Business

Sprint Nextel confirmed on Thursday that it was in talks with Softbank of Japan, giving credence to rumors circulating in the press. The deal would likely give Sprint a boost and help the struggling company finance its ongoing turnaround efforts. Sprint is currently the third largest mobile carrier ...

What's next for Sprint Nextel? It has been pondering its future for years and that is its problem. It doesn't seem to realize it has to take the next step and act. Pondering is good. You want to make sure you don't make mistakes. However acting is the next step to realize your dreams, and Sprint d...

The board of directors at Microsoft did not award company CEO Steve Ballmer and other executives their full bonuses this year following lower-than-expected Windows sales and a failure to comply with European regulations. Ballmer received 91 percent of his base salary in bonus pay, totaling $620,000....

Most everyone on the Internet reads Wikipedia, whether they rely on it or not, but few understand how wikis work or who owns the content. Understanding content ownership is important, because so many people freely contribute to wikis. If the owner of the wiki decides to revise or move the content, t...

Dish Network is abandoning plans to develop Blockbuster into astreaming video service that would directly compete with Netflix, company founder and chairman Charlie Ergen said in an interview. Dish acquired the video rental chain for $320 million in April of 2011, months after Blockbuster filed for ...

Google and the American Association of Publishers, whose members are 300 of America's largest publishers, have settled their 7-year-old legal dispute over digitizing books for Google Books. The settlement will give Google access to publishers' journals and books that are in copyright, for its Google...

HP shareholders counting on Meg Whitman to lead the company into a quick turnaround received very disappointing news from the CEO: Don't hold your breath. Whitman made her comments at HP's annual analyst meeting. The company is on track for a turnaround, she reportedly said -- but it won't materiali...

T-Mobile announced that it will acquire rival carrier MetroPCS to create a larger company. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2013, following shareholder and regulatory approvals. Until then, T-Mobile and MetroPCS will continue to operate as separate companies. When the deal is close...

LinkedIn took the first step toward opening up its walled garden with the introduction on Tuesday of a feature that lets members follow 150 of the most influential thought leaders on its network. These super-influencers include President Obama, Mitt Romney, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, British...

The California federal judge who issued a preliminary injunction in June against U.S. sales of a Samsung tablet has lifted the ban. Judge Lucy Koh had originally found the Galaxy Tab 10.1 likely violated a design patent held by Apple, but a jury found in August that it did not. Apple was the overall...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved a notice of proposed rulemaking that will lay the groundwork for the agency to auction television spectrum to mobile carriers. The NPRM establishes proposed rules and asks for public comment on the auctions. This would be no ordinary FCC auctio...

Speaking to developers at BlackBerry Jam earlier this week, Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins threw out some hints that the mobile device manufacturer had experienced a good quarter. He was not blustering, as it turned out. The company delivered better-than-expected earnings, surprising analysts...

Crown Castle International is acquiring rights to operate 7,200 of T-Mobile's cellular towers in a $2.4 billion deal that will give the carrier's owner, Deutsche Telekom, cash to expand its 4G LTE network in the U.S. The deal will allow Crown Castle to operate T-Mobile's towers for 28 years. Both co...

The European Commission will charge Microsoft for failing to comply with a 2009 ruling that had ordered the software giant to provide users in the European Union with a choice of Web browsers, the EU's antitrust chief said Thursday. The EC will likely levy a hefty fine on the company. This is just t...

If Twitter were a child, it would be the last one at the dinner table, eating its food on its own schedule -- never mind that everyone else had finished. To wit: Not too long ago it was still resisting pressure to roll out advertising until it was good and ready. Now, that same stubbornness is on di...