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LONDON (Reuters)—British Prime Minister Gordon Browns government suffered new embarrassment over missing data on Monday when it revealed one of its contractors had lost the details of 3 million learner drivers. The revelation came weeks after the government admitted it had lost computer discs containing the names and bank account details of 25 million people, […]

HELSINKI—Intel Corp., the worlds top chipmaker, is set to increase its share of a growing global semiconductor chip market this year to 12.2 percent, research firm Gartner said on Friday. The market is expected to grow 2.9 percent from last year to $270.3 billion (133.22 billion pounds), Gartner said. Intels revenue grew more than twice […]

WASHINGTON—Fraudsters are targeting troubled borrowers facing foreclosure in a scheme that could leave homeowners with even more debt than they otherwise would face, a new online video warns. In the video that dramatizes a common case of fraud, a homeowner receives an unsolicited offer to help settle mortgage debt but ends up homeless and with […]

MOSCOW (Reuters)—Internet chatroom romantics beware: your next chat may be with a clinical computer, not a passionate person, trying to win your personal data and not your heart, an online security firm says. A Russian website called CyberLover.ru is advertising a software tool that, it says, can simulate flirtatious chatroom exchanges. It boasts that it […]

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 12 (Reuters)—Microchip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc said on Wednesday it plans to take a material write-down of the value of its 2006 acquisition of ATI Technologies, a pricey bet the company made to compete better in the market for graphics semiconductors. AMD, which has struggled in the last two years with […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—Nokia won a round in one of its many patent battles with chip maker Qualcomm Inc as a judge with the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled for the mobile telephone maker on Wednesday. The complaint, which was filed in June 2006, accused Nokia of infringing on three patents that controlled power to mobile telephones. […]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – A small Norwegian maker of Web browsers, backed by an industry coalition, has filed the first complaint against Microsoft to the European Commission since the software giant lost a landmark antitrust case earlier this year. Opera Software said it has complained that Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) illegally ties its Web […]

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 13 (Reuters)—Back in 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the Apple I, an early personal computer that consisted of a circuit board in a simple wooden box. Apple Inc and other computer makers went on to make advanced PCs in metal and plastic casings, but now Taiwans Asustek Computer Inc is […]

NEW YORK (Reuters)—Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it has acquired Multimap, one of Britains top online mapping companies. Financial terms were not disclosed. Microsofts acquisition is the latest in a series of deals in the consolidating digital mapping industry. Dutch navigation device maker TomTom NV launched a takeover bid for digital map maker Tele Atlas […]

NEW YORK (Reuters)—Top online auctioneer eBay Inc said on Wednesday that it would appeal a U.S. court ruling in a patent dispute with MercExchange. MercExchange, a company that holds several patents related to Internet-based auctions and markets, said earlier that a U.S. district court found on Tuesday that eBay had intentionally infringed its patents. “We […]