Corporate and legal

As more entertainment content makes it way online, Comcast is looking for new ways to remain relevant to its subscribers.

Specifically, the cable giant is launching a bunch of new initiatives to bring more interactive content to its services and keep its subscribers hooked on cable. First on the list is the company's proposed free online video-on-demand service. The service, which will be offered as part of Comcast's Fancast video site, has been discussed publicly for the past couple of months. But the company has kept the details, such as when it will launch and what content will … Read more

This story was originally published at CBSNews.com.

Somewhere deep in Washington's national security apparatus, more than a few old-timers surely pine for the clarity of the Cold War. Black versus white, American versus Russian, spy versus spy--the good old days.

Now, however, they face more ephemeral threats from shadowy foes that prefer to cloak their identities.

"There's a cyberwar going on," said Ed Giorgio, who spent nearly 30 years with the National Security Agency before starting an IT security consultancy in 2007. The problem, he says, is that identifying an online adversary isn't as easy as pinpointing an enemy tank formation.

"Adversaries are just as likely to be nationalists as they are likely to be countries," said Giorgio, echoing a theme that cybersecurity experts say is likely to shape the Pentagon's approach to building Internet defenses in an increasingly networked world.

The extent of the problem was hinted at earlier in the day by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. In an upcoming 60 Minutes interview, Gates told CBS News anchor Katie Couric that the United States is "under cyberattack virtually all the time, every day" and that his department will more than quadruple the number of experts to battle cyber attacks. … Read more

Qualcomm has delayed its second-quarter earnings statement because of advanced settlement discussions with Broadcom, the company said Wednesday.

Qualcomm is delaying its earnings statement until Monday due to discussions with Broadcom "regarding a global settlement of all disputes between the parties which, if reached, would have an impact on the Qualcomm's financial results for the fiscal second quarter," the company said.

Revenue and operating income for the second quarter of fiscal 2009, excluding the potential impact of the Broadcom agreement, met or exceeded prior guidance, Qualcomm said.

In related news, on March 16, the U.S. District … Read more

Updated at 9:18 a.m. PDT: Analysis added about AT&T's iPhone subsidy and its labor costs. Comments also added from the company's conference call.

AT&T is pinning the more than 9 percent dip in profits for the first quarter on the slumping economy and expenses related to its retirement plan--and not on hefty subsidies associated with the popular iPhone.

AT&T said Wednesday it earned $3.1 billion, or 53 cents per share, in the first quarter. This figure is down from $3.5 billion, or 57 cents per share, during the … Read more

Yahoo's 5 percent layoff is going to be different this time.

So new Chief Executive Carol Bartz promised Tuesday as she announced first-quarter financial results and described the impression she's now begun trying to make on the Internet pioneer. Instead of an across-the-board cut, Yahoo's layoff of about 675 people is intended to enable new hiring and investments in the company's bigger Internet properties.

"We have good engineers but have to hire more and get them focused on the right stuff. It's probably the most important thing Yahoo's going to do to really … Read more

Yahoo, which announced a profit drop of 78 percent for the first quarter of 2009 on Tuesday, said it plans to cut about 5 percent of its employees.

Yahoo's first-quarter net income dropped 78 percent annually to $118 million as the company struggled with the recession's effect on online advertising, but the company's cost controls helped soften the blow--at least for shareholders. Several hundred Yahoo employees will be directly affected in the third major layoff in a just over a year.

"To allow flexibility for accelerated strategic investments and targeted hiring in its core operations, Yahoo … Read more

In the aftermath of the Pirate Bay trial, many Swedish law experts say they consider Friday's high-profile guilty verdict severe but fair. Very few had predicted the verdict before it was handed out.

Complicating the case in many observers' eyes was the fact that no copyright-protected files were stored or distributed on the Pirate Bay Web site. But reading the 107-page sentence from Stockholm's Tingsratt district court offers a clearer picture of the grounds on which the court found all four defendants guilty of having assisted in making 33 copyright-protected files accessible for illegal file sharing via Piratebay.org. … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission has revamped its DTV transition Web site in the hopes it can help more consumers prepare for the transition to digital television.

Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein unveiled the new site Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters' conference in Las Vegas. The primary purpose of the redesigned site was to make it more "consumer friendly." For example, the site includes a tool to search for local retailers selling converter boxes. It also has a quick tutorial on installing converter boxes and provides shopping information about the different products. And it provides tips for … Read more

Motorola says that the new set-top box it is developing for Japanese carrier KDDI will not use Google's Android operating system.

Last week, CNET News referenced a report from the Web site Android Guys that said Motorola is building a TV set-top box for Japanese telephone and broadband service provider KDDI.

The Web site reported that Masataka Miura, chairman of Open Embedded Software Foundation (OESF), had said Motorola was making the Android powered set-top box for KDDI. The OESF is a group that consists of several Japanese companies that plan to use Android in embedded devices. ARM, KDDI, Japan … Read more