Business

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation announced that it has agreed to divest certain U.S. onshore properties to undisclosed parties for US$850 million in cash and interests in two oil and gas fields in Wyoming. The transaction, effective September 1, 2004, will include an estimated 108 million barrels of o...

NetSolve, a security and infrastructure applications developer, has signed an agreement with Cisco under which Cisco will acquire NetSolve for a purchase price of US$11.00 per share in cash. "Our board has concluded this is a fair transaction for our stockholders and will be recommending its approva...

A federal judge has written the latest -- but probably not the last -- chapter in the epic business and legal struggle between Oracle and PeopleSoft, ruling that government regulators failed to prove Oracle's proposed takeover would be harmful to competition. The decision hands Oracle a huge victory...

All executives of public companies know of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), which was signed into law on July 30, 2002. Many owners of small businesses planning an IPO certainly are aware of it, and some dread it. In fact, there are owners of small-cap companies who have withdrawn their IPO application...

Oracle has prevailed in a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice seeking to block its proposed acquisition of PeopleSoft. The decision, even though it can be appealed, removes a significant roadblock to the acquisition. "This decision puts the onus squarely on the board of PeopleSoft to meet wit...

One of the areas that is increasingly becoming of concern to online retailers is a state's power to regulate e-commerce through enforcing that particular state's regulation of certain offline business activities. A recent case in point is Powers v. Harris, where the Court of Appeals upheld the const...

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan gave a mostly upbeat message to Congress about the state of the U.S. economy on Wednesday, but the positive prognosis was not enough to rally stocks. While some investors focused on the likelihood of more interest rate hikes, others might have been wondering h...

The state of California has dropped a criminal investigation into the company that sold it electronic voting machines but instead will join an existing lawsuit charging that the company made false claims about the reliability of the machines. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said he would si...

Worldwide mobile phone sales surpassed 156.4 million units in the second quarter of 2004, a 35 percent increase from the second quarter of 2003, according to Gartner. Gartner analysts said all regions experienced healthy sales of mobile phones in the second quarter. "In mature markets, such as Weste...

Software developer Quark has made moves recently to improve its customer relations and to increase its focus on the European market. "From the inside out, we're reassessing the way we do business and the quality and effectiveness of the solutions we develop to help our customers," Quark CEO Kamar Au...

EMC, an information-management vendor, appointed Jeffrey M. Nick to the position of senior vice president and CTO. Nick will assume a role in the direction of EMC's technology strategy and in the evolution and advancement of EMC's information-management capabilities, related platforms, software and ...

As the largest maker of computer chips, Intel has become the thermometer for monitoring the health of the technology sector. And according to the most recent temperature reading, the sector is feeling a bit down. Intel lowered its revenue guidance substantially on Thursday, even more than analysts h...

You may not have heard of the phrase "pump and dump." I would be surprised, however, if you haven't been personally solicited by a so-called investment advisory firm that was trying to sell you a penny stock. What's the connection? Pump and dump schemes, which are illegal, usually involve the heavy ...

Is there copyright protection in compiled data published online? As with most things of a legal nature related to the Internet, it all depends on the factual context. A number of recent U.S. court decisions have shed some light on this issue. In Assessment Technologies of WI LLC v. WIREdata Inc., Ju...

EBay moved to shore up its presence in Asia, announcing that it increased its stake in South Korea-based Internet Auction Co. in a deal worth $325 million and also launched improvements to its Chinese subsidiary. EBay said it had agreed to buy just under 3 million shares in Internet Auction Co. from...