SAN FRANCISCO — Google co-founder Larry Page stuck to his guns in a San Francisco courtroom Wednesday, testifying that the Internet giant did nothing wrong when it built the Android platform for mobile gadgets.
Mr. Page returned to the stand to field questions in a trial over accusations by business software titan Oracle that Google opted to infringe on Java program copyright and patents instead of licensing code from Sun Microsystems.
“We did nothing wrong,” Mr. Page said as he dueled with an Oracle attorney. “We are very careful about what information we use and do not use.”
Mr. Page held firm even when confronted with a key piece of evidence - an email from Android team engineers saying Google should license Java technology from Sun Microsystems for the Android project.
Google worked long and hard with Sun to work out a way to incorporate Java into a smartphone platform, but efforts failed, and Google went its own way with Android, Page said.
CALIFORNIA
City OKs Facebook deal for infrastructure costs
MENLO PARK — A Silicon Valley city where Facebook recently opened its new headquarters approved a deal that will allow the company to bring in thousands more employees.
The Menlo Park City Council agreed unanimously Tuesday to let the social networking giant make annual payments totaling nearly $10 million to cover the impact that the influx of new workers will have on city infrastructure.
Facebook also will pay for more than $1 million in capital improvements, such as pedestrian and bicycle paths, and set up high school internship and job-training programs. The agreement establishes a $500,000 fund for the nearby city of East Palo Alto, where unemployment is high and the median income is low.
In exchange, Menlo Park will expedite permits and not levy unexpected city fees on the company.
Residents who attended the Tuesday night meeting urged city leaders to approve the deal.
Facebook wants to employ about 6,600 people on its 57-acre, nine-building campus. It needed the city’s approval to exceed the limit of 3,600 employees that was placed on the previous occupant, Sun Microsystems.
Facebook eventually wants to expand and build a west campus across the street to make room for a total of 9,400 employees.
NEW YORK
Russian charged by U.S. in $1M hacking scheme
NEW YORK — A Russian national living in New York has been charged in connection with hacking into customer brokerage accounts and stealing $1 million, officials said.
The Justice Department said charges filed Tuesday named Petr Murmylyuk, also known as Dmitry Tokar, 31, of Brooklyn, N.Y., with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, unauthorized access to computers, and securities fraud.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Murmylyuk starting in late 2010 worked with others to steal from online trading accounts at Scottrade, ETrade, Fidelity, Schwab, and other brokerage firms.
“Members of the ring first gained unauthorized access to the online accounts and changed the phone numbers and email addresses on file to prevent notice of unauthorized trading from going to the victims,” according to a Justice Department statement.
Once the hackers controlled the accounts, they set up “unprofitable and illogical securities trades” to benefit the hackers, the statement said.
In some cases, the scheme sold options contracts, then repurchased the same contracts minutes later for up to nine times the price.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a parallel civil case in an effort to recover the funds.
TEXAS
American plans to cut another 1,200 jobs
DALLAS — American Airlines wants to eliminate 1,200 nonunion jobs as it cuts costs while under bankruptcy protection.
That pushes the company’s overall job-cut target to 14,200. It announced plans in February to cut 13,000 union pilots, flight attendants and ground workers.
American outlined the cuts for many nonunion workers on Tuesday. The company wants to outsource the jobs of all airport skycaps and cargo agents, cancel a planned lump-sum payment that was due for nonunion workers next year, freeze their pension plan, cut vacation and paid holidays, and reduce medical benefits.
The airline says it will close a reservations call center in Tucson, Ariz., and lounges at Washington’s Dulles Airport and Kansas City International Airport.
PENNSYLVANIA
Mylan to invest $100M in Ireland over 4 years
PITTSBURGH — Generic and specialty drugmaker Mylan said Wednesday it will spend up to $100 million in Ireland over the next five years to expand its operations in the cities of Dublin and Galway.
Combined with investments by the Irish government, the company said it expects to generate more than 500 new jobs by 2016. Mylan is the largest generic drugmaker in Ireland, the company said in a statement.
Mylan CEO Heather Bresch said most of the new jobs will support increased research and manufacturing for the company’s respiratory and injectable drug franchises. Mylan already employs 700 people at its facilities in Ireland.
Shares of Mylan Inc. dipped 15 cents, to $22.52, in afternoon trading Wednesday.
• From wire dispatch and staff reports
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