Microsoft Corp is considering a bid for Yahoo Inc, resurfacing as a potential buyer after a bitter and unsuccessful fight to take over the Internet company in 2008, sources close to the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.

Microsoft joins a host of other companies looking at Yahoo, which has a market value of about $18 billion and is readying financial pitch books for potential buyers, they said. Those companies include buyout shops Providence Equity Partners, Hellman & Friedman and Silver Lake Partners, as well as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Russian technology investment firm DST Global, the sources said.

Rival smartphone makers could exploit a rare letdown by Apple in the launch of its new iPhone 4S model, which failed to wow fans, and grab a bigger share of the most lucrative part of the phone market.

In a sign that even Facebook is not immune to market volatility, the WSJ reports that the price of shares for the social network has slowed on secondary markets, falling 8 percent since July.

India launched what it dubbed the world’s cheapest tablet computer Wednesday, to be sold to students at the subsidized price of $35 and later in shops for about $60.

Reuters blogger Felix Salmon, who has had an ongoing spat with Business Insider founder Henry Blodget, had this to say about Blodget ringing the opening bell at the NYSE: “Blodget’s VIP status on the floor of the NYSE today shows how far he’s come from the dot-bust days of his disgrace.”

Sprint Nextel shares fell as much as 17 percent on Tuesday as investors worried about the cost of selling the Apple Inc iPhone on top of its plans to upgrade its network and its debt obligations.

The decline followed a 10 percent dive in Sprint’s stock on Monday after a Wall Street Journal report that the money-losing company will have to pay Apple $20 billion over the next four years and will lose money on the iPhone until 2014.

Apple took the wraps off a new iPhone on Tuesday, but may have left some fans wishing for more than an updated version of last year’s smartphone. See what analysts had to say.

On the day that Apple launches the fifth generation of its ubiquitous iPhone, the once mighty Nokia is still weeks away from mounting a fightback. On Tuesday, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop promised to unveil its first Windows-based smartphones this quarter but it remains to be seen whether the they will start shipping in time for Christmas.

A new plastic-based tablet designed by a California tech company for school students is going on trial in Russia thanks to funding from the Russian state-run tech giant Rusnano, reports Reuters correspondent Sonia Legg.

FT columnist Richard Waters says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer received only half the potential bonus he could have made this fiscal year. “While some Microsoft shareholders gripe about their CEO’s performance, they haven’t got a lot to complain about with regards to his compensation,” writes Waters, adding: “His salary and bonus totalling less than $1.4 million last year, was far short of the $15.8 million that his counterparts in peer-group companies stood to make, according to Microsoft’s calculations.”