Are domain names recession-proof?

By Paul Sloan

Global markets are in a state of panic. Credit markets are all but closed. And recession fears are everywhere. But at the conference I attended in Hollywood this week, called DomainFest, you'd have little clue that the financial world was melting down.

The domain world - the people that buy and sell names and make money from pay-per-click ads on their websites - is booming. Downturn? Bring it MORE

Wireless auction update: $3.2 billion and counting

By Michal Lev-Ram

Round three of the year's most anticipated auction - the Federal Communication Commission's sale of the 700 MHz spectrum, currently used for analog television - closed Friday.

Since Thursday, bidders have put up a total $3.2 billion in what has been called one of the most significant spectrum auctions in United States history. That's because the FCC has mandated that whoever wins the so-called C block MORE

Apple's $18 billion shopping spree?

Mint CEO Aaron Patzer isn't itching to sell his online budgeting service, but a company like Microsoft would do well to buy it anyway.

No one's said much about it, but there it was, plain as day, in Apple's (AAPL) earnings call this week: Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the 'A' word.

Acquisitions.

When an analyst asked what Apple would do with more than $18 billion in cash it's sitting on, Oppenheimer MORE

The case of the 1.4 million missing iPhones

The talk among Apple (AAPL) watchers today is Toni Sacconaghi's dogged pursuit of the 4 million iPhones Steve Jobs claimed to have sold as of Jan. 15, the date of his Macworld keynote speech.

AT&T (T), the iPhone's exclusive U.S. carrier, reported yesterday that it had activated "just at or just slightly under 2 million" iPhones. That's quite a discrepancy.

Sacconaghi, Sanford Bernstein's Apple specialist, did the math and concluded in a MORE

From Microsoft's lofty perch, no sign of a slowdown

Hoping that Microsoft would clarify how a spending slowdown might hurt the tech industry? Then you were out of luck Thursday.

When the software giant offered its strong earnings numbers, it had nothing but happy news to offer. Thanks largely to stronger-than-expected global PC sales, Microsoft (MSFT) reported $6.48 billion in profit for the holiday quarter on sales of $16.37 billion, beating analyst estimates.