She stole his heart so he gave her his kidney. And now he wants it back.
So goes the story of 49-year-old Long Island physician Richard Batista and his estranged wife. In 2001, Batista gave one of his kidneys to Dawnell, 44, who had suffered from renal disease for many years. According to the NY Daily News, he said that Dawnell initiated an affair with her physical therapist two years later. She then filed for divorce in 2005 to end their 15-year marriage. “I saved her life,” Batista told the Daily News. “But the pain is unbearable.”
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“Difficult, but prudent, actions.” That’s how AMD describes its decision to sack 1,100 employees and reduce the base pay of those who remain. Come February, the chipmaker will reduce its workforce by roughly nine percent. It will suspend its 401(k) match for employees and slash their salaries. 
Fewer than 60 percent of Europeans browse the Web with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, according to Web measurement outfit XiTi Monitor. So it’s understandable that Microsoft would try to bolster that figure a bit by bundling IE with its popular Windows operating system abroad. It’s also apparently illegal. In a Statement of Objections, European antitrust regulators this week notified Microsoft that its “preliminary view” is that the bundling of IE with Windows violates European competition law. 
What Apple might do if CEO Steve Jobs does not return from his medical leave of absence and how the company would fare without him have been the subject of much jawing this past week. And not without good reason. Wednesday’s announcement was certainly a stunner--one that shook Apple investors to the core of their timid little hearts. But analysts seem to think the company will continue to do just fine--with, or without, Jobs. 
The lights are going out in Circuit City. Facing a bankruptcy court deadline to ink a deal with a buyer and no willing buyer in sight, the electronics retailer is closing up shop and sacking its entire workforce. A sad turn of events, but not an unexpected one; Circuit City filed for bankruptcy in November, and by the end of the year it had already shuttered 155 stores and sacked 17 percent of its workforce. 
BoomTown is headed to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival today, an annual journey I make to moderate panels about the tech industry. The festival officially opened yesterday in Park City, Utah. While still largely a confab of independent filmmakers, Hollywood deal types and various celebrities rifling though swag orgies, a lot of geeks are there too. 
Playing videogames in a recession doesn’t make them any less fun--even if that recession is the worst we’ve seen in 50 years. Though the economy shuddered and slowed in December, videogame industry sales rose nine percent in the states. And for the year, sales of games, consoles and accessories grew 19 percent to $21.3 billion, from $18 billion in 2007.
