Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 289

Sony have released a statement revealing they have been hacked again, with 93,000 accounts globally being accessed. Sony have temporarily locked these accounts and only a "small fraction" of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. Sony are currently reviewing the accounts for unauthorised accessed and will provide more updates as they have them. Sony have also used some number play to seemingly down play the event by saying "less than one tenth of one percent (0.1%) of their PSN, SEN and SOE audience may have been affected".

Sony have used this as an opportunity to remind people of the importance of a strong password and having a username/password combination that is not associated with other online services or sites. They suggest you use a hard-to-guess password and always look out for unusual activity in your account. I've provided the full press release below:

We want to let you know that we have detected attempts on Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment ("Networks") services to test a massive set of sign-in IDs and passwords against our network database. These attempts appear to include a large amount of data obtained from one or more compromised lists from other companies, sites or other sources. In this case, given that the data tested against our network consisted of sign-in ID-password pairs, and that the overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts, it is likely the data came from another source and not from our Networks. We have taken steps to mitigate the activity.

Following the passing of Steve Jobs last week we've seen an absolute mass of news come out about the man who undeniably changed the face of one of the largest industries in the world. But if I asked the majority of you what brand/model of car he drove, I'd be surprised if 5% of you knew (prior to a frantic google search for the answer, that is). Don't worry, I was in the 95% that didn't until today as well.

One thing I can now say, while he might not have always had good taste in the way he went about running the show at Apple, he certainly did when it came to cars :-

While I hear many of you shouting out "But I really couldn't give a rats bum what he drove", there is something else in the picture above that is the main point of interest here. Notice anything that stands out? (Or perhaps I should say, doesn't in this case).

A few days ago, Microsoft signed a major licensing agreement with Samsung over the use of some its patents on Android-based smartphones and tablets. The deal is similar to what other manufacturers have agreed to, which avoid a court battle. But, there's a requirement of a fixed fee to be paid to Microsoft for every Android device sold. Goldman Sach's tech analyst team think that this number is around $444 million per year.

Goldman estimates that Microsoft receives roughly $3 - $6 per Android device, and calculated the multi-million dollar figure based on the number of Android devices expected to be sold by Microsoft's licensees between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012. The companies that Microsoft receive the (virtually free) dollars from are HTC, Acer, U.S. defense contractor General Dynamics Itronix, Onkyo, Velocity Micro, ViewSonic and Wistron, and Samsung, which yesterday became the latest licensee.

Microsoft claims that certain Android features contain technologies over which it owns patents. Considering that two of the largest Android device makers have agreed to pay royalties which puts some concrete into this claim. The only one in the US without a license from Microsoft is Motorola Mobility, in which the two are in court battling it out.

Intel and IBM have announced a $4.4 billion investment which is being put into a manufacturing plant to create the next-generation of cutting-edge computer chip technology. It's all being done in New York, with a five-year investment expected to generated and retain 6,900 jobs paying an average of $100,000. Gov. Cuomo who was previously suing Intel, where he filed an anti-trust lawsuit against them, has done a 180-degree turn and has now called this new move "a really, really big deal" and part of his effort to "create a more confident environment for doing business in New York".

The aforementioned lawsuit included Cuomo - as attorney general - trying to sue Intel for trying to monopolize the computer chip industry. He charged Intel with violated state and federal anti-trust laws by trying to keep a monopoly over the market for microprocessors, which as most people know are the heart of computers and servers alike. The suit charged Intel with paying computer makers billions of dollars in exchange for using the company's microprocessors instead of competing products from AMD.

The suit is currently pending with Intel back in May filing three motions seeking to have the suit dismissed.

AMD, the second largest PC chip manufacturer, has lowered their third quarter revenue projections citing issues with the 32nm chip production at its German Foundry. AMD now expects its revenue to increase by 4 - 6% on top of their second quarter earnings, down from the 10% that they originally forecasted earlier in the year. In response to this news, AMD shares fell by 7.8% to $5.88 during extended trading yesterday.

AMD have not only been having issues with their 32nm chips, but they have also commented that its 45nm chip supply was also experiencing issues as the two processes share some common toold in manufacturing. The Dresden-based manufacturing firm, GlobalFoundries, which AMD have an 11% stake in, is uses for their manufacturing operations. Poor yields of chips due to production problems seem to be AMD's biggest issue right now.

GlobalFoundries is "throwing substantial resources at improving yields" says Drew Prairie, a spokesperson for AMD. AMD have also said that they're seeing progress, but how much is yet to be reported. Llano has experienced the brunt of the shortage, leading AMD to have supply issues for mainstream computers and it has also caused shipping delays for the new server-grade 16-core Opteron "Interlagos" CPUs, which will affect sales margins even more.

Were HP lurking eBay looking for a new CEO? It could be a possibility. Former eBay CEO, Meg Whitman, is now the CEO and President of Hewlett-Packard. Current non-executive, Ray Lane, will become executive chairman. Whitman is a well-known executive, will replace HP's current Leo Apotheker, who was prodded out of the company just recently. Whitman is an experienced digital executive, has a large task ahead of her.

HP wants to re-direct itself after numerous strategic gaffes, disappointing financial results and probably the biggest issue, stock that has dropped 47-percent in 11 months since Apotheker was head of the ship. The board of HP is hoping Whitman can turn this all around, with ever-increasing pressure from the competition.

Check out the official press release from HP.

Dedicated Android partner, Motorola Mobility, have been acquired by Google today in an announcement that was music to my ears. Google Inc. and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011.

Google CEO, Larry Page has a few things to say about the acquisition:

Motorola Mobility's total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.

This is not something that you'd find on the front page of a tech site, but while I'm employed to write news for TweakTown, I'll post in my own image. This story covers hundreds of millions of people and further more, the entire financial system of the Western World and beyond. The current financial crisis is not something that "just happened", it is something that has happened over decades and is something that is not being fixed.

It is not something that they should be surprised of and there needs to be huge, systematic changes in the entire US government, Congress, Banking, Law, and virtually everything in-between before we see a true change. Dylan Ratigan of "The Dylan Ratigan Show" really drives his point home and I found myself getting goosebumps and nearly tearing up at just how... I don't even know how to word it, how, genuine and patriotic he seemed.

He comes off as loving America and seeing the problems within the country from Banks, to the President himself. He really touches on some amazing points and I agree with him 110%. If he were to work together with Ron Paul, I believe we could see a true change in America and something the entire world could be proud of. It would bring America back to something Americans could truly be proud of instead of the war-mongering, police-state, corrupt, BS America that we see today. People just don't want to swallow the truth, but as Dylan says, think of yourself and your children - what world will they grow up in? It's only going to get worse if we don't fix today's problems ASAP. Watch the video above for yourself and if you like it, please do pass on the link to this news. Back to original programming after this!

Another huge tech company has posted record profits and this time it's Microsoft. Microsoft have just announced a record fourth-quarter revenue of $17.37 billion for the quarter ended June 30, 2011 and 8-percent increase from the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $6.17 billion, $5.87 billion and $0.69 per share, which represents increase of 4, 30 and 35-percent respectively when compared with the prior year period.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, Microsoft reported record revenue of $69.94 billion, a 12-percent increase from last year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the year were $27.16 billion, $23.15 billion and $2.69, which represented 13, 23 and 28-percent increases when compared to last year.

Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft sais "Throughout fiscal 2011, we delivered to market a strong lineup of products and services which translated into double-digit revenue growth, and operating margin expansion. Our platform and cloud investments position us for long-term growth."

They seriously can't be doing this for the LOLs, but a 27-year-old blogger "BirdAbroad" has posted on his blog about an Apple Store he found in China. It looks liked an Apple store, the winding staircase with a sitting area upstairs, employees wearing the blue t-shirts with the clunky Apple name tag around their necks. But this Apple store in Kunming is actually a complete rip-off. As BirdAbroad says "China warps your mind into believing anything is possible". He says that it is the best rip off store they've ever seen, but some things were out of place. The stairs were poorly made, walls were not painted properly.

Even the sign itself, Apple never displays "Apple Store" on its signs, it just displays the gloriously delicious looking fruit symbol. The name tags on the staff did not actually list a name, just "staff" and an Apple logo. The funniest thing about this all is the employees actually think they're working directly for Apple. As the blogger took photos, multiple salespeople and security guys (plain clothed) outside came in and told him to stop. It was not allowed. Why wasn't it allowed? Their boss told them so. He did tell them that he was an American Apple employee visiting China checking out the local stores, this was the golden ticket.