Microsoft

What terrifies a man as smart and successful as Bill Gates? What's the real reason for his early retirement? These two words.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using travel portals, but you still can't assume that any given site is offering you the best possible deal. Let's go over a few things that Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz would probably prefer that you don't know.

There's a lot of overlap among the holdings of Morningstar's 26 highly rated funds, and these 10 stocks top the list. So if you want to follow the pros, consider these -- all of them mega-cap stocks and ultra-conservative buys.

You know things are going from bad to worse for BlackBerry farmer Research In Motion when some of the stodgiest companies on the planet start trading in their BlackBerry smartphones for shiny new iPhones. The most recent defector from RIM: Halliburton, the fuddy-duddy oil-field services giant that critics associate with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, Dick Cheney, and no-bid contracts in Iraq.

With 2012's first earnings season well under way, let's go over some of the items that will help shape the week that lies ahead: Here's why you should be watching one major mall owner, two tech giants, three homebuilders and a couple of old media behemoths.

Google, Facebook and other big tech companies are jointly designing a system for combating email scams known as phishing. Such scams try to trick people into giving away passwords and other personal information by sending emails that look as if they come from a legitimate bank, retailer or other business.

The latest news on the video game front isn't pretty. Media tracker NPD Group's data reveals that industry sales plunged 21% last month. It's clear that the industry is undergoing a radical shift, but for investors, the more important issue is why.