Business

The news that AOL and Yahoo are planning to roll out a certified e-mail delivery service based on partner company Goodmail Systems' CertifiedEmail methodology is leading some e-mail marketers and related providers of e-commerce services to conclude that a sea-change -- largely unwelcome -- is underw...

Microsoft has been promised a late April hearing in Europe's Court of First Instance for its appeal of the European Commission's antitrust sanctions. At the same time, the software giant has agreed to open its source code to competitors in the latest installment of its long-running dispute over how...

The Faustian bargains that Google, Yahoo and Microsoft felt compelled to make with the Chinese government in order to maintain access to its vaunted market are not likely to be broken on grounds they qualify as trade barriers. In recent weeks, the Internet giants have come under fire from irate user...

Struggling automaker General Motors handed out billions of dollars worth of information technology outsourcing contracts, with Electronic Data Systems seen as the big winner even as its revenue from GM continues to slide. IBM and Hewlett-Packard also sealed major, multi-year deals. EDS, which was ...

Has it occurred to you that more and more foreign-made products are sold in the U.S.? The fact is, it has become almost impossible to avoid purchasing products that are made in China, Japan, Taiwan or other Far Eastern countries. Even when it comes to services rendered, many of those emanate from ou...

After months of adverse court rulings in the U.S., Research in Motion (RIM) won a key decision from a patent court in the United Kingdom and may get help from the U.S. government in avoiding an abrupt shutdown of its BlackBerry mobile e-mail service. In the UK, RIM said a patent court had ruled that...

Now that the Earth has metaphorically become a flat, digitally formatted platform for the 'Net- and e-commerce-savvy to skate on, it's time for marketing to get circular. Basically, these are the new rules: All aspects of marketing should be delivered to customers at their destination of choice; the...

After five straight earnings disclosures that exceeded analyst expectations, Google missed targets for its fourth quarter profit, sending its high-flying stock into a tailspin and raising new questions about the rate of growth in the Internet advertising sector. Both revenue -- which came in at US$1...

A lawsuit against eBay filed two years ago by Tiffany -- a high-end jeweler whose prices are based as much on its brand name as on quality and craftsmanship -- is moving forward and is expected to go to trial by the end of this year. The Tiffany suit joins a number of earlier legal filings against t...

A patent dispute has erupted between Visto, a provider of secure push e-mail services for mobile phones, and Good Technology. The lawsuit, which alleges that Good's products and services infringe on multiple patents held by Visto, was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas...

Moving a nearly two-year-long investigation and prosecution closer to its conclusion, Japanese chipmaker Elpida has agreed to pay US$84 million to end charges that it conspired with other firms to fix prices. Elpida agreed to plead guilty to conspiring with other manufacturers to set prices of dynam...

The characters in the wildly popular, extremely violent and graphically explicit video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" face crackdowns from police and other authorities responding to their evil doings. Now the real life backers of the game are facing a crackdown of their own. The City of Los An...

When the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was originally passed in 2002, many companies were less than enthusiastic about it. Concerns about the additional accountability and the internal changes that would need to take place weighed heavily on the minds of many company executives. These concerns turned out to b...

Microsoft's offer on Wednesday to make its Windows Server source code available under license in order to comply with EU antitrust laws may not be enough to satisfy officials. Neelie Kroes, the European Union competition commissioner, issued statements the day after Microsoft's announcement that app...

In a move that could lead to a dramatic drop in online cigarette sales, Philip Morris said it reached an agreement with 37 state attorneys general to limit the availability of online tobacco products by shutting off distributors believed to have illegally sold the products in the past. The agreement...