Thursday, October 8, 2009
Justice Department Looking to Punch IBM’s Card?
It has been nearly eight years since the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to dissolve its 1956 consent decree with IBM, lifting restrictions that had prevented the company from becoming a monopoly in the market for punch card tabulating machines. But perhaps those restrictions were better left in place. Because on Thursday, the DOJ opened a new investigation into IBM’s business practices, seeking to determine if the company has abused its monopoly position in the mainframe market.
Last Friday was a particularly productive day for the Apple team that reviews submissions to the iTunes App Store. AppShopper reports that 1,394 new applications were approved that day. An impressive number when you consider that Apple employs only 40 full-time reviewers and requires at least two of them to scrutinize each app.
After more than one billion unsolicited calls and some 30,000 complaints–one from Senator Charles E. Schumer–the Federal Trade Commission is finally going after companies responsible for those supremely annoying car warranty robocalls.
According to Forbes, former Broadcom Corp. chief and founder Henry Nicholas ranks 677th on the list of the world’s wealthiest individuals. But according to a federal indictment unsealed today, he’d rank quite a bit higher on a list of the world’s most debauched.
