Business

In a move that's left some observers scratching their heads, Microsoft has acquired a German comparison shopping site, Ciao, for $486 million in cash. Ciao, which is owned by Wilton, Conn.-based Greenfield Online, provides consumer reviews and ratings as well as comparative prices from e-commerce co...

No one can say what 27-year-old Kevin Cogill expected when he apparently posted nine songs from an unreleased and long-awaited Guns N' Roses album called "Chinese Democracy" to his Web site earlier this summer. It could have been anything from monetary gain to a desire to be the first to distribute ...

A federal judge in San Jose, Calif., has thrown out a copyright infringement lawsuit launched by Io Group against Veoh Networks. Io Group, which also does business under the name Titan Media, produces adult video content. Veoh is a site similar to YouTube where users can upload and watch user-genera...

Why sell somebody else's product line when you can do a better job offering your own? That was the question that ultimately pushed Jan Hichert, CEO of Astaro, and two other cofounders to develop their own Internet security solutions for a market they viewed as needy of attention -- the small- to med...

Qik, a company that has developed live video streaming services for certain smartphones, has received a boost in its financial backing from Netscape veterans Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The duo, which have made a "significant investment" in the company, are also joining Qik's board of advisors...

Microsoft will receive nearly $21 million from Immersion, a company that develops "tactile-feedback" technology, after the two companies agreed to settle a lawsuit. San Jose, Calif.-based Immersion has developed tactile feedback technology which makes video game controllers vibrate when there is an ...

Congress has become increasingly interested in the privacy implications of behavioral marketing. This summer, the Senate has held hearings, and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has followed the charge by seeking more information from Internet service providers and technology companies reg...

In a move that could free up backpack space on college campuses nationwide, Amazon is reportedly looking to enter the school textbook market with the release of a new, student-friendly version of its Kindle electronic book reader. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer quotes a McAdams Wright Ragen analyst ...

Chipmaker Broadcom has agreed to acquire Advanced Micro Devices' digital television chip business for $192.8 million. About 530 AMD employees will join Irvine, Calif.-based Broadcom after the transaction closes, which is expected to take place sometime during the fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31. AMD i...

Most people are aware that print media is in trouble. Nationally, thousands of employees of print media companies, especially newspapers, have been laid off. How do print media stay vital? Alternatively, will print media even exist 20 years from now? Print media have some pretty obvious strengths, l...

Six federal banking regulators, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, FDIC and Office of Thrift Supervision, last November issued final rules clarifying what U.S. banks and credit institutions would have to do to comply with Red Flag provisions of the 2003 Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act. The...

Some two weeks after the FCC rebuked Comcast for its network management practices, the government agency has spelled out details of the cable provider's marching orders in a 67-page supplement. Within the next 30 days, Comcast must make a full disclosure to the FCC of the behavior that lowered the r...

Nintendo has been hit with a lawsuit alleging patent infringement. Hillcrest Labs has filed a complaint with the International Trade Commission and a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Maryland against the video game giant. Hillcrest Labs makes and licenses many handheld interactive media devices...

What's the deal with those new Windows ads? In what looks to be another shot at saving Vista's troubled reputation, Microsoft has brought comedian Jerry Seinfeld aboard as a spokesperson for the struggling software. Seinfeld will star in a series of ads launching early next month, the Wall Street Jo...

There's something both primal and communal about the beat of a drum, whether it's just one or 2,008 of them -- as the world experienced at Beijing's Opening Ceremony to kick off the Olympics -- which might be called the ultimate global social networking event. A drum's beat seems to capture people f...