Business

HP's second-quarter sales and profit outpaced Wall Street forecasts, even as profit fell compared to a year ago, the company said Wednesday. The company's profit of $2.1 billion was 7 percent below 2006 levels, largely because the earlier period included a one-time tax windfall, HP noted. Revenue ca...

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a lawsuit against Dell, saying the personal computer maker misled consumers with its PC financing offers. Dell confirmed the suit on Wednesday, and said it intended to vigorously defend itself against it. The complaint charges that the Round Roc...

E-mail marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to get your name in front of prospective or existing customers, to generate sales or stay top of mind. The e-mail messaging that clogs in-boxes around the world is known as spam, and with good reason: It is unwanted. Its solicitations are rarel...

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales unveiled on Monday a comprehensive legislative proposal that would toughen copyright protections, including penalties for the attempt to infringe on a copyright. Speaking before members of the Chamber of Commerce Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, Gonzales...

A former Oracle vice president has settled insider trading charges that he used information gained through his wife -- an assistant to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and other company leaders -- to buy and sell stock in companies that Oracle was planning to purchase. The Securities and Exchange Commission...

Google has become increasingly comfortable with the process of acquiring and integrating large merger-and-acquisitions targets, but still intends to focus more on targeted buying of smaller firms, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during a briefing with reporters ahead of Google's annual shareholders mee...

Apple, Microsoft, Adobe Systems and Real Networks are the targets of a Santa Cruz, Calif., maker of copyright protection technologies that has sent letters demanding that the tech heavyweights cease and desist "actively avoiding" the use of its products. Media Rights Technologies and its digital rad...

The executive summary is rarely given the importance that it deserves. Too often, companies seeking to raise capital focus all of their attention on their business plan. The fact is, investment bankers and venture capitalists view literally thousands of executive summaries. For this reason, one must...

Vonage may have found a way to provide its services without using disputed technology that Verizon Communications has patented, Vonage said Thursday, offering hope that the troubled VoIP provider can get out from under potentially crushing legal obligations to Verizon. Jeffrey Citron, Vonage's chair...

Microsoft has acquired a minority ownership stake in CareerBuilder.com, extending a partnership between the leading U.S. job search site and its MSN portal, Microsoft said. Redmond will acquire a 4 percent ownership stake in the dot-com as part of an agreement that calls for CareerBuilder to deliver...

Internet and networking gear maker Cisco Systems posted sharply higher profit for its third quarter, but investors disappointed by the company's outlook sent its stock sharply lower Wednesday. Cisco earned $1.9 billion, or 30 cents a share, up 34 percent when compared to the $1.4 billion the San Jos...

The billion-dollar lawsuit between Viacom and YouTube feels like a rerun. Haven't we seen this show before? New technology from an upstart company is rapidly adopted by millions of users, transforms traditional media distribution and stretches the legacy copyright framework to its limits. Maybe thes...

The lawsuit IBM filed against Amazon for multiple patent violations has ended amicably, with Amazon agreeing to pay undisclosed license fees. The legal battle over the disputed technologies began with much fanfare last fall, when IBM filed a complaint alleging that Amazon had infringed five of its p...

Social networking powerhouse MySpace and Photobucket, a photo-sharing site, reportedly have come to terms on a possible buyout deal. A preliminary deal has been reached, and the acquisition of Photobucket will cost MySpace up to $250 million. Photobucket and MySpace, owned by News Corp., have so far...

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has fallen short in his bid to win a seat on the board of directors of sagging handset maker Motorola, with the company announcing that preliminary estimates of votes show all incumbent board members re-elected. The results -- which won't be finalized for a few weeks ...