Cablevision shareholders rejected a $10.6 billion offer by the Dolan family to take the cable TV provider private. CEO James Dolan said he was "disappointed" by the vote.

  Facebook is close to choosing between Google and Microsoft to sell ads for the social networking service outside the U.S. The winner of the partnership is expected to buy a minority stake in Facebook.

  Intel agreed to pay $250 million to settle a patent dispute with Transmeta and license the chip maker's technology.

  The Nasdaq plunged about 2% Wednesday, dragged down by margin concerns at Amazon and poorly received earnings from other tech companies.

  A U.S. official said China has slowed cooperation with the U.S. on fighting product piracy since Washington complained to the WTO on the issue earlier this year.

  AT&T is studying a bid for satellite providers EchoStar or DirecTV in a bid to fend off cable operators, but investors are likely to focus on the cost of any such deal.

  Google plans to work with Nielsen to provide advertisers with demographic information about audiences for TV ads the Internet company sells.

  Microsoft said it has withdrawn its two remaining legal challenges to the EU antitrust order, including an appeal of a $357 million fine imposed last year.

  Corning posted a 41% rise in third-quarter net income, but warned that fourth-quarter results would fail to match Wall Street's expectations.

  Qualcomm is hoping to outflank WiMAX with new chips that allow laptop computers use multiple cellular data services.