Business

Google on Monday announced that it has acquired Nest for $3.2 billion. The deal could help Google make significant inroads into the smart home market. Since its 2010 inception, Nest has been developing a line of smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as thermostats that adjust to househo...

Facebook on Monday announced its acquisition of Branch, which it plans to use in a new unit or product called "Facebook Conversations." Branch's model mimics an Internet forum in that the users create "branches" to discuss topics. Links are shared and friends are invited to participate. Participants...

The past couple of years have seen rising interest in and considerable promotion of servers and appliances based on the ARM microprocessor architecture. At first glance, the narrative makes some sense. ARM's native performance and energy efficiency, when multiplied across hundreds or thousands of sy...

With all the headlines about Internet cybersecurity breaches, there seem to be few headlines about the consequences for cybercriminals. That is because not all cybercriminals are caught, and when they are it often takes months, if not years, before trials. Even when the cybercriminals plead guilty,...

Apple and Samsung have set a date on which they'll attempt to iron out their differences in a patent dispute that's headed to trial in March. The companies have agreed to meet before a mediator on Feb. 19, according to a document filed with a federal district court in California, to discuss a settle...

Kickstarter on Wednesday released a breakdown of its successful 2013. Three million backers pledged $480 million to help finance 19,911 projects. The company saw plenty of repeat backers: 807,733 people pledged to more than one project; 81,090 backed more than 10; and 975 people donated to more than...

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has charted the course for her company's future, and the focus is more on media than technology. She revealed a number of new products and digital magazines during her keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas with a number of guests turning up to help make...

Global IT spending will reach $3.8 trillion this year, Gartner predicted this week, representing a 3.1 percent increase over spending in 2013, which clocked in at $3.7 trillion. The rate of growth between 2012 and 2013, by contrast, was a negligible 0.4 percent. Among the winning categories for 2014...

In partnership with Nvidia and several automakers, Google on Monday announced the creation of the Open Automotive Alliance, an effort designed to further its push into the automobile industry. Audi, General Motors, Honda and Hyundai are among the effort's partners on the automotive side. The allianc...

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to jump into a software patent case that could resolve the muddled situation that has been vexing IT companies, legal experts and federal judges for years. Specifically, the Supreme Court said earlier this month that it would rule on Alice Corp. Pty. v. CLS Bank In...

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington and the Securities and Exchange Commission have lodged criminal and civil enforcement actions against a former senior portfolio manager at Microsoft and his friend, alleging insider trading. They also accuse the two of planning to u...

BlackBerry has announced dismal quarterly results, but its new CEO, John Chen, still believes there's cause for optimism as the company strides into a new future. The firm posted a loss of $4.4 billion, compared with a profit of $9 million in the same quarter last year, on revenue of $1.19 billion.

Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg are selling close to 70 million shares of Class A common stock, which carries one vote per share, in advance of the company's being listed on the S&P 500 index. Facebook will use its proceeds from the sale of 27 million shares for working capital and other genera...

As the 2013 International CES approached a year ago, it was clear that a showdown between OLED and 4K -- or UltraHD -- was brewing in the TV display market. A year later, that showdown is fully under way, but with a notable twist. Specifically, Panasonic's announcement in late October that it would ...

For IT industry analysts, autumn is a migratory time filled with trips to vendor conferences and summits. While their forms and locations tend to differ, most vendors use the time to delineate how their strategies, solutions and sales have progressed during the past calendar year and to discuss wher...