Business

In one of the largest retail mergers in recent memory that could alter both the world of traditional retail and the e-commerce landscape, Sears Roebuck & Co. has agreed to merge with the resurgent Kmart chain in a deal worth US$11 billion. The result will be Sears Holding Corp., which will becom...

On the heels of Red Hat's foray into China last week, Microsoft today announced that it will hire hundreds of new employees at its Indian campus next year. Microsoft currently employs 800 people at its US$400 million 28-acre campus just outside India's high-tech hub of Hyderabad in Manikonda. Compan...

In separate moves that suggest strong desire among media giants to position themselves in the online news and information fields, Dow Jones agreed to buy MarketWatch in a deal worth US$519 million, while Yahoo announced it had hired a former Wall Street Journal Online executive to head its own news ...

Today is the federally mandated deadline for investment companies and other publicly owned firms to be in compliance with internal auditing controls stipulated by the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2004. However, it appears many companies might miss the deadline. Under terms of the SOX law, otherwise k...

In retrospect, it seems obvious to match the capabilities of Windows with secure messaging software. However, in 1995, when Windows NT first burst into the marketplace, IT managers at first did not have many -- if any -- options to help their users easily and safely communicate with each other. This...

Some Internet security experts don't place much hope for pending antiphishing legislation to do much to prevent ID theft and related scams. They view the prospect of new laws as being too little, too late to stop an out-of-control problem. Phishing scams trick e-mail recipients into clicking a link ...

Hoping to grab a piece of a business that combines two of the hottest Web sectors -- travel and search -- America Online has purchased a stake in a startup software company already backed by the founders of Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. AOL made an undisclosed investment in Kayak Software as part...

Despite increased revenue, Opera Software, maker of the No. 3 Web browser, has posted a third-quarter loss triple that of the same period a year ago, something the Oslo-based company said was partly due to a significant increase in operating expenses as well as the weak dollar. Shares of the company...

Culminating its months-long investigation into the theft of Microsoft's viciously guarded Windows source code, the FBI has arrested a Connecticut man it said used a Web site to distribute parts of the operating system. William O. Genovese Jr., 27, faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of US$250,...

Today, with the pressures on business executives to meet their projections and to always present a glowing picture to analysts, it is understandable how some succumb to the temptation to present a rosy outlook when things actually might be deteriorating. This article analyzes ways by which the CEO o...

Leading chipmaker Intel did not have to search far and wide for a replacement for its outgoing CEO, naming longtime executive and current president and chief operating officer Paul Otellini to the top post. Intel's Board of Directors elected Otellini to take over from Craig Barrett effective in May ...

The World Trade Organization (WTO) yesterday ruled that the United States violated its international trade obligations by prohibiting online gambling. The WTO said the U.S. should open its borders to international online casinos. The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) vowed to v...

In a move to compete in one of the Internet's fast-growth markets, IBM yesterday announced plans to start offering hosted service for its Web conferencing. Big Blue will target small- to mid-sized businesses (SMB) with an offering planned for December. Web conferencing software integrates teleconfer...

An alleged Microsoft hacker was arrested yesterday on charges that he illegally sold a secret source code used for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 programs. The United States Attorney's Office in Manhattan charged William P. Genovese, Jr., 27, of Connecticut, with unlawfully distributing a trade sec...

"Guilty" on all three counts was the finding of the Virginia jury on November 3 in the nation's first felony spam prosecution. The greatest shock was when the jury returned a sentence of nine years against Jeremy Jaynes when many on the jury did not even know what spam was prior to the eight-day jur...