Infosys, the Indian IT major which faced two major allegations last week, came with good news today. Company said in a release that it will be helping Seattle City Light. Seattle City light is the 10th largest public electric utility in United States of America.

Indian IT giant, Infosys Technologies implemented the "utilities network management system" at Seattle City Light. India's second largest IT Company said in a statement that this "utilities network management system" has been developed by Oracle Corp.

Seattle, Jan 29 - Web retail giant Amazon saw fourth quarter earning surge 71 percent thanks to a strong holiday season and heavy demand for its electronic book reader the Kindle, the company said Thursday.

Amazon said sales jumped 42 percent to $9.52 billion, helping push profits up from $225 million a year ago to $284 million.

Amazon said sales of electronics and general merchandise were particularly strong, rising 60 percent to $4.6 billion. Media sales grew 29 percent to $4.68 billion.

Seattle, Jan 29 - The successful launch of new operating system Windows 7 propelled Microsoft to record revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009, the software giant reported Thursday.

Microsoft reported net income of $6.7 billion, a 60 percent increase on the year prior, while revenue rose 18 percent to $19 billion.

"This is a record quarter for Windows units," Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, said in a news release. "We are thrilled by the consumer reception to Windows 7 and by business enthusiasm to adopt Windows 7."

Seattle, Dec 23 :A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a $290-million judgement against Microsoft for infringing on a patent in its flagship product Word relating to the use of XML or extensible markup language.

The US court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit also ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word programmes containing the infringing code from Jan 11, 2010.

The ruling came in an appeal by Microsoft against a Texas jury verdict last August which found that Microsoft had violated patents owned by Canadian software company i4i Inc.

Seattle, Dec 16 - More than two years behind schedule, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner finally took off for its first test flight Tuesday.

The blue and white, twin-engined plane took off for a scheduled four- or five-hour flight from Boeing's test facility near Everett, Washington, at 10.27 a. m. (1527 GMT) with two experienced test pilots aboard. (dpa)

Seattle, Dec 16 :More than two years behind schedule, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner finally took off for its first test flight Tuesday.

The blue and white, twin-engined plane took off for a scheduled four- or five-hour flight from Boeing's test facility near Everett, Washington, at 10.27 a. m. (1527 GMT) with two experienced test pilots aboard.(DPA)

Seattle, Dec 15 - More than two years behind schedule, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is set to take its first test flight on Tuesday after completing a 240-km-per-hour runway test over the weekend, Boeing said Monday.

Weather permitting, the five-and-a-half hour flight will take the plane from Boeing's test facility near Everett, Washington out over the Pacific Ocean before it turns back overland.

In the times when most companies and retailers are being hit hard by the economic downturn, online retail giant Amazon shocked markets everywhere when its shares surged 30%, a high rarely seen in today's times. With the new development, analysts and investors are positive that Amazon will be emerge as one of most powerful businesses of post recession economy.

Seattle  - Online retailer Amazon. com Thursday reported a 69 per cent surge in third quarter earnings Thursday as sales surged across all product lines and its Kindle electronic book reader was a hit with customers.

The Seattle-based pioneer of web-retailing said it earned 199 million dollars in the third quarter compared to 118 million dollars in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose 28 per cent to 5.45 billion dollars.

Seattle, Washington  - Online retailer Amazon. com Inc is to introduce an updated version of its Kindle e-book reader outside the United States.

Kindle can now be bought in more than 100 countries worldwide, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos told German Press Agency dpa on Tuesday. However, the books on offer for download were limited to English-language editions.

"However, it is our vision to some day be able to deliver every book in every language," Bezos said.

Seattle  - Boeing's long-delayed Dreamliner 787 is to make its first flight by the end of the year and launch customer All Nippon Airways will receive its first planes by the end of 2010, the company said Thursday.

The next-generation aircraft had been due for its commercial launch in May 2008, but has been repeatedly delayed due to construction and engineering problems. The latest delay came in June, when engineers found a structural weakness at points where the wings attach to the body - a problem that Boeing says has now been fixed.

Amazon. com Inc. the world's largest online retailer, has announced that it would acquire Zappos. com Inc., online shoe and merchandise retailer for about $847 million in cash and stock, expanding Amazon. com's control in the e-commerce market.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant deals in a wide array of products, ranging from books to electronics.

It is important to note here that many years ago, the company had made an attempt to contend against Zappos by launching a footwear Web site named Endless. com, though it could not get desired success in its attempt.

In spite of the continuing decline in customer traffic and average sales receipt, the Seattle-based coffee retailer Starbucks Corp. has posted a better-than-expected profit in its fiscal third quarter, largely due to the cost-cutting measures undertaken by the company.

Seattle, Washington  - The world's largest coffeehouse chain Starbucks delivered earnings of 152 million dollars for the second quarter, easily beating Wall Street expectations, the Seattle-based company reported Tuesday.

In the April-June period of 2008, Starbucks swallowed a loss of 7 million dollars.

Revenue in the latest quarter was off nearly 7 per cent to 2.4 billion dollars.

SEATTLE, Dec. 4  -- The Seattle Times reported Thursday USC offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian would become the next coach of the Washington Huskies.

Sarkisian has never been a head coach at any level of football.

The Huskies have an 0-11 record this season and dismissed Tyrone Willingham as their head coach.

Sarkisian, 34, has been an assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach for USC since 2005. He had served a previous tenure with the Trojans before taking the job as quarterbacks coach for the Oakland Raiders in 2004.

A recent study presented to the American Public Health Association by Janice Sabin of the University of Washington in Seattle stated that the doctors subconsciously favored whites over blacks. To quote Sabin "This supports speculation that subtle race bias may affect health care, but does not imply that it will". Although the study did show a common racial bias among the general population, quoting Sabin "but we have to remember people are not racist if they hold an implicit bias."

Despite posting stronger than expected third-quarter earnings – with profits climbing 48% - Amazon.com’s shares slid nearly 13% in after-hours trading Wednesday, indicating that the online retailer cannot escape the weak economy.

Tom Szkutak, Chief Financial Officer, said on a conference call with analysts that the company experienced slower growth rates near the end of the third quarter, coinciding with the onset of recent turmoil in global financial markets.

Seattle  - Some 27,000 machinists at airplane giant Boeing could go on strike Friday after rejecting the company's proposed wage increases amid fears that their jobs could be shipped overseas.

The machinists, members of the International Machinists and Aerospace Workers, approved the strike action in a vote taken late Wednesday. But they delayed implementing the strike after the company reopened negotiations with union leaders, who gave Boeing until Friday evening to provide an "exceptional contract offer" under the guidance of a federal mediator.

New York/Seattle  - The US aircraft giant Boeing Thursday said it had received its first cancellation - from Azerbaijan Airlines - in the wake of delays in production for its long-awaited long-distance 787 Dreamliner.

The airlines cancelled one of the three Dreamliners it had on order and is substituting it with a Boeing 767, the company said from its Seattle base.

The other two Dreamliner orders from Azerbaijan airlines will remain on the books.

Seattle - Microsoft intends to invest heavily in developing its search business after being freed from the 47.5-billion-dollar bill for buying Yahoo, company chief executive Steve Ballmer said Thursday.

Ballmer's comments at Microsoft's annual meeting with financial analysts were his first detailed assessment of the software giant's plans since the deal died in May, when Yahoo rejected the offer as too low.

A Yahoo acquisition would have helped Microsoft's bid to overtake Google in search, but any current merger plans are dead, Ballmer said Thursday.