Napster may be acquired - again

The name of the P2P file sharing pioneer may be changing hands once again as the company today announced that it has received "third party interest in establishing strategic partnerships or potentially acquiring the company." The firm said it is consulting with UBS Investment Bank to assist the Board and management in its evaluation of strategic alternatives.

Shipments of mobile phone displays surge

Manufacturers of cellphones purchased significantly more LCDs for their products in Q2 2006 than in the same timeframe last year.

DivX IPO: The fight for digital dominance

With online videos hotter than ever, the timing apparently couldn't be better for the market debut of digital media firm DivX.

Time Warner to sell German unit of AOL

In a deal announced late Sunday night, AOL will sell the German division of its Internet service company to Milan, Italy-based Telecom Italia SpA for nearly $870 million. This move comes a couple months after AOL decided to scrap large parts of fee-based services in the United States, such as email, in favor of attracting more advertising revenue.

Intel promotes Core 2 Duo in Centrino-sized marketing campaign

Intel today announced a new program to promote its recently launched Core 2 Duo processor. The company will run a global advertising campaign that will reach the investment volume of Intel's $300-million Centrino campaign in 2003, an executive told TG Daily.

System builders to ship more PCs, earn less money in 2006

Stamford (CN) - Gartner today followed yesterday's Q2 PC sales report published by IDC and agreed that worldwide PC shipments are on track for a double-digit increase over 2005. However, the erosion of average PC prices will impact the bottom line: Revenues will decline 2.5% over 2005, Gartner estimates.

Universal may sue YouTube, MySpace

According to a report from Market Watch, Universal Music Group may be suing YouTube and MySpace for copyright infringement. The sites, which allow users to share videos and music to millions of people, currently provide access to copyrighted multimedia content without the consent of the copyright holders.

Toshiba to pay Micron $288 million for Lexar patents

Toshiba and Micron today announced that the two companies have settled all NAND flash-related litigations over patents of Lexar, a company that was acquired by Micron in June of this year.

Samsung aims to ship more than six million LCD TVs in 2006

Samsung Electronics aims to keep a leading position in the global LCD TV market by shipping over six million units in 2006, up from two million in 2005, according to David Steel, vice president of marketing for Samsung' Digital Media Business.

Yahoo and Acer form multi-year partnership

Yahoo and Acer today announced a multi-year strategic partnership to distribute a co-branded toolbar and start page and to set Yahoo as the default search engine on all Acer PCs sold globally.

Sub-$500 PCs dominate back-to-school retail sales

System builders are increasingly betting on a PC price tag below $500 to be successful in the second most important PC selling season of the year: Current Analysis found that the sub-$500 space captured a 54% share in US back-to-school retail sales. No worries, if you've missed it: The day of the value PC has arrived and it is here to stay, says the research firm.

PC sales continue solid pace in Q2

alysts of market research firm IDC confirmed a healthy state of the global PC market as sales continued to grow on a solid pace in the second quarter of this year. Despite a slow dip, shipments are expected to grow in the low double-digit range this year and touch 230 million PCs.

Authors of Zotob virus sentenced

Two Moroccan men have been sentenced to prison terms for helping write the Zotob computer virus that attacked major U.S. networks last year, a court official said Wednesday.

LCD panel maker BOE Hydis files for bankruptcy - report

LCD panel maker BOE Hydis Technology filed for bankruptcy at a local Korean court on 11 September due to losses caused by unsuccessful investments and loss of technical workforce, according to the Korean-language Digital Times.

Fall VON: Broadcom gets VoIP chip wins with Samsung, TCL

Broadcom today announced two design wins in the consumer VoIP market.

Recalled notebook batteries to cost Sony up to $267 million

Chicago (IL) - The recent global recall of Sony batteries that has been reported to affect nearly 6 million owners of Dell and Apple notebook computers, will cost Sony as much as $267 million, according to a Sony China official. Click here to see actual pictures of a Dell notebook whose battery exploded...

A Perspective on the HP Witch Hunt

Last week the news broke at HP about an investigation into a board leak at that company which may have been done improperly. In looking into this, I personally think this is an attempt to cover up what the big problem was and to misuse political influence. Since I'm writing this on September 11th, I'm very sensitive to the whole concept of cover your ass politics right now and feel it is worth while to provide what I think is a clearer perspective on the HP problem which, I think, has more to do with a misguided power play on HP's board than anything else right now.

Board scandal forces HP chairman to step down

Palo Alto (CA) - UPDATE Hewlett Packard this morning announced that Patricia Dunn, chairman of the board of Hewlett-Packard, will step down from her position in January, as a result of the recently reported board scandal. She will be replaced by CEO Mark Hurd. Dunn will continue to serve as an HP director.

Dell's accounting troubles cause delay of 10-Q filing

Dell's announcement today that the company would delay the filing of its Form 10-Q for its fiscal second quarter ended August 4, 2006 did not come as a surprise, after the company had confirmed an "informal investigation" into accounting issues last month. However, the simple fact that Dell apparently will miss the filing deadline, will raise additional concerns and clearly contradicts CFO Jim Schneider's initial believe that the SEC probe wasn't a big deal.

HP chair's job on the line

There was a question mark hanging over Hewlett-Packard chair Patricia Dunn after revelations that an investigation she launched violated the privacy of her fellow HP directors, several journalists and their families, and probably broke the law.