Business

The International Trade Commission on Tuesday ruled that Apple has not violated Google's Motorola Mobility patent for a touchscreen sensor. ITC judge Thomas Pender said the patent was invalid. The touchscreen sensor patent came before Pender this summer, when Google asserted three other Motorola pa...

Samsung said Tuesday that it will drop its pursuit of injunctions against the sale of some Apple products in Europe. Samsung wants to compete "fairly in the marketplace, rather than in the court," according to its official statement, but the move is an odd twist in the ongoing legal saga between the...

Both Apple and Samsung, which have been locked in lawsuits in the United States and abroad, won a little and lost a little in their hearing before Judge Lucy H. Koh in San Jose, Calif. On Monday, the judge denied Samsung's request for a retrial seeking to reduce the $1.05 billion in damages a jury h...

A two-year FTC probe into Google could be coming to an end. The Federal Trade Commission may close its investigation into the search giant as early as this week, and it appears that Google will avoid a consent decree, according to reports. This would mean Google would not have to agree to any formal...

Google avoided about $2 billion in worldwide income taxes in 2011 by shifting close to $10 billion in revenues into a Bermuda shell company. Bermuda, along with a handful of other locales, is notorious for providing offshore solutions to multinationals eager to structure cash flow operations to thei...

AOL is shifting toward decentralization of its marketing efforts. The online company this week named Allie Savarino Kline as chief marketing officer of its Advertising.com unit. In the newly created position, she will have global oversight of Advertising.com and will handle marketing strategy for th...

SolarCity enjoyed a much better IPO than some of its green industry peers have had in recent months. Its stock rose 47 percent on Thursday, netting about $92 million for the day. SolarCity opened at $8, skyrocketed to about $15, and closed at $11.79 per share. The stock continued to perform well on ...

Sprint Nextel has made a $2.1 billion offer for the shares of Clearwire that it doesn't already own, according to a regulatory filing. The news comes after rumors surfaced earlier this week that the company was in talks with Intel and Comcast to buy out their stakes. The offer, which works out to $2...

The Federal Communications Commission approved a proposal from the Dish Network that would allow it to convert spectrum currently allocated for satellite service into airwaves that could support a land-based wireless network. Dish did not lay out specific plans for its next step with the spectrum, s...

Whether you want to or not, you are a player in the industry analyst game. The reason is simple. Industry analysts, for better or for worse, are very influential. If you do a good job, you can positively influence their opinions. If you don't -- or if you are not playing -- then you often suffer. Ei...

The fact that the Internet has no boundaries of time or geography has changed the way businesses operate forever. One feature of the Internet is that it has allowed creative businesses to avoid, or at least minimize their tax liabilities. In particular, Google's business success means that it has to...

The Federal Trade Commission leaves no doubt about its view of the mobile app industry's efforts to protect children online with its latest report: "Mobile Apps for Kids -- Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade." The report reveals the results of a follow-up survey to a February report that found d...

Google has received multiple offers for the cable box division of Motorola, according to reports that surfaced Monday. It may now be considering bids for the set-top business from two companies, Pace and Arris Group, both of which are manufacturers of cable equipment. What makes a potential deal all...

Judge Lucy Koh on Thursday heard another round of quibbling between Apple and Samsung lawyers. Calling for some sort of "global peace," she reportedly asked both sides if there was any endpoint coming in their slugfest over patent issues. Koh presided earlier this year over the high-profile, often b...

Akamai is joining forces with AT&T to help the telecom carrier better deliver Web and entertainment content to mobile consumers. The two will team up over the next year, with AT&T folding much of Akamai's content delivery platform into its IP network. The system will be jointly marketed, man...