Business

Google's presence in Brazil might be threatened by a dispute with that government's law enforcement agency over user data. Brazil's public attorney has filed suit against Google demanding information on users of its social networking site, Orkut, who are suspected of engaging in child pornography an...

AOL became the latest Internet player to move aggressively into the movie download space Thursday, saying it would make full-length features from a number of Hollywood studios available through the AOL Video portion of the Web portal. The company said partnerships with 20th Century Fox, Sony Picture...

After a somewhat half-hearted effort to compete with Apple and the other digital music player makers, Dell signaled Wednesday that it will halt production of its DJ Ditty MP3 player. The move comes as Apple continues to enjoy dominance in the digital audio player space -- it owns as much as 80 perce...

Microsoft's efforts to build out its advertising network received a considerable boost with the announcement that Facebook has signed on with the company to receive online advertising services. As part of the multiyear contract, Microsoft will be the exclusive provider of banner advertising and spon...

Former eMachines owner Lap Shun Hui has offered to buy the retail operations of PC maker Gateway, to whom he sold his firm in 2004, for US$450 million. Gateway saw its stock price rise more than 22 percent Wednesday following news of the offer and said its board of directors, as well as financial an...

IBM is making yet another splashy acquisition, this time in the data security arena. The computing giant will pay US$1.3 billion to acquire Internet Security Systems, it announced Wednesday. The deal, which values ISS at $28 per share in cash -- an 8 percent premium over the previous day's closing p...

Microsoft on Tuesday launched a legal campaign against parties that register Web addresses designed to attract visitors by using trademarked terms and common misspellings of more popular domains. The software giant filed three lawsuits this week against alleged "cybersquatters" and "typosquatters." ...

In a move that could spark a price war in the emerging video download marketplace, Guba Tuesday slashed prices for purchasing and renting newly released films and television show episodes. Guba cut prices on new release movies from US$19.999 to $9.99, said it would make older movies from its catalog...

Two employees were fired and a top executive has voluntarily left AOL, the direct result of the public disclosure of millions of supposedly private search records. AOL said Chief Technology Officer Maureen Govern is leaving the company and reports suggested that two other employees were dismissed. O...

The debate over net neutrality is getting a bit belligerent online. A senior executive at cable company Comcast is challenging the CEO of eBay, Meg Whitman, to a debate on the topic. A copy of a recent e-mail between David Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast, and Whitman has surfaced on the ...

Infineon Technologies said Monday it had landed an order for millions of data storage chips from the U.S. government, which will be featured in a new generation of electronic passports. The exact size of the contract was not disclosed, but Infineon said it received a "multimillion piece purchase ord...

Microsoft on Friday said it added US$16.2 billion to its ongoing share buyback plan, nearly doubling its repurchase authorization to $36.2 billion through June 30, 2011. The software giant is sitting on a stockpile of cash. Microsoft had $34.16 billion in cash and short-term investments as of June 3...

As a company grows, so do its accounts receivable. Growing pains often involve a shortage of cash, creating inadequate cash flows. So, wouldn't it be nice if you didn't have to wait for your customers to pay you? Actually, that is what factoring does for you; it turns your invoices and your receiva...

Hewlett-Packard, the world's third-largest PC maker, on Wednesday reported third quarter profit gains that beat analyst estimates. The firm also announced a plan to buy back US$6 billion worth of shares. Net income for the world's largest printer maker rose to $1.38 billion, or 48 cents a share, fro...

In separate filings, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the World Privacy Forum have asked the FTC to investigate AOL's release earlier this month of search term queries that had been made by 650,000 of its users over a three-month period. "This release was a violation of section 5 of The FTC Ac...