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Facebook's $16 billion IPO one of world's largest
2012-05-17T21:28:31Z
Facebook's initial public offering of stock is shaping up to be one of the largest ever. The world's definitive online social network is raising at least $16 billion, a big windfall for a company that began eight years ago with no way to make money.

Reports: HP poised to eliminate up to 30,000 jobs
2012-05-17T21:24:55Z
Hewlett-Packard is poised to eliminate as many as 30,000 jobs to compensate for dwindling demand for personal computers as more people connect to the Internet on smartphones and tablets, according to reports published Thursday.

The next digital image revolution?
2012-05-09T05:57:33Z

Despite the explosive innovation around digital picture-taking, the end result has actually changed very little. A photo is still a photo. And a poorly focused photo is still as bad as ever. Ren Ng aims to fix that.

DeLorean making a comeback… with a new stainless steel bike?
2012-05-17T16:47:51Z
Ever since the movie Back to the Future came out, we've wanted a DeLorean for our very own. The problem: The sports car was an undesirable, notorious flop — only 9,000 were ever made before the DeLorean Motor Company's bankruptcy in 1982. … Continue reading →

New financing deal values Pinterest at $1.5 billion
2012-05-17T16:27:15Z
Up-and-coming social networking site Pinterest has raised $100 million in a new round of financing, a deal that values the community digital scrapbook at $1.5 billion. Investing companies include existing shareholders Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, and new investor … Continue reading →

Twitter Tweaks Suggestions for Who You Should Follow
2012-05-17T17:07:15Z
Twitter wants to make new users feel more at home on the microblogging network, so it's changing how it recommends who you should follow when they sign up.

As Facebook grows, millions say, 'no, thanks'
2012-05-17T17:52:17Z

Don't try to friend MaLi Arwood on Facebook. You won't find her there.

Buffett's Berkshire to buy Media General papers
2012-05-17T18:48:16Z

Billionaire Warren Buffett's company is making another foray into newspapers, agreeing to buy 63 newspapers from Media General Inc. for $142 million.

Comcast to start charging heavy downloaders extra
2012-05-17T21:27:16Z
Comcast Corp., the country's largest Internet service provider, is going to start charging extra when customers go over a certain monthly data limit.

Brazil judge sentences Twitter user
2012-05-17T19:04:22Z
A federal judge has sentenced a former law student to 17 months in prison for using Twitter to incite prejudice and discrimination against people from Brazil's impoverished northeast.

Gene Effect tops iPhone Games of the Week
2012-05-17T21:30:00Z
Some great new games hit the iTunes App Store this week, with several titles taking players into side-scrolling 2-D worlds. Gene Effect leads the pack, bringing gamers into the deep and mysterious caverns of Mars, where they’re tasked with mining for important substances, discovering hidden objects, and conducting a rescue mission to locate a missing vehicle. With its fascinating story, it’ll keep you entertained, but we’ve got a few other great titles for you to check out below as well.

Facebook prices at top of range in landmark IPO
2012-05-17T21:51:14Z

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc priced its initial public offering at the top of its target range to raise more than $16 billion, as strong demand, particularly from retail investors, fuels anticipation of a big pop in the stock when it begins trading Friday on the Nasdaq. Predictions of how much the stock will rise on its first day of trade vary greatly -- some experts said the high IPO price and increased float could limit gains to 10 percent to 20 percent, while others said anything short of a 50 percent jump would be disappointing given the hype. ...

You're Making Your Mom Happier; Australia Has Had a Hot 1,000 Years
2012-05-17T21:42:33Z

Discovered: People with kids are happier than people without kids, eating at the right time matters, Australia has had a hot 1,000 years, and whales ears work like hearing aides. People with kids are happier than people without kids. Cat ladies, listen up. After all the crying, diaper changing, those bitchy teenage years and the unrequited love, parents are happy people, science says. "We are not saying that parenting makes people happy, but that parenthood is associated with happiness and meaning," explains researcher Sonja Lyubomirsky. Ooooh. ...

A look at how some IPO stocks have fared
2012-05-17T21:41:25Z
Facebook raised $16 billion in its initial public offering Thursday, pricing its stock at $38 per share. Its public debut is the most anticipated tech IPO since Google went public in August 2004.

Facebook's $16 billion IPO one of world's largest
2012-05-17T21:28:31Z
Facebook's initial public offering of stock is shaping up to be one of the largest ever. The world's definitive online social network is raising at least $16 billion, a big windfall for a company that began eight years ago with no way to make money.

Comcast to start charging heavy downloaders extra
2012-05-17T21:27:16Z
Comcast Corp., the country's largest Internet service provider, is going to start charging extra when customers go over a certain monthly data limit.

Reports: HP poised to eliminate up to 30,000 jobs
2012-05-17T21:24:55Z
Hewlett-Packard is poised to eliminate as many as 30,000 jobs to compensate for dwindling demand for personal computers as more people connect to the Internet on smartphones and tablets, according to reports published Thursday.

Morgan Stanley ups Facebook IPO share cap to 5,000
2012-05-17T21:23:09Z
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, one of the three lead underwriters on the Facebook Inc IPO, has increased the number of Facebook shares it will allow advisers to allocate to each client account. The firm previously set a cap of 500 shares per retail client, but e-mailed advisers late on Thursday afternoon that it had increased the limit to 5,000 shares, according to two sources familiar with the situation, who declined to be named because they are not permitted to speak to the press. ...

Number of active users at Facebook over the years
2012-05-17T21:15:04Z

Growth in the number of active users at Facebook, defined as someone who logs on at least once a month:

Facebook's $16 billion IPO 1 of world's largest
2012-05-17T21:13:36Z
Facebook's initial public offering of stock is shaping up to be one of the largest ever. The world's definitive online social network is raising at least $16 billion, a big windfall for a company that began eight years ago with no way to make money.

Tale of the tape: Google versus Facebook
2012-05-17T21:06:23Z
Facebook is the hottest Internet company to hit the stock market since Google went public in 2004. The Silicon Valley companies, located seven miles apart, also happen to be locked in a bitter battle for Web surfers' allegiance and online advertisers' money. The duel is likely to intensify now that the IPO has provided Facebook Inc.'s social network with the means to pay for efforts to battle Google Inc.'s dominant search engine.

Facebook prices IPO at $38 per share
2012-05-17T20:57:57Z
Facebook has priced its initial public offering of stock at $38 per share, at the high end of its expected range. It means investor demand is strong for the world's largest online social network.

World's first Wikipedia town to launch in Wales
2012-05-17T20:55:02Z
A small Welsh town where English King Henry V was born is about to make history again by becoming the world's first "Wikipedia town."

Road to IPO: Milestones in Facebook's history
2012-05-17T20:53:16Z
Some key developments in the eight years since Facebook Inc.'s creation:

Biographical info on Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO
2012-05-17T20:43:56Z
Mark Zuckerberg is selling 30.2 million shares as part of Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering of stock. With shares priced at $38 each, he's receiving $1.15 billion.

All-time top 10 IPOs for Internet companies
2012-05-17T20:35:37Z

Facebook Inc. and its shareholders have raised $16 billion in an initial public offering of stock. It is by far the largest IPO ever for an Internet company.

Facebook's Saverin fires back at tax-dodge critics
2012-05-17T20:33:54Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, under fire over the tax consequences of renouncing his U.S. citizenship, said on Thursday he is obligated to and will pay "hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to the United States government." The social media entrepreneur and investor said in a statement, emailed to Reuters by a spokesman, that his decision to move to Singapore was "based solely on my interest in working and living" there. Saverin said he has been there since 2009. ...

Facebook IPO: Who is selling stock?
2012-05-17T20:30:59Z
Facebook Inc. is selling 180 million of its shares in its initial public stock offering. Another 241. 2 million are coming from existing stockholders, including the company's earliest investors and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Review: Facebook snapshot doesn't capture dynamics
2012-05-17T20:28:13Z

In my five years on Facebook, I've shared a lot of photos, links and other tidbits about my life. I've commented on what my friends share, and I've endorsed plenty of their posts by hitting the "like" button. I've gained Facebook friends over the years, and I've lost some.

Facebook set to price initial public offering
2012-05-17T20:23:05Z
Facebook's initial public offering could be one of the largest in history if its stock prices at the high end of its expected range on Thursday.

Silicon Valley Sure Is Spending Like There's a Bubble
2012-05-17T20:16:46Z

As the rest of the country is still living out a sluggish economic recovery, all the Facebook, Pinterest and Spotify over-valuation can be seen in and around Silicon Valley. The housing market in San Francisco, for example, is blowing up, but given how localized the boom is, it's more evidence that this selfish social media bubble's economic effects are pretty contained. 

War-torn Somalia stages TEDx conference
2012-05-17T20:14:27Z

Somalia's war-ravaged capital Mogadishu will host Thursday its first ever TED talks as part of efforts to showcase improvements in development, business and security, organisers said.

Kochs help Republicans catch up on technology
2012-05-17T20:13:34Z

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In the 2008 presidential race, Barack Obama was famously effective in using new technologies to raise money, mobilize voters and target his message of change. In this year's campaign, his opponents are determined to turn the tables. Republican political operatives, some with deep financial backing from the billionaire Koch brothers and others, are unleashing about a half dozen major projects that take advantage of advanced database technologies to manage campaigns and target voters with personalized messages. ...

Apple to use only green power for main data center
2012-05-17T20:05:12Z
(Reuters) - Apple Inc plans to power its main U.S. data center entirely with renewable energy by the end of this year, taking steps to address longstanding environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms. The maker of the iPhone and iPad said on Thursday it was buying equipment from SunPower Corp and startup Bloom Energy to build two solar array installations in and around Maiden, North Carolina, near its core data center. Once up, the solar farm will supply 84 million kWh of energy annually. ...

Iran threatens to sue Google over dropping Persian Gulf
2012-05-17T19:51:06Z

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Ministry threatened on Thursday to take legal action against Google for dropping the name Persian Gulf from its Google Maps and leaving the waterway between Iran and Arab states nameless, state television reported. "One of the seditionist acts taken as part of the soft war against the Iranian nation has been Google's shameless act to drop the name 'Persian Gulf' which is ... against historical documents," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying. ...

Facebook's Saverin says to pay millions in U.S. tax
2012-05-17T19:27:03Z
(Reuters) - Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin said in a statement on Thursday that he is obligated to and will pay "hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to the United States government." Saverin said his decision to renounce his U.S. citizenship and relocate to Singapore was "based solely on my interest in working and living in Singapore, where I have been since 2009." With social media company Facebook poised for a multibillion-dollar initial public offering on Friday, Saverin has been criticized by lawmakers for what they say is dodging U.S. ...

HP mulls cutting at least 25,000 jobs: sources
2012-05-17T19:25:08Z

(Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co is considering cutting its workforce by 8 to 10 percent, or a minimum of 25,000 jobs, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, as newly installed CEO Meg Whitman strives to return the storied Silicon Valley institution to growth. The job cuts, which could include retirements, are under discussion but have not yet been finalized, several people familiar with the situation told Reuters. The sources did not elaborate on a time frame or other details. ...

Merrill, Morgan Stanley doling out Facebook shares
2012-05-17T19:24:32Z
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Santa - or scrooge - has come early for advisers at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Advisers at the two firms have started to find out how many Facebook IPO shares they are getting, just hours before the social media company is expected to price its initial public offering, according to advisers and clients at the firms. Merrill advisers had until 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) to allocate shares to clients, two advisers said. ...

Budget official picked for top cybersecurity post
2012-05-17T19:21:28Z
The White House has selected the head of the intelligence branch in its budget office to be President Barack Obama's top adviser on cybersecurity issues, a move that comes as Congress and the Obama administration are at odds over how best to protect critical U.S. industries from crippling electronic attacks by cybercriminals, foreign governments and terrorists.

Russian whizzes win global collegiate IT contest
2012-05-17T19:12:23Z

Three Russian computer whizzes were crowned the world's top collegiate programmers Thursday, when they clobbered 111 other teams from across the globe to win the 36th annual "Battle of Brains" in Warsaw.