Ryan Nakashima

LOS ANGELES — When Facebook makes its long-expected debut as a public company this spring, the social-networking company will likely vault into the ranks of the largest public companies in the world, alongside McDonald’s, Amazon.com and Bank of America. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as Wednesday, with an initial public offering of stock in three or four...

LOS ANGELES – In recent weeks, Apple, Google and Amazon.com have each launched the missing puzzle piece in their wireless mobile music systems. Apple enabled storage and delivery of your songs over the Internet through iTunes Match. Google started selling music digitally. Amazon shipped an electronic-books device, called the Kindle Fire, that does much more than books. With those additions, each system now lets you buy songs, store them on faraway computers called the cloud and retrieve them wirelessly on devices connected to the Internet. But which system do you want to live with? It’s a choice you can’t...

The search has now begun for a person willing to lead one of the world’s most popular Internet properties, Yahoo Inc., whose problems have deepened under its three previous leaders. The challenge is to find someone who can bring a Web 1.0 property into the new digital world of mobile and social Internet. There’s also the fact that the CEO job may not exist for long if the company looks to sell itself or break up. Here are some possible CEO candidates to replace Carol Bartz, who was fired Tuesday after failing to turn the Web portal around: —...

Broadcasters took a big step toward eliminating free TV shows on the Web after they blocked access to their programming online this month to enforce their demands to be paid. Recent actions by Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS in two separate fee disputes suggest that after a few years of experimenting with free, ad-supported viewing, broadcasters believe they can make more money from cable TV providers if they hold back some programming online. That could mean new limits on online viewing are coming: Broadcasters might make fewer of their shows available to begin with, or delay when they become...

Get the latest news alerts: at Twitter. By RYAN NAKASHIMA, The Associated Press LOS ANGELES – , Google Inc.’s online video streaming service, is in talks with Hollywood studios to rent new release movies online, according to people familiar with the talks. The move follows similar deals by Apple Inc.’s iTunes and others. A final deal would be contingent on pricing and an agreed-upon release date, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions were still ongoing. The move takes YouTube one step away from an ad-supported business model, but does not break the mold of...