Politics and Law

Mark Hurd, Hewlett-Packard's former CEO and now the current president of Oracle, lost his fight in court this week to keep confidential a letter alleging sexual harassment.

Accessory maker M-Edge is suing Amazon, claiming the online retailer bullied it into making less profitable deals while infringing on its intellectual property.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Maryland last week and picked up by the Wall Street Journal, alleges that Amazon repeatedly tried to change the terms in a 2009 contract between the two companies.

"This case presents a classic example of unlawful corporate bullying," the suit reads. "M-Edge developed a very successful product line: personal electronic device jackets with multiple features for the Kindle and other e-readers. Amazon thereafter repeatedly sought to hijack the product through threats, more

Seven LCD manufacturer including Samsung and Sharp this month agreed to pay $553 million to settle lawsuits that claimed the companies were colluding with one another to fix the prices of their panels for use in consumer electronics.

Legal documents filed last week, and picked up by Reuters, show that the collected fines total $553 million between the companies involved, and that said companies will be setting up antitrust compliance programs as part of the deal. Of that sum, about $501 million is going towards a refund program for consumers, and about $37 million is being doled out to governments more

Following criticism from customers for its support of the Stop Online Piracy Act, domain registrar Go Daddy today said that it's no longer backing the legislation.

"Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation - but we can clearly do better," said Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman in a statement. "It's very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it."

In addition, more

An administrative law judge at the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled today that Motorola violated only one of seven Microsoft patents.

The initial ruling today, only a partial win for Microsoft, said only that Motorola has infringed on a patent related to using a mobile device to schedule meetings.

Administrative Law Judge Theodore Essex issued an initial determination that certain Motorola devices infringed on four claims of U.S. Patent 6,370,566 held by Microsoft. The patent covers technology used to schedule an appointment on a mobile device, invite others to attend a meeting using contact information and more

T-Mobile's parent company, Deutsche Telekom, may be losing out on $39 billion from its failed attempt to merge with AT&T, but on Tuesday the company gave a bit more detail on its consolation prize.

But will the breakup fee be enough to save T-Mobile?

On Monday, AT&T announced that it had ended its pursuit to buy T-Mobile. The company said it decided to pull the plug after it became clear it could not persuade regulators of the benefits of the merger.

While the dissolution of the deal leaves AT&T without much-needed spectrum to keep up with more

AT&T finally ditched its plan to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion on Monday, after months of intense lobbying.

AT&T blamed regulators for the deal's demise, and the company said in a statement that consumers would be harmed and investment would be stifled as a result. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission--the two agencies that opposed the deal--said that AT&T's decision to abandon its purchase was a victory for consumers.

"Consumers won today," Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division Sharis A. Pozen said in a statement. "Had more

AT&T said today that it has withdrawn its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA in a deal worth $39 billion.

The company said it would take a $4 billion charge in the fourth quarter as part of the break-up fee with Deutsche Telekom. The companies had agreed to this break-up fee when they formed the deal, which was announced in March. AT&T said the companies will also enter into a mutually beneficial roaming agreement.

There had been much speculation about how long AT&T would fight to keep its deal with T-Mobile alive. In August, the U.S. Department of Justice sued to block the merger. more

AT&T may be shifting gears as it prepares to abandon its original plan to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper reported today that talks between AT&T and the U.S. Department of Justice to come up with an acceptable plan for the wireless giant to buy T-Mobile have stalled. The Justice Department sued AT&T in August to stop the planned merger, stating that such a merger would hurt competition.

Since then AT&T has considered divesting or giving up certain parts of the T-Mobile network to satisfy the government'more