Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 248

The Megaupload case continues, with Kyle Goodwin, an EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) asking the court to return the files, that were legal, back to Goodwin.

Goodwin lost his files when Megaupload was seized in January, since then they've been to court, both for a hearing and a mediation, but nothing has changed according to the EFF. The problem between Goodwin's files and the court, is that the government isn't helping third parties like Goodwin to get access back to their data. This leaves no choice but court.

On May 24, EFF filed a brief asking the court to order Goodwin's rightfully owned data returned. But the problem is, is that's not just Goodwin'd files, it's the thousands upon thousands of other Megaupload users who had data on their servers, where they thought it was safe.

Would you decline $75 million? Heck, $75 for free wouldn't be too bad these days. On the flip side, Apple CEO Tim "Good Guy" Cook has declined a $75 million payout in restricted stock dividends owed to him. Yes, declined.

Apple announced plans last week where they would pay a $2.65 per share dividend on restricted stocks held by Apple employees. This is rare for a company to reward its employee stockholders like this, and even more strange for a high level executive to decline the money they are entitled to.

But, it's not all bad. AllThingsD reports that this could actually benefit both the company, and Cook in the long run. This move gets positive press for not just Apple, but Cook, which could, and most likely will, translate into more stocks sold. It also shows the kind of person Cook is, in this world of increasingly greedy CEOs and executives.

This is one of those moments where you just want to know what a person was thinking. But until someone develops a mind-reading machine, we won't know for sure. As an epitome of United States corruption, ignorance, and waste, the Berkeley, California chief of police sent out ten of his officers to track down his son's stolen iPhone.

Guess what! They didn't manage to find the device even though it had tracking software installed on it. The officers sent to find the device weren't just regular officers, although some were. Michael Meehan, the chief, also sent officers from the drug task force to aid in the search. All of this was over a replaceable iPhone that couldn't cost more than $500.

The hunt most likely cost taxpayers a few thousand dollars. It could have potentially cost even more as only some of the officers received overtime pay for their participation in the search. This truly is an epitome of selfishness. Meehan used his position to do his personal bidding while wasting my taxpayer dollars. As a California resident, I'm not exactly happy with this story. Did Meehan cross a line or was this an acceptable use of money? You be the judge and let us know in the comments.

As part of PayPal's effort to move out of the digital world into the real world, PayPal has been courting big retail stores to add the option to pay with PayPal at the point-of-sales terminals. Home Depot was the first to jump on board and has been offering the option of paying with PayPal when checking out since at least March of this year.

PayPal wants to compete with the credit card companies along with other emerging payment systems such as Google Wallet. The announcement was made at a press event today to show the progress PayPal is making with its real world payment system. PayPal still has to convince consumers that maintaining another payment method is worth the hassle.

But, if PayPal makes it simple enough and available at enough locations, it is a viable alternative to credit cards and cash. It would be especially nice if someone were to forget their wallet or not have enough cash with them. Currently, users just have to type in their phone number and a pin to pay which is pretty simple. If they add in the features they are looking to, it will be quite the competitor.

The Facebook IPO may now be part of a Securities Fraud Lawsuit, but there's some more interesting news building at the moment. Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is not around to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Zuckerberg's last public appearance was the day he rang the Nasdaq opening bell, the same day the shares went public and this problem became an issue for thousands across the world.

The only other appearance from the social networking guru is the wedding picture he posted over the weekend. It's been five days since then, and there has been nothing on his Facebook page either. The shares are steady on $32 a piece, and this just adds to the hysteria that is the Facebook IPO.

Zuckerberg and co have a large hole to dig out of, and while Facebook is a seemingly invincible brand, nothing is ever indestructible. I have seen on my ventures through the jungle that is the Internet, other sources claiming that "Facebook could destroy the U.S. economy", which may sound ridiculous, but it's not a random blog saying this, it's Market Watch, which gives it some credibility.

It seems that the ongoing tanking of the Facebook shares is now getting worse, with the Facebook IPO now the subject of a Securities Fraud Lawsuit filed in the United States District Court in New York. The lawsuit is built upon certain Facebook IPO documents containing untrue statements of material facts and omitted other facts necessary to make such statements not misleading.

But, it gets worse, the fraud lawsuit goes on to say that the Facebook IPO documents weren't prepared in accordance with Federal rules and regulations governing their preparation, thus, violating Federal Securities Laws. But, you might be safe, if you purchased, or acquired shares in Facebook common stock (FB), traceable to the Facebook IPO, on or around May 18, 2012, you can contact the Securities Fraud Attorneys to discuss your rights to recovery.

If you have purchased or acquired shares in Facebook, and want to go through with this, here are some contact details:

We previously reported that anonymous sources were saying HP was going to lay off 25,000-30,000 people. We now know that those numbers were correct as Meg Whitman has announced a restructuring plan which will result in 27,000 workers being let go. To put that number in perspective, it is about 8% of HP's 325,000-person workforce.

People won't be losing their jobs immediately as these layoffs are part of a multi-year restructuring plan. As such, the cuts will only be fully implemented by October 2014 which gives employees plenty of time to find new jobs. The move is aimed at making HP more innovative and cost efficient and will include an early retirement program and a one-time charge of $1.8 billion.

"We are making progress in our multi-year effort to make HP simpler, more efficient and better for customers, employees, and shareholders," said Meg Whitman, HP chief executive. "This quarter we exceeded our previously provided outlook and are executing against our strategy, but we still have a lot of work to do."

Seagate is looking to expand their grasp in the consumer market and what better way than acquiring a company that already produces consumer storage devices? Seagate has extended an offer to LaCie's CEO to purchase the CEO's and his affiliate's stock in LaCie which would give Seagate 64.5% of the outstanding shares, which is enough to have majority control.

Of course, this offer is pending approval by governmental regulatory agencies. Once Seagate gets these approvals, "Seagate would commence an all-cash simplified tender offer (followed as the case may be by a squeeze-out procedure) to acquire the remaining outstanding shares in accordance with the General Regulation of the French Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF)."

The offer to the LaCie CEO by Seagate is pretty good. The offer is at €4.05 with a potential adjustment depending on LaCie's cash and debt position of LaCie at closing. The price could also possibly increase by up to 3% "in the event that the threshold of 95% of the shares and voting rights of LaCie would be reached by Seagate within 6 months following closing."

It what can only be considered a win for programmers around the country, Google has been found not guilty of infringing on Oracle's patents. It took the jury an entire week of deliberations to come to this conclusion. Of the eight claims across two patents, RE38,104 and 6,061,520, Google was acquitted of every single one.

Now that we have this decision, there is no need for the trial to move onto the damages phase as there are no damages to be awarded. The jury is no longer needed in the trial as the final decision as to Fair Use has been left to Judge Alsup to decide. The judge thanked the jurors and dismissed them adding that "this is the longest trial, civil trial, I've ever been in."

Google had been found to be infringing on Oracle's copyrights on a couple of counts, but it is unclear whether or not this was fair use. The jury was unable to decide unanimously if it was. The jury found Google guilty of just one count of infringement, but Judge Alsup later ruled they infringed on 8 other minor counts.

If you want a new Xbox, you better get one now. The judge in the Motorola versus Microsoft patent infringement case has recommended to the six-person review commission that they ban imports of the Xbox 360 due to it infringing upon 4 of Motorola's patents. I can see where this could put a massive kink in Microsoft's current "buy a computer, get an Xbox" promotion.

In court documents that were released Monday, Judge Shaw recommended that the Xbox 360 4GB and 250GB be blocked and that Microsoft should have to post a bond worth 7% of the wholesale value of unsold Xbox's currently in the country. This ruling follows Shaw's previous ruling last month that Microsoft was in fact infringing on some of Motorola's patents.

"It is recommended that the Commission enter a limited exclusion order against infringing Microsoft products," Shaw wrote in his finding. "It is further recommended that the Commission issue a cease and desist order. Additionally, it is recommended that Microsoft be required to post a bond for importation of accused products during the Presidential review period."