Microsoft said it fired its chief information officer, Stuart Scott, for "violating company policies" after an internal investigation.

  Yahoo CEO Yang apologized to the families of jailed Chinese dissidents, amid heavy fire from a congressional committee demanding answers on the company's role in the arrests.

  Facebook introduced a new advertising system that lets marketers target their messages based on the interests of the social-networking site's users.

  Electronic Arts plans to shut down its game-development studio in Chicago, as part of a broader effort by the videogame publisher to rein in costs.

  Sony Ericsson unveiled plans to launch its own Internet music portal and two new Walkman-branded cellphones, as it faces increasing competition.

  The Nasdaq gained 1.1% Tuesday, bouncing back from the previous session's losses. Research In Motion shares rose on an analyst's upgrade, but Sun and Activision fell after reporting earnings.

  Google unveiled an alliance with 33 companies to make new software available free of charge to power mobile phones that will hit the market in the second half of 2008. (Video | Google's partners)

  Alibaba.com shares nearly tripled from the IPO price on their first day of Hong Kong trading, giving China's dominant business-to-business Web site a market value of $26 billion.

  Nortel swung to a profit on higher profit margins, as its restructuring efforts continued. Revenue fell 7.6% as the telecom-gear maker had trouble fulfilling certain orders.

  Whole Foods's board amended the company's code of conduct to bar executives from posting messages to non-company-sponsored Web forums, amid a probe into postings by CEO John Mackey.

  Barry Diller plans to break up IAC into five companies, a move that may give control of some entities to John Malone.

  A shift in chip design is creating new challenges for users of the fastest computer systems -- and opportunities for companies pushing new technologies.

  Softbank said its first-half net income more than tripled on increased revenue from the growing number of users of its mobile-phone services.

  Civil liberties groups urged lawmakers not to pursue a compromise that would offer phone companies immunity from their alleged participation in the government's warrantless-wiretapping program.