SFGate Business

To attract more shoppers, online auctioneer eBay Inc. on Monday launched "eBay Express," an online store to sell new items ranging from cookware and books to electronics _ all with no bidding involved. The new store will feature a subset of items from...

Stocks posted a modest decline Monday as a weakening U.S. dollar and a mixed batch of first-quarter earnings reports prompted unsettled investors to cash in on last week's gains. Disappointment over declining profit at copier maker Xerox Corp. and a...

Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay declared his innocence Monday on the witness stand, somberly saying the company's legacy of lost jobs and wrecked retirement savings pained him even more than the loss of a loved one. Lay blamed the implosion of Enron,...

Stocks drifted lower Monday as a weakening U.S. dollar and a mixed batch of first-quarter earnings reports left investors unsettled. Disappointment over declining profit at copier maker Xerox Corp. and a reduced 2007 forecast from online brokerage TD...

Washington Mutual Inc., the nation's largest thrift bank, has agreed to buy Commercial Capital Bancorp Inc. for about $983 million in a deal designed to strengthen its position in making real estate loans in California. Washington Mutual said Sunday it...

Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay sternly denied Monday he had broken the law and said he was eager to tell jurors in his fraud and conspiracy trial what really happened at the energy giant. Asked by one of his lawyers whether he conspired to violate...

Caterpillar Inc. reported Monday its first-quarter profit rose 45 percent amid an ongoing sales surge, helping the maker of construction and agricultural equipment beat Wall Street estimates. The company also boosted its earnings forecast for the year...

American Express Co., which specializes in travel services and credit cards, said Monday that its net profit fell in the first quarter, reflecting the spinoff last year of its Ameriprise Financial Inc. advisory unit. Excluding Ameriprise, however,...

Stephen Andrade was appointed CEO of DecisionView Software Inc., a San Francisco provider of performance optimization software for the life sciences industry. He was SVP of the life sciences and healthcare global business unit at Oracle Corp. Craig...

In a surprise move, Apple released beta software called Boot Camp that lets you run Windows XP natively on an Intel-based Mac. There are two Mac desktops and a laptop that use Intel CPUs: the all-in-one iMac; the tiny, a la carte Mac Mini; and the PowerBook’s...

Two weeks ago, Janna Van Hoven tried to download "The Golden Girls" theme song as a ring tone for her new cell phone. After an hour of fiddling with her phone, she gave up, unsure if the ring tone was even available. She wanted it as a reminder of her...

Q: My sister and her family recently moved to Washington, D.C. We are now in the market for a Webcam so we can watch her kids grow up. Any suggestions on what we should look for? A: Your sister is the one who needs the Webcam so she can send you video...

Venture capitalists are returning to their old sweethearts, high tech and Internet companies, according a survey of investment activity in the first quarter of 2006. Young technology companies raised $3.36 billion nationwide, up 13 percent from $2.98...

The following conventions, meeting and conferences are scheduled for this week in San Francisco: Center for AIDS Prevention Studies National AIDS Fund, Monday through Friday, Sir Francis Drake Hotel DMG World Media Ad Tech, Wednesday through...

Lying on a resume to enhance a mediocre educational or employment record is hardly new. But several recent surveys, as well as anecdotal reports from hiring managers and recruiters, indicate that resume falsehoods are on the rise and are just as likely to...

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced these recalls recently: - Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto is recalling 4,100 HP and Compaq notebook computer batteries. An internal failure can cause the battery to overheat and melt or char the...

Most Americans are happy at this time of the year to think that they're done paying taxes for a while. But if 2005 was any indication, fund investors are only just beginning to pay Uncle Sam, and the damage is about to get a lot more noticeable....

The Sun-Maid girl is doing a lot more than thinking outside the raisin box. She speaks, she charms, she radiates good health and nutrition. And she sells. Ninety years after the smiling girl with the red sunbonnet carrying a tray of grapes first...

Whither Scott McNealy? That's the question of the week, following reports in this paper and elsewhere that the Sun Microsystems chief executive officer might be on his way out, or maybe even up. The betting money, as my colleague Ben Pimentel...

Ready, set ... With an end to Federal Reserve interest-rate increases looking more likely, it's time for fixed-income investors to plan their next move but probably too early to pull the trigger. Since June 2004, the Fed's open market committee...