Mark Hurd, Hewlett-Packard's former CEO and now the current president of Oracle, lost his fight in court this week to keep confidential a letter alleging sexual harassment.

A Delaware court ruled yesterday that Hurd had not established "good cause" to keep the letter under wraps. (Here's the court record uploaded by All Things Digital's Arik Hesseldahl.)

The letter in question is from lawyers representing Jodie Fisher, a sometime actress who worked as a contractor for HP to its board of directors. In the letter, she accuses Hurd of harassment that occurred from 2007 to 2009. … Read more

Did you get a Kindle for Christmas? I did. And apparently so did millions of other people.

Amazon reported Thursday that it had the best holiday season ever for its Kindle e-readers. The online e-commerce giant didn't offer specific sales figures, but it did offer a few tidbits of information. Throughout December, the company sold well over 1 million Kindle devices per week. The Kindle products were also the hottest selling products on Amazon's site throughout the holiday season. Amazon's new tablet, the Kindle Fire, was the No. 1 product on the site. And the new Kindle … Read more

The New York Times is now saying that a believed-to-be bogus e-mail that told millions of subscribers that their subscriptions had been canceled actually did come from the newspaper company. But the e-mail, which was meant for only 300 recipients, was instead sent to more than 8 million subscribers, a tweet from Amy Chozick, a media reporter for the Times states.

This morning millions of New York Times subscribers received an e-mail informing them that their subscription had been canceled and then went on to … Read more

Motorola Mobility has bought video discovery startup SetJam for an undisclosed sum.

SetJam CEO Ryan Janssen wrote about the acquisition in an e-mail, according to VentureBeat. He didn't disclose financial terms.

"I'm writing to let you know that today SetJam was acquired by Motorola Mobility. We are all very excited about this transition here at SetJam. Motorola and SetJam share the vision of making content delivery, discovery, and consumption seamless across any screen, and as a world leader in video technology, Motorola will provide us with unprecedented levels of reach and distribution."

SetJam, a tiny New … Read more

A spectrum bill has passed through a subcommittee in the House of Representatives that authorizes FCC incentive auctions and also allocates spectrum to public safety.

On Thursday, the communications and technology subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the Jumpstarting Opportunity with Broadband Spectrum Act (JOBS Act).

The legislation authorizes the Federal Communications Commission to create an auction for selling wireless spectrum voluntarily released by TV broadcasters. And it also includes provisions for allocating spectrum and funding a nationwide public safety mobile broadband network.

Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.), who sponsored the bill, said it would help create 100,… Read more

Cable TV is not dead, but its audience isn't growing either.

Cable operators all over the country have been steadily and slowly losing TV subscribers quarter after quarter. A year ago, some people wondered if Internet TV services like Netflix and Hulu were attracting so-called cord cutters. But Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein, thinks there are other forces at work.

Increased competition from satellite and phone companies offering TV service is the main reason that cable operators are losing TV subscribers. But the sluggish economy is also contributing to the malaise.

"The category itself isn't … Read more

Video store chain Blockbuster may be down, but it's not out. On Friday the company announced a new video-streaming service as part of a larger package with satellite TV provider Dish Network that could eventually take on Netflix.

For more details from the event, which just ended, see this story: "Dish unveils Blockbuster 'Movie Pass' media bundle."

Dish, which sent the invitation for the press conference, hadn't offered much detail ahead of time, except to say that it would unveil "the most comprehensive home entertainment package ever." But considering that the 10 a.m. … Read more

NEW YORK--As movie content gets more expensive and harder to come by, Internet streaming service Netflix is turning its attention to acquiring more TV content for its streaming service.

In the company's first public appearance since it announced recently that it will split its DVD and streaming video businesses into two different brands, Netflix Chief Financial Officer David Wells today discussed with investors and analysts at a Goldman Sachs conference here the company's plans for adding more content to its service.

One key point, he made during the talk was that TV content will increasingly play a bigger … Read more

NBC Universal gave Comcast a boost in the second quarter as the cable operator announced a 16 percent jump in profits.

Comcast also said it lost fewer pay-TV subscribers and saw broadband subscriber growth surge, besting its phone company rivals.

Net income rose to $1.02 billion, or 37 cents a share, from $884 million, or 31 cents a share, a year earlier, Comcast said in its second quarter earnings statement. Excluding certain costs, profit was up about 17 percent to 42 cents a share.

The company got a boost its NBC Universal unit. The second quarter was the first … Read more