Business

In the midst of Oracle's trial to defend its takeover bid for PeopleSoft, Oracle will disclose merger talks between SAP and Microsoft. In a statement, Microsoft revealed Monday that in late 2003, it approached SAP to discuss the viability of a merger. After months of discussion, it became clear that...

Microsoft has announced that it will ask a European court to suspend parts of the European Commission's March 24th ruling, which ordered the company to change its business practices and pay a fine of US$612 million. In the ruling, the commission mandates that Microsoft must strip Media Player softwa...

General Motors will invest US$3 billion to expand operations in China in the next three years, a massive outlay of capital that will enable it to double its output in the country that is home to one of the world's fastest-growing economies. GM, the world's leading automaker, and its partners will in...

Microsoft has won a patent related to the timing of button-clicks on handheld computers and similar devices, sparking concerns among some companies and industry observers that the software giant will attempt to reap licensing fees for what many view as a common practice. Patent No. 6,727,830 spells ...

Social networking pioneer online service Friendster has tapped former NBC entertainment president Scott Sassa as its CEO, replacing interim CEO Tim Koogle. Friendster gave Koogle the reins in March, three years after he had stepped down as CEO of Yahoo and was replaced by Hollywood studio executive ...

When Mel Karmazin on Tuesday announced that he had resigned his position as president of Viacom, the media giant responded by appointing Tom Freston and Leslie Moonves as co-presidents and co-chief operating officers, effective immediately. The two new appointees were Viacom's two most influential d...

A group of technology and consulting companies led by Accenture has landed a U.S. federal contract that could be worth as much as $10 billion. The contract calls for them to implement a border access system that will rely heavily on biometrics and other technologies to track foreign visitors to the ...

The Chinese government is establishing a committee that will review online games and censor them if it finds questionable content. The review will take place before the games are made available, so subscriptions will never be sold if the committee does not render approval. Objectionable material, ac...

Seeking to move beyond a $2 billion accounting scandal, Computer Associates has offered to make a $10 million payment to put the probe to rest and has rolled out an information security product and services push designed to capitalize on what is already a strong growth area. Against the backdrop of ...

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has taken additional steps in its fight against music piracy by issuing nearly 500 more lawsuits against alleged music file-sharers. This action brings the total number of individuals it has sued to nearly 3,000. While the RIAA doesn't yet know th...

Toysrus.com has sued Amazon.com, the company that has run its online store since early 2000, claiming the e-tail giant violated an exclusivity agreement and seeking $200 million in damages. The online wing of Toys 'R' Us claims Amazon is in breach of the original agreement between the two companies ...

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued Richard Grasso on Monday, seeking the return of millions of dollars the former head of the New York Stock Exchange is alleged to have received improperly. Spitzer also sued former chairman of the NYSE's compensation committee, Ken Langone, and said the pr...

Lucent Technologies said Monday that it will pay about $295 million to acquire Telica, a provider of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) gear, in the latest deal to underscore the emergence of the Internet as a tool for traditional telecommunications. Lucent will dish out 92.7 million stock shares a...

The following is a transcript of the radio address of President Bush to the nation on Friday: THE PRESIDENT: "Good morning. This week brought further evidence that across America, more citizens are finding jobs. The Department of Labor reported state-by-state job results, and these figures show that...

As part of its legal wrangling with The SCO Group, IBM has filed a motion for summary judgment in an attempt to remove copyright claims from the multibillion-dollar lawsuit. In its request, Big Blue cited a lack of evidence from SCO that would prove wrongdoing on IBM's part. The copyright claims in ...