Corporate & legal

A year ago Sunday, on February 1, 2008, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told the world his company wanted to buy Yahoo.

Despite months of discussions, the deal never materialized, distressing many Yahoo shareholders and hastening Yahoo's replacement of CEO Jerry Yang with Carol Bartz. But what if Yang had gotten up on the other side of the bed one day a year ago and led his company to accept the offer?

It's impossible to know what would have happened, of course. But an exercise in speculation can be illuminating, as Philip K. Dick showed with The Man In The High Castle, … Read more

Georgetown University is banning the use of the Windows 7 beta, informing students and faculty it will not support the trial version of Microsoft's latest operating system, according to a report in InformationWeek

The university's information technology group notes it generally does not support any beta version of software, unless otherwise noted.

And in the case of the Windows 7 beta, the Georgetown IT group reiterates Microsoft's warning that the beta could disable security software, as well as cause other hardware, such as printers and video cards, to function incorrectly, according to the report.

The university IT … Read more

Update at 1:50 p.m. PST, with information from American Guarantee's lawsuit against Intel in the Delaware Chancery Court.

Intel has filed a $50 million lawsuit against insurance carrier American Guarantee and Liability Insurance, alleging breach of contract.

The alleged breach involves the insurance firm's failure to pay for Intel's legal defense related to antitrust lawsuits filed by rival Advanced Micro Devices and consumers.

Intel, in the lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for Northern California, alleges that American Guarantee did not step up to the plate and begin paying for the … Read more

Googlers who want to revalue their underwater stock options will have to wait until Tuesday for the voluntary employee option exchange program to launch, Google said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that did not explain why.

The program--which allows allow employees to exchange all or some of their existing stock options for the same number of new options--was scheduled to launch Thursday and end on March 3. Employees were notified of the change in an e-mail sent Wednesday by Laszlo Bock, vice president of People Operations at Google, and which was included … Read more

Correction, 4:03 p.m. PST: This story misstated the day the company announced subscriber figures. It was Thursday.

Competition is heating up in the wireless market and it looks like T-Mobile USA is getting singed.

Deutsche Telekom, which owns the wireless company T-Mobile International and T-Mobile USA, reported earnings on Thursday citing slower subscriber growth for its U.S. wireless entity.

During the fourth quarter, T-Mobile USA, which is the fourth largest wireless operator in the U.S., added 621,000 new customers. This was down from the previous quarter when the company added 670,000 new subscribers. And … Read more

Market research firm iSuppli has taken apart the BlackBerry Storm and discovered that the sum of its parts is worth more than those of Apple's iPhone 3G.

Components used to build new Research In Motion smartphone cost about $203, according to iSuppli. Verizon Wireless, the exclusive carrier of the Storm, sells the device for $199 after rebates and with a two-year service contract. Meanwhile, the total cost of components in Apple's 8-gigabyte iPhone 3G, which was introduced last summer, is $174. AT&T, the iPhone's exclusive carrier, sells the 8GB device for $199 with a two-year … Read more

Correction, 12:50 p.m. PST: This story initially mischaracterized a statement made by John Challenger regarding the severity of recent tech-related job cuts. He does not expect them to be as severe as those during the dot-com bust. Also the percentage figures cited within the various sectors reflect the increase in layoffs last year compared with 2007, and not the percentage of jobs cut.

Job cuts in the tech sector increased 74.2 percent in 2008 compared with the previous year, as the industry was battered by an unrelenting wave of layoffs, according to a report released Thursday.

Last … Read more

Lenovo has acquired a small start-up headed by a former Microsoft executive.

Switchbox Labs is based in Seattle and was founded by Michael Sievert, Robert Dickinson, and Blake Ramsdell. Sievert left his position as Windows Mobile marketing executive last February. All three will join Lenovo, and Sievert will become a senior vice president reporting directly to Lenovo chief executive Bill Amelio.

Switchbox focuses on "developing consumer technologies." Beyond that, little is known about the company. Its projects are "confidential," according to Lenovo, but it's expected that the technologies developed will be integrated into future Lenovo … Read more

Apple may be planning a new section of the App Store dedicated to premium game titles that will put more cash in the pockets of developers.

The new section will supposedly cater to games that sell for about $20, according to the blog PocketGamer.biz, which first reported the rumor.

The new section will be restricted to only games of large publishers, rather than titles created by smaller gaming developers that are already offered through the main App Store, the site said.

PocketGamer believes that Apple will likely introduce the new section its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June.

The … Read more