Blue Blue's big gains

By Scott Moritz

IBM (IBM) sounded a rally cry for tech as the big IT shop blew past its first quarter targets.

Big Blue roundly beat the Street's adjusted profit expectations by 20 cents with a $1.65 bottom line for the first quarter. Sales of $24.5 billion also soared passed analysts' estimates, which called for revenue of $23.7 billion in the quarter ended last month.

The news follows Intel's (INTC) solid first quarter MORE

CBS's Web 2.0 strategy

By Jessi Hempel

A day before the launch of Moblogic.tv, a new Web series created by the team behind WallStrip, CBS Interactive president Quincy Smith and his band of Silicon Valley veterans had the media to lunch on Thursday at Black Rock. His goal: to try to explain the thinking behind a strategy that drew Web viewers to spend 104 million minutes on the site in December. Compare that to MORE

MySpace: A place for web developers

By Jessi Hempel

At long last, the MySpace Developer Platform is open for business. News Corp's social networking behemoth is launching a dedicated site for developers Tuesday and it will go live to all audiences in a month.

Says MySpace COO Amit Kapur: "We want to make sure that we build a rich platform for monetization for the developers." That's jargon for the promise that MySpace will make widget-makers money.

That's a significant MORE

Google: Will Microsoft monopolize the Internet?

By Todd Woody

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a preview of what could shape up to be a fierce antitrust fight over Microsoft's $45 billion offer for Yahoo, Google's chief legal officer on Sunday made clear that the search giant would not sit on the sidelines, questioning whether Microsoft would "now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC."

Writing MORE

Sun and MySQL: A $1 billion vote for open-source

By Michael V. Copeland

Sun Microsystems is acquiring open-source database company MySQL in a deal worth $1 billion, Sun announced Wednesday.

MySQL CEO Marten Mickos has told me in the past of his intention to take the Swedish company public. He even rebuffed a 2006 offer by Oracle for the company. In recent months, the volume on the chatter about a looming MySQL IPO was increasing, and you can bet Sun MORE

Private equity firm makes a big bet on the domain industry

By Paul Sloan

Score one for the ever-growing domain name industry.

Oversee.net, a Los Angeles-based company that's largely in the business of managing and making money off domain names, on Tuesday snagged a $150 million investment from Oak Hill Capital Partners, a Silicon Valley private equity firm. The two firms didn't disclose terms of the transaction, but the investment is a big boost for Oversee as it expands its offering around MORE

New chips will create the gadgets of tomorrow

By Michael V. Copeland

If you want a hint at where innovation in the gadget world is headed, talk to the chip guys. These nuggets of insanely complex silicon that companies like Intel, AMD (AMD), Atheros, Broadcom and Marvell (MRVL) are creating today will end up in the phones, laptops, televisions and mobile video/music/Internet devices of tomorrow.

We all know that Intel is dead-set on making WiMax -- wireless access measured in MORE

Wired wheels: New technology for your car

By Michael V. Copeland

LAS VEGAS -- I am not saying it's safe or smart (and it's probably illegal in most states), but I'll be damned if a little driving is going to keep me from checking e-mail on my BlackBerry. And if I already have driving directions on my laptop screen, why not prop it up on the passenger seat next as a sort of ad-hoc navigation aid?

The point is, MORE

CES: A paler shade of green

By Michael V. Copeland

LAS VEGAS -- The quiet here in a booth sponsored by Dell is at odds with the pandemonium all around at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Four plywood lounge chairs designed by Charles and Ray Eames sit on a dark floor made of some obviously recycled material. In one chair , a guy with headphones covering most of his head quietly taps on a laptop. Squares of MORE

Pretty painful in pink: The MP3-playing Taser

By Michael V. Copeland

LAS VEGAS -- What's the best music to accompany getting incapacitated by a Taser? Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," maybe, or The Doors, "The End." That's what is running through my mind as Tom Smith, chairman and co-founder of Taser International prepped me for a little shock treatment therapy today at the Consumer Electronics Show.

For the woman who wants to consolidate her personal protection and MORE