A software firm has also filed a trademark infringement case for RIM's use of the BBX name.

Apple's co-founder and chairman had struggled with a rare form of pancreatic cancer for a number of years.

HP has started laying off workers associated with last year's billion-dollar acquisition of Palm, as it closes down the mobile device business it planned to base on Palm's webOS. The news comes almost exactly a month after HP announced a sweeping reorganization and refocusing of its business.

Google's email market share, at 1%, will rise to 10% in a few years, says analyst firm.

Japanese firms will team with Samsung to design chips for new smartphones and challenge Qualcomm, the Nikkei newspaper said.

Carol Bartz has been fired from the top job at the struggling search company.

Jobs will continue with the company as chairman of the board.

HP also confirmed it is in acquisition talks with software maker Autonomy.

Expectations are mixed, with medium-sized businesses outpacing large ones. A rise seems ahead for software installations.

Smaller firms waste more per person.

Marius Haas, who led Hewlett-Packard's networking business through the 3Com acquisition that made it a broader competitor to Cisco Systems, is leaving the company for investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Intel has firmly insisted that it is the owner of the Thunderbolt trademark, not Apple.

Chip manufacturing firm GlobalFoundries will begin construction of a new manufacturing plant in Abu Dhabi next year, the majority stakeholder of the company said on Friday.

The ultimate fee for the data breach last month at email service provider Epsilon could reach as high as $4 billion, depending on what becomes of the data that was stolen, according to a cyber-risk advisory firm.

Representatives from both Apple and Google will testify at a Congressional hearing next month on consumer privacy and smartphones , two U.S. senators confirmed on Thursday.

The European Commission has confirmed that it has entered into talks with Microsoft with the aim of keeping its licensing agreement for Windows.

The Virtual Computing Environment Co. (VCE), formed from the joint venture of Cisco and EMC, this week said it is establishing headquarters in Richardson, Texas, and hiring 434 people.

Increased revenue will foster mergers and acquisitions in the technology space, according to a survey by accounting and consulting firm BDO USA that polled chief financial officers at technology firms.

Apple was the world's third-largest PC vendor during the fourth quarter last year if iPad shipments are included, research firm Canalys said in a study released Wednesday.

Google co-founder Larry Page will take over as Google CEO in April from Eric Schmidt, who will remain with the company as executive chairman.