InternetNews Staff

MUMBAI — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Tuesday said speculation the company may buy German software firm SAP was a “random rumor.” “I have nothing to say about rumors of acquisitions … positively or negatively,” he told reporters in Mumbai, when asked about a Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) acquisition of SAP (NYSE: SAP). “It strikes me […]

EU antitrust regulators are expected to say this week that Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) illegally paid computer makers to postpone or cancel the launch of products containing chips made by its main rival, sources familiar with the case said on Sunday. The European Commission is set to decide on Wednesday to fine the world’s largest chipmaker […]

Microsoft’s next version of Windows is stirring fresh complaints of anticompetitive behavior from rivals who say the new version of the operating system gives unfair advantage to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, the Financial Times reported. “Our initial review suggests this is a blatant use of the Windows operating system to change the market dynamics of […]

Advanced Micro Devices merged its microprocessor and graphics chip businesses on Wednesday, its latest effort to adjust its structure and claw back market share lost to larger rival Intel. The newly merged division will be spearheaded by graphics chip executive Rick Bergman. AMD (NYSE: AMD) also announced that Randy Allen, who was in charge of […]

With more than 5,000 homes in the Santa Barbara, CA area evacuated due to the 500-acre Jesusita Fire today, we reprise a few stories from our archives about the potential Wi-Fi has for early detection and wildfire prevention. “Wi-Fi to the Rescue,” by Jeff Goldman, November 1, 2007 The wildfires throughout Southern California this fall served […]

Web-based business software sales are growing briskly, even as most of the industry stalls, as the segment pioneered by Salesforce.com benefits from the weak economy and fading concerns about security. Gartner Research now expects 2009 sales of so-called cloud-based software to grow 22 percent to a record $8 billion, a touch higher than before, the […]

Sweden’s Pirate Party, which wants to reform copyright law, could ride a wave of discontent over tighter control of computer file-sharing all the way into the European Parliament in June. The jail sentences handed out last month to the four Swedish men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world’s biggest free file-sharing Web sites, […]

U.S. Representative Barney Frank will unveil legislation on Wednesday to roll back a U.S. ban on online gambling, he said in a statement on Tuesday. The new bill would exempt operators that are licensed and regulated from the ban enacted in 2006, Frank said. The Massachusetts Democrat said his legislation “will enable Americans to bet […]

Yahoo CEO Carol BartzSource: Yahoo Four months into her fix-it job at Yahoo, CEO Carol Bartz has worked through an impressive checklist. The 60-year-old executive has moved swiftly to rebuild the Internet company to her specifications, upending the organizational structure, replacing executives and cutting costs including 675 jobs, or 5 percent of the workforce. Analysts say […]

The cybersecurity chief named to battle Internet viruses and larger challenges facing the information technology networks used by U.S. companies and national defense should be based in the White House, experts told a congressional panel on Friday. Cybersecurity is important enough to warrant a White House staffer with real authority and a real budget, said […]

The body in charge of assigning Internet addresses such as .com and .net should be shorn of its U.S. government links from October and made fully independent, the European Union’s information society chief said on Monday. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a not-for-profit organization set up in 1998 but operates […]

The U.S. Justice Department is making inquiries about a class action deal that Google struck giving it the right to digitize and sell entire libraries, two experts on digitization told Reuters on Tuesday. Under a proposed settlement last October between Google and the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, Google agreed to pay […]