The Zune came out today, as well as news that Microsoft is paying Universal Music $1 per Zune sold, in order to get Universal’s music in its Zune music store. Looks like the music industry and the mafia aren’t so different after all

The process of investing is a great way for you to earn potential income. Hardly any people have the knowledge to be able to suceed, however, so many people rely upon brokerages to manage their portfolio for them.

Google made the announcement today after a full weekend of speculation and rumor that the company has agreed to buy video-sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Google says YouTube will continue operate independently.

The days of $475 per share may be gone forever for Google’s stock price, as three issuances of shares and plenty of insider selling appear to have helped bring the price down from the stratosphere.

Shares of Apple dropped by four percent in after-hours trading, and the iconic computer company may have to restate earnings for several years due to its stock option granting practices.

Microsoft announced earlier today that it will delay, yet again, the release of Office 2007. This occurred as a result of “product performance” issues, according to the software giant. The Office delay may affect the launch of Windows Vista.

How much financial bloodshed is necessary before we realize that there is no safe and easy shortcut to investment success?

Yahoo CEO Terry Semel will trade all but one dollar of his annual salary in exchange for receiving assorted shares of Yahoo and stock options.

CNET has details of Google’s annual shareholder meeting.

Every investor has his own take on “wise” investing. These suggestions come from experience, and are meant for the momentum investor rather than those who “buy and forget”.

Although revenue increased by 35 percent compared to the same quarter last year, net income for eBay moved down by three percent as stock-based compensation expenses impacted the bottom line.

When an investor receives a newsletter full of stock tips and information, the first instinct is to act quickly on the information in order to make money before anyone else does.

Do you like to keep track of message boards for a particular stock? I admit, I still keep an eye on what’s being said about a certain company from my past.

The latest play for the local search market officially debuted from Google as the search advertising company discussed the launch of the new AdWords feature.

Searching for Edina Realty on Google returns a top-of-the-page sponsored link run by TheMLSonline.com, and Edina Realty has sued the advertiser over use of its trademark.

Another 5.3 million shares of GOOG, worth about $2.1 billion at current valuation, should help smooth the company’s entry into the S&P 500 index.

Is Google Finance evidence of a Google Portal master plan? I think not. Google’s strategy is focused on creating pageviews in any way possible to satisfy a huge demand for targeted key word advertising.

The search advertising company launched its financial news site last night, with an interesting take on meshing stock charts and news related to a company.

In yesterday’s show #120 of FIR: The Hobson & Holtz Report podcast, Shel and I talked about the teenager who gamed Google News with a fake press release.

Writing Covered Calls is a conservative strategy where you buy a stock that you would like to invest in and then write a call option against that stock.

NBC Universal announced it will acquire popular online women’s community iVillage for around $600 million. The company said iVillage “mirrors a key demographic of the NBC Universal audience – women,” and will be integrating television, film, and home entertainment content.