Tag: BUSINESS

Facebook is reportedly working with China's largest search engine to create a new, jointly owned social network. The collaboration with Baidu would allow Facebook to get a foothold in the Chinese market while giving Baidu the chance to capitalize on Mark Zuckerberg's network-building expertise. The new site would still need to be approved by Chinese's Internet regulators, who retain final say ...

A decade after fighting a major antitrust lawsuit, Microsoft has filed exactly the same charges against Google. Today, the company will file a formal antitrust complaint with the European Union, joining a collection of small companies that have already made similar charges against the search giant. Microsoft is hoping that the E.U. will take some action against Google, and perhaps convince ...

Wait, we're still talking about the Groupon Superbowl ads? Yes, yes we are. In a recent BusinessWeek profile, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason noted that his company had cut ties with Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the agency responsible for the ad (and ensuing debacle). "[We] turned off the part of our brain where we should have made our own decisions. We learned that you can't rely on anyone else to control ...

Americans are increasingly doing their reading on screens, according to the Association of American Publishers. From January 2010 to January 2011, e-book sales more than doubled, increasing by 116-percent to $69.9 million. By contrast, hardbacks and paperbacks fell by 11.3- and 19.7-percent, to $49.1 million and $83.6 million respectively. By our calculations, ten years from now, "turn the page" ...

In the largest deal the wireless industry has seen since 2004, AT&T has agreed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion in cash and stocks. In acquiring T-Mobile from parent company Deutsche Telekom, AT&T will pick up an extra 34 million wireless customers, and will provide service to about 43-percent of all U.S. cell phones, making it the country's largest network operator. At the end of ...

Microsoft may not be worth as much money as Apple, but according to a new think-tank report, it's way more ethically sound. This year, the corporation earned a spot on Ethisphere's list of the 'World's Most Ethical Companies,' beating out Apple, Facebook, and Google. It's certainly a far cry from the late '90s, when Microsoft faced antitrust trials and accusations of corporate tyranny. But the ...

On March 28th, the New York Times will begin charging all but the most infrequent users to read articles online. Under the plan, users will be able to read 20 articles per month at no charge. Once they click on the 21st piece, however, they'll be presented with three payment options: $15 for four weeks a month of online and mobile app access, $20 for access to the site and the iPad app, or ...

The man who invented the Internet seems pretty worried about the future of net neutrality. During a roundtable discussion in London yesterday, Tim Berners-Lee warned that a two-tiered Internet would threaten the openness upon which the Web has thrived. "Best practices should also include the neutrality of the net," he told a group of representatives from various content companies, including ...

House Republicans are moving forward with their plan to repeal the FCC's new net neutrality regulations. Yesterday, the GOP-controlled House Commerce Committee voted to overturn the rules by a 30-23 vote that split along party lines. The vote comes less than a week after a House Subcommittee approved the measure by a similarly partisan vote. The FCC is also facing legal challenges from Verizon and ...

On May 2nd, AT&T will impose a broadband data cap for all DSL and U-Verse customers, after having already implemented similar usage limits for wireless users nearly a year ago. People connecting to the Internet through DSL will face a monthly limit of 150 gigabytes, while U-Verse users will be capped at 250 GB per month. Anyone exceeding these limits more than three times in three different ...

Facebook is preparing to launch a new 'Deals' program that will bring Groupon-like discount sharing to the world's largest social network. The program, set to go live within the next few weeks, will initially launch in five cities: Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas and Austin. As with services like Groupon and LivingSocial, Facebook's Deals campaign will allow users to share daily ...

Yesterday, the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology voted to repeal the FCC's net neutrality rules, just a few weeks after House Republicans passed a resolution to defund the commission's controversial initiative. The Republican-controlled panel voted to overturn the FCC's regulations by a 15-8 vote, split along party lines. The FCC passed the rules in December, when the ...

There's a nasty war of words brewing between Craigslist and Oodle, a rival classified ads site. Yesterday, Oodle posted a report claiming that last year, 330 crimes (including 43 violent crimes) were connected to Craigslist, which the company described as a "cesspool of crime." The report, which Oodle put together with research firm AIM Group, also featured an infographic titled 'Mayhem on ...

Facebook has issued a lengthy response to the Federal Trade Commission's plan to protect online privacy, outlining the social network's long-term philosophy on the issue and its plans for the future. In its response, Facebook admitted that the government should play a role in protecting user information on the Web, but argued that online companies should be allowed some freedom to regulate ...

Yesterday, Barack Obama held a private meeting with a dozen Silicon Valley luminaries, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Steve Jobs and heavyweights from Twitter and Google. During the two-hour dinner, Obama reportedly discussed his ideas on investments in education and a proposed public-private partnership geared toward helping startups and small businesses get off the ground. ...