US govt gets sneaky: Google

Government authorities in the US showed an increased interest in Google accountholders in the first half of 2011, according to a report released Tuesday by the search giant, states TechNewsWorld.

Google's recent transparency report findings found the US government had increased requests for information by 29%.

The report is prepared every six months, with requests by countries around the world to take down information from its Web sites, or to obtain information about user accounts.

Chipmaker LSI said today it had agreed to acquire privately-held flash storage processor provider SandForce for $322 million in cash, reports Cnet.

The acquisition gives the semi-conductor maker an expanded presence in the fast-growing market for solid state drives and tablet computers.

LSI will assume $48 million in unvested stock options and restricted shares held by SandForce employees. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012, subject to regulatory requirements being met.

Mozilla has joined up with Microsoft to make a special version of Firefox that uses Bing for its default search engine and home page, according to ZDNet.

Speculation about why the company has agreed to the partnership is because it needs the funds. Every time the Web browser's built-in search window is used, Mozilla would get a tiny payment.

It isn't much, but hundreds of millions of searches a week add up. The Firefox search box is believed to account for anywhere from 85% to 90% of Mozilla revenue.

Sprint Nextel on Wednesday reported its smallest quarterly loss in four years, as it continued a turnaround and kept getting better at keeping and attracting customers, reports WSJ.com.

Sprint also provided important updates on the iPhone, its financing needs and planned network upgrades, undoing some of the damage caused by an investor day presentation three weeks ago that had investors fuming and sent its stock plunging.

Its stock edged lower Wednesday as investors continued to focus on finances that look precarious for the next two years.