Business and Technology News

The problem with the founder's letter
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:18:03 EST - FORTUNE -- For Internet companies going public, the founder's letter is becoming a ritual with a purely symbolic value, a rite of passage into the adulthood of public markets. Larry Page and Sergey Brin started it when Google (GOOG) went public in 2004. Andrew Mason raised it to absurd new heights when Groupon (GRPN) launched its IPO last year.
IBM's Watson is changing careers
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:03:53 EST - FORTUNE -- Beating lowly humans on Jeopardy was just the beginning. IBM's famed Watson supercomputer will soon be available as a commercialized analytics tool for data-heavy industries like healthcare, telecom and financial services.
Micron CEO Steve Appleton dies in plane crash
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:05:21 EST - Micron CEO and chairman Steve Appleton died Friday morning in a small-plane crash in Boise.
Place your bets on Facebook's IPO -- literally
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:49:25 EST - Facebook has finally filed for an IPO, but it likely won't start trading for months. For those who can't wait to gamble on the stock market, bookies are accepting bets.
Facebook IPO shrinks private trading market
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:24:05 EST - Facebook has played a big role in the private trading markets that allow eligible investors the chance to snap up shares of hot Internet companies years before they go public.
Apple led the way as smartphones overtook PCs
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:52:23 EST - Total annual global shipments exceeded PCs (including tablets) for the first time in 2011
The cloud goes Hollywood
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:13:24 EST - Consumers who recently purchased Warner Brothers' final Harry Potter film on DVD or Blu-ray found a surprise in the package: a digital copy of the movie in the new UltraViolet format. Although the name is not yet familiar, UltraViolet represents Hollywood's first step into the cloud -- the much-hyped idea that media will be stored on remote servers and accessed by various devices.
iPhone patent wars: What's going on in Germany?
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:00:19 EST - Apple forced to pull older iPhones off its online store, faces an injunction on push e-mail
Apple earns 75% of all cell phone profits
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:25:17 EST - Between them, Samsung and Apple are sucking up 91% of the winnings.
Heavenly Steve Jobs ad spawns hellish flame war
Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:46:44 EST - A Taiwanese impersonator brings out the worst in Apple's critics and fans.
What will Facebook do with $9 billion?
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:02:24 EST - Facebook has finally filed to raise $5 billion through a public offering. But it hardly needs the cash: The company already has almost $4 billion stashed in its piggy bank.
Howard Stringer's long, strange trip
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:56 EST - FORTUNE -- Will the departure of CEO Howard Stringer, whose stumbles have come to epitomize the struggles of the once-great Sony Corp., turn things around for the media-and-electronics conglomerate?
The trials of Uber
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:48:52 EST - FORTUNE -- You need a ride. Instead of lingering at the intersection flailing your hand in the air, you fish out your smartphone. A few taps later, Uber's slick, futuristic logo appears, a seriffed "U" hovering over a stark black background. Signing up takes a few seconds. Once you provide basic contact and credit card information, a Google map pops up displaying your nearby surroundings. You select a spot on the screen to set a rendezvous and watch as a car-shaped icon inches toward it. When a black sedan pulls up a few minutes later, the driver welcomes you by name and offers free snacks and bottled water. At your destination, the fare is automatically charged to your card. No fumbling with wadded cash. No flimsy receipts to stash away. You simply hop out and go.
Facebook's ripple effect: Zynga spikes 17%
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:49:45 EST - Now that Facebook has finally filed for its much anticipated initial public offering, the enthusiasm for other social media investments has spread like wildfire.
An illustrated guide to Facebook's IPO
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:57:22 EST - A peek at Facebook's multi-billion-dollar empire -- and the half-dozen billionaires it has created.
Facebook is great. But $100 billion great?
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:30:15 EST - Facebook is a great company. It proved that in its IPO filing. A billion dollar annual profit and $3.9 billion in cash for something that didn't even exist 10 years ago? That's impressive.
Facebook IPO highlights 'The Hacker Way'
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:29:45 EST - In a letter to investors included in Facebook's IPO filing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined his philosophy for running what has become a multi-billion-dollar business. At core of that philosophy: Love your hackers.
Conan O'Brien finds humor in suicides at the iPhone factories
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:07:37 EST - Team Coco's video bits can be hit or miss. The one about Apple's iNett was a miss.
IDC: iPhone is No. 3 worldwide
Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:22:14 EST - Apple's mobile phone shipments nearly doubled in 2011, overtaking LG and ZTE.