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Oracle CEO Larry Ellison insisted on Wednesday that recently appointed HP CEO Leo Apotheker knew of the theft of Oracle's software while he was CEO of SAP. Ellison also dismissed HP chairman Ray Lane's statement that Apotheker didn't know anything about the theft as an "absurd lie." Oracle filed sui...

A vestige of the music wars at the turn of the century was shut down Wednesday by a federal district court judge in Manhattan. File-sharing service LimeWire was ordered by Judge Kimba M. Wood to stop distributing its peer-to-peer software because its overwhelming use was to encourage its users to ma...

Microsoft has been trying to crack open the enormous opportunity in the cellular industry for a decade. CEO Steve Ballmer always says the company's software is terrific, but it has never seemed to move the needle. Could that be about to change? Microsoft is about to release its newest version, Windo...

Dismayed by the prospect of Google acquiring a key service provider in the travel industry, online traveler providers have banded together to formalize their opposition to the deal. In July, Google announced a $700 million agreement to acquire ITA Software, a company that provides airline travel sof...

Over the last couple of years, in presentations around the U.S. about social media, I've asked audience members whether they take the time to read website terms of service, privacy policies or click wrap agreements. Very few have raised their hands. Recently, one CIO summed up the reasons: "Why both...

Citing First Amendment protections, a U.S. District Court judge in Seattle has ruled in favor of Amazon.com in its battle with North Carolina over potentially sensitive customer data the state claims it needs to calculate taxes. Judge Marsha J. Pechman ruled Monday that Amazon is not obligated to pr...

The personnel shakeup taking place at Digg offers an example of how difficult it can be for a social media site to make the transition from a popular online destination to a profitable business enterprise. In addition to losing its top sales and finance executives, Digg is reducing its total workfor...

Out there on the branding battlefields, it's simply do or die, as a brand image is either hypervisible or mortally lost in oblivion. Commanding success for any idea on the global scene demands universal e-commerce access that is only deliverable by a cybername identity, as it's the only key to o...

Despite advances in technology, online fraud and payment security continue to be significant issues and cost drivers for e-commerce merchants. Web applications are the leading source of data breaches and account for the majority of compromised data records. The majority of these records contain pa...

Adding the iPhone to its product mix helped Radio Shack lift its net income 23 percent in the third quarter, the company announced Monday. But falling margins and continued uncertainty about the venerable brand's future left the market unimpressed. Radio Shack reported diluted earnings per share of ...

On October 14, 2010, the Federal Court of Canada handed down its much-anticipated decision regarding Amazon's patent application for an invention entitled "Method and System for Placing a Purchase Order Via a Communication Network," or what has more colloquially been referred to as the "Amazon 1-Cli...

In the holiday selling season, the most frantic and exciting time of the year, it's a good time to put aside your marketing plan and your email strategy and just blast out mailings to everyone you've ever had on any list you've ever put together. Right? Wrong. What we just described is a mistake tha...

Google is actively negotiating with the big-three television networks and Hulu to unblock access to their programming to users of its new Google TV service. News Corp.'s Fox has not blocked programming but is considering the move. There have been reports that CBS content can be viewed, noted ITIC pr...

Venture capital group Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has launched a $250 million fund aimed specifically at startups that are developing social applications and services. Other investors in the "sFund," as it's called, include Facebook, Amazon, Zynga, Comcast and Liberty Media. In addition t...

It's been more than a decade since the publication of the The Clue Train Manifesto -- a business classic, well ahead of its time. Rich with both insight and foresight, it still amazes me that it was written before Twitter, Facebook and YouTube -- and, as business leaders, as marketers and as technol...