Business

By 2011, Internet advertising is expected to become the largest advertising segment, surpassing newspapers for the first time, a new study reported Tuesday. The same study predicts overall communications spending to top $1 trillion in 2008, making it the third-fastest-growing sector in the U.S. econ...

Cisco Systems released fourth quarter and fiscal year results that heartened technology investors and, according to the networking giant's CEO, reflected "great execution across the company." For the year, Cisco reported net sales of $34.9 billion, a 23 percent increase over its 2006 sales figure, a...

Sprint Nextel said Wednesday its second-quarter earnings fell sharply in part due to costs associated with the merger creating the third-largest national telecom carrier. Sprint Nextel still managed to beat Wall Street estimates with net income of $19 million, or a penny per share, compared with a p...

A California state law prohibiting the sale of violent video games to minors was declared unconstitutional Monday by a U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment. The law, which was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 but had not yet been implemente...

The Bush administration upheld the International Trade Commission's ban on the import of cell phones containing Qualcomm chips Monday, prompting vendor Qualcomm to announce that it will appeal and renew once again its request for a stay on the ban. "I have decided to permit the limited exclusion ord...

A federal judge has handed Microsoft a huge victory in years-old patent spat with telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent focusing on how personal computers running Windows play back MP3 music files, setting aside a $1.5 billion jury award granted after the software giant was found to have infringed on two dig...

Arming for battle in the digital music space, Amazon.com has invested in a startup that attempts to blend digital music sales with social networking. AmieStreet.com, a digital music store that prices music based on its popularity among visitors to the site, said Amazon was the lead investor in its f...

President Bush on Sunday afternoon signed into law a controversial measure giving U.S. government officials increased authority to listen in on international communications without first obtaining a warrant. S. 1927 updates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by permitting warrantless surveill...

EMI Group, the UK-based record label that is awaiting a takeover by a private equity firm, posted lower revenue for its second quarter as CD sales plunged but indicated its DRM-free music experiment with iTunes is off to a fast start. EMI's revenue was down 5.1 percent overall, in line with its own ...

Microsoft is launching a pilot program to test a free, advertising-funded version of Microsoft Works, the company confirmed Friday. Dubbed "Microsoft Works SE 9," the ad-supported version of the entry-level software will be distributed preinstalled on computers manufactured by a select group of part...

Technology has finally made its impact on medical practices. In order to achieve greater efficiencies within their office and administrative staff, many physicians have now gone from paper to computer. Additionally, diagnoses and delivery of quality patient care are greatly enhanced with the assista...

A tech association representing such industry stalwarts as Google and Microsoft is taking aim at what it sees as a stealth campaign to intimidate consumers from exercising their fair use rights with respect to copyrighted material. The Computer & Communications Industry Association has filed a c...

Club Penguin, a quickly growing virtual world targeted at children, is now part of the Disney empire. Disney grabbed the company for $350 million in cash plus up to $350 million more based on the site's earnings over the next two years. Club Penguin is exactly the type of online entertainment proper...

Time Warner's profits for the second quarter were up about 5.2 percent, thanks largely to the strength of its cable division, the company reported Wednesday. Net profit for the quarter was $1.067 billion, or 28 cents per share, up from $1.014 billion, or 24 cents per share, a year earlier, the compa...

Sun Microsystems has chalked up its third profitable quarter in a row, a testament that the company's turnaround plan is taking hold. Profits for the server company's fourth quarter were $329 million, or 9 cents a share -- a significant step up from the 5 cents a share analysts expected. It is also ...