Business

Small businesses have their share of difficulties, but do they have any chance of succeeding in a world dominated by eBay, Amazon and the like? The short answer is yes -- if they combine the right mix of technology, marketing and customer service. "The goliaths of the online world are everywhere. Th...

Media giant Time Warner reported a second quarter profit of US$1 billion and said it would attempt to foster advertising revenue growth in its AOL division by offering free services that have long been available only to subscribers. Time Warner said its results were buoyed by a combination of growth...

On July 27, by a vote of 410 to 15, the House of Representatives passed the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), which will restrict access to social networking sites such as MySpace.com and other interactive services at schools and libraries that receive federal funding. The rationale behind the D...

Verizon Communications said Tuesday that its net profit fell compared to a year ago as it continued to spend to integrate its long-distance acquisition MCI. Meanwhile, revenue grew mainly thanks to expansion in its wireless business. Verizon also acknowledged that its number of landline customers f...

It can be a scary world out there. Phishers, hackers, crackers and the like are determined to wreak havoc on network security -- and a firm's Chief Information Officer is smack dab in the middle of it all. The CIO establishes and directs the strategic long-term goals, policies and procedures for an ...

Flash memory market leader and music device maker SanDisk said Sunday it would buy rival Msystems in an all-stock deal worth US$1.5 billion. The acquisition is aimed at beefing up SanDisk's share of the market for flash memory products for mobile phones, especially smartphones that double as music p...

Consumer electronics manufacturers looking to expand their reach with their own brick-and-mortar outlets should weigh the risks of such moves carefully, warns a report released on Wednesday. It cites several temptations for electronics firms like Sony, Dell, Bang & Olufsen, Philips and Pioneer t...

Warner Music Group and EMI have shelved discussion of a potential merger of the two music labels in the wake of a European court ruling on an earlier wave of music industry consolidation. The companies announced they had ceased talks on Thursday, citing a decision that essentially set aside regulato...

Time Warner will unveil a new business strategy for AOL on Aug. 2, hoping to put an end to rampant speculation by outlining how the company plans to take its online services into the future, the company said Wednesday. AOL is expected to announce that it will give away its e-mail and Web services fo...

Regulators from the European Union are examining the licensing strategies behind the two competing next-generation DVD formats in an attempt to determine whether antitrust issues need to be addressed. The European Commission reportedly has requested information from manufacturers of players that sup...

Amazon.com shares dipped to a three-year low Wednesday, hit with backlash from the firm's second quarter results announcement Tuesday. The online retailing giant's earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2006, fell nearly 58 percent, followed by a 17 percent decline in shares on the Nasdaq stock mar...

In its biggest acquisition since the controversial takeover of Compaq nearly five years ago, Hewlett-Packard said Tuesday it would buy Mercury Interactive for US$4.5 billion. HP said the cash deal would let it sell complete data center solutions that include servers, storage and other hardware, as w...

Allies have begun taking sides in a court case that has far-reaching implications for the Internet. At stake is a practice at the heart of the Net: linking information between Web sites. The case pits search Goliath Google against adult entertainment publisher Perfect 10, and is currently before a f...

Mobile phone shipments grew a vigorous 26 percent year-to-year, reaching an unprecedented 235 million units shipped during the second quarter of 2006. Nokia and Motorola accounted for a massive 55 percent combined market share during the quarter, according to a research report from Strategy Analytic...

As an Arkansas judge considers whether to give his final approval for a settlement in a high-profile suit against Google alleging widespread click fraud, a group of plaintiffs is trying to block the deal, saying the search engine has not done enough to stop the deception. Attorneys for some plaintif...