Reuters -

BRUSSELS—The European Commission has received a complaint that a disputed levy on electronic gadgets to compensate for private copying of music distorts the EUs internal market, a top official at the blocs executive said. Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said on Dec. 19 that the complaint was made to Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen but had […]

TOKYO (Reuters)—Apple Inc is playing mobile operators NTT DoCoMo Inc and Softbank Corp against one another on selling the iPhone in Japan, where it would vie with some of the worlds most advanced phones. Apple is in talks with both DoCoMo, Japans top carrier, and number three Softbank about launching the iPhone, but both have […]

Dec 18 (Reuters)—Semiconductor products maker Emcore Corp said it would buy the telecom-related portion of Intel Corps optical platform division for $85 million to expand its fibre optics product portfolio. The acquired assets are expected to generate $65 million of revenue in 2008, the company said in a statement. The acquisition is expected to close […]

NEW YORK (Reuters)-Sprint Nextel Corp named Embarq Corp CEO Dan Hesse as its new president and chief executive on Tuesday, hoping the telecom veteran can help the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider turn around its business. Hesse, 54, is already familiar with Sprint, having worked at the companys local phone service division for a […]

TOKYO (Reuters)—Toshiba Corp said on Tuesday it would join a group led by International Business Machines Corp to develop system chips using 32-nanometer circuitry, as chip makers increasingly team up to cut development costs. The alliance also comprises Advanced Micro Devices, Samsung Electronics, Singapores Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Germanys Infineon Technologies AG and privately owned U.S.-based […]

REDMOND, Washington (Reuters)—Nintendo Co Ltd is having trouble planning for the coming months because of shortages of its Wii video game console, and the company is also seeing signs of higher-than-expected demand for its DS handheld device, a top U.S. executive said on Monday. “The level of demand we are facing complicates all of our […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has reached a deal with the European Union, Japan and Canada to keep its Internet gambling market closed to foreign companies, but is continuing talks with India, Antigua and Barbuda, Macau and Costa Rica, U.S. trade officials said on Monday. “We are pleased to confirm that the United States […]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)—The launch of Apple Incs latest operating system, Leopard, was its best ever, a research group said on Monday. When comparing the first full month of sales of Apple Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard” (November 2007) to the first full month of sales for Mac OS 10.4 “Tiger” (May 2005), dollar volume for Leopard […]

NEW YORK (Reuters)—Silicon Valley start-up Ribbit Corp on Monday unveiled a technology platform that will let developers put Web telephony in everything from business software to popular social network sites such as Facebook. As well as planning to sell its own services directly to consumers in the first quarter, Ribbit said it is working with […]

BOSTON, Dec 17—A U.S. man sued office-products retailer Staples Inc and printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard Co in federal court on Monday, charging they broke antitrust laws in collaborating on the sale of replacement ink-jet printer cartridges. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, Ranjit Bedi charged that the two companies had reached “an […]

LONDON (Reuters)—British Prime Minister Gordon Browns government suffered new embarrassment over missing data on Monday when it revealed one of its contractors had lost the details of 3 million learner drivers. The revelation came weeks after the government admitted it had lost computer discs containing the names and bank account details of 25 million people, […]

HELSINKI—Intel Corp., the worlds top chipmaker, is set to increase its share of a growing global semiconductor chip market this year to 12.2 percent, research firm Gartner said on Friday. The market is expected to grow 2.9 percent from last year to $270.3 billion (133.22 billion pounds), Gartner said. Intels revenue grew more than twice […]