Finance

Examining Ford's profit surge and the possible role of their diverse social media strategy in driving growth.

Although it's hard to predict the split between thank you notes and hate mail, Google's accountants may be receiving a lot of letters over the next few days.  It looks like Google managed to avoid paying about $725 million in taxes in the UK last year.

So much for the idea of December being a quiet month.  First we witnessed the acquisition of AppJet, and now, a new report's indicated that Google's more or less sure to buy a company called DocVerse. The two deals are taking place in the same space, since, like AppJet, DocVerse is focused on allowing people to collaborate on documents in real-time.  The trick is that, while AppJet has its own software (EtherPad), DocVerse would provide Google more of a link to existing Microsoft products.

Online holiday shoppers have spent a total of $24.8 billion so far this season, representing a 4 percent increase over last year, according to the latest report from comScore. The most recent week got off to a slightly sluggish start, with sales of $854 million on Green Monday (Dec.14) down 1 percent compared to a year ago, but was followed by three strong spending days that each surpassed $800 million. Tuesday, December 15 was a record spending day reaching $913 million, the first such day to surpass the $900 million mark.

Cisco announced that the acquisition of Starent Networks has been completed. Cisco announced today that it is acquiring Starent Networks for $35 per share in cash, bringing the total to about $2.9 billion. Starent Networks is a supplier of IP-based mobile infrastructure solutions.

Amazon.com has announced that December has been the best month for sales of its Kindle electronic book reader. The company did not provide any sales figures or comparisons for its Kindle, but did say it is the most wished for, and most gifted item across all of Amazon.

Google-owned Blogger has added a new revenue generation option: direct integration with Amazon Associates to search Amazon's product catalog and add links to products where Bloggers can earn commissions when their readers buy products they recommend.

AOL continues to travel into the brave new world that it is venturing into as the lines have been cut that once attached it to TimeWarner. Of course, there will be a lot of scrutiny which often leads to criticisms but that’s just part of doing business.