Just call it eBuy: Auction site acquires StubHub.com
Online auction site eBay is doing some buying of its own, acquiring internet ticket broker StubHub yesterday. EBay will pay $310 million in the deal, which should be finalized before April. The StubHub buy is the latest in a string of recent acquisitions for eBay, which has struggled against plummeting market value over the past couple of years. Other buys include internet phone service Skype and Shopping.com. In 2002, eBay acquired PayPal, the e-commerce payment service. StubHub launched 6 years ago, offering an online venue for buyers and sellers of tickets alike for events like sports, concerts and the theater. Its investors include former National Football League MVP Steve Young and ex-Viacom CEO Frank Biondi. But not everyone likes the service. Some sports teams, including most notably the New York Yankees, have objected to the resale of their tickets.

An iPhone? I don't think so, says Cisco Systems.
Apple is facing a spot of bother -- or should we say iBother -- over its new iPhone, the combination iPod and mobile phone device introduced with great hoopla on Tuesday. Yesterday, Cisco Systems filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California seeking to prevent Apple from using the name. At issue is the fact that, according to Cisco, it actually owns the trademark for the name iPhone, having obtained it when it bought Infogear, which had secured the trademark in 1996. In fact, Linksys, a Cisco company, has been shipping a new family of iPhone products since early last year. Cisco said in a release that Apple had repeatedly asked Cisco for permission to use the iPhone name, and that the two companies had still been in discussions over the issue when the product was launched earlier this week.

Study: Half of Brits suffer from technology frustration
After a night with a computer instruction booklet, anyone is bound to hear the faint ringing of RAM in their ears. But in Britain, the frustration is growing far deeper. According to a new survey from Computing Which? Magazine, one in two British adults are overwhelmed with trying to figure out new technology. Even buying a new machine can be frustrating, as there is too much information to sift through when making a purchase, respondents said. Seventy-one percent of Brits have a personal computer, the survey found. And many find terms like broadband, firewall and phising confusing. The magazine also cited data from communications regulator Ofcom that suggests that older Brits are quite reluctant to use the internet. Fifty-six percent of over-65s are voluntarily staying offline, with the national average, according to this particular survey, being 22 percent.

Movie site: We'll pay $1M for Britney-KFed s#x tape
Are you sitting on one of the most sought-after secret videos of American pop culture? According to iWatchNow.com, it could be worth $1 million. The on-demand movie download site is offering a reward to anyone who can produce the alleged sex tape made by Britney Spears and soon-to-be-ex-hubby Kevin Federline. The site, which offers details of the contest at www.iwatchnow.com/britneykevinsextape/, will pay a million dollars if they receive the movie in either VHS or DVD form and can identify the participants as Brit and KFed. Spears recently lost a court ruling after she sued Us Weekly over an article claiming that such a tape existed. Of course, with such a high-profile pairing, it could be wiser to hold out for a higher payoff. Rewards for the tape are rumored to go as high as $100 million, the alleged number offered by porn mogul David Hans Schmidt, who says that Spears' tape could easily quadruple the $50 million made from Paris Hilton's not-so-secret sex tape in 2004.