Business

EMC and Hitachi have settled simmering patent infringement lawsuits with a long-term agreement that calls for cross-licensing and cooperative development of new technology. As part of the deal, Tokyo-based Hitachi will make undisclosed payments to EMC, which first filed suit against Hitachi last Ap...

Lucent Technologies has cleared what could have been a major obstacle to its ongoing turnaround. The telecommunications equipment maker has reached a settlement to close the books on a probe into its accounting practices by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Lucent said the agreement will ...

IT wizards have been praising Web services for some time now, but the concept continues to elude much of the rest of the world, masking the massive promise this technology holds for e-business. In plain English, Web services allow a company to link its applications with those of its partners, custom...

E-commerce grew at a pace that put the overall economy to shame in 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, which said online sales surpassed $45 billion during the year. The DOC also said e-commerce is an increasingly large part of the overall retail economy, with 1.6 percent of the tota...

The e-commerce sector's recent successes are staggering. Combined sales of Amazon and eBay totaled US$19 billion in 2002, according to Forrester Research, and robust fourth-quarter numbers bucked the lackluster offline trend. But the path to those lofty results was paved with the failures of countle...

In the latest round of a corporate boxing match that has persisted for more than five years, Microsoft has filed a court brief accusing Sun Microsystems of unfair competition and violation of a previous settlement agreement. The brief is part of an ongoing private antitrust case brought against Micr...

In the wake of a spectacular meltdown that featured financial shenanigans, overspending and broken promises, can the telecom industry recover and grow strong again? The answer is yes, industry experts say, but telecom faces a long road back -- and it will not recapture the heights of three or four y...

Echoing reports of similar deals from such competitors as IBM, computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) said it won a five-year contract to handle technology outsourcing for Telecom Italia, a fixed-wire and wireless communications firm. The companies said the deal is worth 225 million euros, or about US$...

Long after the bubble burst, leaving office buildings half-empty and six-figure software engineers hunting for work, Silicon Valley remains one of the most important technology centers on Earth. But in an era of bottom-line budget scrutiny, does it still make sense for companies to stay in the North...

Consumers are still having a hard time getting companies to service their needs via e-mail, according to a new survey, and the experience is souring them on buying again from the same companies. Although 88 percent of consumers surveyed said they expect a response to e-mail inquiries within 24 hours...

The complaints are essentially the same, but the venue is different. Microsoft is under attack again for leveraging its monopoly and bundling its products, but this time its lines of defense are concentrated on the European front. In fact, it seems that so far, Europe's antitrust investigation has b...

Overture Services has announced it will pay $140 million to acquire once-venerable search engine AltaVista from dot-com incubator CMGI. The fire-sale price represents a bargain for Overture and a disaster for CMGI, which paid Compaq $2.3 billion for an 83 percent stake in the company in June 1999. O...

Cisco Systems is investing $150 million in a global advertising campaign to increase awareness of what a high-powered corporate network can do for companies' bottom lines, and to position Cisco for growth in new business segments. The push is the first in a while for Cisco, which has been forced to ...

Computer maker Dell has terminated what was to be a long-term, $16 billion parts contract with IBM. The move likely is a result of Big Blue's decision to exit some manufacturing businesses. Dell also said that a separate partnership, initially seen as a $6 billion deal in which Dell would funnel cus...

During the high-tech boom, vision was in. Corporate leaders like AOL's Steve Case, who made bold predictions about the future and then acted on them, became the heroes of the New Economy. Nowadays, on the other hand, CEOs seem to be cherished more for their ability to cut costs and make tough busine...