Corporate and legal

Yahoo loses another exec

There's been another high-level departure at Yahoo. Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president for the consumer products group, is leaving the company after little more than a year on the job.

"Bryan Lamkin, SVP, Consumer Products Group, has decided to leave Yahoo to pursue a new entrepreneurial venture," Yahoo said in a statement. "His last day will be May 28, and he'll spend the next several weeks focused on ensuring a smooth transition. We wish him all the best in his new endeavors."

Why is Lamkin bowing out? Sources say he didn't get along … Read more

The people involved in sale of lost iPhone revealed

The saga of the lost prototype iPhone started with a 21-year-old Silicon Valley resident who says he regrets not trying harder to find its real owner, according to a published report.

Brian J. Hogan, a 21-year-old resident of Redwood City, Calif., is the person who found the iPhone and was paid by Gizmodo, according to a story published on Thursday by Wired.com.

Hogan's lawyer issued a statement to Wired and said Hogan was in the bar with friends when another patron handed him the phone after finding it on a nearby stool, asked around if anyone owned it, … Read more

Venture capitalists growing more confident

As the world starts to recover from the economic downturn, venture capitalists from such diverse areas as Silicon Valley and China are showing renewed optimism in their industries and regions.

Analyzing the results of an April 2010 survey of 36 San Francisco Bay Area VCs, the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Confidence Index for the first quarter of 2010 rose to 3.65 on a 5-point scale, up from last year's fourth quarter mark of 3.48.

On the other side of the Pacific, 16 VCs from China and Hong Kong polled this month registered 3.94 on the 5-point … Read more

Symantec buys crypto firms PGP and GuardianEdge

Symantec has announced it will buy encryption vendors PGP and GuardianEdge Technologies to boost its lineup.

The security company plans to integrate encryption products from PGP and GuardianEdge into its data loss prevention suite and endpoint protection products, it said in its acquisition announcement on Thursday.

"The two acquisitions will give us a market-leading position in the $1.4 billion per year encryption business," Symantec enterprise security group vice president Francis deSouza told ZDNet UK on Thursday. "At Symantec, we're focused on making data protection easier to manage, and these acquisitions represent a big step forward.&… Read more

Jobs: Why Apple banned Flash from the iPhone

In a rare open letter published Thursday, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs has detailed the technological reasons behind his company's refusal to let Adobe Systems' Flash Player onto the iPhone: he thinks it's a relic, not the future.

"Flash was created during the PC era--for PCs and mice," Jobs said in the letter. "New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.&… Read more

Motorola posts surprise profit

Motorola's strategy may be starting to pay off as the company announced a surprise profit and topped forecasts for the first quarter.

On Thursday, the company said it earned $69 million, or 3 cents per share, in the quarter. During the same quarter a year ago, it lost $231 million, or 13 cents per share. Analysts had expected Motorola to lose 1 cent to 3 cents a share in the first quarter.

Revenue was down 6.1 percent to $5.04 billion from a year ago. Analysts expected revenue of about $5.1 billion.

Motorola sees the earnings momentum … Read more

With Palm, HP reboots mobile strategy

With its purchase of Palm, Hewlett-Packard acquired more than just a smartphone maker. It also picked up a whole new strategy for its mobile devices.

HP said Wednesday it plans to acquire Palm for $1.2 billion, or $5.70 per share, which amounts to a 23 percent premium over Palm's actual stock price at the end of the day. But for a leading technology company like HP with almost zero mobile phone presence and $13.5 billion in cash, picking up a company with a fully developed mobile operating system, a decent lineup of devices, and trove of … Read more

HP buying Palm for $1.2 billion

Palm, the company that invented the PDA but has struggled to stay relevant in recent years, will be acquired by computing giant Hewlett-Packard.

Palm's history The company, which took the handheld computer into the mainstream, has traveled a bumpy road. Date Event November 1998 Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky leave Palm to start Handspring February 1999 Palm introduces the slimmer Palm V November 2001 Palm announces plans to split into two public companies June 2003 Palm buys Handspring Sept. 2005 Palm introduces its first Windows-based Treo June 2007 Palm introduces the ill-fated Foleo June 2007 Palm announces it is … Read more

Customer growth boosts Comcast sales, earnings

Comcast can thank a rise in Internet and voice customers and a rebound in ad spending for helping sales and earnings grow higher than expected in the first quarter of 2010.

On Wednesday, the cable company reported a net profit of $866 million, or 31 cents a share, for the quarter ended March, a 12 percent rise from the $772 million earned in the year-ago quarter. Sales climbed 3.8 percent to reach $9.2 billion.

Results inched past the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who were eyeing earnings per share of 30 cents on revenue of $9.… Read more