HP CEO Meg Whitman pilloried over $8.8 billion start-up acquisition charge for Autonomy as stock plunges and former CEO comes out of woodwork.

News Corp. reportedly eyeing Simon & Schuster as add-on to HarperCollins and acquires 49% of YES Network as former newspaper execs charged with bribery. YES, meanwhile, extends Yankees TV rights through 2042.

Amazon unveils brand pages and looks to reinvent publishing model with Tim Ferriss book.

Apple products top kids' holiday wish lists, while spaceship-like campus delayed until 2016.

BlackBerry dropped by US agency over device reliability concerns.

Big Ten college sports conference brand could be diluted by eastern driven.

Darden CMO defects to Ruby Tuesday.Continue reading...

Heading into last year's year-end holiday selling season, Amazon flexed its muscles and felt some backlash when it provided an app that allowed consumers to find lower prices on any products they found at competing brick-and-mortar retailers. This year, Amazon is finding plenty of new ways to corral consumers as the holiday seasons looms ever closer. One marketing tactic sees the e-tail giant expanding its premium Amazon Prime program. For an extra $8 a month, consumers can get free 2-day shipping, monthly Kindle rentals, and a selection of unlimited streaming video.

And back on the muscle-flexing front, the company just won a legal battle against Apple and such publishers as Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins in Europe, which allows the online retailer to sell online books cheaper than its competitors. Another battle keeping its lawyers busy is for the .cloud domain name, which Amazon wants to secure — but so does Symantec, ARUBA S.p.A., CloudNames AS, and Dash Cedar, among others. 

But don’t think Amazon has completely ditched the brick-and-mortar world. Staples, the largest U.S. office supply retailer, is planning to install Amazon-branded lockers in its stores that would allow consumers to have Amazon packages shipped to their stores for pick-up. Amazon already has similar deals with a few grocery, convenience, and drug stores, including at select D'Agostino, Gristede and Rite-Aid stores in New York.

The under-$10 bestseller -- so prominent a part of the promise of e-books when they burst on the scene about five years ago -- looks to be returning soon to a screen near you.

That's the most anticipated outcome from the suit filed Wednesday by the U.S. Justice Department against Apple and five leading book publishers who, the government said, conspired to lift the price of many best-selling e-books to $12.99 to $14.99 -- after they didn't like the financial compression provided when Amazon succeeded in cutting the price of many books for its Kindle e-reader to $9.99.

While making books easier for consumers to obtain and read, of course, e-books have proved a financial challenge for traditional book publishers and authors, because they tend to flatten the industry's financial structure. But the government said, basically, "Tough!" and sided with consumers. Continue reading...

Apple pre-orders for iPhone 4S will test brand loyalty and new CEO, while Steve Jobs coverage gets special treatment by newsweeklies and Simon & Schuster moves up publication of biography that will reveals his private side.

Alfa Romeo remains on uncertain road.

BMW and other luxury makers offer huge discounts in China, while Mini brand seeks to enlarge market with coupe.

ESPN and Hank Williams Jr. part ways over his "Hitler" remark concerning President Obama.

GE aims to expand lending in Europe as region's banks retrench.

Geely denies interest in Saab though it already owns Volvo.Continue reading...

Steal this e-reader: Amazon's new Kindle is going global.

Introduced late Tuesday, the new Kindle will be available for the first time in over 100 countries, with the capacity to download books and periodicals on AT&T and international partner wireless networks.

Through the Kindle store, consumers worldwide will have a choice of 200,000 titles, and US consumers a choice of 350,000 titles, from publishers Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Lonely Planet, Penguin, Bloomsbury and Hachette. Expected to ship October 19, the international version will retail for $279, while the US versions pricetag will drop $40, to $259.

Consumer interest is expected to build this holiday season. CNET reports that Forrester Research recently upped their 2009 sales forecast for US e-readers to 3 million units, from earlier targets of 2 million, with about 60% market share for Kindle and 35% for Sony's Reader.Continue reading...