Business

Microsoft is considering making a bid to buy eBay, according to a published report, a move that could dramatically alter an e-commerce, Web portal and search space already in a state of flux. The New York Post was the first to report that Microsoft had held talks about a possible merger but that ant...

To many telecommunications customers, the Universal Service Fund, or USF, is one of several hidden costs of making long-distance phone calls. It is one of a handful of government fees that appear on each month's phone bill. Currently, customers pay a monthly USF charge based on how much they spend ...

Europe's highest court ruled Tuesday that an agreement calling for wholesale transfer of personal data on airline passengers to the United States is illegal, a ruling that emphasizes the shifting legal and moral framework for storing and sharing personal information. The European Court of Justice, w...

Europe's longest-running show moved to the Court of First Instance in Brussels last month. The Court heard Microsoft's appeal of the EC's antitrust judgment against it. The questioning from judges raised serious doubts about the legitimacy of Europe's order to artificially separate out the Explore...

Hollywood's movie studios and major television networks filed a lawsuit this week claiming copyright violations from Cablevision's planned remote-storage digital video recorder service, demanding an injunction to ban the service. Cablevision's plans, announced in March, are to store content aired on...

The U.S. Treasury said Thursday it will stop collecting a 108-year-old telecommunications tax assessed to support the brief Spanish-American War and offer tax refunds for the past three years. The 3 percent federal excise tax applied to all long-distance calls since 1898, when it was put in place at...

A Congressional committee has backed a plan that would bar major telcos and cable companies from charging Web services companies to accept their traffic, giving the so-called Net neutrality campaign a welcome boost. The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted 20-13 to recommend a ver...

The two most prominent leaders of Enron, the energy company whose dramatic rise and fall become emblematic for one of the darkest chapters in U.S. corporate history, face life in prison after a jury issued numerous guilty verdicts Thursday. Enron Chairman and founder Ken Lay was found guilty on all ...

eBay and Yahoo announced Thursday they will work together on a range of fronts, including search and paid advertising, striking a deal that leverages each company's strengths and one that will undoubtedly send shockwaves across the Internet industry. After several days of swirling rumors that the tw...

Score one for the skeptics. Vonage made its Initial Public Offering on Wednesday in the face of analyst concerns about an ultra-competitive landscape and an unprofitable business plan for the firm. The Internet phone pioneer wound up selling stock below its issue price. Shares were initially priced ...

The Internet is still a very dangerous environment for conducting business. Lurking in the cyberspace shadows are criminal masterminds bent on stealing personal information and credit card numbers to further fund their activities. Almost daily, stories involving new worms, phishing scams or large s...

The company that makes the Morpheus peer-to-peer software has filed a $4 billion suit against eBay and its Skype online phone calling unit, saying others are benefiting from technology that belongs to it. StreamCast Network filed a suit that names eBay as one of 21 defendants, including the founder...

Wired News has waded into the middle of the controversial court case involving AT&T's alleged participation in the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance operations. An anonymous source provided the news organization with a copy of documents pertaining to the case that the judge had or...

Wired News has waded into the middle of the controversial court case involving AT&T's alleged participation in the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance operations. An anonymous source provided the news organization with a copy of documents pertaining to the case that the judge had or...

Wired News has waded into the middle of the controversial court case involving AT&T's alleged participation in the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance operations. An anonymous source provided the news organization with a copy of documents pertaining to the case that the judge had or...