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We have now arrived right in the middle of that second half of the hyper-accelerated phase, where Western brands start to fall like dominoes. In the U.S. alone, hundreds of its world-class brands are being erased. From monster banking to mega manufacturing, some 73,000 stores alone will be closed in...

The gaming industry was the recipient of news both good and bad this past week. On the up side, the monthly NPD Group sales report for January indicated gaming continues to be relatively recession-resistant. Gamers also have something to cheer now that Nintendo has announced the U.S. release date fo...

Verizon Wireless has picked Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson as its main contractors in its planned deployment of its forthcoming Long Term Evolution network. LTE, reputed to be so fast that users can download a song in mere seconds, is considered the next industry benchmark for carriers to meet. Verizon...

The year-long U.S. recession hasn't brought spending on advertising to a screeching halt, but it has forced a shift in the way advertisers engage their audiences. With marketing budgets shrinking by the day, advertisers are turning to the Internet as an alternative to more traditional media such as ...

Liberty Media has thrown struggling Sirius XM Radio a lifeline that will keep it from falling into bankruptcy. The owner of satellite television service DirecTV has loaned Sirius $530 million, which it will use to pay off $171.6 million in debt that came due Tuesday. The remainder of the funds will ...

Swedish prosecutors have dismissed about half the charges brought against defendants accused of copyright violations through their operation of a P2P Web site that connects users to content -- mainly music and movies -- on other users' PCs. Last year, the owners of The Pirate Bay -- a Sweden-based ...

California's Orange County is known famously worldwide as the home of Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm, John Wayne and Richard Nixon, citrus crops and beige master-planned communities, babes and beaches. But OC is also coming into its own as the hub in a Southern California green tech corridor stret...

After weeks of combating the relentless spread of the Conficker worm -- also known as "Downadup" -- Microsoft announced a $250,000 bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the hackers behind the troublesome malware. In addition to posting the reward, Microsoft revealed Thursday...

In advertising, the focus is on getting across a clear message to consumers. The Federal Trade Commission's message to advertisers in its staff report released Thursday regarding online consumer data collection was laser-like in its clarity: Get busy with protecting privacy, or the government will d...

Just a month after saying it had no intention of opening a chain of retail stores, Microsoft has announced plans to do just that. The software giant announced Thursday that it has hired Wal-Mart veteran David Porter to lead the retail effort. Porter will report directly to Kevin Turner, Microsoft's ...

It just goes to show how perplexing the gathering cloud marketplace is that the punditry are hesitant to meaningfully analyze this important development. But Amazon -- with a history of bold and long-term bets -- and IBM -- with a history of making markets whether it's right about the future or not ...

One of the common misconceptions about Software as a Service is that this new approach to software distribution and user adoption is at odds with the preferences and best practices of the IT organization. The reality is that SaaS is increasingly being viewed as a savior for IT. A longstanding goal o...

Struggling Sirius XM Radio stock shot up nearly 30 percent to 7 cents per share in mid-day trading Thursday on rumors that a bidding war was about to ensue between rival satellite television players EchoStar and Liberty Media. EchoStar owns the Dish Network and Liberty Media owns a controlling inter...

IBM and Amazon Web Services have inked an agreement to offer Big Blue's software through Amazon's cloud offering. Over the next few months, software images for full production of some of IBM's most popular software will launch in beta. IBM, of course, has a well-established footprint in the cloud an...

Small businesses have been reluctant to spend precious resources on a marketing medium that traditionally has not delivered -- at least to them -- on its promise. That medium is search engine marketing. However, they will find it worthwhile to take another look at this particular tactic. A lot of lo...