 | Good afternoon Bit |  |  | The English homepage of Wikipedia went dark and Google's search page ran the logo "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!" in protest of legislation designed to stop copyright piracy but the free online encyclopedia says "could fatally damage the free and open Internet." Big tech names including Facebook and Twitter declined to participate in protests of the House of Representatives' Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate's PROTECT Intellectual Property Act, despite their opposition to the legislation, unwilling to sacrifice a day's worth of revenue and risk the ire of users.
European regulators will decide around the end of March whether to file a formal complaint against Google for misuse of its market position, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told Reuters. Until this point officials had been playing down expectations of an early conclusion to the informal investigation stage, although there still could be a long way to go. Antitrust investigations typically take several years.
Suspicion is growing that operatives in China, rather than India, were behind the hacking of emails of an official U.S. commission that monitors relations between the United States and China, U.S. officials said. U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said the roundabout way the commission's emails were obtained strongly suggests the intrusion originated in China, possibly by amateurs, and not from India's spy service, as previously thought.
Cellphone makers are set to struggle with slow sales growth this year as a weaker global economy discourages consumers from replacing older handsets. Fourth-quarter results are likely to show the slowdown under way. Apple's long-awaited iPhone 4S and Samsung's new, broad offering were likely the exceptions in an otherwise lackluster Christmas holiday season. Vendors are expected to report sales of around 142 million smartphones in the October-December quarter, up 42 percent from a year ago, according to a Reuters poll. But analysts said not everyone benefited. "We expect smartphone demand to have remained robust in the fourth quarter, but price erosion is intensifying. Profitability remains the crucial yardstick and it's likely Apple and Samsung extended their lead," said CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber.
Zynga said it bought four small mobile game companies for an undisclosed sum as the top maker of Facebook games seeks to expand its lineup on smartphones and tablets. The company's top mobile executive David Ko told Reuters it had acquired German company Gamedoctors in December. Gamedoctors, based in Bielefeld near Hanover, makes the game ZombieSmash. The company also bought Page44 Studios, which is based in San Francisco, in September. That studio created the "World of Goo" game for Apple's iOS platform. Zynga also acquired HipLogic, another San Francisco-based games company, in August. And Ko also confirmed Zynga purchased New York based Astro Ape Studios in August to develop new titles. | | | Seven charged in $62 million Dell insider-trading case | | January 18, 2012 04:41 PM ET | | NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors charged seven people, described as a circle of friends who formed a criminal club, with running a $62 million insider trading scheme - the latest salvo in a years-long probe of suspicious trading at hedge funds. | Full Article | | Fujifilm considering supporting Olympus | | January 18, 2012 09:40 AM ET | | TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Fujifilm Holdings said on Wednesday it is considering supporting scandal-hit endoscope maker Olympus Corp although neither side looks likely to move quickly on an equity alliance that Olympus needs to shore up its finances. | Full Article | | China opposed to U.S. listing Taobao as market for piracy | | January 18, 2012 04:13 PM ET | | BEIJING (Reuters) - China is "greatly concerned and strongly opposed" to the United States' listing of Taobao, the country's largest consumer e-commerce website, as a notorious market for piracy, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday. | Full Article | | Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigns | | January 18, 2012 08:31 AM ET | | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc co-founder Jerry Yang has quit the company he started in 1995, appeasing shareholders who had blasted the Internet pioneer for pursuing an ineffective personal vision and impeding investment deals that could have transformed the struggling company. | Full Article | | | BUSINESS NEWS
| | Wall Street ends up 1 percent as IMF offers Europe hope | | January 18, 2012 04:39 PM ET | | NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks jumped to their highest since July on Wednesday as the International Monetary Fund sought to help countries hit by the European debt crisis, while forecast-beating earnings from Goldman Sachs dispelled some worries over bank profits. | Full Article | | EBay says quarterly profit jumps | | January 18, 2012 04:34 PM ET | | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc's fourth-quarter profit jumped as the e-commerce company saw solid growth in its online marketplaces and an increase in transactions processed through its PayPal electronic payments business. | Full Article | | IMF seeks $600 billion more in funds | | January 18, 2012 03:08 PM ET | | WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund is seeking to boost its war chest by $600 billion to help countries reeling from the euro zone debt crisis, but some nations insist Europe must first do more to support its ailing members, international financial sources said on Wednesday. | Full Article | | Goldman beats Street on lower expenses | | January 18, 2012 02:21 PM ET | | (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc's fourth-quarter profit fell 56 percent as trading and investment banking revenue plunged, but the bank did better than expected thanks to cost-cutting and lower taxes, sending its shares higher. | 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 | | | | | | |
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