 | Good afternoon Bit |  |  | Apple jumped to the top of the global smartphone sales ranking in the second quarter, ending Nokia's15-year run as the lead smartphone vendor, according to new research from Strategy Analytics. Apple sold a record 20.3 million iPhones during the quarter, which amounts to about a fifth of the global smartphone market. Impressive considering its iPhone 4 model was released more than a year ago. Samsung also surpassed Nokia to claim second spot, with 17.5 percent of market share. Nokia fell to third place as its market share tumbled to 15.2 from 38.1 percent a year ago.
As if Apple's new royalty status isn't enough, the gadget maker can also lay claim to being the most profitable in the smartphone business. According to a chart on Business Insider, Apple pulled in two-thirds of all profits in the mobile phone sector last quarter. That's twice as much as Samsung, RIM and HTC combined.
Did Yahoo get a raw deal when it signed a pact with Alibaba and SofBank to resovle a dispute over online payment service Alipay? That's the case being made by some analysts. The trio announced it had struck an agreement after months of wrangling over the lucrative asset, under which Alibaba gets up to $6 billion if the mobile payments firm goes public or gets sold. But investors are bothered by the deal, saying it reaffirms perceptions on Wall Street that Yahoo has little say in Alibaba, the e-commerce company founded by Jack Ma and which is 43 percent-owned by Yahoo.
It's official - you can now get Groupon deals on Foursquare. Foursquare has integrated Groupon coupons into its mobile apps. Users can cash in on the deals now - which will include both daily deals and Groupon Now deals - by using the "Explore" tab on Foursquare's app, a feature that lets users search for neat activities to do nearby.
Microsoft warned on Thursday that a government review of its U.S. tax obligations in past years could significantly affect its financial statements if not resolved in its favor.The Internal Revenue Service has looked at Microsoft's use of transfer pricing, among other things, or methods of booking prices and sales between subsidiaries -- often leading to opportunities to report earnings in lower-tax jurisdictions. | | | LATEST NEWS | | Anonymous says hacked U.S. government cyber supplier | | July 29, 2011 05:24 PM ET | | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hackers with the loose-knit group Anonymous said on Friday they had broken into the network of U.S. government contractor Mantech International Corp and posted some NATO-related correspondence online. | Full Article | | Yahoo got short end of stick in Alibaba deal | | July 29, 2011 04:33 PM ET | | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc got short-changed -- that's the view of analysts picking apart the complex deal it announced on Friday with Alibaba Group and SoftBank Corp over Chinese e-payments unit Alipay. | Full Article | | Americans press Congress on debt via phones, Twitter | | July 29, 2011 04:38 PM ET | | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans took to the phone lines and the Internet on Friday after President Barack Obama urged them again to call lawmakers and weigh in on a war over raising the U.S. debt limit that has sharply divided Congress. | Full Article | | | BUSINESS NEWS
| | Growth anemic, debt row poses recession risk | | July 29, 2011 02:34 PM ET | | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The economy stumbled badly in the first half of 2011 and came dangerously close to contracting in the January-March period, raising the risk of a recession if a standoff over the nation's debt does not end quickly. | Full Article | | Merck to slash jobs in cost-savings drive | | July 29, 2011 05:29 PM ET | | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc plans to cut another 12,000 to 13,000 jobs by late 2015 to wring out additional annual cost savings of up to $1.5 billion that can be plowed back into research and deal making. | Full Article | | Ford hopes to avoid strike in labor talks | | July 29, 2011 05:28 PM ET | | DEARBORN, Michigan (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co's labor chief said the U.S. automaker hopes to avoid a strike in its talks for a new labor deal with the United Auto Workers union, which officially began on Friday. | Full Article | | | | U.S. TOP NEWS | | | | | RELATED VIDEO | | |  |  | | A daily digest of breaking business news, coverage of the US economy, major corporate news and the financial markets. Register Today. |  | | Your daily briefing on the latest tech developments from around the world from Reuters expert tech correspondents. Register Today. |  | | The latest Reuters articles on M&A, IPOs, private equity, hedge funds and regulatory updates delivered to your inbox each day.. Register Today. | | | » MORE NEWSLETTERS | | | ODDLY ENOUGH | | | | | | |
