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Technology News

As AOL stock begins limited trading, analyst takes a look at potential value

By Dan Burrows | Nov 24th 2009, 5:00PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Technology, Investing, Earnings, Time Warner

AOL, or "Aol.," as DailyFinance's corporate parent shall soon be known, won't be spun off from Time Warner (TWX) until Dec. 9, but Wall Street is already forecasting its (or should we say, "our") business prospects.

Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth laid out his earnings estimates for soon-to-be-independent AOL on Tuesday, coinciding with the stock trading on a "when-issued" basis on the New York Stock Exchange. (A when-issued listing is standard practice ahead of a spin-off in order to ensure a smooth transition for market participants.)

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Why Ballmer and Murdoch's attack on Google is doomed

By Peter Cohan | Nov 24th 2009, 2:50PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Technology, Google , Microsoft, Yahoo

Competitor-focused strategies fail, while customer-focused ones win. This comes to mind in thinking about a possible deal to take search advertising market share from Google (GOOG). It's now well known that Microsoft (MSFT) and News Corp. (NWS) are discussing teaming up in an effort to take out a rival (the competitor-focused strategy), whereas Google is on the side of creating competitively superior value for consumers and the advertisers seeking to reach them (the customer-focused strategy).

Google's approach is better because customers are the ones who are paying, and while Microsoft...

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Teracent: Display ad biz joins the Google family

By Tom Johansmeyer | Nov 24th 2009, 12:20PM EST Filed Under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Technology

Google (GOOG) just picked up another promising startup in its effort to gain some ground in the online visual advertising market. Teracent, which was formed three years ago, is becoming part of the search engine giant.

Yahoo! (YHOO) currently leads the market in display advertising sales, and Google has been trying push into the space. Last year, this led to its acquisition of online ad service DoubleClick, but that was a first step rather than a total solution to Google's display ad ambitions...

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Twitter to make acquisitions, generate revenue in 2010

By Tom Johansmeyer | Nov 24th 2009, 10:30AM EST Filed Under: Internet, Apple Inc (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM), Media World, Initial public offerings, Technology

Twitter is on the prowl. Though it made its last acquisition more than a year ago, company founder Biz Stone said on Tuesday that it's looking to add to the stable. There aren't any specific targets yet -- at least none revealed -- and Twitter is keeping its options open. The likely pool of potential acquisitions consists of third-party Twitter application developers, which...

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Hewlett-Packard reports growth in profit and operating margin in Q4

By Steven Mallas | Nov 24th 2009, 9:00AM EST Filed Under: Earnings reports, Microsoft (MSFT), Cisco Systems (CSCO), Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), International Business Machines (IBM), Technology

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), the famous maker of printers and PCs, and a colleague of entities such as Microsoft (MSFT), Dell (DELL), and International Business Machines (IBM), issued Q4 results on Monday after the end of the trading day. Revenues didn't impress me, as sales saw a decline of 8%. Net income, however, was better. On an adjusted basis, earnings...

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Hewlett-Packard posts a 14% earnings rise, but investors aren't impressed

By Sam Gustin | Nov 23rd 2009, 6:00PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Technology, Earnings, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, IBM

Hewlett Packard (HPQ), the Silicon Valley pioneer, reported a 14% jump in profit Monday night, thanks to cost-cutting measures that more than offset an 8% reduction in revenue. The results weren't a surprise: HP provided guidance earlier this month, when it announced plans to acquire 3Com, the networking giant.

"We believe that HP will outperform the market," HP CEO Mark Hurd said in an upbeat appearance on CNBC. "Spending will continue to be prudent in 2010, but it will be better than 2009."

Despite the profit growth, investors weren't that impressed. HP shares were trading down over half a percent late Monday in after-hours trading.

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Facebook spying costs Canadian woman her health benefits

By Bruce Watson | Nov 23rd 2009, 5:30PM EST Filed Under: Technology, Economy, People, Healthcare, Media, Facebook

On the surface, the twisted tale of Nathalie Blanchard seems to be yet another cautionary tale about how Facebook isn't really private, how social media can get you fired, and how the internet is a cruel mistress. On a deeper level, Blanchard's story indicates the growing popularity -- and danger -- of Facebook spies.

Blanchard, a Quebec employee of IBM, has been on longterm sick leave since Valentine's Day 2008, when she was diagnosed with major depression. For the ensuing year and a half, she has lived off monthly payments from her health insurance company, Manulife.

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Wikipedia volunteers dropping like flies

By Jonathan Berr | Nov 23rd 2009, 10:30AM EST Filed Under: Technology, Media

Volunteers who maintain Wikipedia are quitting in droves, burnt out from the stress of maintaining the free online encyclopedia.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the site has seen a net loss of 49,000 editors during the first three months of the year, 10 times the net loss of 4,900 during the same period a year earlier. Wikipedia officials, however, told the paper that they still have enough people to get the work done.

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Microsoft, Murdoch talk team-up to freeze Google out of online news

By Alex Salkever | Nov 23rd 2009, 9:30AM EST Filed Under: Company News, Technology, Media, Google , Microsoft, News Corp.

Can Microsoft (MSFT) gain much needed market share for its Bing search engine by signing a deal with News Corp. (NWS) and other news publishers to remove their web pages from the Google (GOOG) search index and give Bing an exclusive on links to The Wall Street Journal? That's the kernel of an argument which has been gaining traction online in the past month.

Certainly, such an arrangement is legal and possible. Google allows sites to opt-out of the index and even explains...

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