Business

Advanced Micro Devices said Monday it had reached an agreement to buy ATI Technologies for US$5.4 billion in stock and cash, a deal that creates a considerably more formidable competitor for chip-making leader Intel. ATI is a top maker of graphics processors and related chipsets, with its products i...

Shares of Microsoft were higher Friday after the software giant reported lower earnings -- due in part to its standoff with European antitrust regulators -- and said it would aggressively move to buy back as much as US$40 billion worth of its own stock. Microsoft said profit for its fourth quarter f...

Google reprised its role as Wall Street darling Thursday, releasing second-quarter earnings that showed strong revenue and profit growth, beating forecast targets and apparently widening the gap between itself and its main rivals. The company posted earnings of US$772 million, or $2.49 per share, on...

In a recent article for the E-Commerce Times entitled "Monetary Unions: Are We on Our Way?, I talked about what I feel are the present dangers to the dollar and whether or not currency consolidation would reduce the risk of a dollar crisis. For that article, I interviewed Morrison Bonpasse, the pres...

Online auction and fixed-sales giant eBay reported earnings that largely met expectations and set the outlook higher for the remainder of the year. The company also unveiled plans to raise fees in a bid to further boost revenues. eBay posted earnings of US$250 million, down from $291.6 million in t...

Shares of Yahoo traded lower by nearly 20 percent Wednesday morning as investors and analysts digested an on-target earnings announcement overshadowed by word that the launch of its long-awaited self-service advertising platform would be delayed. Yahoo said it earned US$164.3 million, or 11 cents pe...

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a partnership with Nortel, its latest effort to put its applications in the center of a unified communications approach that combines Microsoft software with Nortel communications gear. The two companies said they had agreed to a four-year alliance that will make Norte...

With debate over the regulation of online gambling continuing in Congress, law enforcement sent a clear message that existing laws would be aggressively enforced Monday by seeking the arrest of both the CEO and the founder of a leading online sports betting site. David Carruthers, CEO of BetOnSports...

Investors are grabbing shares in technology companies, as excellent economic reports keep coming from the U.S. government indicating that the federal budget deficit is down dramatically and tax collections have increased by 25 percent during this fiscal year. Infosys Technologies last week said it a...

Looking to retain its lead in one area where it has a significant advantage on its portal rivals, Yahoo said Monday it would add new features and products as part of a redesign of its Finance site. Yahoo Finance remains the category leader, out-drawing MSN's site, a resurgent AOL offering and Google...

Several memory chip makers continue to be penalized for alleged price fixing efforts that did nothing to stem the falling price of their products from the late 1990s to 2002. The chip makers, which include Samsung, Micron, Infineon, Elpida, Hynix, Mosel-Vitelic, Nanya Technology and NEC, are being s...

Dell said Thursday it would change the way it prices its personal computers, drastically reducing the number of rebate offers. The move does not represent a pure price cut, according to Dell, but instead comes in response to complaints from small businesses and residential customers about confusing ...

Shares of German software giant SAP were battered Thursday after the company warned that earnings and revenue would fall short of forecasts. The announcement fed speculation that rival Oracle's aggressive growth-by-acquisition strategy has started to erode SAP's market share. SAP shares gave up as ...

The European Union's second-highest court has struck down the regulatory approval of the merger of Sony Music and the music business of Bertelsmann nearly two years after the deal was completed. While the decision could force the undoing of the earlier merger, which created Sony BMG, it may also und...

Threats from hackers are converging -- not just coming in on e-mail, or over the Web, or via Instant Messaging (IM), but through all three media, simultaneously, heightening the threat level that computer users are facing. This week, MessageLabs released its "Q2 2006 Intelligence Report," detailing ...