Business

How much is a "bounce" worth on a tablet PC? It could be worth enough -- along with other patent disputes -- to add up to $2.5 billion. At least, that's the figure Apple came up with in its patent infringement suit against Samsung, and it all comes down to the bounce, the scrolling API, and Samsung'...

NTP, the patent-holding company that won $612.5 million in a 2006 case against RIM, announced Monday it has reached a settlement with 13 of the biggest players in the tech industry. Since NTP held eight U.S. patents relating to wireless email delivery, it battled most of the major smartphone manufac...

Former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson will be the new leader of ShopRunner, taking over the e-commerce site about two months after he left Yahoo amid a scandal. ShopRunner announced the hire on Monday; former CEO Mike Golden will remain at the company as president. ShopRunner partners with more than 60 re...

Google has acquired Sparrow, the maker of an email client available for various platforms, including Apple's iOS and Mac OS X. The news comes one week after Sparrow announced that its product is ready for Mac OS X Mountain Lion and for Apple's Retina Display technology. Financial details of the purc...

Patents can be one of the most lucrative pieces of intellectual property a company can own, particularly for any business in the technology sector. However, they are also one of the most costly and expensive forms of intellectual property available. For complicated patents, the application process c...

DirecTV subscribers will soon be able to get their MTV, as well as their daily fix of "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, plus Nickelodeon and the 14 channels owned by Viacom, under a new agreement the two companies announced on Friday. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, it appears that Via...

Some of us have never heard of 3D printing. The fact is, this type of "printing" will revolutionize manufacturing and change where, how fast, and at what cost products will be produced. Let's imagine for a moment a manufacturer's utopia -- being able to produce a tailor-made product at an unbelievab...

The quarter ending June 30, 2012, was a solid three-month period for Google, despite the global economic turmoil and despite the costs associated with the Motorola acquisition, which closed in May. The company reported a 35 percent year-on-year increase in revenue to reach $12.2 billion. Net income ...

Microsoft reported its first loss in more than two decades Thursday as an accounting adjustment and low PC sales hurt the software maker's numbers. However, the company remained optimistic that consumer demand will regain momentum when various upcoming products hit the market later this year. Before...

Verizon proved Wall Street right Thursday, just meeting expectations for its second fiscal quarter and bringing in a net income gain of 13 percent thanks to higher-than-expected wireless subscriptions. The wireless provider earned $1.83 billion, or 64 cents per share on the quarter, up from $1.61 bi...

Mobile phone giant Nokia posted a loss of $1.74 billion on Wednesday in its second-quarter earnings report. Overall sales for the one-time dominant company were down 26 percent year over year, while smartphone sales were down by a third in the quarter. However, if there is a bright spot in this repo...

A UK judge is stepping up the pressure on Apple, and possibly complicating its legal strategies in other parts of the world, by ordering it to publish a notice on its UK website and in British newspapers stating that Samsung did not copy the iPad design. The notice must stay on Apple's website for s...

AT&T Mobility just announced its shared wireless data plans on Wednesday. Verizon Wireless did the same thing a few weeks ago. Verizon has been taking a lot of heat on this topic, but not because it's a bad idea. It's actually a great idea. The problem is its approach, which I'll discuss. I thin...

AT&T Mobility just announced its shared wireless data plans on Wednesday. Verizon Wireless did the same thing a few weeks ago. Verizon has been taking a lot of heat on this topic, but not because it's a bad idea. It's actually a great idea. The problem is its approach, which I'll discuss. I thin...

Yahoo's Q2 earnings, which were publicly released Tuesday, underscore the challenges that new CEO Marissa Mayer will face as she takes over the struggling Internet company. Yahoo brought in $227 million in its second quarter, down from the $237 million it reported for the same time a year ago. Earni...