Corporate and legal

Hewlett-Packard is considering a reorganization that would see the company's printer unit combined with its personal computer business, according to a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday.

The plans, which are contingent on CEO Mark Hurd's final approval, would put both units under the leadership of Todd Bradley, the chief of the company's PC group, according to the report, which cited people close to the situation.

HP representatives declined to comment on the report, saying they don't comment on rumor or speculation.

The move would be an about-face for the company, which combined the printer and PC … Read more

commentary Global Gaming Factory X, the little Swedish software company dogged by controversy, is facing another deadline to complete its acquisition of The Pirate Bay.

Hans Pandeya, Global Gaming's much maligned CEO, has said the deal would be completed by Wednesday.

Typically, in anticipation of a big acquisition story, I'll collect background on the companies the night before so I can have a few graphs ready when the deal is announced. The only things I'll collect Tuesday evening is a nice piece of salmon and bottle of white wine.

That is because there's a better chance … Read more

A sensitive e-mail mistakenly sent by a bank to a Gmail address that prompted a court to order Google to deactivate the account was not viewed by the recipient and has been deleted, the bank said on Tuesday.

The e-mail, sent by an employee of Jackson, Wyo.-based Rocky Mountain Bank on August 12, contained names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and loan information of more than 1,300 bank customers.

The bank sent another e-mail asking that the data be destroyed and went to court to get Google to intervene on its behalf. Last week, a judge in U.S. … Read more

Mozilla and Opera are both unhappy with Microsoft's proposed "ballot screen" to let Windows users in Europe select their default browser, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft's proposed browser ballot screen is its attempt to satisfy the antitrust investigation from the European Union over Internet Explorer's dominance in Windows. The screen would present the user with a menu to install other browsers, including Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, and Safari, and let the user pick one as the default.

Microsoft became open to the concept over the summer as an alternative to … Read more

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent on Monday one of his periodic public e-mails, outlining the business realities of what he called "the new normal."

His e-mail comes just ahead of an event in San Francisco where he will talk about the lineup of products Microsoft is launching, namely Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Exchange Server 2010. I'll be covering that event live later Tuesday.

"Today, people borrow less, save more, and spend with much greater caution," Ballmer wrote in the e-mail, which is sent to anyone who subscribes to the notes. "This … Read more

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Online electronics retailer Newegg is launching an initial public offering estimated at $175 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

The retailer has largely been focused on IT products such as hardware, software, and peripherals since its launch in 2001, but it recently has expanded into the consumer electronics business and products that are targeted at small to midsize businesses. It has also expanded beyond the United States, moving into Canada and China.

Last year, it reported net sales of $2.1 … Read more

A bank that accidentally sent sensitive customer information to a Gmail address and persuaded a judge to order Google to deactivate the account has resolved the issue with Google and the companies have filed a motion to dismiss the case.

Google spokesman Andrew Pederson declined to say exactly how the issue was resolved or to identify the owner of the Gmail account.

The problem began August 12 when a worker at Rocky Mountain Bank inadvertently sent an e-mail containing names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and loan information of more than 1,300 customers to a random Gmail address. When the … Read more

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Xerox said Monday it will buy Affiliated Computer Services in a cash and stock deal valued at $6.4 billion.

Xerox is valuing ACS at $63.11 a share, up from ACS' closing price of $47.50. The move transforms Xerox into a services company that can focus on business process management and outsourcing (statement).

The company, which is in a dogfight with Hewlett-Packard for print managed services, is apparently looking for more foot soldiers to cross sell everything from process overhauls to document management programs. After all, HP can use its EDS army … Read more

Google's greatest challenge as it heads into its second decade may very well be innovating without ticking off Uncle Sam.

The position taken by the Department of Justice two weeks ago on the Google Books search settlement marked the second time in about a year the U.S. government has taken an active step to rein in one of the tech industry's signature companies. Google now is in the process of renegotiating a deal it once called "a historic settlement," one that gave it sweeping and exclusive rights to digitize certain kinds of books that competitors … Read more