IBT Staff Reporter

If you have read any books on networking or word-of-mouth marketing, it might surprise you to learn that as a college professor and expert in the field, I would tell you that you’ve actually received a better education on these related subjects than what you would have received at most universities or colleges around the world. As hard as that is to believe – it’s true.

As a satirical news story about a Belgium Orchestra looking to sell itself on online auction site eBay made its rounds on the Internet on Tuesday, the San Jose, Calif. firm once again captured a bit of the media spotlight through a unique offering.

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit may offer its full menu of services, including e-mail, free of charge to anyone with a high-speed Internet connection, The Wall Street Journal said on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Global semiconductor sales for May increased 9.4 percent from a year ago to $19.7 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported on Wednesday.

Atlantic City casinos could lose more than $20 million a day in revenue and cut thousands of jobs, an industry executive said on Wednesday, as a New Jersey budget impasse forced operators to close shop.

General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will meet with Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and Renault SA Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn in Detroit in mid-July, a person familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

AT&T says that the initial customers of its latest Internet TV offering have been pleased. But with experts citing a number of problems and limitations, will the new service be embraced?

LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. on Wednesday said it named Jeffrey Katz chief executive officer and president, effective immediately.

Britain's BAE Systems, Europe's largest defense company, ordered an audit of Airbus on Wednesday, pushing back its possible sale of a 20-percent stake in the European planemaker into September at the earliest.

On Monday, the boards of automakers Renault SA and Nissan Corp. confirmed that they were interested in forming an alliance with the world's largest car company, General Motors Inc.

France reacted cautiously on Tuesday to the idea of a tie-up between carmaker Renault, its Japanese partner Nissan and U.S. rival General Motors as Renault shares fell.

An EU committee ruled on Monday that Microsoft failed to comply with a landmark antitrust decision, paving the way for fines of up to 2 million euros ($2.56 million) a day, a source familiar with the situation said.

O'Hare International Airport was the nation's busiest airport in terms of air traffic during the first half of 2006, surpassing Atlanta's, according to government statistics released Monday.

France's Industry Minister on Tuesday expressed enormous caution over any future tie-up between carmakers Renault and General Motors.

Wall Street on Monday cheered the apparent defeat of a Mexican leftist presidential candidate whose spending promises raised debt fears, but a looming vote dispute and a longer-term political crisis may ruin the party.

South African telecommunications group Telkom SA, denied on Monday that talks concerning a possible takeover by British cell phone group Vodafone had taken place.

A breakout of avian influenza has been confirmed on an ostrich farm in the Western Cape of South Africa, said the National Department of Agriculture (NDA) on Monday.

An audacious plan for a tie-up between General Motors Corp and Renault that would create a $100 billion global auto giant was set to come before the board of the French carmaker late on Monday.

Intel Corp., the world’s largest computer chip maker, launched the first implementation of its redesigned processor architecture last week, aiming to take back the market share snatched by its smaller arch-rival, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Airbus parent EADS failed to rouse its recently trampled share price on Monday after the European aerospace giant forced out two top executives blamed for a two-week crisis over A380 superjumbo production blunders.

Wireless companies hoping to emulate the success of online teen hangout Web sites like MySpace.com on cellphones are finding it hard to entice teenagers away from their computers.

The dollar fell on Friday after a tame measure of core U.S. inflation reinforced market expectations that the Federal Reserve may be nearing the end of its two-year-long monetary policy tightening cycle.

Britain's leading shares trekked higher on Friday, putting the FTSE 100 index on course for its biggest weekly gain in nearly eight months as miners and oil stocks charged higher.

Euro zone government bonds fell on Friday as investors focused on upcoming European Central Bank rate hike plans after the U.S. Federal Reserve hinted interest rates there may have peaked, which pushed up shares and forced the dollar down.

The Nikkei jumped 2.54 percent to finish at its highest close since June 5 on Friday as exporters such as Toyota Motor gained on rising hopes that the U.S. interest rate-hike cycle may be nearing an end, easing concern of a slowdown in the world's largest economy.

Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it will delay the release of its Office 2007 business productivity software to improve product performance in the latest setback for the world's largest software maker.

The Jordanian government said it sold controlling interest of Jordan Telecommunications to France Telecom on Wednesday.

The Fourth of July fireworks show will come a few days early on Wall Street - but like a damp bottle-rocket, it may soon fizzle out.

Conventional wisdom holds that it's better to defer taxes as long as possible, but that's not always true. Sometimes you want to pay some taxes now, to avoid paying more later.