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When we think about financial bubbles, we typically recall the recent run-up in house prices or the dot-com craze of the late 1990s (and some think of the 17th century tulip bubble). We might define "bubbles" as sharp price increases for an asset without supporting increases in the intrinsic value ...

The challenges that all enterprises face today are numerous -- store more data, provide more services, control costs, and now monitor and manage energy costs and carbon impacts. Today there is mounting pressure on CIOs and CFOs to deliver improved services while curtailing costs. To transition IT or...

Oracle on Wednesday announced two cloud-based office productivity suites for the desktop and mobile devices -- Oracle Cloud Office and Oracle Open Office 3.3. Both products will compete directly with Google Docs and Microsoft Office. The products are designed to be enterprise-level suites with appl...

Yahoo's grand scheme for repositioning itself is becoming more clear. Earlier this week, news came out that the Internet company was instituting widespread layoffs, with some 4 percent of its staff expected to be let go. It was a tough but necessary call, CEO Carol Bartz reportedly wrote in a memo t...

The U.S. Commerce Department's proposed federal Internet privacy rules are a giveaway to data collectors, according to some consumer groups. Other critics say they could spell the end of the free Internet. The Commerce Department wants to create an online privacy bill of rights and a code of conduct...

Communications as a Service. Cloud communications. Hosted PBX. You've heard the terms, and you've witnessed the hype. But what are these technologies? And what will they do for your business? Generally, a CaaS solution involves your business utilizing the resources, equipment and software of a servi...

Twitter has received $200 million in financing from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo. The funding pegs Twitter's valuation at $3.7 billion. Clearly, the investors believe Twitter will find an effective way to squeeze substantial revenue from its massive use...

Google has put off making a choice on which city to use as a test for ultra high-speed broadband, according to a Wednesday blog post by Milo Medin, vice president of access services. The company had planned to announce the selected city by the end of 2010, but it was not prepared for the level of in...

The consumer electronics marketplace is changing. Will this year be better or worse, stronger or weaker? So far, the reports of holiday technology shopping sound pretty strong this year, with a few bumps in the road. One big bump comes from Best Buy, which delivered some disturbing news. While the r...

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has handed down a ruling that delights privacy advocates and Fourth Amendment purists: In U.S. v. Warshak, it found that the government should have obtained a search warrant before seizing and searching defendant Stephen Warshak's emails, which were stored by email...

Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla have a lot in common with Apple, Google, HTC, Motorola, and Research In Motion. They are all warriors in the ongoing war to see who can amass the largest number of the most lucrative technology patents. Edison and Tesla waged their battle from the late 1860s through t...

U.S. government agencies will be moving quickly to implement contracting reforms for the procurement of information technology in the wake of policy changes revealed last week by the Office of Management and Budget. For IT vendors competing for a share of the $80 billion annual federal IT market, ke...

The U.S. General Services Administration selected more than a dozen companies to provide cloud-based information technology products for federal agencies last month, signaling a concrete investment in the cloud environment and underscoring the federal commitment to using the technology. GSA said it ...

Yahoo is planning to cut its workforce by about 650 employees Tuesday, according to numerous press reports, in response to pressure from investors who want the company to inject some life into its lackluster stock performance. The Web portal has been struggling in the face of stellar growth by compe...

Apple, Google and others reportedly have entered into a bidding war for the patents held by Nortel Networks, which is liquidating its assets in bankruptcy. Nortel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2009 but failed to emerge successfully and began selling assets in mid-2009. Nortel...