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Google

How Google Avoided Paying $60 Billion In Taxes 1193

bonch writes "Google only pays a 2.4% tax rate using money-funneling techniques known as the 'Double Irish' and the 'Dutch Sandwich,' even though the US corporate income tax is 35%. By using Irish loopholes, money is transferred legally between subsidiaries and ends up in island sanctuaries that have no income tax, giving Google the lowest tax rate amongst its technology peers. Facebook is planning to use the same strategy."

Comment Re:False (Score 1) 366

There's truth to this too, but I disagree in part with the consensus that this failed because it was online only. I think a large issue was how restrictive they were in selling the subsidized phone to existing T-Mobile users. No one from T-Mobile was eligible to upgrade to the Nexus one for any kind of discounted price, and some other malarkey. I know, I dealt with this problem first hand. I was within the contract renewal time frame and I jumped through a bunch of hoops with T-Mobile trying to get them to change my account or do SOMETHING so that Google's website would see me as A) Eligible to upgrade and B) provide me with the discount. Neither options were allowed as told to me by T-Mobile. All through this I stumbled upon the pending release of the HTC HD2. I called T-Mobile and explained the situation and they gave me the phone right away with the proper discount.

Google lost a sale here because of their restrictive model. Even if the phone was sold in stores they still wouldn't have gotten my money. The sad part is I tried everything I could to give them my money for this phone and they didn't want it, so to speak.

Software

BSA Says Software Theft Exceeded $51B In 2009 350

alphadogg sends a NetworkWorld.com piece going over the Business Software Alliance's latest stats on software theft around the world. "Expanding PC sales in emerging markets is increasing the rate of software piracy, according to the Business Software Alliance and IDC. The rate of global software piracy in 2009 was 43%, meaning that for every $100 worth of legitimate software sold in 2009, an additional $75 worth of unlicensed software also made its way into the market. This is a 2-percentage-point increase from 2008. Software theft exceeded $51 billion in commercial value in 2009, according to the BSA. IDC says lowering software piracy by just 10 percentage points during the next four years would create nearly 500,000 new jobs and pump $140 billion into 'ailing economies.' ... In the United States, software piracy remained at 20%, the lowest level of software theft of any nation in the world. ... The PC markets in Brazil, India, and China accounted for 86% of the growth in PC shipments worldwide." The BSA president said, "Few if any industries could withstand the theft of $51 billion worth of their products." It's unclear whether that was a brag about the industry's robustness, or a result of the industry's low cost of goods sold.
Patents

USPTO Grants Google a Patent On MapReduce 191

theodp writes "Two years ago, David DeWitt and Michael Stonebraker deemed MapReduce a major step backwards (here are the original paper and a defense of it) that 'represents a specific implementation of well known techniques developed nearly 25 years ago.' A year later, the pair teamed up with other academics and eBay to slam MapReduce again. But the very public complaints didn't stop Google from demanding a patent for MapReduce; nor did it stop the USPTO from granting Google's request (after four rejections). On Tuesday, the USPTO issued U.S. Patent No. 7,650,331 to Google for inventing Efficient Large-Scale Data Processing."

Comment Coffee? Give me my damn heat back. (Score 2, Interesting) 620

We lost free coffee a very long time ago, along with 401k contributions, bonuses, etc. On the cutting block this year besides staff and salary? HEAT. Originally each department was able to manage their own temperature within a 4-5 degree range. That's been taken away and the entire temperature for the company has dropped to the point where virtually everyone is wearing a jacket or thick sweaters in each of the departments. There's a good number of people across the hall wearing fingerless gloves. It's one thing to not be able to work efficiently by not having that caffeine kick, but shivering and not feeling your fingers is a real productivity stopper, let a lone the looming paycut.

Apple Orders 10 Million Tablets? 221

Arvisp writes "According to a blog post by former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee, Apple plans to produce nearly 10 million tablets in the still-unannounced product's first year. If Lee's blog post is to be believed, Apple plans to sell nearly twice as many tablets as it did iPhones in the product's first year."

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