Corporate and legal

The fight for Clearwire is heating up as Sprint has increased its bid for the company in light of a recent increase by rival Dish Network, which also wants to buy the nationwide wireless broadband carrier.

On Thursday, Sprint announced it is increasing its bid to acquire the remaining shares it doesn't already own to $5 a share. Clearwire's special committee and board of directors are now recommending to shareholders that they reject Dish Network's offer and instead consider the offer from Sprint.

In May, Dish Network increased its bid for the company to $4.40 per share in cash, … Read more

My gut reaction to seeing the $299 price tag of Nvidia's Shield gaming handheld: way overpriced.

And that was after Nvidia cut the price of the Android-powered device -- which will be available June 27 -- by $50 on Thursday.

But in reality, the Shield may end up being a relative bargain for folks who want a dedicated gaming device. It comes down to the video games available on Android. Many are free, or cost 99 cents. An "expensive" game would run you $10.

Now compare that with the Nintendo 3DS or PlayStation Vita. An average 3DS … Read more

Leap Motion won't ship its cutting-edge 3D gesture-control technology until July 22, but the company and one of its main investors, think that its ecosystem offers so much promise that they're starting a $25 million fund to support developers for the platform.

Highland Capital Partners, which led Leap Motion's Series A round last year, is launching the so-called Leap Fund in order to help boost entrepreneurs and companies developing for the Leap, a new technology that lets users control their computers with nothing more than movement of their hands. The $80 technology is accurate to a hundredth … Read more

Consumers looking for a bit more variety in their life will soon have it when it comes to buying a new Samsung Galaxy S4.

During Samsung's big product event in London on Thursday, the company announced a bevy of new color options for flagship smartphone the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the newly introduced Galaxy S4 Active.

Now the company is offering five color options in addition to the already available black and white: Blue Arctic, Purple Mirage, Red Aurora, Brown Autumn, and Pink Twilight. The company also announced additional colors for the Galaxy S4 Active phone, which is a … Read more

It appears that the National Security Agency and at least some Silicon Valley-based companies are tighter than both have contended.

Several unidentified Silicon Valley companies have at times established secret teams of employees charged with making their customers' data more accessible to the NSA, The New York Times is reporting on Thursday, citing both current and former "industry officials." The companies say that they're establishing the teams so they can control how data is transferred to the NSA, but the government agency is also applying pressure to make it easier for its employees to access data.

The … Read more

MakerBot, one of the most well-known desktop 3D printing companies, has been acquired by Stratasys, the companies said Wednesday.

In a release, the companies said it was a stock-for-stock transaction worth about $403 million, based on Stratasys' stock price as of Wednesday. Stratasys will exchange 4.76 million shares of its stock for 100 percent of MakerBot's outstanding stock. By agreeing to be acquired, MakerBot becomes part of one of the leading industrial 3D printing companies. The deal also allows the publicly-traded Stratasys to compete more directly at the consumer level with 3D Systems and that company's Cube … Read more

Microsoft was in deep discussions to acquire Nokia, but talks have broken down, according to the Wall Street Journal.

With such a deal, Microsoft would gain direct control over the mobile device maker, which has been the marquee partner for the software giant's fledgling Windows Phone operating system. Such a deal could shake up the smartphone business in the same way that Google did when it acquired Motorola Mobility.

Nokia and Microsoft both declined to comment on the report.

Both Microsoft and Nokia had been struggling to regain their once dominant positions. Microsoft has been pushed back on its … Read more

MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom was ranting from his Twitter page on Wednesday about his site's former hosting service wiping out users' files.

Dotcom's legal battle with the U.S. government forced him to turn over the data from MegaUpload's severs, but copies were housed on the hosting site LeaseWeb, according to his angry tweets. He said the web-hosting company deleted millions of files, "petabytes of pictures, backups, personal & business property," without warning, earlier this year.

Read more about it at ZDNet: Kim Dotcom: Petabytes of MegaUpload users' data has been destroyed

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- The modest two-story bungalow on State Line Road looks like the typical twenty something, post-college "share house."

The house is old; the decor is very basic. Like most homes to post-college grads, it's furnished with second-hand furniture. Several fake leather recliners line the walls in the living room and a big oversized sectional couch sits in the corner, offering plenty of room for geeks with laptops to comfortably park themselves while writing code. A big white board on the wall displays the email addresses and Twitter handles of the many hackers who have … Read more