Corporate and legal

Of all the major U.S. carriers, AT&T's lagged a bit on the Android front but has recently beefed up its selection of phones with the HTC Aria, the Samsung Captivate, and now the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

Long rumored for AT&T, the Xperia X10 will finally be available starting August 15 for $149.99 with a two-year contract. Much like the unlocked version, the smartphone has a 4-inch WVGA capacitive touch screen with Sony Ericsson's User Experience Platform, which includes the Timescape and Mediascape apps. The former acts as a feed for all … Read more

Rumor has it that Apple is buying millions of CDMA chipsets for a Verizon iPhone launch, according to TechCrunch.

The tech blog published a story Sunday citing unnamed sources that said Apple ordered millions of CDMA chips from Qualcomm in what looks like preparation for a Verizon Wireless iPhone. TechCrunch said that the chipset order is due for December, which could mean a January launch for a Verizon iPhone.

AT&T and all the other carriers around the world that are selling the iPhone use a network technology called GSM. Verizon Wireless uses a competing technology called CDMA. The main supplier of CDMA chips is Qualcomm. So if Apple is indeed buying CDMA chipsets, then it would make sense that it might be developing a Verizon iPhone.

Speculation about a potential Verizon iPhone has popped up periodically since the iPhone's runaway success began in 2007. It's been reported that Verizon originally turned down the exclusive rights to offer the phone due to unappealing demands from Apple. Recently, there's been much talk about Verizon possibly offering the iPhone in January.

Whether Verizon will get an iPhone has never really been in question--rather it's been a question of when. I've said in the past that I believe such an iPhone wouldn't be available until next summer at the earliest, since a Verizon iPhone would likely support Verizon's new 4G technology, LTE.… Read more

Internet telephony giant Skype plans to raise as much as $100 million in an initial public offering.

The company said Monday that it has filed an S-1 statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. After the IPO, Skype will trade on the Nasdaq Global Market. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are among the banks handling the IPO. Neither a price range nor a date for the IPO have yet been set.

The potential for a Skype public offering has been talked about for a long time. In late 2009, movement in that direction came when online auction … Read more

Research In Motion's top-notch security is both a blessing and a curse for the company as governments in some key emerging markets, where RIM is looking for growth, threaten to block the BlackBerry service over national security concerns.

Last week, governments in several countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and India threatened to shut down BlackBerry e-mail and Web browsing services in their countries. Regulators in these countries said that RIM's stringent encryption and security network pose security concerns since authorities are unable to monitor and read e-mails and Web browsing activity.

With more than … Read more

The woman at the center of the sexual harassment probe that led to the resignation of Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has come forward and said she was taken aback by his departure from the Silicon Valley giant.

"I was surprised and saddened that Mark Hurd lost his job over this. That was never my intention," Jodie Fisher, a former salesperson and actress, said in a statement released Sunday by Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred. Her statement confirms earlier reports that she had resolved her claim against Hurd and said the two of them did not have a sexual … Read more

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has reportedly settled sexual harassment claims that led to his departure from the company.

Hurd paid the woman, who was previously identified as a contract worker, an undisclosed amount of money, according to an Associated Press report. HP was reportedly not contributing any funds to that sum. (The resolution of the claim was later confirmed by Jodie Fisher, the contract worker at the center of the probe.)

Hurd resigned his position as chairman and chief executive officer of the Silicon Valley giant on Friday after it was revealed that HP had conducted an investigation into … Read more

Mark Papermaster, Apple's top executive in charge of mobile devices, has left the company.

His departure was first noted in a report by the New York Times. It's not clear if he was fired, or if he resigned on his own, but his bio has been removed from Apple's Web site. Papermaster will be replaced by Bob Mansfield, senior vice president of Mac hardware engineering.

Papermaster was brought on to Apple to oversee iPhone design and engineering, and it's hard not to wonder if his sudden departure is connected to the public-relations disaster that followed the … Read more

Running Hewlett-Packard is a big job: the company has more than 300,000 employees, did $114 billion in revenue during 2009, and plays in just about every sector of the tech industry. As a committee begins its search for former CEO Mark Hurd's replacement, here are a few of the top candidates they are likely considering for the job.

Ann M. Livermore Current position: Executive vice president, Enterprise Business, HP Pros: Livermore has been with HP since 1982, working her way up the ranks of the company's software and services division. The group she runs now, Enterprise Business, … Read more

Mark Hurd's resignation from Hewlett-Packard in the wake of a sexual-harassment and expense-reporting scandal is a major blow to the well-regarded executive, but especially to the company he leaves behind.

The good news is that Hurd is out just five years after helping HP recover from the most turbulent period in its history and pushing the company to the top of tech world. He leaves Hewlett-Packard in a strong position, and in much better shape than he found it. HP brought in $30 billion in revenue during the second fiscal quarter of 2010, compared with the almost $22 billion … Read more