InternetNews Staff

Source: Reuters TAIPEI — Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) expects global unit sales of its Windows Mobile software for mobile phones to grow at least 50 percent per year in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 as demand for smartphones rises rapidly. “Fifty percent growth is the minimum,” Eddie Wu, the software company’s managing director of OEM embedded […]

HSINCHU, Taiwan — Top contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM) said today it may raise prices for its higher-end chips as rising costs threaten to squeeze profits. Semiconductor makers face higher costs to build state-of-the-art chip plants for most cutting-edge chips, and are also feeling the pain of rising inflation. As the industry’s leading […]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Source: Reuters

PARIS — Advertising on mobile phones has enormous potential to become a significant platform for marketers, but any breakthrough is years away and major operators must work together to succeed, executives said. Mobile operators increasingly see advertising as a powerful offering, given falling traditional voice revenue, as it allows brands to target consumers based on […]

The EU executive body will look into whether steps announced by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) to make it easier for users of an open source rival to work with Microsoft Office would give consumers greater choice. “The Commission will investigate whether the announced support of ODF [Open Document Format] in Office leads to better interoperability and […]

Source: Reuters ABC.com has souped up its full-episode broadband player with new features for the fall. Among the special features set for the broadcaster’s online destination are full-screen viewing, closed captioning and the ability to send video links that can be embedded on blogs and social networks. “Having come out of the gate with the […]

The top Republican on the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee asked Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Wednesday to detail the search engine’s privacy practices since it acquired rival DoubleClick. “It is critical that Google’s and DoubleClick’s policies and procedures for handling this information be transparent, and that every effort is made to […]

HERZLIYA, Israel — Microsoft confirmed that it’s not looking to bid to buy all of Yahoo but is in talks about other types of deals with the U.S. No. 2 search engine, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said on Wednesday. “We are not bidding to buy Yahoo,” Ballmer said at the launch of Microsoft’s new research […]

Time Warner will completely split with Time Warner Cable by the end of the year, in a $10.9 billion transaction to separate its content and distribution businesses. The plan will give Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) a $9.25 billion dividend and end its two-decade ownership of programming assets, such as film and television, and the means […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged eight former executives of AOL Time Warner, now known as Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), in a fraudulent scheme that overstated company advertising revenue by more than $1 billion. Four of the defendants settled with the SEC and the other four are facing fraud-related charges in federal […]

NEW YORK — Napster, the digital music service, on Tuesday opened the world’s biggest MP3 download store with more than 6 million songs in a direct challenge to Apple Inc’s iTunes store. The new Web-based music store will have digital songs from all major music labels as well as thousands of independent labels. The MP3-format […]

Microsoft Corp has proposed to buy Yahoo Inc’s search business and take a minority stake in the Web pioneer, stopping short of a full-out merger, a person familiar with the discussions said on Monday. As part of the deal, Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) would sell its Asian assets including significant minority stakes in Yahoo Japan and […]