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Nikesh Arora, Google’s SVP and Chief Business Officer, will run Motorola once the Google acquisition closes later this year, according to rumor published by Business Insider. Arora ran the company’s international business for Eric Schmidt, taking over the global business after the former CEO stepped down. Arora has reportedly been “agitating” for a CEO position and was included on a short list of candidates to head Yahoo. It is possible, however, that a promised CEO slot at Motorola could have prompted Arora to continue with Google. The rumor further notes that Dennis Woodside, Google’s current head of U.S. sales, will take over Arora’s current position.

MetroPCS, U.S. Cellular and several other regional carriers have requested that the Federal Communications Commission initiate a “shot clock” for roaming agreements with larger wireless carriers. “Supporters stressed that imposing a shot clock on negotiations is necessary to provide the proper incentive for potential roaming partners to timely respond to inquiries,” a lawyer representing the regional carriers said in a letter to FCC Secretary Marlene H. Dortch. “Although data roaming negotiations may involve complex issues, the Joint Supporters emphasized that other situations that incorporate shot clocks, such as interconnection and siting negotiations, also have the potential to involve complex issues, and yet, a shot clock still has been successfully implemented in those negotiations.” In other words, the smaller wireless carriers want larger carriers to stop stalling when it comes to negotiating roaming deals in areas where regional carriers provide connectivity and to instead “engage in good faith negotiations.”

Amazon on Tuesday reported its earnings for the fourth quarter, during which it took in $17.4 billion in revenue. While its net sales were up 35% from the $12.95 billion reported during the fourth quarter last year, the company missed analyst estimates of $18.26 billion in revenue for the quarter. Amazon’s net income decreased 58% to $177 million during the quarter, or $0.38 per diluted share, compared with the net income of $416 million it reported during the same quarter last year. Net sales for the year jumped 41% to $48.08 billion, up from the $34.20 billion the company reported in 2010. Amazon said its Kindle Fire tablet has been the #1 best-selling, most wished-for and most gifted product on its website for the past 17 weeks. In addition, the company said the nine-week holiday period ended December 31st, 2011 resulted in a 177% increase in Kindle unit sales, which includes the Kindle Fire. Amazon expects net sales to fall between $12 billion and $13.4 billion during the first quarter of this year, up between 22% and 36% from the first quarter last year. Amazon’s full press release follows after the break. 

Samsung announced on Monday that the company will be launching the Galaxy Note smartphone with a 90-second Super Bowl commercial, which will be the first-ever Super Bowl ad in the technology giant’s 71-year history. “During the past six months we’ve launched the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Nexus and now the Galaxy Note super phone in North America bringing unparalleled innovation to the marketplace,” said Todd Pendleton, Samsung‘s American Chief Marketing Officer. “The Galaxy Note ushers in the era of truly personalized communications, allowing people to capture, share and create like never before.” Samsung chose Bobby Farrelly — who created “There’s Something About Mary” and other popular comedies with his brother Peter — to direct the commercial. The advertisement will air during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVI on February 5th, the same day the device is made available for pre-order from AT&T. Read on for Samsung’s press release.

Apple reported a monster first quarter last Tuesday that sent the company’s stock skyrocketing over the past week. Apple’s holiday quarter was the most profitable quarter ever reported by a technology company, and the second most profitable quarter reported by any U.S. firm. With a market capitalization that now sits in excess of $420 billion, Apple is currently the most valuable company in the world, and with more than $97.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of calendar 2011, Apple has amassed an unbelievable war chest that is unrivaled among its competitors. Business blog MBA Online recently put together an infographic to help us visualize just how big Apple has grown since it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in the late 90s. Among the graphic’s bullet points are the facts that Apple’s year-end cash pile is enough to buy an iPad for each and every person living in Canada and Greece combined, and it’s also enough to pay off the entire public debt of eight countries within the European Union. The site’s full infographic follows below.

Google on Monday announced that the company would combine individual privacy policies from a variety of its products into one main policy. Critics of the change were worried that Google was now collecting more data than before, and the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee demanded answers. The Mountain View-based company has now responded to Congress and defended its decision to change the policy. Read on for more.

In an attempt to evade U.S. prosecution, Julian Assange’s investors are said to be in the process of moving Wikileaks’s servers offshore, according to Fox News. Multiple unnamed sources spoke with the news network and said Assange’s financial backers have been going through the logistics of moving the servers to international waters. “They can keep running Wikileaks and nobody can touch them,” a source told Fox News. “If you get a certain distance away from any land then you’re dealing with maritime law … They can’t prosecute him under maritime law. He’s safe. He’s not an idiot, he’s actually very smart.” Read on for more.

Ed McLaughlin, MasterCard’s head of emerging payments, sat down with Austin Carr of Fast Company to discuss the future of credit cards. “We’re rapidly moving to a world beyond plastic,” said McLaughlin. “In many ways, plastic is just convenient packaging.” The future of on-the-go payments may lie in the hands of near-field communication but unfortunately, adoption and availability have been extremely slow and limited. While NFC technology has been featured in a number of Android devices, MasterCard seems to think it won’t go mainstream until an iPhone is equipped with the mobile payment solution. Read on for more.

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it has opened a formal investigation into Samsung’s competitive practices. The Commission will assess whether the Korean manufacturer “used certain of its standard essential patent rights to distort competition in European mobile device markets, in breach of EU antitrust rules.” Samsung has used a collection of its patents to launch a series of lawsuits against rival companies, such as Apple. The technology giant maintains, however, that these patents are essential to implementing European mobile telephony standards. Samsung may now be in violation of a promise it made in 1998, when the company gave its “irrevocable commitment to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.” Read on for the Commission’s full press release.

Research In Motion’s newly appointed CEO Thorsten Heins said during his first day on the job that hiring a new marketing boss and revamping the company’s marketing strategy was among his first orders of business. If some of us were unsure why finding a new CMO and revamping RIM’s marketing efforts are such a priority, this new campaign should help clear things up. RIM on Monday introduced four new cartoon superheroes who will help the company spread the word about its products. Gogo Girl can save the day with her “brilliant strategy, a smile or a spatula,” Max Stone is “tough, proud and a little wild,” Justin Steele is “always ready to stick up for his friends and Trudy Foreal is “not afraid to call it as she sees it.” We’re not afraid to call it like we see it either, and we sincerely hope this new cartoon superhero campaign dies on the vine. RIM’s super infographic starring The Bold Team follows below.

UPDATE: RIM posted a note to its blog on Tuesday to clarify that The Bold Team is not a part of its new advertising campaign.

HTC’s upcoming smartphone code-named the HTC Ville just stared in a leaked video ahead of an official announcement, which is expected to come at next month’s Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. BGR exclusively reported this past November that HTC will unveil the Ville at MWC. We said the device would be thinner than Apple’s latest iPhone and would feature Android 4.0, Sense 4.0, a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display, a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon Series 4 processor, an 8-megapixel display, HSPA+ and a 1,650 mAh battery. This new video confirms much of our report — HTC Hub’s footage shows Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 4.0 running on a sleek and slender smartphone with a gorgeous display. HTC is also expected to announce the quad-core flagship HTC Edge at the show next month according to our sources. The HTC Ville video can be viewed after the break.

Global smartphone vendors including Samsung, HTC, Nokia and LG are expected to launch new smartphone models in the second quarter to avoid competing directly with the iPhone 4S, according to Digitimes. “Mainly due to hot sales of the iPhone 4S, Apple recorded the largest global smartphone market share of 23.9% in the fourth quarter of 2011, followed by Samsung with 23.5% and Nokia with 12.6%,” the publication’s supply-chain sources said citing data from Strategy Analytics. “Based on previous experience, sales of iPhone 4S will remain at peak in the first quarter of 2012 and then begin to decline.” Samsung, HTC, Nokia and LG are all expected to unveil new smartphone models this year’s Mobile World Congress on February 27th, but devices supposedly won’t begin rolling out until the second quarter.

Apple has hired Dixons Retail chief executive officer John Browett to run its retail business as senior VP of retail. Browett will assume his new position in April and will be responsible for Apple’s retail strategy and on expanding Apple’s presence around the globe. “Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we’ve met,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple.” Browett has been the CEO of Dixons Retail since 2007 and has also served as the CEO of Tesco. He earned a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University and an MBA from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School. Apple’s full press release follows after the break.

ASUS has confirmed that the company is planning to announce a tweaked version of its tablet-smartphone hybrid at Mobile World Congress on February 27th in Barcelona, Spain, according to Modaco. The Padfone — which combines a smartphone, tablet and netbook all in one — was first unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taiwan last year by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih. The innovative device is expected to feature Ice Cream Sandwich and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon S4 processor. The PadFone consists of a 4.3-inch handset that has the ability dock inside a 10.1-inch tablet, which in turn can be docked into the Transformer’s (or possibly Transformer Prime’s) keyboard. When the device debuts next month, it is rumored to be redesigned with a slimmer form factor, and the the physical buttons seen on a PadFone prototype have reportedly been removed in favor of Ice Cream Sandwich’s on-screen controls.