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Francesca's Holdings Corp. said Monday that it fired its chief financial officer, saying that he improperly communicated company information through social media. But the women's clothing retailer also raised its fiscal first-quarter earnings estimate, citing better than expected sales. Its shares rose more than 3 percent in morning trading.' The Houston-based company said it terminated Gene Morphis' employment after an investigation by its board that was launched after the company discovered...

Key events involving Yahoo Inc. and its performance: Nov. 17, 2008: Yahoo Inc. says co-founder Jerry Yang will step down as CEO as soon as a replacement is found. It ends a rocky reign marked by Yang's refusal to sell the Internet company to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, in May 2008. Yahoo's board had been facing pressure to push him out as its stock plunged to its lowest levels since early 2003 and well below Microsoft's last offer price. Jan. 13, 2009: Yahoo names technology...

Here is a list of CEOs at Yahoo Inc.: Tim Koogle _ 1995-May 2001. Began tenure shortly after Yahoo was incorporated in March 1995. Announced in March 2001 that he would step down after a replacement is found. Terry Semel _ May 2001-June 2007. Hired from Warner Bros. Stepped down under shareholder pressure. Jerry Yang _ June 2007-January 2009. Company co-founder and de facto CEO until Koogle started. Agrees to resign under pressure in November 2008, pending appointment of replacement. Carol...

NAME: Scott Thompson AGE: 54 (born Nov. 13, 1957) EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in accounting from Stonehill College near Boston. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Hired as Yahoo CEO in January. Left in May after disclosure that his official biography included a college degree in computer science, which he never received. Became president of eBay's PayPal business in 2008. Previously was PayPal's senior vice president and chief technology officer. Earlier, he was executive vice president of technology...

Many prominent people have seen their careers founder after inaccuracies were revealed in their academic or professional biographies, including two leaders of Yahoo Inc. departing Sunday. They are: _ Scott Thompson, CEO _ Leaves the company 10 days after a shareholder reveals his bachelor's degree from Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., was in business, not computer science, as described in a company bio and regulatory filings. _ Patti Hart, director _ Leaves Yahoo's board Sunday. Hart's bachelor's...

A look at who played key roles as Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson departs amid resume controversy: _ WHO'S OUT: Scott Thompson, former CEO. Joined Yahoo Inc. in January. Most recently had been president of eBay Inc.'s PayPal division. Earlier held leadership positions in technology and IT at Visa Inc. and Barclays Global Investors. _ WHO'S IN: Ross Levinsohn, interim CEO. Was executive vice president and head of global media at Yahoo, responsible for strategy, engineering and content creation for...

NAME: Ross Levinsohn TITLE: Interim CEO, Yahoo Inc., effective Sunday. PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND: Most recently, executive vice president and head of global media for Yahoo, where he led strategy, engineering and content creation. Prior positions included president of News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media; senior management at AltaVista, an early search engine; and programming work at CBS Sportsline and HBO Inc. CO-FOUNDER: Fuse Capital, an investment and strategic equity management firm. BOARD...

Key points in controversy over inaccuracies in Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson's resume _ May 3: Yahoo Inc. confirms that CEO Scott Thompson has only an accounting degree from Stonehill College near Boston, and no degree in computer science. The inaccuracy had appeared on his company bio and in regulatory filings. Yahoo also says director Patti Hart holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Illinois State University, with specialties in marketing and economics _ not the degree in marketing...

NAME: Mark Zuckerberg OCCUPATION: CEO of Facebook Inc. AGE: 28 (Born May 14, 1984) RESIDENCE: Palo Alto, Calif. Grew up in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. EDUCATION: Philips Exeter Academy, class of 2002. Studied computer science at Harvard University before dropping out. PROFESSIONAL CAREER: Co-founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004, has served as CEO since. FAMILY: Mother Karen, father Edward, sisters Arielle, Donna and Randi Zuckerberg.

He famously wears a hoodie, jeans and sneakers, and he was born the year Apple introduced the Macintosh. But Mark Zuckerberg is no boy-CEO. Facebook's chief executive turned 28 on Monday, setting in motion the social network's biggest week ever. The company is expected to start selling stock to the public for the first time and begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday. The IPO could value Facebook at nearly $100 billion, making it worth more than such iconic companies as Disney, Ford...

He famously wears a hoodie, jeans and sneakers, and he was born the year Apple introduced the Macintosh. But Mark Zuckerberg is no boy-CEO. Facebook's chief executive turned 28 on Monday, setting in motion the social network's biggest week ever. The company is expected to start selling stock to the public for the first time and begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Friday. The IPO could value Facebook at nearly $100 billion, making it worth more than such iconic companies as Disney, Ford...

Yahoo swept out Scott Thompson as CEO Sunday in an effort to clean up a mess created by a misleading resume that destroyed his credibility as he set out to turn around the long-troubled Internet company. Ross Levinsohn, a 48-year-old executive who oversees Yahoo's media and advertising services, is taking over as interim CEO. Yahoo lured Thompson away from eBay's PayPal in January to end a financial funk that has depressed the company's stock for years. Although Yahoo remains one of the Internet's...

_ May 3: Yahoo Inc. confirms that CEO Scott Thompson has only an accounting degree from Stonehill College near Boston, and no degree in computer science. The inaccuracy had appeared on his company bio and in regulatory filings. Yahoo also says director Patti Hart holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Illinois State University, with specialties in marketing and economics _ not the degree in marketing and economics mentioned in a recent Yahoo regulatory filing. Hart led the...

Many prominent people have seen their careers founder after inaccuracies were revealed in their academic or professional biographies, including two leaders of Yahoo Inc. departing Sunday. They are: _ Scott Thompson, CEO _ Leaves the company 10 days after a shareholder reveals his bachelor's degree from Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., was in business, not computer science, as described in a company bio and regulatory filings. _ Patti Hart, director _ Leaves Yahoo's board Sunday. Hart's bachelor's...

_ WHO'S OUT: Scott Thompson, former CEO. Joined Yahoo Inc. in January. Most recently had been president of eBay Inc.'s PayPal division. Earlier held leadership positions in technology and IT at Visa Inc. and Barclays Global Investors. _ WHO'S IN: Ross Levinsohn, interim CEO. Was executive vice president and head of global media at Yahoo, responsible for strategy, engineering and content creation for Yahoo's marquee properties. _ THE CATALYST: Daniel Loeb, founder of hedge fund Third Point LLC,...

NAME: Ross Levinsohn TITLE: Interim CEO, Yahoo Inc., effective May 13. PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND: Most recently, executive vice president and head of global media for Yahoo, where he led strategy, engineering and content creation. Prior positions included president of News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media; senior management at AltaVista, an early search engine; and programming work at CBS Sportsline and HBO Inc. CO-FOUNDER: Fuse Capital, an investment and strategic equity management firm. BOARD...

Facebook is updating its data use policy in an attempt to give people more clarity on how the company uses information they share. As part of the changes, Facebook is also signaling that it may start showing people ads on sites other than Facebook, targeting the pitches to interests and hobbies that users express on Facebook. The move comes a week before Facebook Inc.'s expected initial public offering of stock. Facebook held events with potential investors this week, including one in Silicon...

UPDATE: Facebook is updating its data use policy in an attempt to give people more clarity on how the company uses information they share. The changes are in response to an audit by Irish data-protection authorities last year. NEW ADS COMING? As part of the changes, Facebook is also signaling that it may start showing people ads on sites other than Facebook, targeting the pitches to interests and hobbies that users express on Facebook. AHEAD OF IPO: The move comes a week before Facebook Inc.'s...

A federal appeals court has turned down a Freedom of Information Act request to disclose National Security Agency records about the 2010 cyberattack on Google users in China. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, which focuses on privacy and civil liberties, sought communications between Google and the NSA, which conducts worldwide electronic surveillance and protects the U.S. government from such spying. But the NSA refused to confirm or deny whether it had any relationship with Google....

Some key developments in the eight years since Facebook Inc.'s creation: February 2004: Mark Zuckerberg starts Facebook as a sophomore at Harvard University. March 2004: Facebook begins expansion to other colleges and universities. June 2004: Facebook moves headquarters to Palo Alto, Calif. September 2004: Facebook introduces the Wall, which allows people to write personal musings and other tidbits on profile pages. Lawsuit filed against Facebook claiming that Zuckerberg stole the idea for...

A Manhattan judge says a lawsuit by a video-game developer against Beyonce can go to trial. The decision was made by Justice Charles Ramos. The company, Gate Five, claims the superstar backed out of a $20 million deal for a game called "Starpower: Beyonce." The Grammy Award-winning singer's lawyers contend they were within their rights to opt out of the deal because Gate Five didn't have its financing in place. But the company says Beyonce knew it was ready to sign a contract with its financier...

FACEBOOK FRIENDLY: Microsoft's Bing search engine is switching to a new format that will sort results into three different columns. The centerpiece will be a feature called "Sidebar" that will highlight friends in a users' Facebook network who might have insights to share about a search request. THE TIMING: Bing will shift to the different approach sometime next month. The next few weeks will be spent fine-tuning the format. Anyone who wants a peek at the changes can sign up at http://www.bing.com/new...

Microsoft's Bing search engine is heading in a new direction as it drills deeper into Facebook's social network and Twitter's messaging service to showcase information unlikely to be found on Google. The changes, unveiled Thursday, will reshape how Bing displays its search results. It represents Microsoft's most dramatic shift in Internet search since the software maker introduced Bing as a "decision engine" nearly three years ago. Microsoft Corp. is counting on the new format to loosen Google's...

A judge delayed the sentencing of an eyewear website operator who intimidated customers, saying he first wants to hear testimony from dozens of victims who reported they were threatened with violence, including murder and rape. U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan said Thursday that the testimony might lead to a harsher sentence for Vitaly Borker, who pleaded guilty last year to making threats and to fraud charges. Federal sentencing guidelines recommend a sentence of roughly three years in prison,...

Shares in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. rose Thursday after the company posted upbeat quarterly results and doubled its commitment to buying back shares. THE SPARK: News Corp. on Wednesday vowed to buy back another $5 billion in shares by June 2013, on top of $5 billion buyback plan announced last July that is nearly 80 percent complete. That eased fears that Murdoch would spend company cash on an overpriced acquisition. On top of that, News Corp. reported earnings for the quarter through March...

U.S. consumers have had their fill of expensive, contract-based phone plans. Figures from T-Mobile USA on Thursday, added to earlier reports from other companies, indicate that the U.S. wireless industry lost subscribers from contract-based plans for the first time in the first quarter. Contract-based plans are the most lucrative ones for phone companies. The industry default over the past several decades, they account for the vast majority of revenue at the big phone companies. The seven largest...

The European Parliament on Thursday approved a clampdown on mobile network operators to protect consumers from paying excessive prices for using their phones and tablet computers abroad. The legislature backed by a massive 578-10 margin, with 10 abstentions, a deal to make it cheaper to make phone calls, download emails or surf the Internet when abroad in other EU countries. The caps on fees will take effect on July 1 at the start of the European summer holiday season when many holiday makers...

Foxconn Technology Group, the world's biggest assembler of consumer electronics, began work Thursday on a Shanghai headquarters that it says will help spearhead its efforts to sell more in the China market. The groundbreaking by Foxconn for its new, 80,000 square meter (861,120 sq. feet) "crystal box" center in Shanghai's prime Lujiazui financial district reflects the company's shift toward sales and services, said company chairman Terry Gou. "We are turning our export factories to be more domestic...

Will Americans buy a Chinese smartphone? We're about to find out, as Huawei, one of the world's biggest phone makers, is planning a big push into U.S. cellphone stores. Only two Chinese companies are well known consumer brands in the U.S.: computer maker Lenovo, which entered the U.S. market by buying IBM's PC division, and Haier, an appliance maker with a German name. Huawei, by contrast, is pushing into the U.S. market under its own power, and with a Chinese-sounding name (pronounced "wa-way")....

It took a return to the South to get me back on Foursquare. Months later, I'm still not sure why I need it, yet I can't seem to stay away. Foursquare, of course, is a social network that lets you tell friends and family where you are _ whether it's a bar, a park or an airport. Through a smartphone app, you broadcast your whereabouts, or "check in" to those places. Until I began my break from Foursquare about 15 months ago, I was diligent about checking in to places, mostly around my home in...

Cisco raised the specter late Wednesday of a jarring slowdown in technology spending, alarming investors already fretting about the economy's fragile condition. The red flag hoisted by the world's largest maker of computer-networking equipment overshadowed a solid showing in Cisco's most recent quarter. Investors instead fixated on a sobering forecast for the current quarter from Cisco Systems Inc. CEO John Chambers. He attributed the grim outlook to skittish customers who are waiting longer...

ABC and Yahoo will experiment on the season's last two episodes of "Revenge" with a smartphone and tablet application designed to encourage more people to watch television live. There's an enticement, too. People who download and click onto the "Into Now" application during the May 16 and 23 showings of "Revenge" become eligible for a free summer trip to New York's Hamptons beach area, where the drama's story is based. The companies are trying to take advantage of the growing trend of multiscreen...

Take-Two has delayed the release of "BioShock Infinite," an eagerly awaited shooter game set in 1912. Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. said Wednesday that the game will launch on Feb. 26, rather than in October as it said previously. Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games, the developer of "BioShock," said the game was delayed so its creators can get more time to work on it. The development studio is a subsidiary of Take-Two, which publishes the game. "BioShock Infinite" will be...

A preliminary autopsy shows liver cancer killed a Thai prisoner who was serving a 20-year term for sending insulting text messages about Thailand's royal family. An observer at Wednesday's autopsy said Amphon Tangnoppakul had late-stage liver cancer that likely developed after his 2010 conviction. Cherdchai Tontisirin said there were no signs of physical abuse. The case of 62-year-old Amphon drew attention to Thailand's severe lese majeste laws. Known as "Uncle SMS," he had denied his guilt and...

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. said Tuesday that it has hired two new senior executives, including a marketing chief, as the company looks to regain market share lost to Apple's iPhone. RIM said Frank Boulben will be the new chief marketing officer, a job RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins described as critically important for the struggling company. Boulben, 45, served as executive vice president of strategy and marketing at LightSquared, a wireless company that has been struggling since...

Six months after AT&T's deal to buy T-Mobile USA collapsed, T-Mobile's TV ads are going back on the attack against a favorite target: AT&T Inc. Philipp Humm, the CEO of T-Mobile, showed off a new ad Tuesday featuring a hapless man on a motorcycle, cruising on a desert road as a woman on another motorcycle blows past him. The voiceover explains that the man represents an iPhone 4S on AT&T's network, and the woman is T-Mobile's 4G network. The ad recalls other attack ads T-Mobile showed...

Billionaire John Malone's Liberty Media Corp. said Tuesday that it will spend $650 million to increase its effective control of satellite radio company Sirius XM Radio Inc. to 45.2 percent. The company made the announcement upon the release of its first-quarter earnings results. Liberty CEO Gregory Maffei said Liberty had agreed to purchase 302 million shares of Sirius XM at $2.15 each from an unnamed financial institution. The deal is expected to close early in the third quarter. The purchase...

Federal regulators are seeking $52.6 million from a billing company that they accuse of adding unauthorized charges to consumers' phone bills. The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday it has asked a federal court to issue a civil contempt ruling against Billing Services Group and order repayment. The agency says Billing Services added charges for unauthorized services such as voicemail and streaming video to bills for about 1.2 million phone lines, a practice known as "cramming." It says...

WatchESPN, the online and mobile version of Disney's popular sports TV network, was activated Tuesday for most of Comcast's 22 million video subscribers. It's one of the perks being offered to cable subscribers to convince them to keep paying for TV. Getting online or mobile access to shows you already pay for is known in the industry as "TV Everywhere." The new offering results from a 10-year deal between Comcast Corp. and The Walt Disney Co. that was announced in January. It doubles the number...

The head of AT&T's wireless business says he's looking to introduce plans that share a data allowance among family members, similar to the way it sells family calling plans. AT&T's Ralph de la Vega says the company is working out the details of such plans, but has no firm launch date. Competitor Verizon Wireless has said it plans to introduce family plans this summer. De la Vega said, "We'll introduce them when we can." He was speaking on the sidelines of the CTIA Wireless show in New...

DirecTV Inc. said Tuesday that its first-quarter net income rose 8.5 percent, driven by subscriber growth in Latin America. But the number of subscribers added in the U.S. declined. The country's largest satellite broadcaster earned $731 million, or $1.07 per share, for the three months ended March 31. That's up from $674 million, or 85 cents per share, a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of $1.05 per share. Revenue rose 12 percent to $7.05 billion from $6.32 billion, topping...

A Chinese blogger is seeking compensation for a one-year labor camp sentence he served after posting a brief poem mocking now-disgraced politician Bo Xilai, in a test of the legal system's willingness to examine scores of alleged abuses committed under his rule. Retired civil servant Fang Hong said he filed an appeal Tuesday at the No. 3 Intermediate Court in the mega-city of Chongqing where Bo held extensive powers until he was recently sacked as municipal Communist Party chief and suspended...

The alleged head of an illegal movie downloading platform is going on trial in Germany. Prosecutors accuse the man, identified only as Dirk B., of breaching copyright laws in about 1.1 million cases. The Leipzig state court in eastern Germany, which opened the trial Tuesday, could hand the suspected founder of the kino.to platform a prison sentence of up to 15 years, news agency dapd reported. Prosecutors say the kino.to movie and TV-series streaming and downloading platform registered about...

CTIA Wireless, the U.S. cellphone phone industry's annual trade show that starts Tuesday, is drawing heavy participation not just from the cellphone industry, but from MasterCard, Visa, and other companies in the business of moving money around. At a pre-show event Monday in New Orleans, MasterCard unveiled a suite of services to enable "mobile wallets," secure applications that run on phones and can hold virtual payment cards, transit tickets, coupons and other valuable. The credit-card companies...

A federal jury in San Francisco was asked to decide a number of questions in Oracle Corp.'s copyright-infringement case against Google Inc. Oracle had accused Google of stealing its Java programming language to build Google's Android software for mobile devices. Here's how jurors ruled: _ In the most important aspect of the case, jurors found Google violated Oracle's copyrights in using 37 of Java's "application programming interfaces," or APIs, that provide the blueprints for making much of...

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason says the online deal company's business continues to improve, though he acknowledges in a letter to shareholders that the six months since its initial public offering have been "rocky to say the least." Mason told Groupon Inc. shareholders Monday that the company's goal is to become the operating system for local commerce. Groupon, he wrote, is transforming from a daily deal provider to a local commerce platform, and it won't happen overnight. He reminded investors that...

Microsoft is offering its Xbox 360 gaming consoles with the Kinect motion controller for $99 for people who sign up for a two-year Xbox Live Gold membership at $15 per month. Microsoft Corp. says people who buy the console at the discounted price but cancel the monthly Live membership are subject to an early termination fee. The fee ranges from $12 to $250 depending on when they cancel. Xbox 360 owners mainly use the Live service to play multiplayer games such as "Call of Duty" online. Normally,...

Billionaire Warren Buffett said Monday that Europe will have a hard time resolving its fiscal problems because of the structure of the European Union and this weekend's election results in Greece and France. But he says the turmoil in Europe won't keep him from investing. Buffett said Berkshire plans to add to its stakes Monday in two U.S. companies. "I think the worst mistake you can make in stocks is to buy or sell based on current headlines," Buffett said. He did not identify the two companies....

It was the end of an era, the kind of moment when a Twitter buff might unleash a barrage of 140-character spurts of sentiment, humor or self-aggrandizement. But Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's one-time tweeter-in-chief, was characteristically modest and a little flat when his term as president came to an end Monday: "Thanks to everyone for their support over the past four years as President of Russia. Our dialogue will continue. There is much work ahead!," he tweeted an hour after Vladimir Putin was...

AT&T Inc. will start selling home automation and security services nationwide, taking on incumbents led by Tyco International Ltd.'s ADT. The installations and services will be sold in AT&T stores, starting with a trial this summer in Dallas and Atlanta. Several of AT&T's competitors, including cable TV company Comcast Corp. and phone company Verizon Communications Inc., have ventured into the home automation and security field. Dallas-based AT&T is showing more ambition with...

Satellite TV provider Dish Network Corp. said Monday that it added subscribers in the first quarter, but net income dropped 34 percent and revenue growth fell short of Wall Street expectations. Shares fell $1.25, or 4 percent, to $30.07 in morning trading. The company's profit dropped largely because the year-ago period got a boost from Dish settling a patent lawsuit with TiVo Inc. Dish Network, based in Englewood, Colo., is trying to expand beyond TV into Internet access, video and other services,...

Yahoo is facing a showdown with a major shareholder who wants the troubled Internet company to fire CEO Scott Thompson for unethical conduct. The shareholder, activist hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, told Yahoo's board of directors last week that he might take legal action if Thompson isn't ousted by noon ET Monday. Loeb contends Yahoo needs to get rid of Thompson because he allowed an inaccuracy about his academic credentials appear in a regulatory filing, as well on the company's website for...

AT&T Inc. will start selling home automation and security services nationwide, taking on incumbents led by Tyco International Ltd.'s ADT. The installations and services will be sold in AT&T stores, starting with a trial this summer in Dallas and Atlanta. Several of AT&T's competitors, including cable TV company Comcast Corp. and phone company Verizon Communications Inc., have ventured into the home automation and security field. Dallas-based AT&T is showing more ambition with...

The organization in charge of expanding the number of Internet address suffixes _ the ".com" part of domain names _ is apologizing for delays but says it's favoring "quality, not speed." Three weeks ago, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers abruptly shut down a system for letting companies and organizations propose new suffixes, after it discovered a software glitch that exposed some private data. At the time, ICANN planned to reopen the system within four business days. The...

JOB IN JEOPARDY: Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson could be fired after just four months at the struggling Internet company because he allowed an inaccuracy about his college education to appear in his official bio, including a version filed with securities regulators. THE TROUBLE: The distorted bio said Thompson held two degrees _ one in accounting and the other in computer science _ from Stonehill College. After being confronted by a major shareholder, Yahoo Inc. acknowledged Thompson never got the computer...

Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse on Friday said he's cutting his 2012 pay by $3.25 million after shareholder complaints about how his 2011 pay was calculated. Sprint's board bases the CEO's pay on the company's performance, but departed from its guidelines last year to exclude the cost of selling the iPhone. That boosted Hesse's pay. "I do not want, nor does our Compensation Committee want, to penalize Sprint employees for the company's investment with Apple, so I will forego this adjustment to my...

In a biographical capsule on Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson first sent Jan. 4, The Associated Press, relying on information provided by Yahoo, erroneously reported that Thompson received a bachelor's degree in computer science from Stonehill College. Yahoo Inc. said Thursday that Thompson had only an accounting degree.

The regional cellphone company U.S. Cellular Corp. on Friday posted a 78 percent rise in net income for the first quarter, as it moved subscribers to smartphones with pricier plans while holding its own line on costs. U.S. Cellular's net income was $62.5 million, or 73 cents per share, in the January-March period. That compares with $35.2 million, or 41 cents per share, in the same period of 2011. Revenue rose 3 percent to $1.09 billion from $1.06 billion. U.S. Cellular, which is based in Chicago,...

An EU official says an international treaty that has been the subject of large protests by people fearing it would impinge on Internet freedom is unlikely to gain approval. European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes implied in a speech Friday that ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, probably will not be ratified by the European Union. Speaking in Berlin, Kroes said: "We are now likely to be in a world without SOPA and without ACTA," according to a transcript provided by her spokesman....

The "like" button on Facebook seems like a relatively clear way to express your support for something, but a federal judge says that doesn't mean clicking it is constitutionally protected speech. Exactly what a "like" means _ if anything _ played a part in a case in Virginia involving six people who say Hampton Sheriff B.J. Roberts fired them for supporting an opponent in his 2009 re-election bid, which he won. The workers sued, saying their First Amendment rights were violated. Roberts said...

A disgruntled Yahoo shareholder questioned the qualifications and integrity of recently hired CEO Scott Thompson after exposing a misrepresentation about the executive's education. The fabrication confirmed Thursday by Yahoo Inc. gives New York hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb more artillery as he tries to topple a board of directors favored by Thompson, who became CEO of the troubled Internet company four months ago. Loeb, whose fund Third Point owns a 5.8 percent stake in Yahoo, gained more leverage...

A federal court jury is having a difficult time reaching a verdict in a complex copyright infringement trial pitting Oracle against Google. A question posed late Thursday in a note from one of the 12 jurors raised the specter of an impasse after lawyers on both sides spent two weeks trying to make their cases. The evidence included testimony from Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison and Google Inc. CEO Larry Page. Thursday's note asked U.S. District Judge William Alsup what would happen if jurors couldn't...

Facebook is hoping to raise as much as $11.8 billion in an initial public offering of stock. It would be the largest IPO ever for an Internet company. Here are the top 10 so far, according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO investment adviser: Google Inc., IPO on Aug. 18, 2004, $1.67 billion raised. Yandex N.V., IPO on May 23, 2011, $1.3 billion raised. Infonet Services Corp. (now part of BT Group PLC), IPO on Dec. 15, 1999, $1.08 billion raised. Shanda Games Ltd., IPO on Sept. 24, 2009, $1.04...

As a kid, I dreamed of having a telephone that was plugged into my family's TV and would let me ring up whoever I was watching. With this special phone, I could reach my favorite TV stars, introduce myself and talk to them about their shows. It would've been so great. But I always knew it was an impossible dream. Flash forward a few decades. On a Thursday night last month, Kerry Washington, the star of such films as "Ray" and "The Last King of Scotland," was live-tweeting answers to questions...

George Lucas' sprawling "Star Wars" universe has always lent itself to games _ even if they were as simple as pretend light saber duels in your backyard. "Kinect Star Wars" (LucasArts, for the Xbox 360, $49.99) is a light saber fan's dream title. Using Microsoft's Kinect camera, which translates your motions into on-screen activity, you start with training against floating droids shooting red rays. Eventually, you can challenge Darth Vader himself. It's a good upper-body workout, and you get the...

Some key developments in the eight years since Facebook's creation: February 2004: Mark Zuckerberg starts Facebook as a sophomore at Harvard University. March 2004: Facebook begins expansion to other colleges and universities. June 2004: Facebook moves headquarters to Palo Alto, Calif. September 2004: Facebook introduces the Wall, which allows people to write personal musings and other tidbits on profile pages. Lawsuit filed against Facebook claiming that Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook...

Samsung Electronics Co.'s latest Galaxy phone will have a high-definition touch screen that's nearly twice the size of the iPhone, while being thinner and lighter than Apple's phone. The Galaxy line has emerged as the biggest competitor to the iPhone. Samsung said the Galaxy S III will go on sale in Europe on May 29 and in the U.S. this summer. The Korean company showed off the phone Thursday at an event in London. Like previous Galaxy phones, the S III will run Google Inc.'s Android software....

How the number of active users at Facebook has grown: December 2004: 1 million. December 2005: 5.5 million. December 2006: 12 million. April 2007: 20 million. October 2007: 50 million. August 2008: 100 million. January 2009: 150 million. February 2009: 175 million. April 2009: 200 million. July 2009: 250 million. September 2009: 300 million. December 2009: 350 million. February 2010: 400 million. July 2010: 500 million. December 2010: 608 million. July 2011: 750 million. September...

Sensitive data that was compromised in a massive health records breach had been lingering on state computers for months, contrary to the standard procedure that it be erased within a day of being submitted, according to Utah officials. Utah Department of Health chief David Patton revealed the violation of security protocol at a Wednesday community forum for the hundreds of thousands of people whose personal information was exposed in the attack uncovered last month. He said the data also was behind...

Google Inc. urged a judge Thursday to toss The Authors Guild and an organization representing photographers out of 6-year-old litigation over the future of the world's largest digital library, a move that would force authors and photographers to individually fight the online search engine giant. Google attorney Daralyn Durie told Judge Denny Chin in federal court in Manhattan that authors and photographers would be better off fending for themselves because their circumstances varied widely, especially...

Shares of Research in Motion Ltd. hit an eight-year low Thursday and have fallen more than 15 percent in the past three days, after the company unveiled a prototype BlackBerry with new software. THE SPARK: The prototype has caused angst for BlackBerry users and RIM investors. When new chief executive Thorsten Heins unveiled a touchscreen prototype Tuesday at RIM's annual BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, Fla., he gave no new timetable on when the much-delayed devices will be released. Then...

Viacom Inc., the owner of Paramount Pictures, MTV and Nickelodeon, on Thursday said its net income rose 56 percent in the latest quarter, even though a slate of movies that was lackluster compared with last year held back revenue. Viacom earned $585 million, or $1.07 per share, in the January to March quarter. That compares with $376 million, or 63 cents per share, it earned in the same period last year. Viacom has bought back shares, reducing stock outstanding and boosting earnings per share....

In a flashy presentation to advertisers, YouTube promoted its new channels of original programming, while pledging to spend $200 million to help market them. That's roughly twice what the Google Inc.-owned video site has spent launching some 100 channels of niche-oriented programming. The channels are an ambitious initiative from YouTube, approximately halfway through its rollout. YouTube hyped the initiative Wednesday night at New York's Beacon Theatre, where it urged advertisers to purchase...

Viacom, the home of such shows as "SpongeBob Squarepants" and "Jersey Shore," is reporting its financial results for the latest quarter. Analysts say they believe the media giant will post higher earnings and revenue, despite shrinking audiences at its key pay TV networks, Nickelodeon and MTV. The report comes before the market opens on Thursday. Analysts have flagged signs of smaller audiences at Viacom networks as measured in Nielsen's ratings. Bernstein Research analyst Todd Juenger says...

The name of a Chicago man already charged in a computer hacking case aimed at taking out key players in the worldwide group Anonymous was added to an indictment Wednesday, boosting the accusations against him by including him in much of the wider conspiracy to hack into corporations and government agencies worldwide. Jeremy Hammond, 27, joined four other defendants named in the indictment in federal court in Manhattan in a prosecution revealed in March. Hammond is being held at a lower Manhattan...

A stronger box office slate, a new deal with Netflix and a better TV advertising climate contributed to growth at Time Warner Inc. to start off 2012. Although earnings fell 11 percent during the first three months of the year because of restructuring charges, adjusted income beat Wall Street's expectations on the strengths of the company's movie studio and TV network businesses. Those gains offset weakness in the magazine division. Time Warner said Wednesday that it had first-quarter net income...

Moving digital files between your work and home computers can be a pain. Add smartphones and tablet computers to the mix, and you've got yourself a giant headache. Google Inc. unveiled its solution to the problem last week, while two other companies, Dropbox Inc. and Microsoft Corp., improved their existing offerings. The idea is to leave your files on their computers, so that you can access them from any Internet-connected device, wherever you are. That means you can stop emailing big files...

Target Corp. is phasing out Amazon.com Inc.'s e-reader Kindle at its more than 1,700 stores and its website. Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said Wednesday that the decision to stop selling Kindles this spring came after an "ongoing review" of Target's merchandise that evaluates quality and prices of the chain's offerings. The move coincides with the discounter's plan to create mini shops of Apple Inc. products in 25 of its stores this year. Despite competition from cheaper tablet computers...

Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have joined forces to offer free online courses in a project aimed at attracting millions of online learners around the world, the universities announced Wednesday. Beginning this fall, a variety of courses developed by faculty at both institutions will be available online through the new $60 million partnership, known as "edX." "Anyone with an Internet connection anywhere in the world can have access," Harvard President Drew Faust said during...

Charlie Ergen, the billionaire who controls Dish Network Corp., has a 10-year plan to transform the satellite TV provider into a one-stop shop for Internet access, video and voice services at home and on the go. Ergen said that no major telecommunications company has figured out how to combine all those things in one package in the United States. Cable TV operators provide data, video and voice services in the home, but don't mimic that offering on mobile devices. Cellphone carriers are great...

From his tiny, windowless office, George Palamarizis tirelessly chips away at Greece's political establishment. The web designer creates content for the Democratic Left _ one of a crop of new parties that have rapidly built an online following that is translating into real electoral clout. As the economic crisis rages, they are harnessing the power of the Internet to get out their message as the biggest parties find they have little money in their coffers for traditional campaigning. Ahead of...

Comcast, the nation's biggest pay-TV provider and the majority owner of NBC Universal, is expected to extend its string of strong results when it reports its first-quarter earnings. Comcast's results have been going against the grain of the industry for a year. It's been curbing the loss of cable-TV subscribers and has increased its TV revenue even as other cable companies lose viewers to satellite and phone-company TV services. On its last quarterly earnings conference call, executives hinted...

Time Warner is reporting its first-quarter earnings before the market opens Wednesday. Analysts are looking for profits and revenue to grow on the strength of advertising demand at networks like the Cartoon Network and TBS and better performance of the Warner Bros. movie studio. Analysts and investors will also look for how Time Warner Inc. was able to recover from the NBA lockout, which delayed the opening of the season by almost two months until late December. Despite games coming back to...

Charlie Ergen, the billionaire who controls Dish Network Corp., has a 10-year plan to transform the satellite TV provider into a one-stop shop for Internet access, video and voice services at home and on the go. Ergen said that no major telecommunications company has figured out how to combine all those things in one package in the United States. Cable TV operators provide data, video and voice services in the home, but don't mimic that offering on mobile devices. Cellphone carriers are great...

CBS Corp. on Tuesday said its net income grew 80 percent in the first quarter, as revenue surged on digital licensing deals for its TV shows and overseas sales of reruns. Net profit rose to $363 million, or 54 cents per share, from $202 million, or 29 cents per share, a year ago. Unusual items offset each other; the adjusted earnings of 54 cents per share blew by the 44 cents per share expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue rose 12 percent to $3.92 billion, also beating the $3.79 billion...

A former AOL executive says Facebook has a lot in common with the one-time online powerhouse. For years, AOL tried its best to keep users within its walled gardens filled with exclusive articles, chat rooms and other features. That's much the way Facebook operates; you have to sign up and log in to be involved in your friends' lives. "When you have the walled garden, it was wonderful how it perpetuated itself," Bob Pittman, AOL's former chief operating officer, said Tuesday at the Milken Institute...

Research In Motion's new chief executive unveiled a newly-designed BlackBerry smartphone prototype powered by a re-imagined operating system _the very software the company has pinned its future on. Thorsten Heins, who took the CEO job in January, on Tuesday revealed features of the BlackBerry 10 operating system running on a prototype device at the company's BlackBerry World conference in Orlando. He provided no update on the software's launch date. Heins, who is trying to rally developers to...

When Louis C.K. released his comedy special "Live at the Beacon Theater" by himself on his website for $5, it was little more than a cautiously optimistic experiment. Less than two weeks later, it had reaped more than $1 million. Already among the most respected stand-ups in the country, Louis C.K. was suddenly a new media trailblazer, too. On Tuesday, the Webby Awards announced Louis C.K. is their "person of the year" for setting "a new precedent for distribution." Comedians Aziz Ansari and...

Research In Motion's new chief executive has unveiled a prototype for its new operating system on which the company has pinned its future. Thorsten Heins, who took the CEO job in January, revealed some BlackBerry 10 features at the company's BlackBerry World conference in Orlando on Tuesday. He provided no update on a launch date. Heins says each developer will go home with the prototype. Heins stressed in a speech that was broadcast on the company's BlackBerry World website that the prototype...

CBS reports its first-quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday, and analysts will be looking for profit and revenue growth to continue as the company reaps more money from traditional and online distributors. Analysts polled by FactSet expect CBS, the broadcaster behind shows like "The Good Wife" and "Blue Bloods," to post net income of $288 million in the quarter through March, and an adjusted 44 cents per share of earnings, up from 29 cents a year ago. Revenue is seen at $3.78 billion,...

Online deals company Groupon Inc. said Monday that it will replace two board members with executives from American Express Co. and accounting firm Deloitte LLP. The company said Daniel Henry, chief financial officer of American Express and Robert Bass, a vice chairman at financial consulting firm Deloitte, will sit on Groupon's audit committee. Henry was appointed to the board on April 26, and replaces Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. The move comes as Groupon faces growing scrutiny over its accounting...

Oracle Corp. has accused Google Inc. of patent and copyright infringement. Much of the dispute is over Google's Android, the mobile operating system that now powers more than 300 million smartphones and tablet computers. Here are key developments in that case: Jan. 27, 2010: Oracle closes deal to buy Sun Microsystems and gets the Java computer programming language and related technology that is central to the lawsuit. Aug. 12: Oracle sues Google in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Oracle...

Books and bits united Monday as Microsoft provided an infusion of money to help Barnes & Noble compete with top electronic bookseller Amazon. In exchange, Microsoft gets a long-desired foothold in the business of e-books and college textbooks. With Microsoft Corp.'s $300 million investment, the two companies are teaming up to create a subsidiary for Barnes & Noble's e-book and college textbook businesses. Microsoft is taking a 17.6 percent stake in the venture. The agreement underscores...

Barnes & Noble Inc. makes a variety of Nooks with black-and-white screens, dedicated to reading, and the Nook Color and Nook Tablet, which add color screens, third-party applications and Internet browsing to the mix. Here's how its sales stacked up against competitors in both the tablet and e-reader market in the October to December period, the crucial holiday season, according to research firm IDC: Apple: 15.4 million iPads Amazon.com: 4.7 million tablet-like Kindle Fires, plus 6.1 million...

Britain's High Court has ordered the country's Internet service providers to block file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, the U.K.'s main music industry association said Monday. A High Court judge told Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media on Friday to prevent access to the Swedish site, which helps millions of people download copyrighted music, movies and computer games. Music industry group BPI welcomed the order by justice Richard Arnold that the service providers block the...

A published report says Apple Inc. uses subsidiaries in Ireland, the Netherlands and other low-tax nations as part of a strategy that enables the technology giant to cut its global tax bill by billions of dollars every year. The New York Times on Sunday outlined legal methods used by Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple to avoid paying billions of dollars in federal and state taxes. One approach highlighted in the report: Even though the company is based in California, Apple has set up a small office...

A Thai judge postponed a verdict that had been expected Monday for a webmaster accused of failing to act quickly enough to remove Internet posts deemed insulting to Thailand's royalty. Judge Nittaya Yaemsri said more time was need to process documents in the case, which has drawn global criticism because many see it as an assault on freedom of speech. A new court date was set for May 30. Chiranuch Premchaiporn _ widely known by her nickname, Jiew _ is facing up to 20 years in jail for 10 comments...

Yahoo is bringing out more artillery in its patent battle with Facebook. It is adding new allegations of intellectual property theft to its six-week-old lawsuit against Facebook. In court papers filed Friday, Yahoo Inc. now says Facebook's online social network infringes on 12 of its Internet patents, up from 10. Yahoo also denied allegations that it has been infringing on 10 of Facebook's patents and accused its rival of engaging in shady behavior. Among other things, Yahoo says Facebook violated...

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus received a compensation package valued at $1.7 million in 2011, most of it in the form of a home security system and related expenses. Zynga Inc. said in a regulatory filing Friday that it spent $1.2 million on the one-time purchase and installation of a security system for Pincus and his family. It was included in roughly $1.4 million of "other compensation for Pincus. The company expects that this will be a one-time expense. Pincus, 46, lives in San Francisco with his...

The Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to require broadcast TV stations to post online the advertising rates they charge political candidates and advocacy groups. The vote came despite strong opposition from many broadcasters, who have argued that making sensitive advertising rate information so publically available will undermine stations' competitiveness and give advertisers unfair leverage over how much they are willing to pay. A coalition of broadcasters put forth a compromise...