Biz Buzz

NATION

Microsoft buys Yammer for $1.2B

Microsoft is buying Internet startup Yammer for $1.2 billion in an attempt to bring Facebook-like sharing features to its widely used suite of business software applications. Yammer specializes in creating private social networks so employees within the same company can keep tabs on what colleagues are working on. That's similar to how Facebook's online social network allows friends and families to track what's happening in each other's personal lives. The deal, announced Monday, represents Microsoft's latest attempt to adapt to the demand for more Internet-connected services and social-networking tools. Microsoft paid $8.5 billion last year for Internet video-chat service Skype and last week unveiled its own tablet computer.

Verizon selling some spectrum

Verizon Wireless on Monday said that it has agreed to sell some wireless spectrum rights to T-Mobile USA and swap others, in a continuing quest to get regulators to approve a bigger spectrum deal it has worked out with a consortium of cable companies and another wireless carrier. The deal with T-Mobile USA would improve the ability of both companies to offer fast wireless data services, Verizon said. T-Mobile, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless company, is particularly starved for spectrum compared to its larger competitors, and regulators are likely to favor a deal that would improve its position. Verizon is the largest cellphone company in the country and has a relatively strong spectrum position already.

Woman joins Facebook board

Facebook's No. 2 executive, Sheryl Sandberg, has become the first woman on the social-networking company's board of directors. Sandberg, 42, was lured from Google in 2008 to become Facebook's chief operating officer. Besides being the first woman, she is the first executive other than founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the board. People had called for the company to add women to its board ahead of its initial public offering of stock in mid-May. As the No. 2 to Zuckerberg, she was a logical choice. Sandberg has been largely responsible for building Facebook's advertising business. She also often serves as Facebook's public face, appearing at conferences and meetings, while Zuckerberg often prefers to stay in the background.

WORLD

Supersize McDonald's for Games

London's sprawling Olympic Park comes with a supersized McDonald's. The fast-food giant says its flagship restaurant at the park will be its biggest, busiest and most sustainable, with three-quarters of the furniture and fittings set to be reused after the games. But despite complaints by British doctors, the food choices will largely be the same as McDonald's fare around the world. As the sole restaurant allowed to sell brand-name food at the London Games, it will run four outlets, including a flagship that seats 1,500 people. It expects to serve up to 14,000 people a day.

TV-making rivals form alliance

Longtime Japanese rivals Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. are working together to develop next-generation TV panels called OLEDs in a reversal of decades of rivalry as they try to catch up with South Korea's Samsung Electronics. The companies said in a joint statement Monday they will share core technologies to develop OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, panels. They are aiming for low-cost mass production by 2013. Both Sony and Panasonic have posted big losses after falling behind Samsung Electronics Co. and other Asian rivals in TVs. The joining of forces highlights the pressure that Japanese manufacturers face to catch up with Samsung in TVs. Samsung is planning to start selling TVs with big OLED screens later this year. OLEDs use a different technology than liquid crystal displays and deliver very clear, vivid imagery. -- AP