COMPANIES

Ailing Finnish phone maker Nokia Oyj (NYSE: NOK) said it agreed to sell an application tools unit acquired in 2008 to a local partner as well as 500 wireless patents to Vringo (NYSE: VRNG) of New York City in a bid to raise cash.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday after taking $2.85 billion of non-cash restructuring and impairment charges that overshadowed growth at its cable networks, the company's only major bright spot.

Almost every major news outlet has said Apple plans to slim down its traditional dock connector -- the outlet for connecting the iPhone to power sources, devices, utilities, and other accessories -- from 30 pins to either 19 pins, or possibly even just nine pins. Whatever the size is, it's getting smaller; one question still left unanswered, on the other hand, is whether or not the new dock connector will be MagSafe.

Apple has pulled its much-derided "Genius Bar" television commercials, which had been running during the 2012 London Olympics.

No surprise. Smartphones operating on the Android OS from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the No. 1 search engine and the iOS from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, now power 85 percent of all new smartphones, IDC estimated.

Many Americans were saddened and dismayed yesterday to read that McDonald's in Philippines offers curly French fries called "Twister Fries" at the fast food chain nicknamed "McDo." But that's not the only unique menu item in the world at fast food chains abroad. Whether or not these unique menu items will ever make it across seas to the U.S. is a mystery many fast food lovers wonder, but in the meantime, check out photos of menu items unavailable in America.

Shares of Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: PSMI) jumped 7 percent to $15 a share as they started trading the first time as a public company. Peregrine becomes the third technology initial public offering in a month to rise at the opening of trade, jn contrast to the May 18 IPO of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social networking site.

Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX), the No. 1 chain of coffee shops, said it had invested $25 million in Square, the start-up specialist in mobile payments, which values the company at $3.25 billion.

Papa John's CEO John Schnatter gave shareholders a side of politics with their pizza last week when he said the pizza chain would see a price increase for its pizza, blaming Obamacare for the hike in prices.

An uncanny legal document that accused British bank Standard Chartered of penal law violations raises the question: If the bank were a person, what kind of hard time would it be facing?

Peregrine Semiconductor, which has sold more than a billion high-frequency chips to the mobile industry in the past five years, raised $77 million in its IPO on Tuesday and plans to start trading Wednesday, the latest technology IPO since the Facebook fiasco.

A road trip from New York City to Saratoga Springs, New York in the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and 2013 Porsche Boxster S is a reminder that life's about the journey, not the destination.

Microsoft has entered into an intellectual property (IP) licensing agreement with Sharp to use the latest Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT), a modern file system that facilitates large files for audiovisual media and enables seamless data portability for an easy interchange of files between desktop PCs and other electronic devices.

Offshoring of back-office work to India, a trend among banks and accounting firms, came under new scrutiny with allegations that Standard Chartered Plc moved compliance oversight work dealing with Iranian banking transactions to India to avoid U.S. regulators.

Citing reputation and legal risk, several brokers downgrade their recommendations of British bank Standard Chartered Tuesday. But one broker's suggestion stood out from the rest

Nearly two weeks after AuthenTec Inc. (Nasdaq: AUTH) advised the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission it had agreed to be acquired by Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, for $350 million, Apple still hasn’t made an announcement nor filed its own SEC report.

New York City's Bloomberg administration and the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission are embarking on a stupid plan to expand the taxi fleet as a way of plugging holes in the 2013 budget.

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), the No. 1 e-retailer, said it will start renting textbooks to college students for a semester. At the end of the term, they can ship books back for free.

The S&P 500 rose above 1,400 for the first time since May 3 behind further calls for another central bank stimulus and hopes that the European Central Bank will take action.

The success of Pizza Hut and other foreign food companies suggest that Pakistanis are moving away from traditional meals, even during the holidays.

China’s Lenovo Group (Pink: LNVGY), the No. 2 PC maker, introduced its lightest laptop, the 3-pound ThinkPad X1, its latest entrant in the ultralight market. The 14-inch laptop with battery life up to eight hours will be shipped later in August.

It already has "world famous" French fries coveted by many around the globe in its locations worldwide, but now McDonald's has a new addition in potato cuisine: curly fries. But where on Earth can one get these corkscrew concoctions known as "Twister Fries?"

Tokyo Stock Exchange became the third major stock exchange to have a trade-halting technology failure in less than a week, with some interruption during premarket action due to what the exchange operator called a "systems problem."

According to a latest report by Gartner, worldwide spending for IT outsourcing (ITO) services is on pace to reach $251.7 billion in 2012, a 2.1 percent increase from 2011 spending of $246.6 billion.

General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) talked some smack at Dutch carmaker Spyker N.V. following its Monday announcement that it would sue GM for $3 billion over the bankruptcy of Saab Automobile AB.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said Monday afternoon that it lowered its corporate credit rating and other ratings on Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) from "BBB-" to "BB+," or junk status.

Though Apple hasn't specified the exact release date of iOS 6 - the site currently says it's "coming this fall" - but many believe Apple will release the platform alongside a new iPhone and possibly a new "mini iPad," which are both expected to be unveiled and released in mid-September. iOS 6 looks to be right on track for a September release date, as Apple released the fourth beta build of iOS 6 to developers, also known as Build 10A5376e, on Monday morning.

Microsoft, which has long refused to confirm the advent of a next-generation Xbox console, has finally confirmed new hardware in development, rumored to be codenamed "Durango."

A report by market technology firm Nanex LLC that attempts to explain just exactly what happened at Knight Capital last week shows the "crazy" underbelly of U.S. stock trading