Business

Software giant Microsoft announced Wednesday that it will offer a stripped-down version of its server software, targeting small businesses with fewer than 15 employees. Windows Server 2008 Foundation, priced at $1,000, provides small-business customers with the ability to run business applications, ...

The employment picture for high-tech workers is changing dramatically. Last year, the U.S. high-tech sector added 77,000 jobs, mainly in the software services and engineering sectors, according to "Cyberstates 2009," a report published by TechAmerica. However, high-tech manufacturing and communicati...

Search engine powerhouse Google has launched a new venture capital fund, Google Ventures. The new fund will invest in early-stage companies across a broad range of industries, including consumer Internet, software, clean tech, biotech and healthcare, according to a company blog posted Tuesday. "This...

Layoffs are an unfortunate but predictable byproduct of an economy in decline. As the global economic crisis stretches into yet another month, companies in nearly all industries continue the painful process of purging employees in an effort to reduce costs. After the automotive and manufacturing sec...

Google is laying off about 200 staff worldwide in its sales and marketing organizations. The announcement was made in a blog post written by Omid Kordestani, the online search giant's senior vice president of global sales and business development. In his post, Kordestani said Google's rapid growth l...

It's been clear for some time that print media has to adopt a new business model or basically face extinction. What wasn't so clear, even a few months ago, is how fast the industry would decline. Recent events are a dramatic illustration of what appears to be a tailspin. On March 16 of this month, t...

There are reports that Cox and AT&T have begun cooperating with the Recording Industry Association of America's new antipiracy strategy -- first announced in December -- of targeting illegal file-sharing activities through Internet service providers instead of through the courts. Once the RIAA i...

Spark Capital, one of the early investors in Twitter, Akamai Technologies and Novatel Wireless, has launched a new seed fund for technology entrepreneurs, specifically in the Boston and New York City areas. Called "Start@Spark," the program will provide up to $250,000 in seed money to business start...

Blockbuster and TiVo have joined forces to deliver Blockbuster's vast library of digital video to owners of the TiVo television set-top box. "We are excited to be teaming with TiVo, the company that created the DVR, to make Blockbuster's entertainment content readily available to their millions of s...

Failed efforts to reach a licensing agreement with Warner Music have led YouTube to unceremoniously yank thousands of user-created videos from the site. YouTube is required to follow intellectual property rights laws, of course. However, critics of the move contend the creators' use of content in ma...

Sony Ericsson's president of North America, Najmi Jarwala, has stepped down amid rumors that the joint venture between the two companies may soon be dissolved. The announcement comes at a dismal time for Sony Ericsson. The company is expecting first-quarter losses of between $459 million $526 millio...

I frequently encounter intellectual property disputes between companies and independent contractors doing work for those companies. Often, the disputes involve trying to determine who owns the copyright to materials developed during their working relationship. Whether you are an employer or a worke...

VoIP provider Skype announced on Monday the beta version of its business-user-oriented Skype for SIP, which will run on enterprise PBX systems. SIP is a signaling protocol that lets users set up and tear down multimedia communication sessions such as voice and video calls over the Internet. It can a...

From the perspective of IT users, developer communities and global industry as a whole, IBM may be the worst place for beleaguered Sun Microsystems to land. Sure a merger as is rumored is good -- but not urgently or obviously so -- for IBM. Big Blue gains modest improvement in share of some servers,...

TomTom has responded to Microsoft's allegations of patent infringement with a lawsuit of its own. Close to three weeks after Microsoft filed complaints against TomTom in the U.S. District Court in Seattle and with the International Trade Commission, TomTom has filed a countersuit in the U.S. Distric...