IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. authorities claimed one of their biggest victories against cyber crime as they shut down a ring they said used malicious software to take control of more than 2 million PCs around the world, and may have led to theft of more than $100 million.

Amazon.com Inc is due to meet with music label executives on Thursday to hash out deals over the online retailer's controversial cloud-based media locker service that has sparked a music business uproar.

Top U.S. and European central bank officials agreed on Wednesday their institutions must withdraw some of the extraordinary support they provided to help their economies recover from a deep crisis.

A former AllianceBernstein Holding LP brokerage worker has been charged with stealing software the company used to transmit messages containing data about customers and transactions, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said on Wednesday.

Toys R Us is targeting an initial public offering in July, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

U.S. authorities say they have shut down a computer crime ring that ran an international fraud scheme and likely infected more than 2 million computers worldwide in the past decade.

Computer sales slid lower in the first three months of this year for the first time since 2009 as shoppers suffered post-holiday shopping fatigue, Apple Inc's iPad continued to attract buyers and Japan focused on recovering from the earthquake and tsunami.

A Malaysian man accused of hacking into a Federal Reserve computer server pleaded guilty to possessing stolen credit and debit card numbers that the government said he intended to sell.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc on Wednesday agreed to put creditors' competing restructuring plans on the same timeline for court approval as its own plan, but reserved the right to raise future objections.

Internet advertising revenue jumped 15 percent to $26 billion in 2010, setting a record high and proving that more companies are opening up their coffers to reach people online.

NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse AG are weighing several options to win support for their $10.2 billion deal, including paying special dividends to shareholders, three sources briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.

Commodities giant Glencore is set to launch a roughly $10 billion public offering on Thursday, when it outlines plans for a May market debut that will make multi-millionaires of its partners and boost its deal-making capacity.

U.S. Internet advertising revenue jumped 15 percent to $26 billion in 2010, setting a record high and proving that more companies are opening up their coffers to reach people online.

A prosecutor took a combative tone with a key defense witness at Raj Rajaratnam's insider trading trial on Wednesday, trying to poke holes in arguments that the Galleon Group founder's trades were based on research and published reports.

The U.S. economy continued to improve over the past month on gains in manufacturing but firms are feeling the effects of higher energy and raw material costs, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co said its total outstanding loans shrank for the fourth consecutive quarter, raising questions about the banking industry's ability to boost profit in coming years.

Much of the effort at equipping the next iteration of the iPad with WiFi syncing comes from Steve Jobs himself, who is pushing hard for the technology.

Dutch chip equipment maker ASML, a bellwether for the European tech sector, said some customers were holding back on confirming orders because the Japan quake had disrupted their supply chain.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed spending cuts for the years ahead that are much smaller than the Republican proposal a week ago. Obama called for $2 trillion in reduced spending over the next 12 years. House Republicans last week proposed $5.8 billion in cuts to federal spending over the next 10 years.

Politicians from Texas, Ohio are angry they were passed over by NASA for the retiring space shuttle's final landing spot.

The 3.2-inch, 3.2-megapixel camera-equipped smartphone is designed to take advantage of AT&T's prepaid plan.

U.S. Internet advertising revenue jumped 15 percent to $26 billion in 2010, setting a record high and proving that more companies are opening up their coffers to reach people online.

Zoom Technologies Inc signed a licensing pact with chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, allowing the Chinese mobile phone maker to develop and sell 3G devices using Qualcomm's chip patents, sending its shares soaring as much as 64 percent.

Microsoft's Joe Belfiore talks about some of the problems the OS had with updates.

Revealed at this year's MIX conference, the announcements are mostly focused on how developers themselves will be able to take advantage of the operating system's new features.

U.S. stocks finished mostly flat in a choppy session on Wednesday, as investors bet on strong technology earnings even as JPMorgan Chase's numbers weighed on other market sectors.

The 41-year-old actress and judge of American Idol topped the magazine's list of most attractive humans, beating out other beauty sensations such as Halle Berry, Jennifer Garner and Beyoncé Knowles.

The chief executive officer of Exxon Mobil Corp , the world's largest publicly traded oil company, received $29 million in total compensation in 2010, a 6.6 percent increase from the previous year, a regulatory filing showed on Wednesday.

Iceland's credit ratings could be downgraded into junk debt status after its voters rejected a deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands for losses from a banking crash, Standard & Poor's said on Wednesday.