Business

Last week, IBM announced the new Smart Analytics System, a fine-tuned solution for analyzing both structured information in databases and unstructured, often incompatible data from sources such as blogs, emails, information archives, podcasts, videos, Web sites and wikis. The Smart Analytics System ...

The numbers in two recent copyright infringement lawsuits involving downloaded music are enough to get tongues wagging. Is a song really worth $22,500? Or even $80,000? Juries in Massachusetts and Minnesota, respectively, ordered those awards to the recording industry this year in cases involving de...

Only about five miles separate Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus from the Googleplex in Mountain View in Northern California's Silicon Valley. Yet the distance between the two tech giants grew a little wider in other ways Monday with the news that Google CEO Eric Schmidt would be stepping down from ...

Joel Tenenbaum's fate was probably already sealed before he went to trial for the copyright infringement of 30 songs by Nirvana, Green Day and the Smashing Pumpkins, but the 25-year-old college student made sure of it on Thursday when he admitted on the stand that he did in fact download and share t...

Now that Microsoft and Yahoo have finally come to terms on how they will work together to gain turf in the search advertising market, they must convince antitrust regulatory authorities both in the U.S. and in Europe that their union will create more competition -- not less. That will be no easy tas...

Microsoft and Yahoo have inked an Internet search advertising agreement, finally entering a partnership that seemed to die more than one death over the past two years. In broad terms, the deal gives Microsoft access to Yahoo's content and advertisers, with its AdCenter platform serving as the inte...

Prior to the mid-1990s, the prospect of launching a globally minded company in rural America was, in a word, remote. However, times have changed. The Web now makes it possible for anyone to do business anywhere in the world. Small towns in America's heartland that have long been dependent on agribu...

It's easy to get lost in the cacophony of marketing and media hype surrounding Palm Pres, iPhones, app stores and the mobile Web. However, the low-cost, no-hassle prepaid phone market made some noise of its own Tuesday when Sprint announced it was buying Virgin Mobile USA for $483 million. The move ...

Telecom giant Verizon's second-quarter profits fell 21 percent from the same period last year, but much of the decline was attributable to charge-offs due to previous workforce reductions and deteriorating demand among business customers battered by the global recession, the company reported Monday....

Noting that more and more businesses are using Twitter to communicate with customers, the San Francisco social networking startup has launched a new sub-site to help companies learn strategies to leverage the service to their benefit. Twitter101 provides a quick overview explaining what Twitter is, ...

Amazon is making its biggest acquisition yet, having inked an agreement to acquire online shoe retailer Zappos for close to $900 million in stock and cash. Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon will acquire Zappos shares in exchange for approximately 10 million shares of Amazon common stock, valu...

Yahoo is reportedly on the brink of acquiring Xoopit, a Firefox extension that lets users share content from their email accounts with social networks, for $20 million. Xoopit works with both Gmail and Yahoo Mail. It can send photos, videos, Web addresses, attachments and links to photo-sharing site...

Maintaining the network. Ensuring remote users have access to resources. Updating virus definitions. Troubleshooting email problems. Any number of IT issues can arise on a daily basis. So does it make sense for small businesses to hire a full-time IT staffer or outsource their IT needs? That de...

Barnes & Noble is taking another stab at the e-book market with its announcement on Monday that it is launching a new store for e-literature.. Barnes & Noble will offer e-books on the Plastic Logic e-reader device. Customers can also read their purchases using proprietary eReader software fo...

Barnes & Noble is taking another stab at the e-book market with its announcement on Monday that it is launching a new store for e-literature.. Barnes & Noble will offer e-books on the Plastic Logic e-reader device. Customers can also read their purchases using proprietary eReader software fo...