corporate

The calls for Research in Motion to reconsider its current executive structure are getting louder.

Today major shareholder advisory group International Shareholder Services (ISS) added its voice to the mix, telling clients they should support a proposal to split the company's CEO and chairman roles. Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are co-CEOs and co-chairmen of the Waterloo, Ontario-based mobile computing company.

"The board's mandate is to represent the interests of shareholders through overseeing management and instilling accountability...Conflicts of interest may arise when one person holds both the Chair and CEO positions," ISS said today, according to Bloomberg. … Read more

There's a famous Sherlock Holmes story in which Holmes uses a wax bust and some clever lighting to make it look like he's at home.

For $35 and a lot less effort, you can pull your own fast one with the FakeTV, a gadget designed to mimic the light from a television set.

The FakeTV comes with a built-in light sensor and timer. It uses LEDs to output light equivalent to a 27-inch HDTV. The pattern of light and color shifts to make it seem like you're at home and glued to the latest episode of "The Bachelorette."

The idea is to deter burglars who are prowling around your neighborhood after dark, even when you're away on a business trip or out on the town for the night. It won't stop a truly determined thief, but it could discourage a casual robber.… Read more

The company known as International Business Machines turns 100 years old today, and it's been one hell of a ride.

In the dynamic American economy, not many companies make it this long--much less remain this successful. You can probably count them on one hand: Ford. GE. Several banks, which have merged and acquired themselves right out of recognition.

All of these companies' stories share the same theme: adaptability. Facing bankruptcy, Ford spent its way out of the latest recession. GE moved beyond lighting into infrastructure. And, as we'll learn below, IBM let data guide it to success.

All … Read more

Tesla Motors and Electric Power Research Institute join U.S. Department of Energy, automaker research teams and energy companies to accelerate the development of new energy-efficient technologies for cars and light trucks and the infrastructure needed to support them.

According to the DOE, the collaborative effort formerly known as FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership, is now U.S. DRIVE--Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy sustainability. The goal is to beef up research and development of not only new vehicle technologies, but to also work on a broad range of energy infrastructure technologies.

"Government-industry partnerships like U.… Read more

Liquid Metal Battery, a company pursuing a breakthrough battery design, has attracted Bill Gates and an oil driller as seed investors.

Many battery companies are working to improve existing technology, but the founders of Liquid Metal Battery are taking an unusual approach that they hope will slash energy storage costs and deliver batteries able to store several hours of wind and solar power. The target of the company, which was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is to have demonstration systems connected to the grid in three to five years, executives said. An official announcement of the series … Read more

Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of Macintosh hardware engineering, sold off 99 percent of his company shares earlier this week, a sale amounting to just under $13.7 million.

Mansfield, who joined Apple when the company acquired Raycer Graphics in 1999, now owns 501 shares following the sale according to a Form 4 filed with the SEC on Monday.

But that doesn't mean he's divesting himself from the company. Fortune reports that Mansfield still holds fully vested options to buy 30,000 more shares of company stock at $36.54 per share, along with an additional 100,000 restricted stock units that vest in 2014.

Mansfield's last big sale was 40,000 shares of company stock back in October, netting $10.84 million after strike price. In the past three years, Fortune estimates the net gain from these trades at $37.9 million.

Along with Mansfield's transaction this week, Apple Vice President and Corporate Controller Betsy Rafael sold 2,956 shares of common stock on the same day. … Read more

Expedia is splitting into two companies, Expedia and TripAdvisor, the travel firm announced today.

Under its Expedia brand, the company will conduct both domestic and international operations through Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire, and others. The second company, TripAdvisor, will be made up of TripAdvisor.com, as well as "18 other travel media and advertising brands." Both entities will be publicly traded.

TripAdvisor was acquired by InterActive Corporation (IAC) in 2004. It spun off under the Expedia name in 2005. Since then, Expedia has been performing relatively well. In 2009, the company generated a profit of more than $… Read more

Visteon and 3M today unveiled the C-Beyond concept to the market in India. This is the second Growth Market Car collaboration between the two companies.

Visteon brings numerous innovative options to the C-Beyond, including a compact heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) unit with thinner heat exchangers that take up less room in the interior. Electronics options include a scalable instrument cluster with an electronic or mechanical integrated control panel. A customizable instrument panel can be full-size or two-thirds size, depending on which consumers prefer. And "a rear-facing fan on the back of the center console cost-effectively eliminates the … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--In his first official appearance before the technology press and analysts since becoming CEO last fall, Leo Apotheker today illustrated his vision for Hewlett-Packard's future.

HP will focus on three areas in the future: cloud services, connectivity among devices, and software, he said on stage at the Yerba Buena Theater here. "Our vision is to provide seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world."

Apotheker said he was able to articulate this strategy after reviewing the company internally over the past four and a half months. "In that time I've been rolling up my … Read more