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Using its deeper pockets and higher national profile to outlast a rival bidder, Verizon Communications has reached a deal worth around US$6.7 billion to buy No. 2 long distance company MCI. The purchase price includes $4.8 billion worth of stock, $488 million in cash and another $1.5 billion in one-...

The Liberty Alliance has released the second version of its identification standards for Web services technology, marking what analysts said is another step toward the convergence of identity specifications that will simplify processing. The global consortium's latest release of ID-WSF 2.0 is a publ...

Crude oil prices rose today amid thin trading volumes as the market looked for new direction. Light, sweet crude rose 19 cents to US$47.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in European trade. Heating oil prices also rose, by less than a cent, to $1.3122 a gallon. In London, Brent for Apri...

Reviving a nearly 5-year-old case that has tested the limits of local jurisdictions in the Internet era, Yahoo has won a new hearing on claims that its rights under the U.S. Constitution to sell Nazi memorabilia can't be limited by French courts. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear s...

A week after the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament demanded that the Computer Implemented Inventions Directive be rewritten, the European Union has delayed plans to approve the controversial rules providing for patenting computer software. Observers expected EU ministers to endorse ...

Mobile device maker Nokia has struck a deal to license Macromedia's Flash technology for use on smartphones, a partnership that could help accelerate the adoption of portable Web use and mobile commerce over time. The agreement is seen as significant because it will give thousands of Web application...

Recently, while replying to e-mails from readers of my book, The Design of Sites, I came across a comment from a designer who claimed that my recommendation to use pop-ups was hopelessly out of date. Did this reader not understand me, my recommendation -- to use pop-ups primarily in situations when ...

Building on its strategy of making voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calling as widely available as possible, VoIP firm Skype has struck a deal to have its Internet calling software installed on a versatile line of mobile smartphones. The i-mate PDA2 and PDA2K handsets will be pre-loaded with Skyp...

In what could be the start of a bidding war for the last major independent long-distance company and its roster of business customers, Verizon Communications reportedly is seeking to acquire MCI. Verizon is reported to have floated what's being described as an "informal bid" of around US$6.3 billion...

Call it a triple whammy against spam. EarthLink today announced four more lawsuits in its continuing fight against fraudulent and deceptive commercial e-mails. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Pfizer announced parallel lawsuits against two international pharmacy spam rings. It is just the latest barrage of ...

What do New York and Nigeria have in common? Something far more serious than beginning with the letter "n." Both of these regions have earned the dubious distinction of ranking among the riskiest places in the world for e-commerce, according to a survey by CyberSource Corporation. The Big Apple was ...

Nokia and RealNetworks have announced an expansion of their long-term relationship to enable Nokia to ship RealNetworks' media formats on a wide variety of its advanced phones. "The new licensing and development model with Real fully supports Nokia's multi-format strategy and our commitment to resp...

Carly Fiorina, whose name and image became synonymous with tech giant Hewlett-Packard after she overcame numerous challenges to close the acquisition of Compaq three years ago, stepped down today from her CEO and chairman of the board posts at HP. The announcement that Fiorina had resigned after 5 1...

There are three common myths about corporate image and name identity: Big money will buy you a big image, customers are just sheep, and constant bombardment will bring constant sales. Corporate image and name identity form the backbone of any business. Without them there will be no growth, no IPOs,...

Search engine company Ask Jeeves announced today that is has acquired privately held Bloglines, a free online service for searching, publishing and sharing RSS feeds, blogs and rich Web content. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bloglines will continue to operate as an independent bran...