Business

Come Aug. 24, when the Olympic Games start with music and hymns and the torch lighting the flame, the global spotlight will land on Beijing, and when the athletes march in unison to their beautifully orchestrated national anthems, in the ultra-modern stadium, the whole world will witness a sleeping ...

The European Union, as a bloc, may be backing Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld as its preferred mobile TV technology, but whether European consumers embrace that platform remains to be seen. There are other options that could in the not-too-distant future enable consumers to access TV in individu...

Nielsen, based in New York and the Netherlands, has signed a definitive agreement to purchase privately held New York-based IAG Research for $225 million. IAG measures consumer engagement with advertisements and product placements across television and the Internet. The company counts some of the la...

On Monday, Yahoo previewed Amp, its new online ad management platform. The platform will allow advertisers to precisely target audiences within geographic, demographic and interest-based categories across a network that includes Yahoo's inventory and that of more than 600 U.S. newspapers within the ...

The European Commission introduced new rules Monday for mobile communications on aircrafts during flights. The new regulations give the airlines a green light to let their passengers talk on their mobile phones midair -- with a few caveats, of course. The Commission, however, did not create protecti...

Microsoft tried to light a fire under its apparently stagnating bid to acquire Yahoo over the weekend, with CEO Steve Ballmer saying a lower price could be in the offing if Yahoo doesn't act soon. The Web portal was unmoved, however, saying Monday that its board remained open to a deal with the soft...

Few people would dispute the mystique that surrounds the boardroom. This allure has been around for some time, but it was recently heightened by the popular TV series "The Apprentice" with business icon Donald Trump. Boards of directors deal with sensitive issues and handle privileged information, a...

Over the past five years, 42 of the technology companies that Mercury Ventures has invested in have made the transition from publicly traded to private firms. That is part of a larger trend among smaller publicly traded companies, for whom the benefits of being public no longer clearly outweigh the ...

Though the basic outcome of the Federal Communications Commission wireless spectrum auction has been known for some time -- Verizon Wireless and AT&T won major chunks of the spectrum while Google was shut out -- responses to the closely watched event came fast and furious Thursday as the anti-co...

Research In Motion posted strong earnings and sales growth in its fourth quarter. The positive news signals that it has not seen the Apple iPhone cut into the market share for its BlackBerry device and that adoption may continue to grow even amid a weakening economy. RIM beat Wall Street targets for...

EMI Music has recruited Google CIO Douglas Merrill to head up its growing digital music business, the company announced Wednesday. As president of EMI Music's digital business, Merrill will head a new global function that brings together for the first time leadership responsibility for all of the co...

Amazon.com launched a text-message shopping option Tuesday that enables users to search for, compare and buy products via short message service, in addition to its existing browser-based mobile commerce offerings. TextBuyIt joins Amazon's mobile site and a site dedicated for access with the iPhone i...

Last Halloween, the intellectual property community was mesmerized by the preliminary injunction hearing on the motion filed by GlaxoSmithKline and others to enjoin the Patent Office on the very eve of enactment of new rules. As Judge James C. Cacheris granted the preliminary injunction, a quiet che...

Despite widespread belief it would dig deeper into its pockets if necessary to land Yahoo, Microsoft has no plans to sweeten its offer for the Web portal, according to published reports. Microsoft sees no reason to boost its bid at this time, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unnamed ...

The government has temporarily banned IBM from attaining new contracts with federal agencies while investigators look into interactions between some company workers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency employees. The EPA issued a notice of temporary suspension related to an agency investigation ...