Cellphone maker Motorola is among the start-up's earliest backers and is the world's second-largest buyer of Li-ion batteries.

FORBES: Nano-Batteries That Keep On Going

To win, he would have to capture at least three-quarters of the support for Tom Long, the third candidate, an adviser to Ontario's premier, Mike Harris, whose campaign was tainted by his backers' over-zealous efforts to sign up new party members in unlikely corners of Quebec.

ECONOMIST: Canada

Neither African governments nor their western backers had any interest in letting nation-states break up.

ECONOMIST: Africa��s pointing finger

Android accounted for 34 percent of all cellphones shipped, driven by Samsung as well as fast-growing Chinese backers like Huawei, Lenovo and ZTE -- all of whom were big reasons why smartphones made up 73 percent of Chinese phone sales in the same period.

ENGADGET

This year, the field appears likely to narrow more quickly, helping an opponent roll up social conservatives, tea-party backers and ideological purists, who might otherwise have been more fractured.

WSJ: Romney's Rivals on Right Look to South Carolina

He and domain-name speculators like him have been building entire businesses around ideas for new right-of-the-dot names, and in many cases they have lined up backers to help them cover application and other costs.

WSJ: The Race to Nab Web Addresses

What remains to be seen is whether Freescale's private-equity backers tough it out in the notoriously volatile semiconductor business or try to break up the company and stem their losses.

FORBES: Freescale's Dangerous Passage