Qualcomm Corp

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. solidified its position atop the Fortune 500 list as the nation's need for affordable staples boosted the retailer's revenue in 2002. Wal-Mart held the top spot for a second consecutive year and Fortune editors conjectured that the discount merchant's worldwide growth might help it secure the position permanently. The magazine's annual rankings, based on publicly traded companies' revenues for the year, showed the usual trading of spots in the top 5. At No.

The obstacles to finding the perpetrators of this week's Internet sabotage may be as much cultural as technical, underscored by an enduring mistrust of the FBI by technology firms. As the FBI pressed ahead with a broad investigation of those who disrupted Yahoo and other popular Web sites, officials called for a strong partnership between law enforcement and the high-tech industry.

Facing a sharp rise in serious Internet hacking episodes, the federal government two years ago launched its biggest counterattack on cyber-criminals, creating the National Infrastructure Protection Center to protect the nation's multibillion-dollar investment in computer networks. But with funding this year of just $18.

Cisco Systems Inc. Chief Executive John Chambers said Tuesday that the technology bellwether probably would begin paying dividends at some point in the future, a move that would please investors who are seeking some of the company's multibillion-dollar cash hoard. His statement at Cisco's annual meeting in San Jose came six months after the maximum federal tax rate on dividends was cut to 15% from 38.6%, partly to encourage high-tech companies to share more of their cash with shareholders.

President Bush is visiting over the next three days a country that, despite being one of America's closest allies, is said by many experts to pose a greater threat to the global economy than the Al Qaeda terrorist network. The country is Japan, which has stagnated economically for the last decade and is in a cycle of deflation, with prices by some expert estimates declining 4% a year.

It should have been Qualcomm Inc.'s time for celebration. One of China's leading telecom firms recently signed $1.5 billion in contracts for equipment using the San Diego firm's wireless standard. That move by China Unicom is the most positive sign yet that Qualcomm's code division multiple access technology--known as CDMA--has a profitable future in China, which has an exploding mobile phone market now dominated by Europe's competing GSM system. The current success has been a long time coming.