Nick Summers

They've made billions and toppled regimes. now they want to rewire your world.

Ted Sarandos is placing the future of Netflix on a single high-stakes bet: original programming.

The Web has thrown advertising into chaos. How the new Don Drapers are making it work.

The once-scrappy network has swelled to massive size. But as the highest-priced network on cable TV, is the sports behemoth too big for its own good?

His reelection is down to a coin toss, his mood glum. Eight ideas for Obama's post-POTUS career.

With an army of reporters and wonky information services, the media company is expanding from Wall Street to Washington, Where it hopes to control—even more.

Fresh from the White House, Obama's champion is back in a new stoner comedy.

Ousted from Apple, Jobs looked to moviemaking for salvation—and nearly bankrupted himself in the process.

They say he was one of a kind. But someone has to fill Jobs's sneakers.

The NPR 'Morning Edition' host talks about Pakistan and why some people might find him annoying.

The stakes are getting higher for U.S. college students in programs abroad.

Baseball brainiac Billy Beane is being played by Brad Pitt on the big screen.

Why winners win... in sports, business, and life.

Every high school has hope. Here are the places doing more with less.

Mom, Dad, and an anxious 17-year-old embark on a 1,500-mile quest for the perfect college—half-naked coeds included.

When revolution came to Cairo, two groups panicked: Hosni Mubarak's regime—and cable-TV bookers, who needed an infusion of Egypt experts. Qualifications: know Egypt well, ad-lib with aplomb, and speak without an impenetrable accent. Many answered the call. Here are some of the most omnipresent.

It takes more than a hit movie to disrupt the social pillars that have stood at Harvard for 200 years. But with "The Social Network" up for best picture and seven other Oscars next Sunday, there are signs of life imitating art imitating life on campus.

Not likely. The number of inmates who escape or go AWOL from prison has plummeted—even as the total correctional population has surged 68 percent, to 2.3 million. John Moriarty, inspector-general of the Texas criminal-justice system, explains.

Nothing inspires a gold rush quite like, well, gold. Since July the precious metal has spiked to more than $1,300 an ounce—a rally on top of a longer rally dating to 2002, when the price was below $300.

The idea that less is more has long held true in the arts. In the world of gadgets, not so much. Each year's crop of products is weighted down with more features, more menu options, more, more, more. Apart from this trend stands a little video camera called the Flip.

With the consumer price index flatlining, economists are watching warily for signs of deflation. The Fed said on Aug. 10 it would buy Treasury bonds to ward off fears that the recovery is stalling, which could bring falling wages and prices.

A successful IPO, a profile in The Wall Street Journal, signing up your 1 millionth user—these are all signs that your technology company has arrived. The rarer mark of success, though—the sign that you've truly changed how people behave—is when your service becomes a verb.

Yes—if it's used as an adjective, say, or after 10 p.m. Indecency rules have been in flux since the early days of radio. Back then, the FCC's sole weapon was to revoke broadcast licenses, so networks, and their advertisers, set their own censorship standards. A few weeks ago, a federal court ruled that the FCC can no longer fine broadcasters if someone blurts out an expletive on the air. And we have Bono to thank.

"Design isn't merely about making products aesthetically beautiful," writes Jay Greene, a former BusinessWeek staffer, in "Design Is How It Works." It's about "creating experiences that consumers crave"—thus building brand loyalty and finding new markets. Does it really work? Ask Steve Jobs, who supplied Greene's title.

The red-envelope company reinvented movie-watching once. Can it do it again?

When Tesla Motors went public June 29, it was hailed as the first IPO by an American automaker since Ford in 1956. Shares spiked 41 percent, raising $226 million for the electric-car company. But buyers quickly hit the brakes: within a week, Tesla's stock was below its offering price.

Eight days after CEO Steve Jobs told a customer that it was a "nonissue," Apple Inc. published a letter to iPhone 4 owners on its Web site acknowledging reception problems on its new models. But the company framed the issue as a matter of how signal strength is displayed, not poor design.

It's been a rough week for the social-networking site with the avian logo, which faced setbacks from Facebook and the feds.

Theories of how Alvin Greene won South Carolina's Democratic Senate primary include fraud and fortunate ballot placement. Here's a new one: pushy technology.

How did Alvin Greene, an unknown, unemployed Army veteran who gave no speeches, distributed no literature, and won no endorsements in a non-campaign, beat experienced pol Victor Rawl?