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In a significant boost for its Internet unit, Microsoft has reached a long-term deal to work with media giant Viacom on content and advertising distribution, an agreement worth an estimated $500 million. The partnership calls for Microsoft's Atlas to become the exclusive advertising platform for all...

Palm will rely on "operational rigor" to right itself after a disappointing second fiscal quarter, one where the company lost nearly $10 million, its CEO said. "We've taken actions to align our expenses to the current operating environment and are focusing on core initiatives that will have the grea...

Mobile Internet usage is on the rise, and for marketers, the time to establish their brands on the "third screen" is now. For example, more than four in 10 U.S. mobile users will look at phones with strong Internet features when they buy next, according to The Kelsey Group. Concurrently, there are w...

Facebook has named three individuals and a Canadian porn company as defendants in a federal lawsuit it filed earlier this year in the Northern District of California, which accused unnamed people and companies of unlawfully accessing its servers. After two Canadian Internet service providers provide...

Acknowledging improvements are necessary and saying he's the right man for the job, Sprint Nextel has chosen former Embarq CEO Daniel Hesse to be its new president and CEO. The 54-year-old Hesse, described in the company's official announcement as being a "wireless industry veteran," replaces former...

Building a multimillion-dollar business wasn't really on my mind at age 18. Tired of working odd jobs, I saw potential in online advertising. So, in exchange for a share in the startup, I persuaded my older brother Chris to let me charge $99 to his credit card for a domain name. For $33, third broth...

IBM has teamed with ACI Worldwide, an electronic payment software company, to develop a payment system powered by IBM's open standards based System Z platform. The new offering will include IBM's DB2 database, WebSphere middleware and Tivoli management software as well as its Crypto-chip technology...

A Silicon Valley startup with an unlikely name announced Monday a new platform designed to enable telephony in a wide variety of applications. Using an open platform to facilitate connections between telephony and the Web, Ribbit is working with a community of more than 600 developers to help voice-...

In a bid to settle a dispute arising from an aggressive effort to ban gambling by its residents, the United States has agreed to trade concessions meant to make it easier for some European companies to compete against domestic rivals. The U.S. has approved concessions dealing with easing trade restr...

The European broadband market is growing rapidly. At the end of Q2 2007, there were close to 100 million broadband subscribers in Europe. DSL remains the dominant access technology, with over 80 percent of the market share. Nordic countries remain the leaders in broadband penetration, with penetrati...

Online retailers agree that it's better to give than receive, yet they stand to receive more than most. Santa will barely have time to shuck his boots for his slippers before the merchandise misfits begin a return journey to the warehouse to wreak havoc on the season's sales numbers. "The reality is...

China-based software company CDC raked in the most revenue for a third quarter of its history but nevertheless suffered a net loss of more than US$7 million, a situation blamed in part on "pirate" servers allowing people to play its online game Yulgang without authorization. The Q3 report by CDC, wh...

Google's proposed $3.1 billion merger with DoubleClick encountered another stumbling block this week when two privacy groups filed a petition with the FTC, asking its chairwoman, Deborah Platt Majoras, to recuse herself from voting on the deal because of what they say is a conflict of interest. Ther...

There is no doubt that the dollar seems to be heading in one direction: down. Though I have faith in the long-term prospects for the dollar, it's very important to be aware of the dynamics of a falling currency. Because the United States is an international economic powerhouse, the implications of a...

As mobile video gains popularity, new content providers are cropping up all over the place to compete for the attention of consumers -- and their recreational dollars. GoTV, a made-for-mobile television network, has a horse in this race. The company, based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., creates its own mo...