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The term "ROBO" -- Research Online, Buy Offline -- was coined by Yahoo to describe the growing number of consumers who research online but buy offline. Online "pre-shopping" has become a common activity prior to a variety of purchases. According to Forrester, online research will influence $1 tril...

Two Monday technology stories, both involving China: Call them the yin and yang of that country's attempts to repair its image following Google's recent hacking allegations and the search giant's subsequent threats to end its business dealings in the country. Chinese police are trumpeting their shut...

On January 27, a major speech took place: No, it was not the State of the Union address, but Steve Jobs' announcement of the release of the iPad. The iPad has already started to change the landscape of digital publishing: After a few days of a public battle, Amazon was forced to capitulate to a new ...

Apple's new iPad may look like a thin, fragile piece of hardware, but it's apparently strong enough for publishing houses to use as a powerful wedge against Amazon in their negotiations over e-book pricing. Hachette Group became the latest publisher to announce it was going to move to the "agency" r...

The Department of Justice has advised the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that "significant" copyright and antitrust issues remain in the proposed amended settlement agreement between Google and the Authors Guild. "The amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core...

Value-Added Tax generates approximately one-third of all public revenue in many of the world's wealthiest countries; in some EU Member States, the VAT contribution to the fiscal mix is close to 40 percent. Electronic invoicing remains one of the most challenging areas of conducting e-business in and...

Amazon has reportedly acquired Touchco, a start up company that focuses on touch-screen technology, according to a report in The New York Times that cites a person briefed on the deal as a source. Amazon will merge Touchco's technology and staff into its Kindle hardware division, according to the Ti...

A well-rounded board is an absolute necessity in these economically trying times. The average board of today usually consists of at least one person who has expertise in the company's business; a high-profile person who brings credibility and gravitas to issues; a financial person who, among other t...

In November 2009, IBM announced its acquisition of Guardium, a privately held company based in Waltham, Mass., and the planned integration of Guardium's Database Activity Monitoring technology into IBM's Information Management and Business Analytics and Optimization initiatives. Financial terms were...

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin wants to know if Google's current dustup with China has the potential to create more cracks in that country's Great Firewall. So late Tuesday, the Illinois Democrat sent letters to 30 top technology companies -- including Apple, Facebook, Cisco, Verizon and Amazon -- asking the...

"Brought to you by ..." Ahhh, the golden age of advertising. The ads themselves were social markers, drivers of our conversation, definers of what was -- and was not -- cool. We took them at face value, we obeyed their siren songs, and we sampled, and we bought, and we sang the jingles. Back in a...

A brief stroll through the Google Solutions Marketplace shows you that the search giant is already working and playing well with others when it comes to the business of specialized business software. Need something to give your Google Calendar a little sharing and productivity boost? What about enha...

What are the top trends for the coming year? Every business process will go through intense compression and digitalization; a new wave of educational programs will sweep the executive corridors; new methodologies will be required to pitch for any serious business game plan; creating solid credibilit...

During a five hour event at its Redwood Shores corporate headquarters, Oracle executives, including CEO Larry Ellison and Co-Presidents Safra Catz and Charles Phillips, applauded the completion of Oracle's purchase of Sun Microsystems and outlined their strategy for the new acquisition for a media a...

After a brief protest late last week, Amazon now says it will give in and sell e-books from Macmillan at the higher prices the publisher has requested. "Macmillan, one of the 'big six' publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an...