Archive

For the past three years, a Chicago consulting firm has assumed a Grinch-like role with its annual estimate of worker productivity losses attributable to the Super Bowl. Those losses, though, may actually be gains for many businesses, according to the firm's top executive. Money lost due to producti...

Following several quarters of disappointing earnings reports and a fall to the No. 2 spot in global PC sales, Dell on Wednesday reinstated Michael Dell as CEO of the computer company he created in his dorm room at the University of Texas more than 20 years ago. The move comes with the immediate resi...

The Microsoft executive who led the company's Zune product launch, among other things, is retiring from the company, officials announced Wednesday. Bryan Lee, corporate vice president of Microsoft's entertainment business, plans to leave the company in the next several weeks to pursue personal inter...

Google further solidified its paid search lead in the fourth quarter, nearly tripling its profit amid a 38 percent jump in revenue as the search giant continued to burnish its reputation as the can't-miss Internet company. Google secured net income for the quarter of $1.03 billion, or $3.29 per shar...

With the December announcement that NDS, a provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, acquired Jungo, a residential gateway software provider, we're continuing to witness consolidation in the market to deliver complete end-to-end access and service-provider solutions. The purchase also rea...

Online auction giant eBay is reportedly cracking down on the sale of "virtual assets" won in online games like "World of Warcraft," a move that comes as good news to other companies making money by hosting virtual asset sales and bartering. Millions of people worldwide are avid players of the online...

Media conglomerate Time Warner posted strong fourth quarter results Wednesday, despite a decline in revenue from online unit America Online. Revenue at AOL, which is continuing to undergo a massive transformation from dial-up Internet access provider to free-to-all Web portal supported by search and...

As more phones and other small-form handheld devices get "smarter," so does the potential for people to use them more often, and for many varied and different purposes. The number of mobile cell phone subscribers worldwide surpassed 1 billion in 2006, and technological innovation continues apace as...

Music label Sony BMG has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that it violated federal law by installing spyware and digital rights management software onto music CDs without telling consumers. The deal calls for Sony BMG to allow consumers to exchange CDs purchased be...

Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular have settled a lawsuit over their secret use of adware Internet software programs as marketing tools filed by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. As part of the settlement, Priceline, Travelocity and Cingular agreed to pay $35,000, $30,000 and $35,000, r...

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has announced his intentions to seek a seat on the board of directors for No. 2 mobile handset maker Motorola. The company said Tuesday it had received notification from Icahn that he intended to have himself nominated for one of 12 seats on the company's board when i...

SOA is like an orchestra, a root system, a 30-mile wide fungus, an amoeba, a 1930s Hollywood movie studio and perhaps an independent film built from a loosely coupled team. It's an intellectually wild, yet illuminating, ride. Recently, I sat down with a panel of analysts -- independent industry anal...

MySpace and Sentinel Tech are teaming up to help protect children from online predators. The companies announced on Monday that they will donate the Sentinel Safe database technology program, designed to let users identify and remove convicted sex offenders from online communities, to the National C...

Hewlett-Packard on Monday announced it will strengthen its existing relationship with software vendor SAP, and plans to offer a range of server and storage hardware, support and services for enterprises that embrace SAP's service-oriented architecture approach to information technology. HP is lookin...

Despite a 38 percent drop in quarterly profits when compared to its 2005 fourth-quarter results, Verizon Communications' performance exceeded Wall Street estimates for the second consecutive quarter largely due to its strength in the cell phone sector. Verizon said it earned $1 billion in the final ...