Business

The U.S. government's push to utilize cloud-based technology will eventually lead to some blockbuster contracts -- many well over $10 million and others for even more than $100 million. Consider that just one contract in the current batch -- a cloud deal for email services at the U.S. Interior Depar...

Apple has won a preliminary injunction against Samsung that bans U.S. sales of the latter's Galaxy Nexus smartphone. The ruling came just days after the same court handed down a similar decision that banned U.S. sales of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1. Judge Lucy Koh ruled Friday that Apple had sufficien...

What is the real value of intellectual property in the U.S.? Let's estimate this using the most inclusive definition of intellectual property: patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, customer lists, business know-how, and other secret sauce. An oft-cited statistic is the relationship of inte...

Research In Motion reported quarterly results that fell below investors' already meager expectations Thursday, adding that it plans thousands of further layoffs as well as another delay to the release of its BlackBerry 10 platform. RIM announced a $518 million net loss on the quarter, or about 99 ce...

Qualcomm has taken the unusual step of restructuring its organization in order to better protect its patent portfolio. There are other reasons for the move as well, the company said Thursday, including the ability to more quickly deliver products to customers. However, it emphasized the patent prote...

In what could prove to be the final lights out for near-defunct LTE mobile network startup LightSquared, the SEC on Wednesday filed charges against hedge fund manager Philip Falcone, along with his Harbinger Capital Partners fund and its former CEO Peter Jenson. The charges include misappropriation ...

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze is exploring a private takeover of the electronics retail chain, according to a recent report. Schulze is the largest company shareholder with about a 20 percent stake in Best Buy. He has reportedly conducted discussions with Wall Street banks to determine the best s...

Samsung Electronics was dealt a legal blow on Tuesday, as a judge ordered it to halt sales of the Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer while it considers whether the device's design is so similar to Apple's iPad that it constitutes patent infringement. Samsung has already filed an appeal of the California fe...

Facebook's initial public offering in May was a disaster. The question now is how much of the fiasco can be laid at the feet of Nasdaq and how much, if at all, on the IPO process itself? Or for that matter, on Facebook. Those questions were points of debate at a Tuesday hearing of the U.S. House Ove...

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested dozens of alleged cybercriminals in an international sting to crack down on Internet fraudsters. The arrests were the result of a two-year global sting operation conducted by the FBI and designed to nab hackers in "carding" crimes, in which perpe...

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., reportedly has had a change of heart over splitting his $50 billion media enterprise in two and is willing to give the idea serious consideration. The company has confirmed news reports that it is mulling the pros and cons of a split. If it proceeds, i...

Research In Motion could be looking to offload its BlackBerry handset business to survive. The company's executives are considering selling the handset-manufacturing business or even a stake in the whole company, according to numerous press reports. The company's options could include divesting the ...

Facebook recently started running ads on Zynga's website, one of several moves the social network has made recently to expand its advertising reach. Some Zynga users now see Facebook's Sponsored Stories ads, which display certain brands or businesses that those users' Facebook friends have "liked." ...

2012 is not shaping up to be a good year for Facebook. There was its disaster of an IPO, of course. Also, a number of reports have been turning out that illustrate one or another of Facebook's weaknesses. The latest is from comScore, which reported Facebook's U.S. user numbers for May. Compared to i...

Facebook is shelling out $10 million in a settlement that will allow it to keep its Sponsored Stories advertising program on the site but will saddle it with new restrictions. The Sponsored Stories system on Facebook is meant to help ads get more exposure. When a user checks into a location or "like...