stocks

Microsoft calls on Congress to reconsider bailout

Following the massive Wall Street sell-off, Microsoft on Monday called on Congress to revisit its bailout decision, saying government action is "vitally important."

"Microsoft strongly urges members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reconsider and to support legislation that will re-instill confidence and stability in the financial markets," general counsel Brad Smith said in a statement. "This legislation is vitally important to the health and preservation of jobs in all sectors of the economy of Washington State and the nation, and we urge Congress to act swiftly."

The move follows the largest … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: The day the music (almost) stopped

CNET News' Greg Sandoval is following the last-minute goings-on in Washington which enabled Web music providers extra time to reach an accord on royalty payments.

With the stock market in free fall today, what might be the likely impact on the technology sector? ZDNet's Editor in Chief Larry Dignan weighs in.

Hard to believe but Henry Ford's Model T, one of the most significant breakthrough products of all time, celebrates its centenary.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Photos: The Model T turns 100

Gadget hounds get ready for CEATEC

Nero Liquid TV:TiVo for your PC… Read more

Tech stocks hammered as bailout fails in House

This post was updated several times throughout the afternoon with more details and comments, and to reflect market changes.

Shares of technology companies took a beating on Monday as the House of Representatives failed to pass a bailout plan for the financial sector.

The House voted down the $700 billion plan, 228 to 205, with two-thirds of Republicans and a significant number of Democrats casting "no" votes.

When the dust settled at the end of the trading day on Monday, the Dow Jones index was down more than 777.68, a record point decline, with the index down … Read more

Online traders cry foul as they get shut out of rally

Updated 1:25 p.m. PT with Scottrade comment; and 1 p.m. to correct that Dow rose 400 points, not percent.

The U.S. stock markets surged again on Friday, buoyed by Wall Street optimism over the government's move to help the markets.

The Dow rose more than 400 points at one point on Friday, while Standard & Poor's was up nearly 5 percent on news that the Federal Reserve plans to scrutinize banks' balance sheets and guarantee money market mutual funds, as well as reports that the Securities and Exchange Commission has prohibited short sales of … Read more

How bad is your tech stock doing?

If you are long in individual stocks these days, you are likely part of a large and miserable fraternity.

But how bad are your stocks doing in relation to other stocks that you may not own or even follow? Since misery loves company, Eric Savitz of Barron's has complied a list of prominent stocks in six different tech sectors to get a feel for how big of a loser each stock was at Wednesday's close of trading. As Savitz points out while "assessing the carnage," the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 4 percent and the … Read more

Report: SEC looks into posting of old United story

Updated 4:50 p.m. PDT with Google comment.

Officials at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are wondering if there was any improper conduct behind the online release last weekend of a 6-year-old news story that lead to a 75 percent drop in the stock of United Airlines on Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

The SEC has opened a "preliminary inquiry" into the online distribution of a Chicago Tribune article from 2002 about United Airlines' bankruptcy filing, people familiar with the matter said.

The Tribune Co. said in a statement on Wednesday … Read more

Apple settles backdating lawsuit for $14 million

Apple executives have settled a shareholder lawsuit filed over its stock-option backdating practices for $14 million.

The executives themselves, including CEO Steve Jobs, won't actually have to cough up the cash: that's why they have insurance, according to the Associated Press. And the money actually goes to the corporation, not the shareholders themselves, because this was a "derivative" lawsuit that sought compensation on behalf of the company. Attempts by shareholders to sue on their own behalf have been stymied by the fact that Apple's stock has actually risen since the backdating was revealed in late … Read more

Binary Bits: London Stock Exchange meltdown and more

It's been a busy week for Microsoft and I wanted to briefly note some other items that are making headlines elsewhere.

First of all, Microsoft says it is helping the London Stock Exchange investigate what cased a massive trading meltdown on Monday. ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley notes that Microsoft is among a small list of major tech providers to the exchange, a list that also includes HP and Accenture.

Foley and Microsoft blogger Long Zheng also both have items on Live Mesh apps. Foley notes that creating Mesh Apps is some of what Ray Ozzie's Startup Labs team … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 805: See you all...tomorrow?

The Large Hadron Collider comes online tomorrow (Wednesday, September 10), so we're just kind of assuming we'll be here for tomorrow's show. Of course, if it uses .NET, we're definitely doomed, if Computerworld's speculations about the daylong outage of the London Stock Exchange are to be believed. In any case, if today is our last show, at least we brought balance to the force. We discuss new Zunes and new iPods in (mostly) equal doses.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 805

Microsoft confirms Zune details http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10034897-56.html http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-08ZuneFallUpdatePR.mspx … Read more

London exchange takes stock after fiasco

The London Stock Exchange is back to normal after a software glitch on Monday halted trading for the longest period in eight years.

"It was software-related, a coincidence, due to two processes we couldn't have foreseen," an exchange representative told Reuters on Tuesday.

The outage began about 45 minutes after trading opened on Monday and lasted more than seven hours--effectively wiping a full day's trading from the books.

A representative told Silicon.com that the exchange, which switched to its digital trading platform TradElect in June 2007, has been running normally since the fix was put … Read more