Business

Internet retailer Amazon.com today announced financial results for its second quarter, showing net sales up 26 percent and operating income more than doubling over the same quarter last year -- but the figures were below Wall Street's expectations. At the same time, the Seattle-based company project...

Dampening the enthusiasm sparked by its successful initial public offering, hosted software pioneer Salesforce.com has issued a growth forecast that falls short of analysts' expectations. On Wednesday, Salesforce held its first-ever analysts' meeting since going public and, while many of the present...

Microsoft pulled the wraps of its plans to return as much as US$75 billion worth of cash reserves it has amassed to shareholders, possibly signaling the software giant won't pursue any major acquisitions in the near future. Microsoft said its board of directors has approved a plan to provide a one-t...

DreamWorks today filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission announcing it intends to make an initial public offering of shares in, and split off, its animation unit, DreamWorks Animation. The studio, formed in October 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and D...

Sun Microsystems reported results today for its fiscal fourth quarter and full fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2004. Revenues for the fourth quarter grew to US$3.110 billion, an increase of 4.3 percent as compared with $2.982 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2003. "Delivering growth and pr...

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economy is poised to continue expanding, and suggested that the sudden drop in consumer spending related to inflation will recede over time. In closely watched testimony to the Senate Banking Committee, Greenspan said sharp price increases that m...

In a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, officials from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names are hammering out details for self-rule in an effort to separate itself from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The ICANN group, which is responsible for coordinating the Internet's naming and numbering systems, h...

European regulators have approved the merger between Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group, leaving only U.S. approval before the two companies can come together to create the world's second-largest music business. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed and the merger excludes some act...

Discount brokerage Charles Schwab today announced the immediate replacement of CEO David S. Pottruck by board Chairman Charles R. Schwab in the face of continued sagging profits. In the same statement, the San Francisco, California, company also reported that its net income for the quarter ended Jun...

Oil prices flirted with record high levels again today as a fresh round of sabotage attacks in Iraq revived fears that supplies to the U.S. could be impacted. Crude oil prices soared as high as $41.90 during the day in New York trading before settling to $41.64 at the close, a seven-week high. Oil s...

Lindows.com and Microsoft today announced that the two companies have reached a worldwide settlement in the trademark-infringement cases between the two companies. "This case was centered on the fundamentals of international trademark law and our necessary efforts to protect the Windows trademark ag...

IBM today said net income rose nearly 17 percent in the second quarter as server sales boosted both its bottom line and its profits. The tech giant also reassured nervous investors by affirming its outlook for the rest of the year and by saying that business conditions continue to improve. IBM said ...

Dell President and COO Kevin Rollins moved up to the PC company's top spot today when he took over the CEO reins from company founder Michael Dell. The move was described as more a change of title than duties and is not expected to be followed by significant strategy changes, the world's largest PC ...

Terrorism fears rattled some markets around the world today as word that terrorists were reportedly eyeing the energy infrastructure of the U.S. drove oil prices back toward record levels again and helped drive stocks lower on the session. The markets managed to bounce off sessions lows, but finishe...

Intel posted healthy second-quarter profits on Tuesday, but concerns about the company's revenue growth, growing and shrinking profit margins quickly overshadowed the strong performance. Intel said profit nearly doubled in the quarter that ended in June, rising 96 percent to US$1.76 billion compared...