Business - NewsFactor

In a sternly worded letter, billionaire investor Carl Icahn is doing what Microsoft only threatened to do: wage a proxy war with Yahoo. On Thursday, Icahn sent the letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock explaining that angry Yahoo shareholders have implored him to displace Yahoo's board with 10 new directors at the company's July 3 meeting. The objective is to restart acquisition talks between Microsoft and Yahoo.

Nintendo of America was hit with a judgment for $21 million in a patent-infringement case brought by a company that claims to be a small Texas game developer. A U.S. District Court jury found that Nintendo's designs for its Wii, WaveBird and GameCube controllers infringed on patents held by Anascape Ltd.

Verizon Wireless' decision to join Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile as members of a Linux-based mobile initiative appears to have dealt a setback to Google's ambitions for its Android mobile platform. A Verizon spokesperson told the Chicago Tribune that the company joined the rival LiMo Foundation because "of LiMo's approach to providing a truly open OS that isn't simply an extension of a for-profit company's business model."

If you've wondered whether those Google photos of your street could compromise your privacy, you're not alone. On Thursday, the European Union's data-protection agency raised concerns about the ground-level, 360-degree views that Google's Street View offers.

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that its Xbox 360 video-game and entertainment system has sold more than 10 million units in the U.S., making it the first current-generation gaming console to break that mark. The U.S. installed base contributes to global sales of more than 19 million.

Cable company Comcast is becoming more sociable with Wednesday's announcement that it will buy social-networking site Plaxo. Terms were not disclosed, although there are reports that the price could be up to $175 million, based on performance targets over the next few years.

EarthLink has notified its Wi-Fi customers in Philadelphia that the broadband service provider will soon be terminating its metropolitan Wi-Fi service in the city. The company, which stopped accepting new customers to the network in early May, said it would provide its Philly customers with a 30-day grace period through June 12 to transfer to another provider.

The European Commission has granted antitrust approval to personal navigation device maker TomTom's proposed acquisition of Tele Atlas, one of two providers of navigable digital maps on a worldwide basis. The deal received U.S. antitrust approval last October.

Analysts are still assessing Hewlett-Packard's announcement Tuesday that it will acquire Electronic Data Systems for $13.9 billion. Together, HP and EDS will be a tech-services behemoth with 210,000 employees worldwide in 80 countries and revenues of more than $38 billion. That figure more than doubles HP's service revenues.

Apple's announcement Tuesday that CEO Steve Jobs will keynote the company's Worldwide Developers Conference is fueling speculation that Apple will announce a 3G version of the iPhone. Jobs will speak on Monday, June 9, at 10 a.m. The conference runs June 9-13 in San Francisco.

Where is Saturn in relation to the moon? Does the Milky Way really have a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy? Microsoft has some answers.

The competition between the Android and LiMo open-source mobile platforms heated up as Verizon Wireless joined the LiMo Foundation. On Tuesday, Verizon and the foundation announced that wireless carrier was joining as a core member, with a seat on the board of directors.

Spammers, beware. MySpace said Tuesday it has won a record-setting $234 million legal judgment against two well-known spammers who didn't even bother to show up for their court date.

Two king-pins in the technology industry announced Tuesday a merger agreement valued at $13.9 billion, with Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) set to acquire computer consulting firm Electronic Data Systems Corp. (NYSE: EDS) in an effort to compete more aggressively with rival IBM in the technology services business.

Apple is selling more Macintosh computers than ever before -- and that's having unexpected benefits for Microsoft. Sales of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac are triple the volume for the previous 2004 version of the productivity software and are the highest in the product's history, Microsoft announced Tuesday.

Apple's red-hot iPhone is currently unavailable from the company's online stores in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, fueling speculation that the company is reducing its inventory in advance of the rollout of a new 3G model. Some industry observers speculate that the slowdown is intended to help Apple avoid customer complaints about buying an older model just before the new 3G iPhone hits store shelves.

Building on the success of its Wii game console, Nintendo has launched WiiWare, a software service for games. Wii owners who have their machines hooked up to an Internet connection will be able to download games from both large developers and small shops. As a game service, WiiWare competes with services on other consoles, such as Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and Sony's PlayStation Store.

AMD announced a major executive shake-up Monday as it tries to rebuild its ailing business. President and COO Dirk Meyer said the company is accelerating a transformation by bolstering its management team for the x86 microprocessor and graphics businesses. But some analysts said it may be too little, too late.

Apple's iPhone continues its march around the world, with new announcements of deals with carriers in the Asia region and Australia.