Plummeting BlackBerry would stain any buyout

Overripe fruit

Reuters

Michael Dell tries to crush passive resistance

No Gandhi

Social mobility

Shrinking mobile gadgets fuel creative destruction

Uh oh

Microsoft needs focus, gets bigger org chart

Windows 12?

Business Standard

As smartphone battle subsides, OS war heats up

Watch this space

Microsoft's bucket lists needs more realism

Next: skydiving

Google gets premium accident insurance with Waze

Pack up

US online spying leak could harm Silicon Valley

Facespook

New SARS-like virus tests plague of patent trolls

Fighting it off

A G Lafley will be more proctor than gambleA G Lafley will be more proctor than gamble. Bringing back the former P&G chief executive doesn't guarantee the Pampers-to-Scope giant can reclaim its former glory. After all, his last decision - choosing the person to follow him in the job - didn't turn out so well. But unlike the turnaround facing J C Penney's returning ex-CEO, Lafley's task is somewhat simpler: oversee cost cuts and brand building.Procter & Gamble's failure to live up to the expectations of shareholders is partly the fault of Robert McDonald, Lafley's hand-picked successor four years ago. Profit warnings became too common. Worse, P&G's renowned efficiency has suffered. Maybe the brevity of the call the $224 billion company hosted on Friday for its abrupt management change - all of four minutes, with no questions entertained - is a sign of more fine-tuned operational functioning to come.Its sheer scale - some $85 billion of sales this year - and globally recognis

Blue-chip buffing

PepsiCo resistance against activists looks futile

Party mix

Facebook's Instagram option less out-of-the-money

Instagratification

$50 billion buyback hike one sign of Apple middle age

Just don't have a crisis

Google has an enduring mobile harvest to reap

Google reap

Groundhog day

Facebook super-app wants to live off Google

Home discomforts

HP breakup requires new blood on the boardA breakup of Hewlett-Packard is both desirable and inevitable. But it requires new blood on the board. Investors now have an opportunity to hold the $41 billion tech conglomerate's directors more accountable. The company lost nearly half its value in 2012 as dysfunction and misguided M&A caught up to HP. Moving Chairman Ray Lane and others out at the upcoming annual meeting makes a breakup easier to push forward.HP's stock today trades at a discount to the potential sum of its many component parts. Breakingviews estimated the company's PC business, IT services and other divisions were worth more than $50 billion in late December based on rival firm valuations. Indeed, breakup rumors - and HP's disclosure that it was examining disposals - has led to the stock's value nearly doubling off its November low.Yet the board has been reluctant to dismember the storied Silicon Valley giant. That would be a mistake - turning around big tech firms is e

Robert Cyran