pricing

Talk about kicking up a dog doo-doo storm. Verizon's chief financial officer Fran Shammo sure knows how to stir up a frenzy.

Comments the executive made earlier this week ignited a backlash among Verizon Wireless customers. Shammo said in an interview at a JP Morgan investor conference that the company plans to force its existing unlimited data plan customers to move to a tiered offering this summer in an effort to drive more data revenue for the wireless carrier. This is a switch from the company's current policy, which has allowed so-called "grandfathered" users to keep … Read more

The cost of Verizon's Fios and wireless service are expected to go up during the next several months, as the company hikes prices and introduce new plans that demand customers pay more for the data they consume.

Speaking at the JP Morgan investor conference Tuesday, Fran Shammo, Verizon Communications' CFO, said the company is planning to increase fees and prices for its Fios Internet and TV services. He also promised investors that wireless customers would soon be spending more on its service after the company implements a new "data share" plan for its 4G LTE network.

Shammo'… Read more

Apple and five big publishers are still on the hook to battle allegations of price fixing after a U.S. district court judge rejected their bid to dismiss a consumer lawsuit accusing them of colluding to maintain artificially high e-book prices.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced settlements with three publishers: Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and Harper Collins. Apple, Macmillan, and Penguin intend to fight the allegations in court. (Disclosure: Simon & Schuster is owned by CNET's parent company, CBS.)

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, … Read more

New details have surfaced in the class-action e-book price-fixing lawsuit against Apple, according to tech news site paidContent. The most notable revelation is an e-mail from Steve Jobs to one of the bookseller's executives that was previously redacted and is now public.

The gist of the case, which was filed in April and now has 29 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico involved, is an allegation that Apple and a group of book publishers illegally fixed e-book prices to "boost profits and force e-book rival Amazon to abandon its pro-consumer discount pricing."

The Department of Justice … Read more

Facebook's recent IPO filing and upcoming debut on the Nasdaq may be eliciting speculation of weak demand, but some sources say the social network is doing just fine in rounding up investors.

According to Reuters, which spoke to sources familiar with the share listing, Facebook's IPO is "already oversubscribed." The news source reported that institutional investors have currently "indicated demand for more shares than Facebook has available."

But it hasn't been so rosy up til now. Just yesterday, news broke that the social network amended its S-1 filing with the SEC to emphasize … Read more

Rumors of an iPad Mini have been floating around for a while. How many people would actually buy one?

Asked if they'd pick up a 7-inch iPad mini that cost between $249 and $300, a full 52 percent of those polled by shopping site PriceGrabber said yes. (What do you think? Take our poll!)

Doing the math, that means 48 percent aren't interested. But delving further, only 22 percent of all those surveyed currently own a tablet. Among those, 68 percent have an iPad or iPad 2, while 10 percent own Amazon's Kindle Fire.

Why would half of those polled want a smaller iPad? The answers varied, with many people citing more than one reason.… Read more

Australia's Parliament is planning to investigate why it costs more to download software and other content in Australia than it does in other countries.

The probe comes after a report on the situation released last year by the government Productivity Commission found significant price disparity between prices charged in Australia and in overseas markets. The controversy flared up again last week when Adobe Systems announced that Australians would be paying several hundred dollars more for its Creative Suite software than their American counterparts.

"People here scratch their heads trying to work out why they get fleeced on software … Read more

Apple and Google could soon see themselves in the Dow Jones Industrial Average -- perhaps at the expense of a tech pioneer.

The stock index is due for a makeover and the two tech titans wield a lot of influence in financial markets, investment newspaper Barrons reported today (subscription required). The companies "represent major shifts in the global business landscape" in ways that the venerable Hewlett-Packard, Bank of America, and Alcoa do not, Barron's said.

"The guardians of the Dow need to ensure that this benchmark, created in the 19th century, stays relevant for a 21st … Read more

Brian J. White, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets, apparently hates zeros.

In a note sent out to investors this morning, and picked up by AllThingsD, White updated his previously controversial estimate that Apple's stock price would hit $1,001, saying that he thinks that might have been a conservative guess.

"We believe the negative vibes that have held back the stock over the past couple of weeks will now be replaced with the fear of missing the next leg up in the stock price that we are forecasting will reach $1,111.00 over the next year,&… Read more