Corporate and legal

Square has lined up its first luxury-brand partner, a new report claims.

Square and the Burberry clothing chain are testing out a deal to see how the payment processing might work in its stores, The Next Web reported today, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the deal. The announcement could be made soon.

Burberry CTO John Douglas already spilled the beans, albeit unofficially. On Twitter last week, Douglas noted that Square was "live in our Burberry Brit store in San Francisco."

Square has been growing by leaps and bounds. The company, which offers a free accessory … Read more

Maybe it's the ability to influence a billion people or maybe it's the deluxe campus and free food, but Facebook employees have come out in full force and voted their company the best place to work this year.

Company review site Glassdoor annually compiles the 50 best places to work based on comments from employees in dozens of companies. This year, nearly half a million reviews were submitted that rated employers on career opportunities, salary and benefits, work and life balance, senior management, and culture and values. And, Facebook won out.

"The company's leadership truly believes … Read more

Dish has been given the official green light to fire up its wireless spectrum. The satellite TV provider announced today that the Federal Communications Commission has approved its request for wireless spectrum use.

"The FCC has removed outdated regulations and granted terrestrial flexibility for most of the AWS-4 band," Dish senior vice president and deputy general counsel Jeff Blum said in a statement today. "The Commission has taken an important step toward facilitating wireless competition and innovation, and fulfilling the goals of the National Broadband Plan."

Dish started talks with the FCC earlier this year. Initially, … Read more

A group of tech companies is pressing Congress to provide more spectrum for use by portable electronics devices such as tablets and smartphones.

A letter sent to lawmakers today and signed by Alcatel-Lucent, Apple, Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research In Motion, and Samsung urged the technology committees in the House and Senate to consider auctioning some of the spectrum currently used by federal agencies, according to a report in The Hill.

In the Jobs Act passed earlier this year, Congress authorized the Federal Communications Commission to reclaim and auction spectrum held by TV broadcasters to wireless broadband operators. The … Read more

A Guatemalan judge has ordered antivirus-software pioneer John McAfee to be released from a local detention center, according to the Associated Press.

Judge Judith Secaida reportedly told McAfee's lawyer, Telesforo Guerra, that she ruled McAfee's detention to be illegal and he had 10 days to figure out his immigration status.

McAfee was detained last week after illegally crossing the border from Belize to Guatemala. He entered Guatemala to seek asylum from officials in Belize, who have been pursuing him for the past few weeks in connection with the shooting death of his neighbor. McAfee had been on the … Read more

The developer of a mobile app for children temporarily pulled the free game from the Apple App Store and Google Android Play store today after learning it was the subject of a complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission.

Mobbles, a geolocation game in which children collect and care for virtual pets, collected personal information such as e-mail addresses without parental consent, according to a complaint filed yesterday by the Center for Digital Democracy. The federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires Web site operators to obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children younger than … Read more

Sprint Nextel may be moving closer to taking full control of 4G wireless provider Clearwire, according to CNBC.

The two companies are in active negotiations, and Sprint has been talking with some of Clearwire's big-name shareholders, including Intel and Comcast, in taking full control of the company, CNBC reported, citing unnamed sources.

A deal isn't imminent, but an announcement could come by the end of the year, the report said.

Representatives from both Sprint and Clearwire declined to comment.

Sprint is looking to scoop up the remaining 49 percent of Clearwire's stock it doesn't already hold, … Read more

Google's bid to offload the Motorola set-top box business, which it acquired during the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility earlier this year, is proving more difficult than the search giant first thought.

According to sources speaking to Bloomberg, Google is considering financing options to companies looking at the division in order to get swiftly rid of the ageing unit.

Bloomberg says Arris Group and Pace Plc have shown the most interest in the Motorola Home division and are leading their bids to buy the unit. While Pace is an already-established set-top box maker, Arris offers back-end telephony … Read more

Verizon Wireless isn't making it easy for loyal, longtime smartphone customers to keep their existing unlimited data plans. And now some subscribers, who are willing to pony up the full price for a new smartphone, worry that Verizon may change its policy again and get rid of the plan for everyone.

Truth be told, few people actually need unlimited data. But for those who do, it's a good deal. In fact, it's such a good deal, these customers worry about losing it. And if you're a Verizon customer who wouldn't worry?

The carrier got rid … Read more