Business

Antitrust regulators from the European Union levied a US$357 million fine against Microsoft for failing to comply with an earlier order to reduce the impact of its Windows monopoly. The latest fines bring the total financial penalties assessed by the EU against the software giant to close to $1 bill...

Although comparison shopping motivates many a consumer to shop online, it's second fiddle for small businesses shopping on the Net, according to a study released by JupiterResearch last Friday. The most significant factor governing purchases on the Web by small businesses is previous experience or f...

Google is planning to open a new, 1,000-employee facility in Michigan that will handle its highly profitable AdWords operations -- but Google watchers using this particular decision to augur the company's direction are likely wasting their time. Other than reinforcing Google's intention to continue ...

Lucent Technologies warned Monday that lower sales in North America would cause its revenue and profit to drop from a year ago for the quarter that ended in June. Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent -- which agreed to be bought by Alcatel of France earlier this year in a deal worth US$13.45 billion -- sa...

Though well-intentioned, services that scrub potentially offensive material from DVDs and then resell them as family-friendly versions are violating copyright laws, a court has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch ruled in favor of major Hollywood studios by saying that a number of compan...

The European Commission is poised to raise the limit on daily fines that Microsoft may face if it does not bring itself into compliance with remedies aimed at addressing its past antitrust behavior on the continent. Reports say the EC will raise the cap on daily fines to the equivalent of US$3.8 mil...

One in five Americans age 12 or older own a digital music player, according to a study released last week by a global market research firm. The study, which is prepared quarterly by Ipsos Insight of New York City, noted that younger music listeners are driving growth in the DMP market, with some 54 ...

Fixed and wireless phone giant Verizon this week filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission details of a possible plan to spin off its U.S. print and online yellow pages business. The company said it had not yet made a final decision on the directories spinoff, but signaled it would divest it...

In January 2005, I wrote an article for the E-Commerce Times entitled "VoIP Here to Stay." In that article, I stated, "The future of VoIP is, to a significant extent, now!" It's hard to imagine that the column was written only about a year and a half ago. At that time, Vonage had about 350,000 custo...

Just two weeks after selling a major portion of its mobile communications chip business, Intel said Wednesday it would invest US$600 million into a WiMax services provider that previously had designs on an IPO. In a move that offers further insight into how Intel intends to remain a player in the mo...

A federal judge in Houston and the U.S. Attorney's office for that region are wrangling over just how much information the government can garner from a phone call without a warrant for a wiretap. The case involves a request by U.S. Attorney Donald J. DeGabrielle Jr. for a pen register and a trap and...

With legislative attempts to mandate so-called "network neutrality" sputtering, Google said it would use existing antitrust laws to require that cable companies and telcos carry its services to consumers if necessary. Google would not hesitate to bring antitrust complaints to the attention of the U....

Google defended its system of ranking Web pages in search results in court Friday after a competitor claimed its pages were unfairly blocked. A California judge is considering whether to allow a lawsuit to proceed. Attorneys for Google argued that the search giant can use any criteria it wants to ra...

Mobile technology developer Qualcomm is facing charges from U.S. based companies that it improperly used its market dominance to squelch competition in Korea, where regulators are probing a fresh batch of complaints. Korea's Fair Trade Commission is examining complaints from Dallas-based Texas Instr...

The number of European corporations -- and individual workers -- who are relying on mobile phones continues to rise, especially among the small office and home office segment. A new survey by The Yankee Group, the Boston-based research firm, indicates that there are a number of wireless trends that ...