Webware

AOL is starting off the week with a bang -- and a billion-dollar jolt to its financials.

The company today announced that it has inked a deal with Microsoft that will see the online firm sell 800 of its patents and their related patent applications. In addition, Microsoft will be granted a non-exclusive license to the patents that AOL retains. The deal will cost Microsoft $1.056 billion in cash.

After the deal is done, AOL will hold 300 patents and patent applications related to advertising, search, and other technologies. It has also agreed to sign a license to use … Read more

Cutting the cord in hopes of saving money on television programming is often contemplated. But last year, relatively few cable or satellite subscribers in the U.S. actually did it, a new study shows.

The Convergence Consulting Group yesterday released its research on TV cord cutting to see how many people left their cable or satellite plans behind to access all their content over the Web. The firm found that 1.05 million people in the U.S. cut their TV subscriptions last year. Since 2008, 2.65 million people have decided against cable or satellite and gone to alternative … Read more

As expected, Yahoo today announced that it will lay off a large number of its employees.

The company said this morning that it will begin notifying about 2,000 employees of their "job elimination or phased transition." Yahoo currently employs about 14,000 people around the world, so the layoffs will affect about 14 percent of its workforce.

In its statement, Yahoo said that it can realize approximately $375 million in annualized savings through the terminations. However, it also plans to take an estimated $125 million to $145 million pretax cash charge related to severance.

"Today's … Read more

Spotify users who have taken advantage of the company's no-cost, no-limits listening won't be held to any new limits just yet.

The music-streaming company announced today that it will extend its "honeymoon for unlimited free listening" for an indefinite period of time. When Spotify launched last year, the company said that users would be able to listen to free, ad-supported music for six months. After that, they would have been subject to a 10-hour monthly listening cap.

Spotify's decision to extend the unlimited listening isn't necessarily a surprise, since the company has been doing … Read more

Wizards and muggles alike can now buy and download digital versions of their favorite Harry Potter books.

Starting today, the Pottermore Web site shop is conjuring up all seven Harry Potter titles in digital format, beginning with "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" and ending with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." The first three titles in the series are $7.99 apiece, while the other four will run $9.99 each. Capturing the entire collection will cost you $57.54. Free samples of each book are also available so you can try before you … Read more

HTC has added streaming video to its recent lineup of investments.

In an effort to expand its mobile offerings for consumers, the handset maker has bought a 20 percent chunk of SyncTV, a unit owned by Intertrust. SyncTV is a cloud-based service that can stream video over the Internet to a variety of platforms, such as iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Xbox, and Internet-enabled TVs.

As part of the deal, HTC has also licensed several of Intertrust's patents, mostly in the area of digital rights management. SyncTV uses an open-source DRM called Marlin that lets manufacturers include the service in … Read more

Spotify's announcement late last year that it would be offering an application platform for developers seems to be paying off.

The streaming-music company announced today that there are 12 new apps available on its service from a host of companies, including Universal, Sony, Warner, and Def Jam.

For classical music fans, Spotify boasts a new app called Classify that allows users to find songs based on composers, eras, and moods. Def Jam Recordings has unveiled an application designed for hip-hop and R&B fans that will "give you new experiences in music discovery and curation." There'… Read more

If there was any doubt about Yelp's IPO pricing, it should be laid to rest right now.

The local-reviews site kicked off its IPO at $15 a share today on the Nasdaq, but soon after trading began, the stock jumped 73 percent to $26. After hitting the high mark, the shares cooled off a bit, eventually ending the day up 64 percent to land at $24.58.

Yelp in November announced its plans to go public. The company yesterday priced its shares at $15, raising $107.25 million on the 7.15 million shares it made available.

From a … Read more

Rumors have cropped up over the last few months suggesting that Apple is working on a streaming-video service to compete with Netflix. But according to a new report, it might have hit some snags.

Citing sources, the New York Post reported yesterday that Apple is having trouble selling media companies on its streaming-video service. One media executive who asked not to be named told the Post that Apple is looking for "everything for nothing." Another said that the iPhone maker wants to decide what content will be offered and at what price.

Nearly a year ago, CNET reported, … Read more