Business

Google has reached a deal to buy a Swedish firm that makes a social networking application that lets users blast their extended networks of friends with micro-blogs whether they're on a PC or a mobile phone. Google did not disclose the terms of its acquisition of Jaiku, which is based in Helsinki; n...

With all the social networking and photo-sharing Web sites out there, few teenagers are taken by surprise when they find that pictures they posed for have been posted online by their friends. However, few expect to see their likeness then featured, without their permission, on a billboard advertisem...

NBC Universal will purchase Oxygen Media, the operator of a cable channel aimed at women, for $925 million, a move that dovetails with its 2006 purchase of the iVillage online network for $600 million. The acquisition gives NBC a cable channel that reaches 74 million homes and offers advertisers a f...

As it prepares to meet its customers' growing demands for wireless multimedia services, AT&T's board of directors approved the acquisition of 700 MHz spectrum licenses from Aloha Partners. The purchase will cost the nation's largest wireless carrier about $2.5 billion. The purchase will give AT&...

As it prepares to meet its customers' growing demands for wireless multimedia services, AT&T's board of directors approved the acquisition of 700 MHz spectrum licenses from Aloha Partners. The purchase will cost the nation's largest wireless carrier about $2.5 billion. The purchase will give AT&...

As it prepares to meet its customers' growing demands for wireless multimedia services, AT&T's board of directors approved the acquisition of 700 MHz spectrum licenses from Aloha Partners. The purchase will cost the nation's largest wireless carrier about $2.5 billion. The purchase will give AT&...

Sprint Nextel CEO Gary Forsee stepped down Monday amid mounting pressure from investors of the telecommunication company, which said it would launch a worldwide search for its next leader. After days of rumors and published reports suggesting he was on the way out, Forsee announced he would leave th...

MSNBC Interactive, a joint venture between Microsoft and NBC, will buy Seattle-based startup Newsvine, a participatory news site that carries news from media outlets and from individual users who are paid for their writing. Newsvine uses the so-called "social model" of user-driven ranking of the new...

The legal saga of the first file-sharing lawsuit brought by the record labels to make it before a jury isn't over just yet. Jammie Thomas, who was ordered to pay $222,000 after a jury found her responsible for posting two dozen songs on the Kazaa file-sharing network, announced through her MySpace b...

Vonage saw its stock soar some 75 percent Monday after the Voice over Internet Protocol firm settled a patent infringement dispute with Sprint Nextel that gives it the right to use Sprint technology going forward. The settlement could help Vonage turn a punishing legal setback into a positive develo...

These days, just about every business -- from the corner store to Wal-Mart -- has a Web presence. While the Internet's vast expanse provides companies with the ability to reach more potential customers, it also pits them against more competitors than ever before. As a result, it has become increasin...

In one of the most sweeping domestic law enforcement actions against online child pornography in recent times, New Jersey officials arrested 41 people and charged them with possession or distribution of graphic images of child molestation. Dubbed "Operation Silent Shield," the roundup was the culmin...

A California state appeals court in San Jose has reinstated an age discrimination case against Google brought by former employee Brian Reid. A California Superior Court judge had dismissed the case in 2005. Reid sued Google in 2004 following almost two years of employment at the search giant, primar...

Business is booming at Research In Motion as regular consumers join their business-oriented brethren in snapping up the company's ever-expanding line of BlackBerry mobile devices. Second quarter revenue at RIM was up 27 percent from the first quarter and more than doubled last year's second quarter,...

The music industry emerged victorious in the first file-sharing lawsuit to go to trial, with a federal court jury ruling a Minnesota woman was liable for swapping two dozen songs and ordered her to pay $222,000 to Capitol Records. The closely watched case ended Thursday after two days of testimony a...