Bloomberg & WRAL TechWire

Research In Motion Ltd. (Nasdaq: RIMM) is releasing three new versions of its BlackBerry smartphone simultaneously in the first overhaul of the handsets in a year as the company tries to regain ground against Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) RIM is introducing the first touchscreen version of its Bold model, plus an updated Torch slider phone and a new touchscreen-only BlackBerry, all based on RIM’s new BlackBerry 7.0 platform, said Patrick Spence, managing director for global sales and regional marketing. The three devices will be available from 225 carriers, with some operators starting next week, in the “biggest launch in...

Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), facing a growing threat of intellectual-property lawsuits, acquired a batch of patents this month from International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) to bolster its portfolio. “Like many tech companies, at times we’ll acquire patents that are relevant to our business,” the Mountain View, California-based company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The search engine giant recently lost out in bidding for patents held by bankrupt Nortel Networks. An Apple-led consortium won the deal. (Read details here.) A number of the patents IBM sold Google include search engine applications.  Google’s Android mobile operating system has been...

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (NYSE: GSK) reported a third straight drop in quarterly revenue on lower sales of the Avandia diabetes drug, the Valtrex antiviral and pandemic-flu products. Sales fell 2 percent to just over $11 billion, London-based Glaxo said in a statement today. Analysts predicted slightly under that amount based on an average of 21 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Profit excluding restructuring costs totaled 41 cents,  matching the average estimate. The company’s cost-reduction plan will yield an extra $480 million of savings, Glaxo said. Glaxo, the U.K.’s biggest drugmaker which operates its North American headquarters in RTP, stopped promoting Avandia...

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), the world’s biggest maker of storage computers, reported a 28 percent gain in second- quarter earnings as companies ramped up spending on data products and software for Internet-based computing. Net income rose to $546.5 million, or 24 cents a share, from $426.2 million, or 20 cents, a year earlier, the Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based company said today in a statement. Excluding some costs, profit was 35 cents, beating by one cent the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. (Read the earnings report here.) “Our record-setting performance during the quarter was marked by balanced growth, solid execution...

Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), the world’s biggest Internet-search company, is making a fresh attempt at social networking with a service that competes with Facebook Inc.’s site. The service, called Google+, has a similar appearance as Facebook, with streaming updates of photos, messages, comments and other content from selected groups of friends, said Bradley Horowitz, vice president, product management. It will integrate Google’s maps and images. Google+ is “real-life sharing rethought for the web,” Google says at the “+” website. (Read more at Google+ here.) In additions to Photos and Profiles of users, Google+ offers three other features: Circles “The...

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) has offered to supply up to 125 million doses of Rotarix, a vaccine against the diarrhoeal disease rotavirus, to the GAVI Alliance at about 95 percent below developed nations’ market price, the company announced Monday. The price would be $2.50 per dose, GSK said. The vaccine is intended to protect children in developing countries from gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus, the drug company said in the statement. The GAVI Alliance, a group set up by Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, exists to provide Third World countries with vaccinations against various diseases. “Whilst most babies in the world...

Lenovo Group Ltd., China’s biggest maker of personal computers, offered to buy control of Germany’s Medion AG for $672 million in its biggest acquisition since the purchase of International Business Machines Corp.’s PC business more than six years ago. With the deal, Lenovo’s share of the personal computer market in Germany will double to 14 percent. Its share of the PC market in Western Europe will rise to about 7.5 percent, making it the third-largest player. Lenovo will buy a 37 percent stake from Chairman Gerd Brachmann for 231 million euros, or 13 euros a share, and plans to...

Analysts weighed in heavily against Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) Thursday morning after the networking giant reduced its growth forecast for coming quarters and said it would cut $1 billion in spending. Reuters polled analysts who said they expect Cisco to make a substantial number of layoffs. “Cisco braces for biggest layoffs in its history,” the headline on the story reads. “Four analysts contacted by Reuters estimated the world’s largest maker of network equipment will eliminate up to 4,000 jobs in coming months, with the average forecast at 3,000,” the news service reported Friday morning. “That would represent 4 percent of...

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), maker of the iPhone, iPad and iMac, overtook search-engine giant Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) to become the world’s most valuable brand, WPP Plc said in a report today. Apple’s brand value climbed 84 percent in the past year to $153.3 billion, WPP’s Millward Brown unit said. Google’s brand lost 2 percent to $111.5 billion, ending four years atop the rankings, while International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) climbed 17 percent to be the No. 3, ahead of McDonald’s Corp. New versions of the iPhone and iMac, and the introduction of the iPad tablet, helped Cupertino,...