Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft will invest US$250 million over three years on a product integration strategy meant to "significantly simplify" technology deployments for companies of all sizes, they said Wednesday.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has decided to investigate separate complaints made against Sharp and Research In Motion (RIM) that each allege the companies are infringing patents held by the complainants.

Chip designer Broadcom plans to pay US$160.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit over stock option accounting practices commonly called backdating after hundreds of companies were forced to restate earnings a few years ago due to the practice.

A group of companies is starting up an Enterprise Cloud Buyers Council in hopes of removing barriers to enterprise use of hosted cloud computing.

Ciena will pay US$769 million for the optical networking and carrier Ethernet assets of Nortel Networks' Metro Ethernet Networks business, the two companies said on Monday.

Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Thursday announced that they have settled all antitrust litigation and patent cross-license disputes between the companies.

Logitech plans to acquire LifeSize Communications, a company that makes HD video communications equipment, for US$405 million in cash, the companies said Tuesday.

Two investment consulting companies laid out objections to Cisco's US$3 billion offer for Norwegian videoconferencing vendor Tandberg on Friday, saying in an open letter to Cisco and a press interview that the bid undervalues Tandberg.

Microsoft's deal with Yahoo under which the software maker's new Bing search engine will be used to power Yahoo searches and Yahoo will sell premium advertising for both companies could be expanded overseas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday.

Many companies make it possible for employees to work remotely, but without a structured telework program in place, they could be putting corporate data at risk and stifling employee productivity.

Technology research company Eolas Technologies, which won a US$520.6 million patent infringement case against Microsoft in 2003, has filed a new patent lawsuit against 22 companies including Adobe Systems, Google, Yahoo, Apple, eBay and Amazon.com.

Oracle is buying software assets from HyperRoll to improve the reporting capabilities in Oracle's financial management software, the companies announced Monday.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating whether the hiring practices of Google, Yahoo, Apple and some other technology companies may have violated antitrust regulations, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Microsoft has had few critics more vocal than Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Sun Chairman Scott McNealy. With their companies set to merge in a blockbuster US$7.4 billion deal announced Monday, is it time for Microsoft to worry?

Foreign investors in Internet companies pose a potential threat to national security, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned members of the United Russia political party at a meeting on Wednesday.

DRAM makers are facing one of the worst downturns in their history and governments around the world are lining up to help companies through the mess.

Terrorist attacks late Wednesday in Mumbai are unlikely to make multinational technology companies change their strategies for India.

Storage networking company Brocade Communications Systems has agreed to acquire enterprise LAN vendor Foundry Networks for approximately US$3 billion, the companies announced Monday.

Microsoft is meeting with AOL executives Wednesday to talk about the two companies combining AOL and Microsoft's online division, according to a news report.

CBS has agreed to pay US$1.8 billion in cash for online media company CNET Networks in a deal that has the backing of both companies' boards.