Research In Motion quarterly adjusted net profit fell 47 percent to $419 million, on revenue of $4.2 billion, hurt by an aging lineup of BlackBerry smartphones that was only refreshed very late in the quarter and tepid sales of its PlayBook tablet. RIM shipped 10.6 million smartphones and 200,000 PlayBook tablet computers in the three months to August 27, sharply below the average estimate of analysts.

Fifteen Democratic lawmakers asked the Obama administration to approve AT&T’s proposed purchase of T-Mobile USA. Representative Heath Shuler and 14 other Democrats sent a letter to President Obama arguing that the deal would reduce joblessness and encourage investment.

Facebook will delay its initial public offering until the end of 2012 so employees can focus on developing products for the No. 1 social networking website, the Financial Times reported. Sources told Reuters earlier this month that Facebook’s revenue doubled to $1.6 billion in the first half of 2011. Investors have pushed its valuation to roughly $80 billion in the private markets.

Former Kleiner Perkins partner Eric Feng launched social network Erly.com, drawing on the idea that people want to organize their experiences– weddings, bike rides, or vacations– around events themselves, rather than people who participate.

Google bought Zagat, the popular dining recommendations and ratings authority, jumping into a niche Web market alongside the likes of OpenTable and Yelp. The 32-year-old Zagat, which polls consumers and compiles reviews about restaurants around the world, will become a cornerstone of Google’s “local offering” and work in tandem with its mapping services and core search engine, the Internet search and advertising leader said.

The Zagat acquisition also marks Google’s first foray into original content creation. Google had been accused of poaching user reviews from the likes of Yelp for use on Google Places pages, without providing a link back.