Corporate and legal

T-Mobile USA's CEO said the company is in talks with Clearwire and cable companies about a possible joint venture, Reuters reported Thursday.

Speaking at an investor conference in Germany, Robert Dotson, T-Mobile USA's CEO said that the wireless carrier was looking into creating a joint venture with Clearwire, which is building a nationwide 4G network and cable companies, to improve its wireless spectrum opportunities.

"We continue to look at JV opportunities for additional spectrum...there are a number of different options we look at, (we) have been talking with cable companies, with Clearwire," the news service … Read more

As expected, Palm reported dismal earnings for its third quarter. Last month, the company sharply cut its outlook for the third quarter and fiscal 2010 because "driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated."

For the quarter, Palm reported a non-GAAP net loss of $102.8 million, or 61 cents per share, far beyond the 42 cent loss Wall Street had been expecting. Non-GAAP adjusted revenue was $366 million, which was actually better than the $316.2 million that Wall Street had been looking for, after Palm waved the warning flags last month. … Read more

Viacom, parent company of BET, MTV and Paramount Pictures issued a statement Thursday following the release of hundreds of documents regarding the company's copyright complaint against Google. The full text of the statement is below. Go here for the full story about what was revealed.

YouTube was intentionally built on infringement and there are countless internal YouTube communications demonstrating that YouTube's founders and its employees intended to profit from that infringement. By their own admission, the site contained "truckloads" of infringing content and founder Steve Chen explained that YouTube needed to "steal" videos because … Read more

Google and a group of telecommunications companies are about ready to turn on a fast Internet cable running under the Pacific Ocean from the U.S. to Japan, increasing bandwidth by about 20 percent and giving Google its own connection to Asia.

The Unity Consortium, which consists of Google, Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, KDDI, Pacnet, and SingTel, has nearly completed the testing of the $300 million project. Internet users in Asia will start seeing faster Internet speeds over the next several months from the new cable, which has the potential to create a 7.68Tbps (terabits per second) connection under … Read more

With the release of hundreds of pages of court documents in the legal dispute between Google and Viacom over the presence of copyright material on YouTube, Google has released a statement on the case. It follows below in its entirety. See this CNET story for more background on the case and check back later for new information as the documents are studied.

The statement was attributed to Zahavah Levine, YouTube chief counsel.

Broadcast yourself Around the globe, YouTube has become a metaphor for the democratizing power of the Internet and information. YouTube gives unknown performers, filmmakers, and artists new ways … Read more

Court filings released on Thursday in the bitter $1 billion copyright fight between Viacom and Google's YouTube show just how far apart the companies remain, as the 3-year-old case winds through federal court.

Viacom, in 108 pages of court documents, portrays YouTube's founders as reckless copyright violators who were far more concerned with increasing traffic to their site than obeying the law. Even executives at Google, which acquired YouTube for $1.7 billion in October 2006, questioned the ethics of building a site through questionable copyright practices, according to the Viacom filings.

But in the 100-page document filed … Read more

Apple board member Jerome B. (Jerry) York has died, Apple announced Thursday.

York, 71, was hospitalized Tuesday night after suffering a massive cerebral hemorrhage.

He sat on Apple's board for 13 years, and was also the chairman, president, and CEO of Harwinton Capital. Previously he held the position of CFO at both IBM and Chrysler.

"Jerry joined Apple's Board in 1997 when most doubted the company's future. He has been a pillar of financial and business expertise and insight on our Board for over a dozen years," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, in a … Read more

Microsoft's MSN China venture is losing a key executive.

Vice President of Sales Xiao Chen is resigning from his position at the end of March to start his own company, a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters. Chen has been with Microsoft's Chinese MSN venture since its start in 2005.

MSN China has struggled to gain a foothold against QQ, a Chinese social network service that has grabbed a sizable percentage of China's Internet users.

And late last year, MSN China got into some hot water after it was revealed that its microblogging site Juku lifted programming code from … Read more

Handset maker HTC says it's ready to defend itself against a patent complaint filed by Apple.

Earlier this month, Apple launched legal action against HTC, alleging that the Taiwanese company had violated 20 different patents related to the Apple iPhone. HTC makes phones based on Google's Android operating system as well as Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

On Thursday, HTC issued its response.

"HTC disagrees with Apple's actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done," said HTC … Read more