firms

According to a new report, over the past three years Microsoft has used a series of complex financial maneuvers to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes. The report is part of a United States Senate investigation. A Senate committee memo ... indicates that Microsoft made transactions with subsidiary firms in other countries -- including Puerto Rico, Singapore, Bermuda, and even Ireland -- to save more than $6 billion it would otherwise have owed to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Corporate Tax Tricks "Exact a Tremendous Cost" The memo also indicates that major PC maker ... (view more)

Both Facebook and Google have removed online material alleged to pose a risk of social unrest in India, following legal threats to block the sites completely. The two companies are among 21 firms hit with a civil lawsuit regarding offensive content. ... The lawsuit, brought by a private citizen, claims the material involves religious issues that could provoke unrest. Google's problems appear tied to its sites Blogger and YouTube. Google says it has taken down the material pursuant to a court request, its standard policy regarding legal issues, regardless of country. The material has been removed ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed that the first official version of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 will be released next month (July, 2010). It doesn't appear the pack will bring any major updates, but it could still drive up business sales. A service pack is ... a collection of all updates released for the software since its original launch. At one stage service packs were a way to get updates (via disc) to people on dial-up modems who didn't want to use the automatic update download service; today they are used more among people who prefer to carry out major updates in a single batch. Another benefit of ... (view more)

A leading consumer group has condemned the high cost of phone-in technical support offered by British technology firms. At least 70% of the firms studied charge more than a standard phone call, with Internet service providers rated as the worst ... offenders. "Which? Computing", a magazine produced by the Consumer Association, looked at 45 firms in the country to test the price and response time of their telephone support. It found that 32 firms only offer phone support through numbers which cost more than a standard call, with the firms themselves taking a cut of the revenue. Four ... (view more)

Firms involved in filesharing technology have protested Comcast's decision to restrict its customers' use of peer-to-peer (P2P) software, such as BitTorrent. P2P is a system of distributing data which involves splitting one file into many pieces. ... Rather than downloading the file directly from a website, users get pieces from a variety of fellow users, with the file reassembled on their computer. This spreads the demand for data and means P2P can be used for files which would be too large for many people to download from a single site. Several firms complained to the Federal Communications ... (view more)