Business

Corporate America is outsourcing an increasing number and variety of jobs to foreign shores, a trend that few industry experts predict will slow, let alone reverse, in coming months and years. Recently, the AFL-CIO -- citing a report by Gartner -- reported that by the end of next year, one out of ev...

Oracle Corp. has asked a court to toss out PeopleSoft's customer assurance program, saying the company's cash guarantees amount to an attempt to block Oracle's hostile takeover bid and lock in pay packages for PeopleSoft executives. In the motion filed with the Delaware court that is handling other ...

Microsoft has released Virtual PC 2004 to manufacturers, completing a lengthy product-customization process that began when the software giant acquired Connectix earlier this year. The Redmond, Washington-based company also said it will lower the sticker price of Virtual PC dramatically -- by $100, ...

Overstock.com, which offers up to 80 percent off the sticker price of items ranging from dresses to computers, has become a favorite bargain-hunting destination for many online shoppers. Yet the road was not always so smooth for the company. Unlike some of its e-commerce brethren, it did not have ab...

Although everyday use of a corporate name likely means the company has achieved significant success, if a company name becomes a verb or a popular dictionary word, it enters the public domain and the company loses its intellectual property rights -- witness Kleenex, Fridge and Hoover, to name just a...

Chipmaker AMD has said it sees signs of improving market conditions and will start "selectively hiring" during 2004 to meet an anticipated increase in demand. The company said it expects to post a profit in the fourth quarter and is optimistic about at least the first half of 2004, thanks to what ex...

With many online behemoths still struggling to turn a profit in the e-commerce sector, small and medium businesses may question whether the online sales model is truly a road to riches or just a pipedream. In the latest trend, many companies are abandoning their aging homegrown systems in favor of p...

Cisco Systems blew past Wall Street targets for revenue and earnings in its first quarter as telecommunications companies, government agencies and consumers helped power the Internet gear maker's sales to strong growth. The company said revenue in the quarter totaled $5.1 billion, up from $4.8 billi...

The first installment of this two-part series explored the notion that despite consumers' increasing demand for strong multimedia capabilities, vendors' low-end notebook computers can be a suitable replacement for home desktop PCs. When consumers deduct the cost of a flat-screen LCD panel from a not...

Executive road warriors probably would not want to tote Dell's $849 Inspiron 1100 or Gateway's $699 M305S. However, while sub-$1,000 notebook computers may be bulkier and less technologically cutting-edge than their more streamlined siblings, they still pack a powerful punch for a consumer's buck. I...

In a move that could significantly alter the Linux competitive landscape, Novell has said it will buy privately held Linux vendor SuSE for $210 million in cash. As part of the agreement, Novell also will accept a $50 million cash investment from IBM when the deal closes. "Novell has a history of stu...

Yahoo has discontinued its enterprise software division, which it initially set up to push its messaging and Internet broadcast offerings onto corporate desktops. The company laid off an undisclosed number of workers at locations in California, Dallas and Atlanta as a result of the division closing....

Now that Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) does Windows and Napster has been rehabilitated, more people are venturing into the world of legal music downloads. However, the onset of legal music download services has brought a new issue front and center: sound quality. The bit rate of an iTMS AAC file...

Hewlett-Packard has announced it plans to stop actively selling its e3000 servers, which have a history stretching back more than 30 years. Attachment to the product line remains strong in some corners, with a Web site listing dozens of locations that are holding mock "wakes" to mark the passing of ...

Perhaps the most significant event at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference, which ran from Sunday through Thursday in Los Angeles, was the company's release of a developers version of its upcoming Windows OS, also known as Longhorn. In his keynote address, Microsoft founder and chairman Bi...