business

Microsoft has agreed to acquire business software company Yammer for more than $1 billion, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

The report did not indicate when the acquisition is expected to be announced or completed.

Yammer representatives declined to comment. CNET has also contacted Microsoft for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

San Francisco-based Yammer is sort of like Facebook for companies: employees can post, share, and discuss items. It's become an integral tool for many startups, but it's also big among larger businesses. More than 80 percent of … Read more

The new Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display announced earlier this week just got an Editors' Choice review on CNET, but some die-hard tinkerers are upset about the lack of upgradeable components inside. According to iFixit.org, the latest MacBook Pro is the least reparable Apple laptop to date.

For starters, users are locked into the amount of RAM they choose at the purchase date, as the memory is actually soldered to the logic board. The proprietary solid-state hard drive is staying put as well, and watch out for a couple of booby traps concealed underneath the lithium-polymer battery! The laptop certainly remains incomparable in terms of display, I/O ports, and chassis, but keep in mind that your upgrade options down the line are severely limited if you go with this model.… Read more

Nokia will cut 10,000 positions by the end of 2013, the company announced today.

The layoffs are part of a strategy on Nokia's part to "rescale" its operation. In doing so, it plans to close facilities in Ulm, Germany and Burnaby, Canada; consolidate certain manufacturing operations; and streamline its IT, corporate, and support functions.

"These planned reductions are a difficult consequence of the intended actions we believe we must take to ensure Nokia's long-term competitive strength," Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said today in a statement. "We do not make plans that may … Read more

Several people were overheard yammering today that Microsoft is supposedly acquiring the business social network Yammer, according to Business Insider.

Near Yammer's office, at the Caltrain station in San Francisco, people were reportedly heard talking about the possible buyout, according to Business Insider. Later, a woman named Sarah Taylor tweeted that she also eavesdropped on people talking about it at The Creamery, a coffee shop near Yammer's office.

That's not all, Business Insider reports that a source inside Yammer has also said that Microsoft is in the works of buying the startup.

Before there were ultrabooks, we always had a soft spot in our heart for the Vostro, a smartly designed, slim, and surprisingly affordable small-business laptop line from Dell that borrowed some design touches from the long-departed Adamo.… Read more

As expected, Olympus has confirmed that it'll be reducing its workforce by 7 percent, as the company tries to regain its footing in the wake of its crippling scandal.

According to Olympus, the company will cut 2,700 employees from its global workforce between now and March 31, 2014. The move is part of a broader restructuring that could see major changes across the company's subsidiaries, global production sites, and other divisions.

The cuts Olympus plans to make are actually a bit deeper than expected. Last week, Japanese news outlet Nikkei Business Daily reported that the company would cut approximately 2,500 jobs from its payroll. … Read more

Today is the day when IPv6 is permanently enabled by home-networking equipment manufacturers and Web companies around the world. So what do you do to get ready?

First of all, there's really nothing you have to do right away. The transition to IPv6 will be a slow process, and in the meantime IPv4 devices will still work. In fact, there are IPv4-to-IPv6 transition protocols, known as "dual-stack" protocols, that make it possible to wrap IPv6 addresses within IPv4 packets to help legacy devices work during the transition. In the long term, it's better to make sure your network devices support IPv6 natively. Some of them can be upgraded to support IPv6 via firmware, but others you might have to replace with new devices.

Speaking of new devices, the most important networking device for your home or small office network is the router. The broadband modem is important, too, but most likely it's the responsibility of the service provider to upgrade that.

Following is the list of top 5 wireless routers that are IPv6-ready.… Read more

Microsoft dropped some hints today that the commercial release of Windows 8 could come sooner rather than later, but critics are worried that it's not very business friendly.

Announcing the Windows 8 Release Preview, Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky wrote today in the Building Windows 8 blog that the final version is, at the very least, on track.

"If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 8 and Windows RT match our expectations, then we will enter the final phases of the RTM (release to manufacturing) process in about 2 months," Sinofsky wrote. (Windows RT refers to the version … Read more

Although Facebook's initial public offering hurt investors and the social network's share price, there appears to be another victim of its troubles.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today, citing sources, that online travel site Kayak decided against holding its "roadshow" with would-be investors around Memorial Day as planned, due to issues with Facebook's IPO. The Journal's sources say that Kayak is trying to determine the willingness in the investment world to drop cash into another Internet IPO.

If investors are concerned, it wouldn't be such a bad idea. Over the last year, … Read more