Los Angeles Times - Technology Business News

Jerry Yang's record and insider perspective could hinder, some say.

Jerry Yang isn't like Michael Dell, Steve Jobs and other high-profile executives who returned to rescue the companies they founded. Yang, Yahoo Inc.'s new chief executive, never left.

The Justice Department said Tuesday that it had reached an agreement with Microsoft Corp. resolving Google Inc.'s complaints that its desktop search engine failed to perform properly on Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system.

Internet music retailer Sony Connect Inc. is eliminating some positions as part of a restructuring plan to shift resources to other online services, but it intends to continue operating, the company said.

Gateway Inc. is recalling 14,000 lithium ion battery packs because they pose a fire hazard.

Semel is out as CEO. Now Yang has the job of chasing down Google.

Bleeding market share, managerial talent and investor confidence, Internet giant Yahoo Inc. on Monday replaced Chief Executive Terry Semel with company co-founder Jerry Yang, who now faces the task of trying to catch up to dominant Google Inc.

The reality show 'Hometown Baghdad' has a worldwide audience, but watching it there is another story.

BAGHDAD — There's no tribal council or immunity challenge. Viewers don't vote off their least favorite. But reality TV has come of age in Iraq with a new show about some well-spoken twentysomethings who share their lives, fears and dreams as cameras follow them around one of the world's most dangerous cities.

All those "Silly Love Songs" are about to start echoing across the Internet. Most of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles solo albums and those with his group Wings soon will be available digitally for the first time, EMI Music and Capitol Records announced Monday.

Microsoft Corp. said the Linux operating system and other freely distributed programs violate 235 of its patents, and it wants makers of such software to pay royalties.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the second-largest maker of computer microprocessors, has begun selling new graphics chips and announced plans to challenge No. 1 Intel Corp. with a redesigned desktop processor.

A local news website's editor who hired two reporters in India to cover Pasadena said he had been so overwhelmed by reaction to his plan that he had to postpone publication of their first stories.

Vaunted PlayStation 3 is crucial for the firm, but it faces an uphill climb.

Joel Downs is the type of video game buff that Sony Corp. expected to fall for the PlayStation 3. The 32-year-old Culver City entrepreneur is tech savvy, loves his PlayStation 2 and has the money to afford an upgrade.

In the television networks' stampede to stake their claim on the Internet, Walt Disney Co. has taken the road less traveled.

With a movie director as co-chairman, Digital Domain is poised to accelerate the blurring of the two media.

A budget of about $25 million may not be much for director Michael Bay, maker of such mega-budget movies as "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor."

In a takeoff on the TV talent show, budding capitalists aim to offer the best business pitch.

STANFORD, CALIF. — They don't usually teach this in business school: When it comes to launching companies, style can matter as much as substance.

Four teams and some strange machines competed for $250,000 from NASA, but all walked away empty-handed.

The social networking site's ban on some content with outside ads for 'Spider-Man 3' shows the tension between freedom and commerce.

The struggle over how to generate more money from MySpace without killing its freewheeling style burst into the open Wednesday when the social networking site blocked videos its users had created with the aid of another popular website.

The messages, on a private system, are wanted by Congress in a probe of the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that it may have lost what could amount to thousands of messages sent through a private e-mail system used by political guru Karl Rove and at least 50 other top officials, an admission that stirred anger and dismay among congressional investigators.

Research in Motion Ltd.'s fourth-quarter profit soared as it released new devices and won market share. The shares fell after sales trailed analysts' estimates and the company disclosed a formal probe by regulators.

Northrop Grumman Corp. has joined with Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. to offer Israeli-built spy satellites to U.S. military and intelligence agencies.

Apple Inc. has started selling movies from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.'s film library on its iTunes website, advancing an effort to obtain material that can be downloaded and played on Apple's iPod and a new set-top box.