While studies have long shown the role that birth order plays in a person’s personality, new research suggests it also helps shape individuals’ financial makeup.

A study by CouponCabin confirmed birth order theorist Alfred Adler’s beliefs that firstborns are likely to be power-hungry conservatives, highly responsible and organized, as they’ve been expected to lead by example during their formative years.

Read more here (via The Huffington Post)

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg turns up at business conventions in a hoodie. “Cocky” is the word used to describe him most often, after “billionaire.” He was Time’s person of the year at 26.

So when he takes Facebook public, why would he follow the Wall Street rules?

The company is expected to file as early as today to sell stock on the open market in what will be the most talked-about initial public offering since Google in 2004, maybe since the go-go 1990s.

“Pandemonium is what I expect in terms of demand for this stock,” says Scott Sweet, senior managing partner at IPO Boutique, an advisory firm. “I don’t think Wall Street would want to anger Facebook users.”

Read more here (via First Post)

Cell C issued a statement on Thursday saying Knott-Craig would be replacing Lars Reichelt, who resigned in 2011, on April 1 2012.

Read the full story here (via The Mail & Guardian)

‘The business year of 2011 will go down in history as one that offered up as much uncertainty about the globe’s financial future as it did the hopes of a recovery from its woes,’ writes M&G’s Nickolaus Bauer.

To view the Mail & Guardian’s summary of top stories that marked the global economy in 2011, click here.

Alibaba Group has hired a Washington lobbying firm in a sign that the Chinese e-commerce company would be willing to make a bid for all of Yahoo Inc, Reuters has confirmed.

Japan’s Softbank Corp, which owns a 30 percent stake in Alibaba and is a partner in Yahoo Japan, is also listed as an Alibaba affiliate in the disclosure by the lobbying firm, Duberstein Group Inc. Alibaba Group’s founder, Jack Ma, said in September he was keen to buy all of Yahoo if the opportunity presented itself.

Read the full story here.

Apple’s “fifth Beatle,” Ron Wayne, sold his 10% stake in the company two weeks after it was founded to avoid pushing paper and startup risks. That $35 billion would have been a lot of paper, Ron.

Wayen was brought on by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs (with whom he had worked at Atari) to serve as an intermediary during disagreements or other business-related matters that would have benefitted from an informed, calculating third party.

Read the full story here (via Gizmodo)

NASA’s massively multiplayer online game, Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond, has been lost in space since 2009, but it’s just popped up again on Kickstarter.

The space agency, which launched the game in a hail of publicity in 2009 but has been very quiet on the subject since, is looking for pledges from supporters on the microfunding site, offering up access to the game’s beta in return, as well as a few other perks.

Read the full story here (via Wired.com)

The internet ws crawling with Jobs reports last Thursday.

Nearly every news aggregator put Apple’s new leadership situation ahead of hurricane Irene evacuations. So the CEO torch has been passed to Chief Operating Officer and occasional substitute CEO Tim Cook. Visionary founder and leader Steve Jobs takes a strictly strategic role as Chairman of the Board, and may dump his trademark turtlenecks for a Sinatra-style tuxedo.

Read the full story here (via Wired.com)

Necessity is the mother of invention? Not always, it seems.

Next week, the makers of blu Cigs electronic cigarettes are scheduled to release a new charging pack that “will allow customers to find other blu Cig users when they are within 50 feet (when voluntarily activated),” a blu Cig PR rep emailed us.

Read the full story here (via LA Times)

An “internet TV” service that allows people to switch between television and the web on the same set is to be launched in the UK by Google.

The “Google TV” innovation will also mean that viewers can watch material from catch-up services such as BBC iPlayer and ITV Player on their main TV screen.

Read the full story here (via The Telegraph)

Apple’s ground breaking technology and its uncanny ability to understand what consumers really want has propelled the firm founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and his buddy Steve Wozniak to stratospheric heights.

Apple built its business on its highly desirable but niche Macintosh computer range. But Apple’s invention of the iPod, the iPhone, and now the iPad, has changed the way consumers interact with technology and given Apple unprecedented mass market appeal.

Read the full story here (via CNN)

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, has blamed the Government’s weak tax laws for the fact it pays just £8m of corporation tax in Britain despite making more than £6bn in revenues in this country.

However, Mr Schmidt told the Edinburgh Television Festival yesterday that Google “loves” Britain and would pay more tax if it were legally required to do so. He said the company’s hands were tied by Britain’s low tax demands.

Read the full story here (via The Telegraph)

Much has been said about the amazing contributions Steve Jobs has made to the technology world as Apple’s leader. But what can we expect from Apple now that Jobs has stepped down as CEO?

New CEO Tim Cook has assured employees that “Apple is not going to change,” and a peek at what we’ll see from Cupertino suggests Apple plans to remain on the vanguard.

Read the full story here (via Wired.com)

So you’ve decided your business needs a mobile phone app. The design is done, the information architect has given it the all clear

That just leaves the small but important matter of how you’re going to make money out of it. Read the rest of this article here. (via BBC)

Forbes has released its annual list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, and it includes some heavy hitters in the media industry.

The magazine rated the candidates by how much money their companies raked in, and their media appearances, social media reach and bases of influence.

View the full list here (via The Huffington Post)

As stunning developments in the technology industry go, this one happened in a manner that felt inevitable.

In yesterday afternoon’s crisp, matter-of-fact letter, Steve Jobs told Apple’s board and the world that he was unable to continue as the company’s chief executive. He asked to serve as chairman, and recommended that Apple COO Tim Cook succeed him as CEO. And he said that Apple’s best days were ahead of it and expressed gratitude to his coworkers.

Read the rest of this article here (via Time Magazine)

I was standing right next to Steve Jobs in 1989 and it was the closest thing I ever felt to being gay.

The guy was incredibly wealthy, good looking enough to get any girl, a nerd super-rockstar who had just convinced my school to buy a bunch of NeXT machines (which, btw, were in fact the best machines to program on at the time) and I just wanted to be him. I wanted to be him ever since I had the Apple II+ as a kid.

Read the rest of this article here (via The Huffington Post)

In late 1979, a twenty-four-year-old entrepreneur paid a visit to a research  center in Silicon Valley called Xerox PARC.

He was the co-founder of a small computer startup down the road, in Cupertino.  His name was Steve Jobs.

Read the rest of this article here (via The New York Times)

A month ago, Google was riding high.

Market acceptance of Google+ was immediate and all-encompassing. It not only posted stellar revenues, but during the earnings call CEO Larry Page’s poise all but erased the impression he made with his reticence in his first call back at the helm during the previous quarter.

Read the rest of this article here (via Forbes)