Articles by Erika

The European Commission's competition authority has given an investment group led by Sony the go-ahead to acquire EMI Group's music-publishing division for US$2.2 billion. The commission's approval is conditioned on Sony, which is partnering with ATV in this transaction, selling certain music assets and changing some business practices. The other ...

Facebook will make its public trading debut on Nasdaq on May 17, according to a TechCrunch report citing multiple anonymous sources The much-anticipated IPO reportedly will value the company at US$100 billion....

Google CEO Larry Page continued his testimony on Wednesday in the trial over whether his company violated Oracle's Java patents and copyrights. Like Oracle CEO Larry Ellison attempted to do with his testimony on Tuesday, Page did his best to give little ground to the opposing counsel. Yet they managed to score points against Google anyway.

If there were any doubts as to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's attitude toward Google, those were dispelled in his testimony on Tuesday morning in a San Francisco U.S. District Court courtroom. Oracle has filed suit against Google, alleging that that its Android mobile operating system infringed on patents that Oracle acquired in 2009, when it bought S...

By 2020, the majority of U.S. consumers will use smartphones to pay for goods and services, concluded a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and Elon University. The survey is unusual in that Pew queried tech stakeholders and leaders about the subject, as opposed to a random sample of the general population. Executives from such...

The Federal Communications Commission has taken action against Google, citing its efforts to impede the agency's investigation into its Street View project's possible privacy violations, and levying a fine on the company. However, the amount of the fine -- a mere US$25,000 -- has astounded onlookers. "That does not even qualify as a slap on the wr...

Google has announced plans to issue a new class of stock to existing shareholders. Normally, a stock split is viewed positively by shareholders and the Street because it implies the company expects the stock to continue to grow. However, the way Google has structured this split has raised eyebrows among corporate governance watchers.

Upscale retailer Nordstrom has become known for its advanced online initiatives in recent years. However, the store chain is pushing the envelope in this area with an investment in Bonobos, an etailer that specializes in well-tailored men's pants. The intriguing part of this investment, which reportedly totals US$16.4 million, is that Nordstrom will sell Bonobos clothes in 100 of its stores, as well as on Nordstrom.com.

Sage is getting ready to enhance its mobile payments offerings. Next month, the company will roll out Sage Exchange.com, an interface for Sage Exchange, which it introduced two years ago. ...

Earlier this week, Best Buy Chief Executive Officer Brian Dunn looked like a poor sap being unceremoniously shown the door after close to 30 years of service to the retailer. His crime? He wasn't quick enough, smart enough, visionary enough -- pick your favorite failing -- to right Best Buy's listing ship. One 24-hour news cycle later, the story l...

Google's US$12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility has been characterized, so far, by a few simple and overarching story lines: Will it be approved by U.S. and European regulatory authorities? Ditto for other countries' legal infrastructure, such as China. Will complaints from competitors such as Apple lead the European Commission to start ...

When he announced plans to lay off 2,000 employees, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson said it was a necessary step in the company's strategic plan to move forward. Critics noted, however, that Thompson had not explained exactly what that plan was. Now, via an internal memo made public, Thompson has obliged. Beginning May 1, the company will be divided into...

News of Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn's resignation has resulted in some raised eyebrows, to say the least. There were no disagreements, Best Buy said -- the company and Dunn came to a mutual agreement that it was time for new leadership. Director G. Mike Mikan will serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a new chief. Richard Schulze, who fo...

Facebook has snagged the highly popular photo-sharing application Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. It is among the biggest acquisitions in the social media space, second only to Google's $1.65 billion stock-for-stock purchase of YouTube in 2006 The deal, both in size and intent, is very much a departure for Facebook. Until now, its acqui...

Cloud contact center provider inContact has released the first of what will be three major upgrades to its flagship product this year New features in the release touch upon many areas, from agent scripting to a Web-connect module, new unified agent desktop tools and an expanded blended dialer....

Oracle President Mark Hurd delivered a speech before Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo that emphasized the rapid buildup in analytical functionality the company has made in recent months. He touched upon previous developments, such as the Big Data Appliance announced at the start of the year, as well recent news, such as its update of Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management.

U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn has upheld a permanent injunction on a Colorado law that would have required out-of-state online retailers to report their in-state customers' purchases to Colorado tax authorities and notify those customers of the resulting sales tax owed to the state The reporting requirement was a violation of the commerce cl...

Rumors that Yahoo was prepping for a huge round of layoffs have turned out to be true. On Wednesday, the company announced it would lay off 2,000 employees under a plan designed to prepare it for the future Scott Thompson, the company's recently appointed CEO, said Yahoo's larger goal was to focus on its core competency of online advertising -- and...

Amazon is testing a service that will let tablet users purchase items through mobile applications, according to Bloomberg. It is expected to enhance the Kindle Fire tablet's de facto role as a shopping conduit for its users. It already is second nature for users to download books and movies from Amazon's content library. With an in-app purchase me...

The European Commission has opened two formal investigations of Motorola in response to grievances Apple and Microsoft filed against the company. The licensing fees Motorola charges for patented technologies used in products like the iPhone and Xbox are set unfairly high, the companies have alleged. The EC approved Google's US$12.5 billion acquisi...