BUSINESS

Dell is taking a tough road this year as it goes private with a $24.4 billion deal. The founder of the computer company, Michael Dell, in partnership with Silver Lake, made a striking deal to take back Dell in the biggest buyback in history since the 2008 global financial crisis.

The tech world is beginning to shift from desktop computer units to notebooks which can be used as a computer and a tablet featuring Windows 8 and touchscreen capabilities.

By Jonathan BarrattGold looks to be in tight range; it feels as if it is been torn between those looking for the inflation hedge and continuing CB activity against those expecting it to come under pressure as a result of "risk" coming off the table.

Instead of expanding its Olympic Dam project, BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP), the world's biggest miner, is on a contracting mode. On Wednesday, the miner announced job cuts at its copper-uranium-gold project.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 7 points, while the S&P was flat at 1512 and the Nasdaq lost 0.1%.It was interesting to note the market reaction on Bridge Street to yesterday's weak December retail sales number (down 0.

The Australian share market rallied today, fighting back after two days of losses and in response to a stellar session on US and European markets. The Dow Jones Index climbed back above 14,000pts overnight while all 10 S&P sectors were higher.

With the purchasing power of the Australian dollar going strong, Aussie folks may want to pause and plan where to do their overseas travel to experience their money's worth. They may actually be surprised that they can already afford to travel to Japan, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and Argentina.

Telstra is launching the LG Optimus G on March 13 in Sydney, giving Aussies the chance to have a different taste of the popular but hard to get Nexus 4.

Latest data released by the Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday showed Australia's tourism industry peaked in the last decade, all thanks to the growing number of Chinese and Indians touring the country Down Under.

The Galaxy Pop will be powered by the same quad-core CPU that Samsung had deployed with its top-selling Galaxy S3 – the Exynos 4412 that clocks at maximum speed of 1.4GHz.

The name Lynsi Torres suddenly popped up on the social media sites identified as the youngest female billionaire in the United States. With little information known on Lynsi Torres, people are now curious and dying to find out who is this successful businesswoman.

Instead of getting relief from painful varicose veins, dozens of people in Liaoning, a province of China, are now confined in hospitals after getting contaminated with the infectious hepatitis C.

The Australian sharemarket is back in the black following two straight sessions of weakness. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.8 per cent or 40.6 pts to 4943.2. This is the 12th time in 15 sessions that local shares are improving.

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 has been generating so much buzz and one fan thought that while waiting why not make a mock up. The result is a sleek-looking S4 built mainly on metallic material.

Verizon is re-launching the HTC Droid DNA, its second coming leaked out following strong indications that the Taiwan-based device manufacturer will unwrap the HTC M7 on Feb 19.

On the 4th of February, Japan Airlines informed that it raised the operating profit forecast to 163 billion yen from analysts' expectations of around 140 billion yen. Despite sluggish fourth quarter earnings, the airline the airline decided to raise the forecast slightly more than 15 percent as demand for the European and American routes climbed.

The Nokia Lumia 920 has been recognised as one of the most innovative smartphones in 2012 and included to that recognition is the camera capability installed on the device. While it may be a great when it comes to snapshots and video recording, Nokia Lumia 920 will not suffice aspiring photographers due to its low megapixel rate.

Early reports said supply channels in the United Kingdom have shown a good start for sales of BlackBerry Z10 and most of the shops selling the device end up with "limited stocks remaining."

The phablet segment is rising and analysts believe Apple should join the bandwagon and let out the ‘iPhablet’ or ‘iPhone Plus’ from its arsenal soon.

By George Magnus, economic advisor to UBS Investment BankIn 2013, China is at an important crossroads in its economic development.

In the future, BlackBerry 10 will eventually support application from the Android OS. This is one of the major features of BlackBerry 10 which gives access to more applications than what it should only have. Although it is good news that Blackberry can now support Android apps, the implementation is not that amazing since the Android-based version to be used in BlackBerry is almost 2 years old.

Financially challenged computer manufacturer Dell is selling the company to its former owner and other investors for $24.4 billion. Dell announced on Tuesday night that it has reached a complex agreement that would allow the company founder, Michael Dell, to buyback the company

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 99 points, or 0.7%, while the S&P gained 1.0% to 1511, with the Nasdaq rising 1.

-Cochlear facing some competition-Brokers prefer ResMed-More Sell ratings-China tender the main positiveBy Eva BrocklehurstCochlear ((COH)), at the top of the market for hearing implants, is getting some push and shove.

The last 24 hours has provided some perspective for global stock indices which have rallied substantially since the end of last year. Corruption allegations levelled at the Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy roiled European markets. Additionally, Italy's former Prime Minister Berlusconi has gained ground in the polls ahead of elections this month. Mr Berlusconi has been campaigning a platform of rolling back current austerity policies.

Good news for the millions of iOS 6.x-powered gadget users. The untethered jailbreak evasi0n tool is ready for download for owners of iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad mini, all iPad models and the last three generations of the iPod touch models.

Fancy a Lumia tablet? There is a strong chance that Nokia will make one but its release will not happen anytime soon as Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop hinted that “it is something we are clearly looking at very closely.”

Local stocks are trading in the red at lunchtime in the East, following falls on European and US markets overnight due to political concern in Europe. The Dow Jones Index suffered a triple digit loss, after climbing above the 14,000pt level on Friday for the first time in five years.

Samsung is set to introduce new update regimen with the Galaxy S4, giving the company more control in the normally complicated Android upgrade cycle, a new report said.