Business

Sales of server products powered Microsoft to a more profitable second quarter as the software giant beat Wall Street expectations for earnings, while supply restrictions on the Xbox 360 were seen contributing to a near-miss on the revenue side. Microsoft said income rose to US$3.65 billion, up from...

Since the revelation last week that the Justice Department has subpoenaed Google for search term data, Internet users have been awakened to its profound ramifications. At some date in the future, many fear, they may be confronted with questions by the government or from law enforcement agencies abo...

The Walt Disney Co. will pay US$7.4 billion to buy Pixar, the groundbreaking animation studio co-founded by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The deal is noteworthy not only for the potential future benefits entailed in an Apple-Hollywood link, but also because it immediately vaults Disney back to the top of th...

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt aren't getting a raise this year. Each is slated to make in 2006 exactly what they took home last year: US$1. Google said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the three top executives would again forgo all but...

Microsoft received both good and bad news on the antitrust front. The European Commission has agreed to give the software maker extra time to answer criticisms that it has not opened up its Windows source code as required before facing stiff daily fines. On the other hand, the Department of Justice ...

For the second time in less than a year, the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by Research In Motion, which was hoping to overturn a lower court ruling that could lead to the shutdown of its BlackBerry mobile e-mail service in the U.S. The failure to win a reprieve from the high court...

The accounting scandal that rocked the Japanese stock market last week escalated Monday with the arrests of the high-profile CEO and other executives of Internet company Livedoor. Prosecutors charged Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old founder of the company, and his colleagues with violating securities...

Imation on Thursday agreed to acquire Memorex International in an all cash transaction for US$330 million. Contigent on financial performance of the purchased business, Imation could pay an additional sum ranging between $5 million and $45 million over a period of up to three years after close. The ...

Nearly nine out of 10 businesses and other organizations faced some type of computer security incident, a fifth of them were attacked 20 times or more and some US$67 billion was lost as a result of the incursions, according to the 2005 FBI Computer Crime survey. The report, released Thursday by the ...

The strength of the Razr phone helped push Motorola to strong fourth-quarter earnings and revenue results -- but, like other tech companies, it failed to meet or exceed expectations. Motorola also acknowledged some operational difficulties, with profit margins lower in the quarter for all of its mob...

The world economic landscape is rapidly changing. Assuming that you regard the European Union as one economic entity, as of this writing, there are two economic superpowers. Those two superpowers are the U.S. and the E.U., which have roughly equivalent gross domestic products. If your definition li...

Philips Electronics on Thursday announced plans to acquire Lifeline Systems, a personal emergency medical services company. Philips has offered approximiately US$750 million, or $47.75 per share to buy the firm. That's 21 percent higher than Lifeline's closing stock price of $39.49 on Wednesday. Lif...

Booming sales of iPods helped Apple score another winning quarter, but a lowered outlook may be raising the stakes for the pending switch to Intel chips in the company's notebook and desktop computers. Apple exceeded earnings expectations, posting a profit for its first quarter, which included the h...

Shares of Yahoo took a hit Wednesday, a day after the portal and search company reported earnings that, while up sharply from a year ago, fell short of expectations. Some analysts wondered whether the overall strength of the Internet sector in the fourth quarter had been overstated in forecasts, whi...

The Securities and Exchange Commission cast a preliminary vote in favor of new rules that would force public companies to more fully report how much top executives are being paid, with everything from stock grants and bonuses to non-cash perks subject to disclosure. The five-member commission held a...