Corporate & legal

WorldCom's former CEO Bernard Ebbers is seeking clemency from George Bush in the final days of his presidency.

Ebbers, who was convicted of helping mastermind an $11 billion accounting fraud, is asking the president to reduce his 25-year sentence. Ebbers has filed a petition for commutation to the Office of the Pardon Attorney. And the petition is under review, a Justice Department spokeswoman told Reuters.

The U.S. Constitution grants the president the power to pardon convicted felons either erasing their convictions or reducing their prison sentences. And it's common in the last days of an administration for … Read more

A report on PaidContent suggests that InterActiveCorp, the media conglomerate owned by Barry Diller, may be looking to sell off some of its smaller ad-supported content properties--effectively, tossing assets overboard to lighten the load during rough financial seas.

According to PaidContent, IAC may be "dissolving" its "programming" group, a set of ad-supported content businesses that includes CollegeHumor, 236.com (a joint venture with The Huffington Post), Very Short List, and the brand-new The Daily Beast. The restructuring reportedly involves the departure of Nick Lehman, chief operating officer of the programming group.

A CollegeHumor executive told CNET … Read more

Smartphone sales slowed in the third quarter of 2008, market research firm Gartner said Thursday.

The firm reported that the growth in sales of smartphones around the world only grew 11.5 percent during the third quarter. The firm also said that this was the weakest growth it has seen in the sector since it began tracking smartphone sales.

Gartner had previously reported that first quarter sales grew about 29.3 percent in 2008 and second quarter sales were up about 15.7 percent compared to the same quarters a year earlier.

In total, smartphone manufacturers sold about 36.5 … Read more

Update at 7:59 a.m. PST: A RealNetworks representative quashes a rumor about a RealNetworks-MTV joint venture.

The long-expected layoffs at Viacom, parent company of MTV Networks, have finally taken place.

According to an internal memo (first leaked to gossip blog Gawker), 850 positions have been cut. That amounts to 7 percent of the company's workforce.

"Our advantages and best efforts can't completely protect Viacom from the very serious and broad-based challenges of this economic recession," CEO Philippe Dauman wrote in the e-mail. "Viacom's long-term health will depend on our shared commitment to … Read more

Advanced Micro Devices warned Thursday its fourth-quarter revenue will come in significantly lower than previously expected, due to weakness across all regions in all its businesses.

AMD shares were climbing back up in the morning, after having dipped to as low as $1.92 just after the markets opened.

The chipmaker said Thursday it expects to post revenue of $1.19 billion in the quarter ending December 27, excluding process technology license revenue. That's 25 percent below its third-quarter performance.

When the company reported its third-quarter revenue of $1.59 billion (excluding the process tech license revenue) in October, … Read more

AT&T joined the long list of companies laying off workers, announcing on Thursday that it would eliminate 12,000 jobs, or roughly 4 percent of its workforce.

The company cited economic pressures and a changing business mix as the reasons behind the cuts.

AT&T also said it plans to reduce its 2009 capital expenditures from 2008 levels. The company said it would issue more specific financial guidance in January, when it announces its fourth-quarter results.

It did say, however, that as a result of the layoffs, it would take a charge of approximately $600 million in … Read more

Billionaire investor-activist Carl Icahn opposes selling just a portion of Yahoo, telling CNBC on Wednesday that he believes the company's stock in undervalued.

"I don't think there is very much to having a partial bid for the company, at least as a large shareholder," Icahn said.

Icahn, who is on Yahoo's board of directors, made the statement while addressing rumors that former AOL Chief Executive Jonathan Miller is trying to raise money to acquire all or a part of the Internet pioneer. Miller reportedly believes he can do a deal worth about $20 to $22 … Read more

A company called Proximic says it has developed an easier way for consumers to do complex searches from their cell phones.

While Apple's iPhone has helped make surfing the Web from a mobile device easier, it's still difficult to type in complex search queries. But Proximic has introduced a new application called Proximic Agents for the iPhone that will help. The new technology, which is language-independent, uses point-and-click technology to highlight bits of text. This means that users don't have to type in a long string of search terms.

Unlike other search engines, which rely on keywords … Read more

The Wall Street Journal has artfully assembled a collection of mostly public indicators that Google is trying to rein in its expenses, but there are a few nuggets of note about the near-mythic company coming down to earth.

The known factors include shutting down Lively and SearchMash, paring back the 10,000 contractor employees, dropping Google Page Creator in favor of Google Sites, shutting some regional offices, showing ads on Google Finance, and curtailing lavish perks such as abundant food. The more telling items in the piece, though, are that Google is requiring research projects be financially justified, expanding data … Read more