According to Bloomberg, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen made a $2 billion bid last week for LightSquared's radio frequencies, which are owned by private investment firm Harbinger Capital Partners.

Bloomberg added, based on unnamed sources said to be familiar with the deal, that LightSquared has until the end of the month to make a decision.

Dish is already bogged down by other networking and communications deals floating around -- namely a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel. The nation's third largest mobile provider was said in April to be forming a special committee to mull over the "unsolicited deal."

See also: Softbank, Sprint, Clearwire, Dish: Figuring out this merger mess

The latest turn of events for LightSquared appears to be near the end of the road for the beleaguered Virginia-based business.

CEO Sanjiv Ahuja stepped down in February 2012, but he stayed on with the company as chairman of the board.

At the time, it was reported that Ahuja's resignation had to do something with the Federal Communication Commission's move to block the launch of its 4G network.

A few months prior, Ahuja spoke at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco, arguing that there is a disparity between demand for data and the amount of available spectrum -- and that the United States is not ready to handle those problems.

But by May 2012, the wireless venture filed for bankruptcy.

See also: Accenture nabs digital marketing biz Acquity Group for $315 million | The big lesson in the $1.1b Yahoo-Tumblr deal

The primary goal of the purchase is to grab Handmark's subsidiary, OneLouder, a mobile app developer and advertising company.

The new acquisitions will be merged into Sprint's Pinsight Media+ group for the purpose of boosting its mobile advertising services offered to brands and app developers.

The media unit has been busy building an ecosystem of industry partners in the advertising and retail spaces.

For example, earlier this month the nation's third largest mobile provider announced a deal with Time Inc. to deliver content from its multiple publicatinos within a customizable section of the SprintZone application on select Sprint devices.

Both the parent company and subsidiary will continue to operate as normal with their current brand names and employees at their Kansas City headquarters under the leadership of OneLouder president Evan Conway.

Handmark founder and CEO Augie Grasis will join a new advisory board established by Sprint to provide direction to Handmark and OneLouder.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

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Apple to Congress: We do not use 'tax gimmicks'

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The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation is looking into a number of tax avoidance schemes and strategies by major technology firms.

While Apple took the opportunity to defend its position, taking the high ground over other firms that have abused the tax system at home and abroad, the iPhone and iPad maker stressed one key point: It pays U.S. tax, and if Congress doesn't believe it is paying enough, then lawmakers should change the tax rules.

Included in the testimony are a bevy of numbers that shed light on the company's activities not only in the U.S., but also abroad. Apple says that more than half — nearly two-thirds — of all its revenue comes from international sales. 

Here are the numbers we extracted from the testimony:

• Apple estimates it has "created or supported" 600,000 jobs in the U.S.; including 50,000 corporate positions, and 550,000 jobs for manufacturers and software development
  
  
• Approximately 290,000 U.S. jobs relate to the "App Economy," thanks to Apple's App Store
  
  
• 850,000 applications in Apple's App Store
  
  
• Around 800 apps from the App Store downloaded per second
  
  
• 61 percent of all Apple's revenue was earned outside the U.S.
  
  
• Around $6 billion paid in taxes to the U.S. Treasury in the 2012 fiscal year — around $16 million per day — which according to Apple accounts for $1 in every $40 in corporate tax the U.S. collected in 2012
  
  
• Apple expects its income tax bill to increase to more than $7 billion in the 2013 fiscal year
  
  
• Apple paid or collected and remitted more than $1.3 billion of U.S. state sales and use taxes
  
  
• Out of its estimated $145 billion overseas cash pile, Apple would see a 35 percent reduction after paying tax on its repatriation
  
  
• More than $9 billion paid out to third-party developers in connection with app sales

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Apple's tax testimony ahead of Senate hearing: By the numbers

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The document, 16 pages in length [PDF], was posted by the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant on its website ahead of Apple chief executive Tim Cook's presence in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation is looking into a number of tax avoidance schemes and strategies by major technology firms. It comes as companies, not limited to Google and Amazon, have faced the wrath of the U.K. parliamentary select committees on public finance.

Apple takes to multiple pages to trumpet its contribution to the U.S. economy, as well as others in which the company has major offices, such as in Ireland.

"Apple welcomes an objective examination of the US corporate tax system, which has not kept pace with the advent of the digital age and the rapidly changing global economy," the testimony reads.

The company said it "supports comprehensive tax reform as a necessary step to promote growth and enable American multinational companies to remain competitive with their foreign counterparts in both domestic and international markets."

But the iPhone and iPad maker stressed certain points, seemingly pointing the finger at other companies, albeit without naming names. It noted one key point: it pays U.S. tax, and if Congress doesn't believe it is paying enough then it should try to fix the system.

"Apple is likely the largest corporate income tax payer in the US, having paid nearly $6 billion in taxes to the U.S. Treasury in [the fiscal year of 2012]," the testimony read. According to the firm, "these payments account for $1 in every $40 in corporate income tax the U.S. Treasury collected last year."

Printed in bold text: "[We] do not use tax gimmicks," it said. Apple explained that it does not move its intellectual property portfolios to offshore tax havens, nor does it use it to sell products back into the U.S. to avoid paying tax in the country. It "does not hold money on a Caribbean island," and it "does not have a bank account in the Cayman Islands."

Read this

Apple's Tim Cook to propose tax changes to Congress

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Amid the seriousness of the situation, Apple was actively pointing the finger at other firms that do. In recent weeks, British Prime Minister David Cameron sent a letter its overseas territories, including the Cayman Islands, stressing the need to "get our own houses in order" by sealing the tax loopholes exploited by behemothic firms.

Apple's testimony continues to argue that the reason why it does not bring its vast amount of offshore cash back to the U.S. is that it could lose more than one-third of the cash pile's value.

Apple said that 61 percent of Apple's revenue for last year came from international sales, and amounted to two-thirds of its revenue in its last earnings call, its fiscal second quarter.

"Apple uses its foreign cash for business operations, geographic expansion, acquisitions and capital investments, and to fund other expenses required by its overseas operations, such as the capital-intensive construction of retail stores in Europe and Asia and the purchase of customized tooling equipment." 

But the company warned that if it "repatriated" those funds, "they would be reduced by a 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate."

As Apple still has shareholders to consider, it cites its investors as its sole reason for keeping its vast wealth overseas. "Apple serves its shareholders by keeping these funds overseas where they can be deployed efficiently to fund international operations at a lower cost."

"As Apple's recent bond issuance demonstrates, [we] can return capital to shareholders using debt at a far lower cost than through repatriation of foreign cash."

Cook told Politico last week that the company "unequivocally [...] does not funnel its domestic profits overseas." He reiterated that Apple "pay[s] taxes on all the products we sell in the U.S., and we pay every dollar that we owe."

San Diego-based Websense, which specializes in security software, will be acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $24.75 a share in cash. The deal comes at a 53 percent premium.

In recent weeks, we've seen the following:

• BMC Software went private. 
• Dell has plans to go private, but has had a few complications as business heads south.
• A lot of speculation surrounding companies like CA Technologies going private.  

Regarding Websense, Todd Weller, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, noted:

Websense has been a company that has struggled to grow over a multi-year basis. We believe part of its challenges have been secular in nature relating to commoditization of its core Web filtering business. Related to this, we believe Websense has also experienced increased competitive intensity.

The other players in the go-private club have similar situations. Dell is hammering margins to preserve PC market share. BMC has some retooling to do too.

The alternative is to remain public and restructure every quarter as companies struggle to revamp while reporting earnings results.

Overnight, Yahoo became important again, and bounced back to relevancy.

A little startup named Tumblr, as you likely already know, was formally acquired by the former Web giant for $1.1 billion on Monday. What's on many minds is exactly what the rate of return will be.

Yahoo has already said that its own and Tumblr's audience don't overlap. Yahoo also wants to make sure it won't "screw it up" and will keep its "hands-off" the social blogging platform — at least in the beginning. (Tumblr has a "porn problem," but that will be fixed over time, according to Yahoo executives. It's a hint that other changes may come in due course.)

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The big lesson in the $1.1b Yahoo-Tumblr deal

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Tumblr chief executive David Karp will remain in charge of the company, and the site will not be forced to integrate Yahoo products and features into its own service. The company won't even have the Yahoo logo on Tumblr's website.

With such an apparent hands-off approach to its billion-dollar-buy, what does Yahoo get out of it? Potentially billions of dollars in potential, untapped revenue over the course of the next few years. 

Yahoo's ad platform took a nosedive at its recent first-quarter earnings in April. The Web giant's display ads fell from $511 million in 2012 to $455 million in the same quarter a year later. That's an 11 percent drop since Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer took charge. For Yahoo's core business, that dinged the whole quarter. Yahoo's stock tanked following the news.

It's no wonder the company is looking for a way to bolster its ad platform. And Tumblr is the perfect target for such affections.

According to sources speaking to The New York Times, the Yahoo-Tumblr seems to tie in with Yahoo knowing that it would announce poor results in its first-quarter earnings. The broadsheet said the deal came together after less than a month's worth of discussions, pegging the start date near the time Yahoo had its final figures in for its January-March quarter.

Putting ads in any way, shape or form on Tumblr seems to go against the grain of what the blogging platform's chief said in recent years. 

In 2010, Karp said he was "pretty opposed to advertising," and that "it really turns our stomachs." Two years later, he admitted he was an "idiot" and offered a first-step solution to monetizing his company's blogging platform.

Yahoo may have just bought a rough, clunky looking rock, but it knows what lies inside: 24-carat advertising diamonds.

Tumblr hosts close to 110 million blogs with more than 50 billion posts in total. In April, it received more than 13 billion global page views. But the company isn't yet profitable but has a large and growing base of users.  Last year, Tumblr had a mere $13 million in revenue last year, while reports suggest it could generate as much as $100 million this year.

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How Microsoft dodged the Yahoo bullet

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For Yahoo to get its money back for seemingly little return — at least on the face of it, besides potential future Yahoo users — it has two options.

Either it can, as Mayer suggested, seamlessly integrate the 50-billion-plus into Yahoo's search engine, thus generating revenue while boosting traffic. Or, Yahoo has to start plugging its own flailing ad platform to the Tumblr faithful.

Except, it can't. Not just yet, and not as aggressively as the company may want to. Slowly, slowly; softly, softly.

From the Yahoo investor call on Monday, Mayer said: "We see some opportunities to work with bloggers who want ads, to provide ads on their websites. That would always be done with [the blogger's] permission."

She stressed that the advertising load would be "very light," and follow in Tumblr's existing advertising flow.

Of course, this indicates that users would be able to opt-in to the advertising platform. Exactly what the bloggers get out of it remains unclear. But what Yahoo needs to do next is to find that delicate balance of adverts versus Tumblr's fickle, young audience.

Mayer promised not to "screw it up," hinting a cautionary tale from the not-so-distant past. The Web may be free, but in fact it's powered by ads — if you didn't realize, it's why there's one at the top and to the right of this very article (for your viewing pleasure, of course).

But Yahoo has to tread very lightly in the near future to ease in its users to the idea of ads in a a up until now mostly ad-free environment.

One example is Accenture, which announced that it intends to buy Acquity Group, a digital marketing and e-commerce business, for $316 million.

See also: Mobile payments need carrots to boost adoption, says Accenture | Accenture investing more than $400M in new cloud capabilities

Acquity Group is touted as the second-largest independent digital marketing company in the United States with a revenue of $141 million for 2012 -- up 32 percent from 2011.

Once the deal is complete, Acquity Group’s employee base of more than 600 are expected to join Accenture.

The latest merger follows up last week's acquisition of Fjord, which was bought primarily for that company's design and marketing capabilities.

Accenture added digital production support services through the purchase of avVenta late last year.

The global consulting firm affirmed that it plans to use Acquity Group's resources to further expand its own digital marketing solution, Accenture Interactive, with chief marketing officers listed as the target customer demographic.

Pointing toward bigger industry trends, the Chicago-headquartered Accenture is moving more towards becoming a digital marketing services provider with the intention of serving businesses that recognize the link between IT and marketing departments thanks to data analytics.

See also: TBM startup Apptio raises $45M; plans to expand global footprint

Executives boasted the latest financing round has now completed more than twelve consecutive "record" quarters.

For reference, Rimini Street offers third-party maintenance support for enterprise software, especially from the likes of SAP and Oracle, touting cost savings up to 90 percent on total support costs over the span of a decade.

The private company plans to use the extra funding to extend its global footprint following previously announced plans for expansion in Brazil and the Asia/Pacific region.

CEO Seth Ravin also hinted at bigger future plans in prepared remarks:

As a high-growth, pre-IPO company that is rapidly expanding operations and serving a global client base, Rimini Street wanted to select a partner in this financing round that would provide a flexible, cost effective, and tailored solution to support our accelerating global expansion.

Rimini Street also revealed it plans to announce a new managing director for Europe later this week.

I've been thinking quite a bit about the Friday rumor, and now Monday morning confirmation, that Yahoo will buy social microblogging network Tumblr for $1.1 billion. In typical tech industry fashion, the news spilled out in bits and pieces over the weekend. (No rest for the weary, as they say.)

The deal is interesting for a number of reasons.

First, it is the latest bold move by chief executive Marissa Mayer, made shortly after the 10-month anniversary of her installment in Yahoo's top spot. Whatever your criticisms of her, you can't fault her for trying to rock Yahoo's purple boat, and Tumblr's massive install base certainly gives the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet stalwart the younger, more social audience it seeks for its advertising business.

Second, it is equal validation and capitulation for Tumblr founder David Karp, who successfully created a product that users—84 million of them, in just six years' time—adored but also a company (with 175 employees and $125 million in venture funding) that lacked revenue to match, totaling just $13 million in 2012. It is exceedingly difficult to create something that will catch on with millions of people worldwide; Karp did so with an unbroken focus on his end user. But it is twice as hard to do this in a way that turns a profit. (Karp famously said in 2010: "We're pretty opposed to advertising. It really turns our stomachs.")

Finally, Yahoo's acquisition of Tumblr demonstrates, as has been demonstrated with many M&A deals before this, that large companies—particularly public ones, awash in quarterly thinking—continue to have grave issues in fostering disruptive innovation. It is true that Mayer is on a tight timetable: the average length of a contemporary Yahoo CEO's tenure is less than two years, and Mayer doesn't have the job security to make six-year bets, even if she has the stomach for them. But really, which large Internet company does?

In an industry where the question, "Build it, or buy it?" is oft-repeated, how come so many companies build it (once they're too late) and buy it (only to later ruin it)? Why is it so hard for Yahoo or AOL or Facebook or Mayer's former Google or even ZDNet's own parent company, CBS Interactive, to make an early bet on the smartest 20-year-old in the office?

The great Clay Christensen explains in his landmark 1997 book, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms To Fail:

The established firms were, in fact, aggressive, innovative, and customer-sensitive in their approaches to sustaining innovations of every sort. But the problem established firms seemed unable to confront successfully is that of downward vision and mobility, in terms of the trajectory map. Finding new applications and markets for these new products seems to be a capability that each of these firms exhibited once, upon entry, and then apparently lost. It was as if the leading firms were held captive by their customers, enabling attacking entrant firms to topple the incumbent industry leaders each time a disruptive technology emerged.

You can see the parallells in today's Internet giants: Yahoo's customer base is now considered "old," though it wasn't in the company's late-1990s heyday, and so it finds itself on the prowl for new blood. AOL is in a similar situation, and acquired The Huffington Post, TechCrunch and the entire Weblogs network (Engadget, Joystiq) for this reason. Google has managed to keep some focus on the future by prioritizing talent acquisition and "Innovation Time Off," even as it makes big-company missteps (Motorola, Zagat) elsewhere.

"We promise not to screw it up," Mayer wrote on her hours-old Tumblog this morning.

And so the big lesson in the $1.1 billion Yahoo-Tumblr deal is that the Internet's largest companies remain astonishingly good at sustaining themselves but frightfully bad at disrupting the market, even in an industry that prizes and even idolizes such activity. Year after year, they continue to pay the steep price for not fostering their own disruptive innovation, even as those innovations are born from their own ex-employees. (Google alone counts Instagram's Kevin Systrom, Foursquare's Dennis Crowley, Pinterest's Ben Silbermann and Twitter's Evan Williams among its alumni. Recent valuations of those companies: $1 billion, $700 million, $2.5 billion, $10 billion.)

And so now we have Tumblr. Many have already suggested that if Mayer is smart, she'll leave Tumblr's (clean, restrained, intuitive, iterative, mobile-first) product development alone and simply enjoy the benefits of having its many users in the company database; I would go one further and say that this deal's success is predicated on keeping David Karp and the talented team he has assembled on the company payroll and flush with authority and resources.

My company would know. In July 2006, the former CNET Networks acquired the website Karp was working on, UrbanBaby, but not the then-20-year-old product director himself. Seven months later, he launched Tumblr.

EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes told reporters in Brussels, according to a European publication, that the European Commission will soon bring forward proposals to knock down the virtual cellular walls between member states in order to create a single market for all mobile users.

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EU tells member states to open up spectrum for more 4G

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"A telecoms market without borders, without fragmentation, and that is the major priority for the rest of my mandate," Kroes said. She added that she has "no intention to retire" until she has "knocked down all the barriers to the single market."

In a nutshell, this would kill any inter-country roaming charges that currently bite customers' mobile bills. The executive body of Europe also wants to improve spectrum uptake for next-generation broadband services.

Kroes empathized with businesses that find roaming charges a "costly irritant," and warned that in the upcoming "Internet of things" trend, it will become even more difficult for machine-to-machine (M2M) to succeed.

With your European passport travel freely to any other European member state without security restrictions, thanks to the Schengen Agreement of unrestricted travel across the continent. But the same doesn't apply for your mobile or cell provider. Roaming charges still bitterly hurt many consumers and businesses alike, particularly those with branch offices around Europe.

Already, thanks to a directive passed by the European Parliament, data roaming charges have begun to fall. Data roaming charges will be fully limited to 70 euro cents per 1MB of data downloaded from last July, which will fall further to 50 euro cents per 1MB downloaded this July.

According to the Commission at the time: "For a typical businessperson travelling in the EU this will mean savings of over €1,000 [$1,285] per year. A family taking an annual holiday in another EU country can expect to save at least €200 [$257]."

The Commission says completing the "internal mobile market" will add an additional 0.8 percent to Europe's gross domestic product (GDP), or €110 billion ($141.4bn).

The hope is that EU-based firms can gain a competitive edge over their U.S.-based counterparts. Because while the U.S. has six major cellular firms to cover a population of 310 million, the EU has more than 100 cellular firms covering more than 500 citizens.

The biggest threat to the U.S. Air Force may not be ground-to-air missiles, hostile Russian forces on the Bering Strait, or a foreign invasion of British troops across the eastern seaboard.

It's paper. And iPads are saving the day, according to reports.

The U.S. Air Force will save approximately $50 million across ten years — more than $5 million per year — on replacing heavy, cost-ineffective paper manuals and flight plans, which in some cases contain tens of thousands of pages of information, with Apple-branded tablets. 

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iPhones, iPads cleared for U.S. military use; DOD fortifies cloud

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According to The Street, the need to deploy Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) will free up weight taken on board the aircraft and allow additional resources to be loaded instead. 

"We're saving about 90 pounds of paper per aircraft and limiting the need for each crew member to carry a 30 to 40 pound paper pile," Major Brian Moritz, the U.S. Air Force's EFB program manager, told the financial publication.

Last year, the Air Force's Air Mobility Command (AMC) was granted a $9.3 million contract for 18,000 iPads — despite not at the time being cleared for U.S. government use — in order to replace the bulky flight manuals. 

According to the report, the weight of a stocky person can be saved in a four-person C-17 transport plane, and up to double that in a C-5 behemoth. By comparison, the latest iPad with Retina display weighs just 1.46 pounds and can store millions of flight plans and document pages. 

The Air Force is aiming to save at least $5.7 million in fuel costs alone, which is "well over $50 million," according to the major. But the cost saving isn't everything. Being able to quickly pull up "engine fire" through a simple PDF search is far easier — and less stressful — than flicking through tens of thousands of pages of text. It also might save the U.S. taxpayer even more money in the long run by not crashing the $168 million mega-plane into a mountain or a Taliban stronghold.

Now 16,000 third-generation iPads are being dished out to crew members, with the other 2,000 iPads deploying across other units. 

Last week, the U.S. military certified Apple's iOS 6 operating system, used on both iPhones and iPads, secure enough for low-level clearance work. This came just days after the U.S. government cleared the software for government use earlier in May after being granted FIPS 140-2 status.

Wall Street is expecting earnings of 81 cents a share on revenue of $28.08 billion for the second quarter. Analysts are modeling that HP will project a weaker third quarter sequentially with sales of $27.78 billion.

Evercore Partners analyst Rob Cihra said that he sees "almost no way for HP to meet consensus revenue expectations." Earnings, however, can do well do to a weaker Yen — HP's printing components are made in Japan — and restructuring. Weak PC sales should also help gross margins.

Cihra projects that HP's PC sales will be down 21 percent year over year due to bloated inventory levels with enterprise revenue down 7 percent due to weak results from x86 servers, business critical systems and storage. Services sales are likely to also be weak.

The bottom line:

We continue to see much of HP's hoped-for fiscal year 2013 stability flowing from its most recent, deep rounds of restructuring cuts. But HP has already booked more than $7B in pre-tax restructuring charges over the past 8yrs and yet we do not think that has helped its revenue or competitive momentum, with year over year revenue erosion continuing across every business and margin compression in every segment but printing. We just don’t see how HP can cut its way to a sustainable turnaround.

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore had a similar view. "We believe underlying fundamentals at HP remain under significant pressure due to challenging demand conditions in PCs, printers, servers and storage," said Whitmore.

There are a few things that can go right. For starters, HP recently launched new printers and that could help that unit. The printing industry overall remains weak. HP's launch of Project Moonshot should give the company something positive to mention for its server business.

Dell makes HP's life difficult

After multiple quarters of deciding market share in PCs didn't matter, Dell went to bolster its position in its most recent quarter. Given Dell is going private, the company needs to fortify its sales base amid the uncertainty. As a result, Dell's share vs. profit approach on PCs likely hurt HP in a big way.

Whitmore added:

Dell’s recent earnings results show it was very price aggressive in PCs (focused on share vs. profitable growth) which points to material weakness for HPs PC revs and profitability.

In other words, HP's PC results are going to struggle largely due to a price war initiated by Dell. Dell's plan is to acquire customers at the expense of profit margins. "We believe Dell’s pricing strategy is in response to aggressive tactics from Lenovo and HP last year, which resulted in Dell share losses," explained Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty.

Dell CFO Brian Gladden said last week on the company's earnings conference call:

We are trying to run the business based on that and be in a position where we are in this thing for the long term, and we position the business for success for the long term.

Most analysts said they expected HP to forgo market share and preserve profits this quarter. Dell did the same thing in recent quarters, but then cracked.

In India's latest round of tax demands hurled at tech firms, Infosys is expected to pay $105.3 million.

India's second-largest software services exporter, Infosys, is planning to appeal an income tax demand of 5.77 billion rupees ($105.3 million) set by Indian authorities, according to Reuters.

The demand has been made in relation to software development completed overseas — and therefore accounting for tax benefits which follow — in addition to revenue generated from "special economic zones in India," according to a company statement. The firm contends that the latest demand disregards tax clarification set by the Indian government in January.

Infosys is also contesting a number of similar tax demands made for the fiscal years from 2005 to 2009, according to a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing reads:

"The company has received demands from the Indian IT authorities for payments of additional taxes totalling USD 214 million, including interest of USD 62 million upon completion of their tax review for fiscal 2005, fiscal 2006, fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2008."

The software services exporter plans to appeal the demand.

Infosys is not the only company to fall foul of India's tax laws. Vodafone was first to sit up and take notice of India's changing tax legislation. In March 2012, the Indian government revealed plans to amend tax laws dating back to 1962, and in response, Vodafone considered setting aside capital for a $2.2 billion tax bill to mitigate potential legal risks.

Smart move, it seems, as Google India was next to receive a slap on the wrist and a $13.8 million fine from the income tax office for allegedly "misleading the department, underdeclaring its income, violating accounting rules and attempting to show wrong revenues." Google India denied the claims and has appealed. This year, the department has claimed that Samsung India owes 1.14 billion rupees ($207 million) in back taxes, and has demanded that Nokia pays out $383 million over tax evasion claims.

Indian authorities may be quick to issue demands, but the government may not be so agreeable to paying back funds from IT companies. According to reports, the Indian government owes at least $547.6 million in service tax refunds to IT firms alone, but for some companies, delays in receiving money have stretched as far as nine years.

The Chinese telecommunications equipment makers could be subject to a formal inquiry to investigate anti-competitive behavior which is affecting European markets, according to Reuters.

European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said that the investigation is necessary to protect a "strategic" sector of the European economy. Reference to the two firms comes before global talks expected to begin in July, where the EU will engage in negotiations with the United States to create a free trade pact.

China is second only to the U.S. as critical trading partners with Europe.

De Gucht told the publication that "Huawei and ZTE are dumping their products on the European market," and Chinese state support -- resulting in cheap capital -- creates a "distorted playing field" which can only do European competitors harm.

European telecom equipment makers have not made official complaints against their Chinese rivals, and so if the investigation goes ahead, it will be on the European Commission's own initiative, also known as ex-officio.

Chinese exports to the 27-member bloc totaled $372 billion last year.

In an emailed statement, Huawei denied breaking European laws, commenting that the firm "always plays fair and we win business and trust from our customers through our innovative technology and quality service, rather than via pricing or subsidies."

The official China Daily quoted Tao Jingwen, the president of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd in the West Europe Region, who said that the EU should not be judgemental of Chinese firms. The executive denies that Huawei receives government subsidies in order to flood markets with cheap products, and the company will take "strong action" if an investigation is launched.

In addition, Jingwen told the publication that innovation, not subsidies, is critical in order to keep customers -- and if European companies blame China for financial losses, it is "sometimes caused by their own laziness."

An investigation is ready to launch but has been put on hold, giving Europe and China time to come together for a solution before moving down the route of potential sanctions.

Project Ophelia was first shown off at this year's CES. The device -- akin to a USB memory stick -- can be plugged into any monitor or display through the HDMI port to transform it into a smart device. Dell's Project Ophelia will then give both consumers and businesses access to data remotely, providing a virtual window without the need for a PC, tablet or smartphone.

Supporting both private and corporate content, the USB-enabled gadget connects to virtualization platforms from Citrix, Microsoft and VMware, increasing security required by those who have to tote information around. IT managers concerned with security have the power to manage and secure individual devices, and so data can be wiped from Ophelia in the case of theft or loss. Administrators can also use the "cloud client manager" to keep tabs on how and where Ophelia is being used.

In addition, Ophelia is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled, can connect to peripherals including keyboards and mice, and will run Android 4.0.

Consumers may also find the gadget useful, as it can transform any display in to a console in which to download apps, play Android games, watch movies or use services such as Hulu and Netflix; Jeff McNaught, executive director of cloud client computing at Dell told PC World.

Ophelia also comes with Wyse's PocketCloud, which allows users to access files stored on PCs, servers or mobile devices including tablets and smartphones.

The gadget will cost $100 and begin shipping in July, although Android developers will have the first chance to get their hands on Ophelia.

According to the WSJ, the deal could be announced as early as Monday. Tumblr will be allowed to run as an independent business unit.

Why would Yahoo, under the leadership of newly minted CEO Marissa Mayer make such a move? The WSJ speculates that it was to gain a social networking presence. Google+ is now the second most popular social network in the world. Yahoo has had no social networking sites to speak of.

Yahoo's one previous major social networking play--the purchase of GeoCities in 1999 for approximately $3.5-billion--ended in failure in 2009. 

This acquisition had been rumored for several weeks. Reports suggested Mayer would announce the deal on Monday at an event in New York City, and that both companies' boards are in the final stages of approving the deal. It has also been said that Mayer will be announcing major changes with Yahoo's photo-sharing site Flickr.  

This buyout would easily be Mayer's biggest move to date. She has been unsuccessful in freeing Yahoo of its search deal with Microsoft and in acquiring online video website Dailymotion.

While Tumblr itself generated only a minute $13 million in revenue in 2012, Tumblr has hundreds of millions of users. Better still, from Yahoo's position, its users are younger than Yahoo's existing aging, and shrinking, customer base. The move is a gamble but to make Yahoo relevant again, Mayer has decided to roll the dice on a splashy acquisition move.

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Reports of strong demand for the Q10 have circulated in recent weeks. A new report this morning showed BlackBerry regaining lost market share in Canada. Several commenters to the TechRepublic poll supported that narrative.

TechRepublic user Vijitc, a multinational CIO, wrote in the comments: 

"BlackBerry woes made me switch to [Galaxy S3] last summer. Did not expect BlackBerry to make a come back. Like Android as a tablet. I have Nexus 7. But as a business phone the Galaxy does not cut it. Will definitely return to Q10 and will keep Nexus 7 tethered to Q10 hot spot for video apps."

The TechRepublic poll was run this week during BlackBerry Live 2013 when interest and exposure naturally peaked for BlackBerry. This is a self-selected poll so the numbers likely skew a little high for people interested in this topic, but the percentage was still higher than expected. With over 1,300 participants among TechRepublic's audience of IT professionals and business managers, this poll had plenty of responses to make it statistically significant.

The other question that TechRepublic asked was if the Q10 was enough to keep current BlackBerry users in the fold and avoid a future jump to Android or iOS. The response was even more emphatic in BlackBerry's favor there, as 76% said it was. 

TechRepublic commenter PurpleSkys, a Canadian business manager, wrote:

"I personally prefer they little keyboard... Keep in mind, BlackBerry has had touch for a while now. My Torch is a touch and it's a few years old. And the new BB Z10 is all touch... I'm waiting for my next upgrade with our service provider to get the new Q10."

There were also plenty of commenters who didn't plan to switch back or were on the fence. TechRepublic member Croiona, an IT department head in Great Britain, wrote:

"I moved from a Nokia E71 to an HTC Desire and then to a BB Bold. The only reason I switched to BB was because it had a touch screen but retained a conventional keypad. I hated the touch-screen typing on the HTC and wanted to have the best of both worlds. I'm not a touch typist, but I find a conventional keypad allows me to type much faster and more accurately. I'm now faced with the dilema of whether to switch back to an Android with a better sized screen and a wider range of apps, but have to suffer the touch screen typing, or stay with BB and hope it starts to catch up with all the apps available elsewhere."

I know a lot of business professionals who were long-time BlackBerry users that are now on Android and iPhone and almost all of them say that the biggest thing they miss is the hardware keyboard. Most of them comment that they write fewer and shorter emails on their phones now that they have devices with touch keyboards. For those that are tempted to go back, I'm sure they'll have to wrestle with the app trade-off that Croiona mentioned.

Nevertheless, the fact that these IT and business professionals are even considering a BlackBerry again is a win for the company. We'll watch to see if consideration can turn to into momentum for the Q10 over the remainder of 2013 as the first wave of these users have wireless contracts that come up for renewal.

Also read

• BlackBerry Q10 review
• How BlackBerry is riding iOS and Android to power its comeback
• BlackBerry releases BES 10.1: Simplified deployments, IT policy options
• BlackBerry announces colorful new Q5 device for emerging markets
• BlackBerry to launch BBM on iOS and Android this summer
• BlackBerry unveils its own social network, BBM Channels
• BlackBerry boosts enterprise IM with Microsoft Lync, Lotus support

Bloomberg, the tony U.S. financial data and news company, announced this morning that it appointed former IBM chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano as an "independent adviser" for the company's privacy and data standards.

The news comes after Bloomberg was revealed to have given its news reporters access to data from its namesake terminals that revealed the activity of major customers such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

Palmisano will "immediately undertake a review of the company's current practices and policies for client data and end user information, including a review of access issues recently raised by the company's clients," Bloomberg said. "In addition, Mr. Palmisano will make recommendations and advise on the implementation of any enhancements to these practices and policies, including the independent verification of the company's systems and procedures."

He will report to Bloomberg's board of directors.

"Sam Palmisano is an expert at understanding issues related to technology and data use, having led the transition at IBM from computers to helping customers use technology to solve business challenges," Bloomberg chairman Peter T. Grauer said in prepared remarks.

In addition to Palmisano, Bloomberg tapped the legal practice Hogan Lovells and former Bloomberg News editor-at-large Clark Hoyt to review the issues at hand: Hogan will approach the issue from a legal perspective; Hoyt will approach it from a journalistic one.

After being certified by the U.S. government earlier this month for low-level security clearance work, iPhones and iPads running the latest software are now deemed suitable for U.S. military use.

The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed in a statement on Friday that Apple's iOS 6 mobile operating system is secure enough to connect to secure Pentagon networks. 

Earlier in May, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which examines and tests mobile devices and technologies for security clearance, granted the Apple software FIPS 140-2 certification (Level 1) last Friday. This approves iPhones and iPads running the software in conjunction with the U.S. government's lowest level of national security clearance.

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iOS 6 granted FIPS 140-2, approved for U.S. government use

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The Defense Dept. previously said it has up until now depended on around 470,000 BlackBerry devices, which have held U.S. government certification for many years. The department also has 41,000 Apple products and 8,700 devices running the Android operating system, according to the press release.

But because these platforms have previously not been certified or cleared for use, such devices had not been connected to secure military networks, except for testing.

Samsung recently received the nod from the Pentagon for any Samsung device protected by the Knox security software, which includes the Galaxy S4 and other compatible tablets.

For the first time, Apple's push into federal use opens up the U.S. government and military to competition for device procurement in the mobile space. 

While BlackBerrys had once held the monopoly over U.S. federal agencies, on two fronts there is an increasing responsibility for device and platform makers to secure their hardware and software, but also the dwindling BlackBerry market share has forced the federal government to look elsewhere for long term stability and reliability.

But with the decline in BlackBerry popularity and a slower-than-expected release schedule for the latest BlackBerry 10 smartphones, many federal agencies have already made headway towards rival platforms and devices.

Fortifying cloud, acquisition, data processes

The Defense Dept. also said today it will take "bold steps" to provide information and proper analysis as it fortifies its cloud computing, acquisition and data processes.

The Defense Dept.'s deputy director for acquisition resource analysis and enterprise information Mark Krzysko said cloud computing is one of many new ways to provide "decision-makers timely access to accurate, authoritative and reliable information."

He noted that the major challenge faced by the Pentagon is twofold: how can the Department make existing technologies and cloud information work together, but also how to "orchestrate the transition" from a desktop environment to a mobile one, while ensuring data security and integrity?

In conjunction with today's news regarding iOS 6's clearance for the Pentagon, Krzysko cited existing iPad use in the Department. But it wasn't just about the shiny, latest products and features. 

He firmly noted that the Department's requirement is to fully understand the "processes, people and policy framework" around the technology, data and acquisition evolution.

Google has a lot to celebrate (or at least promote) this week as I/O 2013 comes to a close. But here's one more proud title that the Internet giant can add to the list.

A new report from the online jobs and careers community Glassdoor lists the top 10 companies across all verticals with the best financial outlook for at least the next six months.

The Android maker tops the list.

Actually, the technology industry dominates the list by capturing the top six spots. Following up Google are Qualcomm, Yahoo, SAP, Amazon, and Tata IT consultancy services respectively.

Approximately 86 percent of Google employees are reported to believe that the Mountain View, Calif.-headquartered company's business will perform better in the next six months.

Compare that to the average on Glassdoor's online community. Covering roughly 250,000 companies listed on Glassdoor, only 38 percent of employees think that their companies' business outlooks will improve in the next six months.

The bright outlook for Google (not to mention the following five aforementioned businesses) follows up another report earlier this week from Glassdoor that highlighted Facebook.

The social network's future also looks more promising as most employees seem more optimistic in a post-IPO work environment.

As of April 30, CEO Mark Zuckerberg had an approval rating of 98 percent while 95 percent of current employees said they would recommend the Menlo Park, Calif.-headquartered company to friends looking for work. That's based on 393 ratings posted to Glassdoor.

Chart via Glassdoor