In a sign that Google’s initial public offering is imminent, the internet search company has asked federal regulators to give final approval to the paperwork required for its stock sale. If the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approves, Google can close the auction that’s determining the share price and notify successful bidders as early as 5pm (9pm GMT) on Tuesday.
Legal questions about an interview that Google’s founders gave to Playboy magazine are the latest in a string of developments that have clouded the search engine’s initial stock offering. The interview threatens to delay the offering because securities regulations restrict what executives can say while preparing to sell stock for the first time.
Online search engine leader Google will surrender more than -million of its stock to Yahoo in a settlement that removes a legal threat hanging over its IPO at the expense of enriching a nettlesome rival. The agreement announced on Monday gives Yahoo an additional 2,7-million shares of Google stock in exchange for dropping a patent lawsuit involving a crucial piece of online advertising technology.
Industry analysts expect Google to provide a self-appraisal when the Mountain View-based company updates the prospectus for its initial public offering with its second quarter results. Google’s second quarter ended on June 30, meaning the update could come as early as this week.
Oracle has clashed with rival Microsoft in dozens of recent business applications software deals, according to sales records that provide a glimpse at some of the evidence likely to be introduced on Wednesday in a pivotal legal showdown. Microsoft and its subsidiaries bumped into Oracle at 94 companies looking to buy accounting or personnel software during 2002 and 2003, the documents said.
Internet giant Yahoo is fortifying its free e-mail service with 25 times more storage and freeing up millions of previously claimed e-mail addresses in an effort to thwart a looming threat from its increasingly disruptive rival Google. Beginning on Tuesday, all of Yahoo’s free e-mail accounts will be upgraded to 100 megabytes.
After watching online search engine leader Google dominate business headlines for weeks, Yahoo used a series of executive presentations on Thursday to remind analysts the company is an internet powerhouse determined to grow even bigger. Without mentioning names, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel made veiled references to longtime rivals Microsoft and AOL, as well as ”one or two” upcoming companies.
Google hails its new e-mail service as a breakthrough in online communication, but consumer watchdogs are attacking it as a creepy invasion of privacy that threatens to set a troubling precedent.
The popular online search engines run by Google and Yahoo! are banning ads from online casinos, reacting to a federal crackdown on internet gambling. Google and Yahoo! are imposing the ban as federal authorities increase pressure on the media to stop ”aiding and abetting” offshore internet casinos that have been illegally accepting bets in the United States.
Internet giant Yahoo is adopting a new system for indexing web pages that will charge businesses to include material currently unlisted in its online search engine, marking the first volley in a duel with its former ally Google.
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/ 20 February 2004
In what critics call a delay tactic, San Francisco is taking California to court on grounds that its ban on same-sex marriages is unconstitutional. The city, which filed the lawsuit late on Thursday, has sanctioned more than 2 900 gay unions since it began defying state law last week.
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/ 15 February 2004
Gay and lesbian couples from across the United States answered the city of San Francisco’s Valentine’s Day invitation to wed in an unprecedented spree of same-sex marriages that has challenged California law and sent conservative groups scrambling for court intervention.
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/ 9 December 2003
Nasa plans to dispatch a hulking nuclear-powered spacecraft to determine whether three of Jupiter’s icy, planet-sized moons have the potential to harbour life. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, or Jimo, will circle three of the planet’s moons, which are believed to have vast oceans tucked beneath thick covers of ice.
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/ 13 October 2003
The United States navy has agreed to limit its peacetime use of a new sonar system designed to detect enemy submarines, but which may also harm marine mammals and fish, an environmentalist group said.
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/ 25 September 2003
Wal-Mart Stores Inc has argued that a sexual discrimination lawsuit seeking to represent 1,6-million current and former women workers should be dismantled into separate class actions against each of its 3 473 stores across the United States. If Wal-Mart faces a single class-action, the trial could last 13 years.
In five mind-blowing years, Google has blossomed from a nerdy college experiment to a mainstream sensation so ubiquitous that its goofy name is now synonymous with looking things up.
Internet portal Yahoo! Incorporated is buying Overture Services Incorporated, which pioneered a pay-for-placement search engine, in a ,6-billion deal announced on Monday.
Yahoo! Inc. announced its fifth consecutive quarter of profitability as income more than doubled, and the internet bellwether boosted its income and sales forecasts for the rest of the year.
Apple unveiled what it dubbed the world’s fastest personal computer, a Power Mac powered by a 64-bit IBM chip.
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ended one of the longest and steamiest battles in the history of the Internet by finally settling a six year dispute over ownership of the domain name Sex.com.
People with HIV living in poorer areas of San Francisco are more likely to progress to Aids than those living in wealthier districts.
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/ 11 February 2003
James Kilgore, the former Symbionese Liberation Army member who spent more than two decades on the run, is expected to plead guilty later this month to federal explosives and forgery charges, lawyers in the case said on Monday.
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/ 4 February 2003
A federal court appearance was postponed for James Kilgore, the accused former Symbionese Liberation Army member who evaded bomb and murder charges for decades.
Spectrum Organic Products Inc. works so hard to ensure the food it sells is free from genetically modified organisms that it sends employees as far as France to purchase corn oil guaranteed to be untainted by biotechnology.
Roses are red, and a variety of other colors. But they’ve never been blue — an omission legions of rose breeders have sought for centuries to remedy.
A computer virus that tries to dupe recipients into opening an infected file called 11september.exe has appeared over the Internet, but so far has caused little damage.
A staggering corporate scandal erupted when troubled telecommunications company, WorldCom, disclosed on Tuesday that company officials have misstated accounting figures in the amount of ,8-billion.
A company claiming to own the world’s largest collection of porn has bid to buy Napster, the bankrupt online music company.
Napster Chief Executive Konrad Hilbers resigned from the embattled Internet music upstart on Tuesday as the company announced it had been unable to secure funding.
A new strain of computer virus that infects digital photographs has been spotted, with the potential to wreak havoc on the Internet.
A rare online alliance of record companies was forged on Monday when San Francisco-based music distribution site Listen.com announced that Vivendi division Universal Music Group has licensed titles to be available on the website.
Two prominent high-tech consultancies predict a surge in PC sales, with one even divining double digit percentage growth, despite warnings to the contrary by companies like Hewlett-Packard and Intel.