Business

The FTC and Google have reached a settlement on a two-year investigation the agency conducted into the search engine giant's business practices. In short, Google has agreed to give competitors access to standard-essential patents and allow its advertisers more flexibility in how they use rival searc...

Small businesses often find it challenging to gain access to the federal information technology market, despite efforts by government agencies to smooth the procurement process for small companies. In a move to provide more opportunity for small businesses, the federal General Services Administratio...

A few weeks ago, I read a SmartMoney article titled "10 Things Cable Companies Won't Tell You." I have to admit it was a real eye-opener. We are all aware of a few of these items, but to have them all laid out in one piece was very powerful. It looked at many top cable players such as Comcast, Time ...

After an arguably crummy 2012 for Facebook, it is kicking off 2013 on a positive note: J.P. Morgan raised its price target on the social network giant from $29 to $35 at the start of the year, citing the progress the company has made with its mobile advertising business unit. Morgan research analyst...

Google is heading into the new year with a new set of enterprise customers, the result of moves made this year to revamp its cloud-based productivity applications. For years, Google has been infiltrating areas beyond its core search business. This was the first year it was able to make real headway ...

Instagram's recent changes to its terms of service have led one user to file a proposed class action lawsuit against the company, alleging breach of contract and other violations. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco last week by California user Lucy Funes, claims that Instagram's...

More than just a marketing gimmick, gamification has the potential to inject new life into a variety of industries and broaden the appeal of many new and existing offerings. The term "gamification" describes the use of game mechanics, such as challenges, achievements and rewards, to drive certain co...

Edison Junior is issuing the largest Kickstarter refund ever after it couldn't secure the use of Apple's new Lightning dock technology for its universal charging gadget. The company set out to create a portable charging station, called the "Pop." The minimalist device was supposed to support ports f...

RIM delivered a mixed bag of news in its latest quarterly earnings, prompting the phone maker's stock to drop on Thursday by some 17 percent. The so-so report reignited fears that RIM will remain a marginal company, even if its upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS is a blockbuster success. In some respects, th...

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday rejected all 21 claims in Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" patent in a preliminary ruling after an ex parte re-examination of the patent. The USPTO ruling is a significant blow to Apple, as the patent was among those found to have been infringed by Samsung in...

Google announced Thursday that it was selling its Motorola Mobility set-top box division, Motorola Home, to Arris Group for $2.35 billion. The deal, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, is expected to close by the second half of next year. Under the terms of the agreement, Google...

Attorneys representing four former GoDaddy employees in a suit over unpaid overtime are seeking to have the suit expanded to a collective action. Michelle Matheson, a partner with Matheson & Matheson and the attorney of record on the suit, and Eric Epstein, an employment attorney in Los Angele...

Two questions: 1) Which is the best smartphone for you -- an Apple iPhone or one running Google's Android operating system? 2) Which carrier is best for you? A word to the wise -- choose carefully. Once you start down either path, chances are you will stay on it. Why? Because these companies are bui...

During the dot-com era, there were many companies that had to close their doors because they didn't properly manage their cash flow. When these companies ran out of cash, they were forced to go back to the venture capitalists that provided the wherewithal to get the companies started in the first pl...

Oracle released a quarterly earnings report that exceeded Wall Street expectations, thanks largely to a significant jump in software and cloud subscription revenue. The company announced a profit of $2.6 billion, or 53 cents per share, for the quarter. This compares with the $2.2 billion, or 43 cent...