Fired Yahoo boss to get millions

Carol Bartz was, by all accounts, rather surprised to be told in a phone call on Tuesday that her services were no longer required by online media company Yahoo, reports Digital Trends.

If CNN's calculations are correct, her sadness should be eased somewhat by a generous severance package comprising millions of dollars.

Some of the severance payments are linked to Yahoo's stock performance over the next 12 months, stock which incidentally jumped in value following her departure.

HTC, Asia's second-biggest smartphone maker, is using nine patents bought from Google last week to pursue new infringement claims against Apple, reveals Bloomberg.

Google had taken ownership of the patents less than a year ago, with four of the patents originating from Motorola, three from Openwave Systems and two from Palm, according to US Patent and Trademark Office records.

Jim Prosser, a spokesman for California-based Google, wouldn't discuss reasons for the nine transfers to HTC. HTC now has more ammunition in its fight to fend off multiple patent infringement claims lodged by Apple that contend phones running Google's Android operating system copy the iPhone.

A former Microsoft accountant has been sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to repay over a million dollars after pleading guilty to theft and money laundering, according to The Register.

Randal Ray Seal stole the money from Microsoft after working in the company's accounting department for nearly a decade.

He said the thefts were initially carried out to highlight a flaw in the company's accounting systems, but his bosses ignored the problem when he informed them. However, after Seal was laid off in 2004, he took the money, and it was only in 2009 that the authorities caught up with him.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics has teamed up with Microsoft to make a new tablet computer powered by the US software giant's latest operating system, according to a report, states AFP.

The Korea Economic Daily, citing an industry source, said the new tab based on the Windows 8 system would be unveiled at Microsoft's BUILD developers' conference in California from 13 to 16 September.

“This new product manufactured by Samsung will be the company's first collaboration with Microsoft in its hardware devices,” it quoted the source as saying.