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President-elect Barack Obama has selected former Internet executive and venture capitalist Julius Genachowski to be the next head of the Federal Communications Commission. Genachowski, who was classmates with Obama at Harvard Law School, is expected to receive an easy confirmation from the U.S. Sena...

Two giants of Japan's consumer electronics industry are expected to announce annual losses for the first time in many years. Sony, maker of the industry-changing Walkman music player and the PlayStation series of video game consoles, is expected to announce a $1.1 billion loss for the 2009 fiscal ye...

One Laptop Per Child, a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to providing cheap laptop computers to children in underdeveloped countries, has laid off 50 percent of its staff. That leaves the organization with 32 employees, all of whom have taken salary cuts in an attempt to cut costs, said Matt Keller,...

Beleaguered Internet portal Yahoo is about to wrap up its search for a CEO to replace cofounder Jerry Yang. An announcement could come as soon as this week. Two candidates have emerged as the company's probable next leader: Carol Bartz, who is former CEO of AutoDesk; and Susan Decker, Yahoo's curren...

Chinese PC maker Lenovo will cut 2,500 jobs, or about 11 percent of its workforce, during the first quarter, the company said Wednesday. The cuts will include management and executive positions. In addition, Lenovo will cut executive compensation by 30 percent to 50 percent, and trim bonuses. Lenovo...

Sun Microsystems has acquired Belgian cloud computing company Q-layer for an undisclosed price. Q-layer makes software that automates the deployment and management of corporate IT infrastructure such as servers, computers and Web-based applications in both public and private clouds. "Cloud computing...

Chip giant Intel has once again preannounced dire financial results -- yet another sign of the year-long U.S. recession's heavy toll on the technology industry. Intel said Wednesday that fourth-quarter revenue will come in at $8.2 billion, down 20 percent from the third quarter and down 23 percent y...

Microsoft announced Monday that 2008 was the best year ever for its Xbox 360 video game system, despite a year-long U.S. recession that has seen consumer spending plummet. The company's worldwide lead over rival Sony's PlayStation 3 widened by 8 million units in 2008, while its total number of 360s ...

The year-long U.S. recession has started to take its toll on the telecomm sector. AT&T and Verizon shares were hit hard Monday after being downgraded by Bernstein Research. The firm downgraded Verizon from market perform to underperform and AT&T from outperform to market perform. Verizon sto...

Netflix is coming to a high-definition LG Electronics television near you. The two companies on Monday announced an extension of an existing partnership whereby LG will sell Internet-ready TVs capable of streaming content from a catalog of 12,000 Netflix movies. The service is already available on o...

Dell, the No. 2 PC maker in the U.S., has fired two top executives as part of a major restructuring designed to help close the gap with its largest competitor, HP. Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis has stepped down; President of Global Operations Mike Cannon will retire, effective Jan. 31. Cannon ...

Advanced Micro Devices said Monday that it cut 600 jobs in the third quarter -- 100 more than it indicated in the guidance provided to Wall Street early last fall, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 100 extra job cuts resulted in $70 million in restructuring costs...

Sony has drastically reduced the production costs associated with its PlayStation 3 video game console by 35 percent, according to information technology researcher iSuppli. The latest generation of the PS3 costs just under $450 per unit to produce, down 35 percent from the prior generation's prod...

Microsoft first talked about pay-as-you-go computing years ago, but a recent patent publication suggests the software giant is moving ahead with an alternative strategy for expanding PC access around the world. The application, filed on Dec. 25 with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, provides a...

Online retail giant Amazon.com announced Friday that it had the strongest holiday shopping season in its history. Customers ordered more than 6.3 million items worldwide on its peak shopping day, Dec. 15, which works out to about 72.9 items ordered per second, Amazon said. Amazon shipped to more tha...

GateHouse Media, a chain of local newspapers, has sued the New York Times Co. for copyright and trademark infringement. Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse, which owns 125 local newspapers, alleged that Boston.com, the Web site for The Boston Globe, violated copyright law by linking to GateHouse stories...

Struggling smartphone maker Palm just got a $100 million shot in the arm from private equity group Elevation Partners. In an investment agreement announced Monday, Elevation acquired new issues of preferred stock in Palm for $3.25 per share, a 31 percent premium over the closing price of Palm's stoc...

Warner Music Group has started pulling some of its songs from YouTube, a move that apparently reflects a breakdown in the renegotiation of a licensing agreement between the two sides. Warner licensed its entire music catalog to YouTube just before the latter was acquired by search engine powerhouse ...

Shares of video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software fell 26 percent to $8.91 in late-day trading Thursday after the company announced a disappointing financial forecast for the holiday shopping period. Take-Two shares were down 68.2 percent from their 52-week high of $27.91. Dismal forecast...

In yet another sign of weakening in the technology sector, enterprise software giant Oracle announced a decline in profits on Thursday. The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company reported $1.29 billion in earnings during the fiscal quarter ended Nov. 31, down 1 percent from $1.3 billion in earnings du...