notebook and tablets after a gadget-heavy Christmas rush, perhaps they can invest in some serious infrastructure projects with their friendly neighbourhood solution provider. Hmmmmm….