Archive

Digital photo frame products surfaced briefly during 1999 to 2001 and created significant market buzz, but not meaningful sales. Subsequently, two out of the six vendors, Digi-Frame and Weave Innovations, went out of business; Sony and Kodak exited the market, and VideoChip scaled back and changed f...

After a summertime lull, the private equity buyout trend returned to the tech sector Friday with networking systems maker 3Com agreeing to be bought by Bain Capital, with a minority stake going to China's largest networking company. Marlborough, Mass.-based 3Com -- which was at the forefront of the ...

As of this writing, the financial markets are in turmoil due to extremely high delinquencies on so-called sub-prime mortgages. These are the mortgages made in the last few years by aggressive mortgage banking companies that were able to "bundle" the risky debts into packages and then sell them to mu...

SpiralFrog.com, a free music download site that launched on Sept. 17, allows registered users to download more than 800,000 songs and videos. As long as downloaders keep renewing their free monthly site registration, they can continue to play the song and video files on their PC. Users can also copy...

Google and Microsoft squared off as usual Thursday, but this time instead of the competitive battlefield, they met on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are weighing the question of whether Google's purchase of DoubleClick will create an unfair online advertising monopoly. Representatives of both compani...

Hoping to burnish its image as an eco-friendly company, Dell said Thursday it would strive to become the first carbon-neutral maker of personal computers and other technology gear. Dell plans to become carbon neutral in 2008, a year earlier than it had previously forecast, it said. The company is co...

Continuing the consolidation trend that has swept the video game software development industry over the past few years, Activision announced Wednesday that it has acquired Bizarre Creations, the independent UK-based game developer behind such titles as "Project Gotham Racing" and "Geometry Wars." Th...

A jury Tuesday delivered the second punch of a potentially staggering one-two legal blow to Vonage, finding the VoIP provider had willfully infringed upon patents held by Sprint Nextel. Jurors awarded Sprint $69.5 million in damages -- the equivalent of an estimated 5 percent of its revenues during ...

Among all of the great business concepts of the last few decades, the franchise model is among those consistently at the very top. Over the next decade, the introduction of hundreds of fresh, locally nurtured franchise concepts emerging in the Mideast will set the stage for a revolution of nouveau c...

Consumers are beginning to embrace digital video recorders as they once did VCRs. A scant two years ago, only one American household in 13 had one of the gadgets. Now they're in one in five homes, according to the latest figures from the Leichtman Research Group, of Durham, N.H. What's more, by 2011...

After years of speculation and preparation, Amazon.com launched its digital music store Tuesday, debuting Amazon MP3 and promising a wide selection of music unfettered by DRM restrictions. The e-tail giant launched what it's calling a public beta of the download store with 2 million songs available ...

Having agreed to buy Slingbox maker Sling Media, Dish Network parent company EchoStar Communications now is considering splitting itself into two distinct companies. The Colorado-based satellite TV company wants to separate its consumer-based and wholesale businesses, a move it says will allow both ...

Social networking firm Facebook may sell a partial ownership stake to Microsoft as it moves to beef up its value and move toward a possible IPO, according to reports. After being linked to Yahoo in persistent acquisition rumors -- Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg reportedly turned down an offer of c...

Ask an IT executive to define service-oriented architecture, and there's a good chance you'll get at least some kind of a reasonable answer. Ask that executive's functional peers the same question, and the answer might not be so clear. SOA has become a hot topic in the IT world, and many view it as ...

Google has formally asked the European Commission to review its acquisition of interactive advertising firm DoubleClick. The next few weeks will be critical, as regulators and lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic contemplate how -- or whether -- the merger should move forward. The EC on Monday i...