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Of all the words that inspire affection in a small-business owner's heart, few can compete with "free," especially at a time when companies are trying to rein in spending as tightly as possible. Still, it is virtually impossible, even in a buyer's market, to get something for nothing when it comes t...

Yahoo comfortably met Wall Street targets for the second quarter, posting its fifth straight profitable quarter and its best revenue mark ever as key areas, such as subscriptions and premium online services, provided a spark. The company said it earned $50.8 million on $321.4 million in revenue in t...

To a small-business owner, choosing technology can be daunting. On one hand, the latest gadgets can glitter like a well-stocked toy store, with vendors promising to put a company on the cutting edge. On the other, budget constraints mean purchases must pay for themselves in the long run. So, what is...

Microsoft will stop granting employees options to buy company stock -- a benefit that helped make thousands of tech workers wealthy during the dot-com boom but has fallen out of favor more recently. The company is instead moving to a plan that will grant employees actual shares. Often credited with ...

The day after the big Web site defacement challenge laid a big egg, the headlines predictably told of a threat that never really materialized. Before the purported contest, some security firms warned customers to take extra precautions to make their networks as safe as possible as they headed into t...

In recent years, as the economy has made belt-tightening a mandate for many executives, farming out work to India, Russia and other countries has become a relatively commonplace tactic for U.S.-based companies. CEOs like the cost savings, and IT departments enjoy the ability to hammer out a project ...

Once upon a time, every twist and turn in the Internet saga brought fresh speculation as to which promising young company Cisco Systems would sweep off its feet next in its relentless bid to conquer e-commerce. However, the steady flow of flashy young startups has dried up. Perhaps we've entered the...

Information storage leader EMC has announced it will buy Legato Systems in an all-stock deal worth $1.3 billion. EMC CEO Joseph Tucci said his company has long believed that Legato would make a logical takeover target, but the move was delayed until EMC could recover from a string of quarters in whi...

For many years, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have collaborated to make their products work together. On the surface, it seems that the two companies' symbiosis runs deep and greatly benefits both parties. The real question is, how will the relationship weather such hurdles as the ascent of Linux? C...

As a key deadline approaches, Oracle has extended its offer to buy shares of PeopleSoft stock for $19.50 in cash. According to PeopleSoft, the move reflects the fact that just 11 percent of its shareholders have agreed so far to take part in the hostile, $6.3 billion takeover bid. Oracle said its of...

Passwords are both the universal language for network navigation and the weakest link in network security, as fraught with peril as they are essential. However, any enterprise, large or small, can take steps to minimize risk without resorting to cutting-edge and costly technologies like biometrics. ...

Security experts have warned that the holiday weekend could bring an onslaught of defacement attacks on U.S. Web sites, not as a result of anti-American sentiment, but instead because of a purported contest among domestic hackers. "The Defacers Challenge" reportedly is a race to see which computer h...

A high-tech workers union that keeps close tabs on Microsoft claims the software giant is on the verge of transferring scores of U.S.-based call-center jobs overseas, a move certain to reignite debate about overseas outsourcing. The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, citing sources inside th...

It's so easy in hindsight to poke fun at the U.S. government for the lack of foresight it showed when it urged consumers to sign up for the national do-not-call registry, only to have the site crushed by more traffic than it could easily handle. The people in charge really should have known better. ...

With multiple offices, thousands of employees and a wealth of electronic access points into their systems, large enterprises must lock down a great deal of infrastructure to stay safe. Thanks to vendors that are committed to providing the locks in the form of firewalls, CIOs can sleep a bit better. ...