- A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday said he will approve a plan by RadioShack Corp RSHCQ.PK to sell 1,740 of its stores to the Standard General hedge fund, which plans to operate most of them in conjunction with Sprint Corp (S.N). The ruling ends a hotly-contested, four-day hearing in which RadioShack’s largest creditor, Salus Capital Partners, opposed the sale. RadioShack has said it hopes to close the sale by Wednesday to avoid paying April rent. (Reporting By Nick Brown; Editing by Chris Reese)
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
U.S. judge to allow RadioShack to sell 1,740 stores
- A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Tuesday said he will approve a plan by RadioShack Corp RSHCQ.PK to sell 1,740 of its stores to the Standard General hedge fund, which plans to operate most of them in conjunction with Sprint Corp (S.N). The ruling ends a hotly-contested, four-day hearing in which RadioShack’s largest creditor, Salus Capital Partners, opposed the sale. RadioShack has said it hopes to close the sale by Wednesday to avoid paying April rent. (Reporting By Nick Brown; Editing by Chris Reese)
Amazon launches button for instant product ordering
- Online retailer Amazon.com Inc has launched a hardware that allows its Prime members to order a product by pushing a button. The 'Dash button', which is connected with the Amazon app through Wi-Fi, is brand specific and the company has tied up with household names such as Tide, Huggies and Gillette.The 'Dash button' comes with an adhesive and a hook and can be hung or hooked anywhere in the home. (amzn.to/1G40UlZ)The offer, limited to three Dash buttons per customer, is only open to members who receive an email from the company with an invitation to receive a free Dash Button. had reported in September that Amazon would boost staffing at its secretive Silicon Valley-based hardware unit as it tests Internet-connected "smart" home gadgets. (Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Pao faces tough court if she appeals Kleiner bias lawsuit
- Ellen Pao faces an uphill battle should she choose to appeal her defeat last week in a gender discrimination lawsuit against former employer Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm. Not only did a San Francisco Superior Court judge side with Pao on some key evidentiary disputes in the run-up to trial, but employers have been highly successful litigating in the California appeals court where Pao's case would land.According to Westlaw data, out of 49 decisions involving discrimination and retaliation over the past two years, California's First District Court of Appeal affirmed 26 of 31 cases where the employer won in the trial court, or 84 percent. Only five cases were reversed. Conversely, the court - which covers San Francisco and 11 other Northern California counties - handed victory to employers in more than half of the cases they lost in the lower courts, reversing 10 of 18 cases. Pao's lawsuit helped spark a wide-ranging debate about the treatment of women in Silicon Valley, which has continued after a jury last Friday decided she had not proved Kleiner broke the law when it passed her over for promotion.Pao has not said whether she plans to appeal. Legal experts said that may depend on whether Kleiner plans to seek reimbursement for litigation costs from Pao, such as deposition expenses and expert witness fees, which could run into the six figures. Victorious employers often offer to withdraw their costs bid if the plaintiff agrees to forgo an appeal, labor attorneys said.A Kleiner spokeswoman declined to comment. Any request for reimbursement of costs would likely be filed in the next three weeks.Pao's attorney Alan Exelrod, who has about two months to file an appeal, declined to comment on whether such a move was likely. Resurrecting a case through the appellate system is always challenging. In 915 cases involving discrimination and retaliation over the past five years, California appellate courts have affirmed the lower court result 66 percent of the time, according to Westlaw data.Should Pao lose at the First District, she could appeal to the California Supreme Court, though the high court opts to hear very few of the cases it reviews.Beyond the numbers, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn made some important rulings in Pao's favor, thus removing them as grounds for appeal. Kahn, for instance, allowed former Kleiner partner Trae Vassallo to testify over the firm's fierce objections. Vassallo provided explosive testimony about a male Kleiner partner showing up at her hotel room door in a bathrobe, holding a glass of wine. Pao had accused the same partner of lying to her in order to start an affair, and then retaliating against her after she ended it.Kahn also forbid Kleiner from introducing evidence that Pao's husband had financial problems, and from asking Pao whether that motivated her lawsuit. One significant ruling that went against Pao was when her lawyers sought to compare her performance reviews with the reviews of other women partners, aiming to prove a pattern of discrimination. A judge last year ruled that Kleiner did not have to disclose the performance reviews of other women partners. After the verdict, three jurors told they had focused on Pao's increasingly negative performance reviews, which undermined her argument that she deserved to be promoted. The ruling on the performance reviews would likely play a major part in any Pao appeal, though the legal standard for overturning a pretrial discovery order is very high, said Mark Schickman, a San Francisco employment attorney who primarily represents companies."It would be the greatest long shot," Schickman said. (Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Peter Henderson and Tiffany Wu)
Honda to test self-driving prototypes at former U.S. naval base
- Honda Motor Co has joined Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz in testing self-driving vehicles and technologies on private roads at a former U.S. naval facility outside San Francisco, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday. Honda also is a partner in the University of Michigan's Mobility Transformation Center, which plans to open a similar testing facility called Mcity this summer in Ann Arbor.Honda said it will test prototype versions of its Acura RLX sedan, fitted with sensors and cameras that could be used on future self-driving vehicles. The former naval base has 20 miles of paved roads and a variety of buildings, and will not be open to the public.Honda and Mercedes are using the former Concord Naval Weapons Station to test and develop advanced driver-assistance technologies to improve safety. Before car companies introduce fully self-driving vehicles over the next five to 10 years, those driver-assistance technologies are being phased in with features such as adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping. Honda said the 5,000-acre facility, which the U.S. Navy closed in 2007, is a "controlled environment that can be continuously modified" to test experimental vehicles and systems. Eventually, it will be used by a consortium that includes Honda as well as vehicle insurers, repairers and other auto-related enterprises.Other companies, from supplier Delphi Automotive to Internet giant Google Inc, have been testing prototype self-driving cars on public roads.Delphi on Tuesday expected to conclude a 3,500-mile cross-country drive in a specially equipped Audi SQ5 designed to pilot itself on main highways and freeways.Google has tested heavily modified versions of the Toyota Prius and the Lexus RX 450h on streets near its headquarters in Mountain View, California. The company, which has said it could have a fully autonomous car ready for production within five years, also is testing a small two-passenger driverless "pod" car on a private track in northern California. (Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by David Gregorio)
SAP co-founder Klaus Tschira dies
- Klaus Tschira, one of the co-founders of European software giant SAP, has died unexpectedly at the age of 74, his foundation said on Tuesday. Tschira, a trained physicist, left IBM to found SAP in 1972 together with four IBM colleagues: Hasso Plattner, who is still the company's chairman, Dietmar Hopp, Hans-Werner Hector and Claus Wellenreuther.The German business software company began by developing software that could process data in real time rather than overnight in batches, and went public in 1988.It is now Europe's biggest technology company, with revenue of 17.6 billion euros ($18.9 billion), market capitalization of 82.3 billion euros and more than 74,000 employees in 2014.Tschira, a billionaire, stepped down from SAP's supervisory board in 2007.He was married to Gerda Tschira and had two sons.($1 = 0.9312 euros) (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan)
Autonomy former-CEO counter sues HP after it lodges $5.1 billion claim
- British IT entrepreneur Mike Lynch will file a counter claim against HP (HPQ.N), he said on Tuesday, a day after the U.S. company lodged a claim against him and his former colleague Sushovan Hussain for damages of $5.1 billion over his management of Autonomy, the British IT company it bought in 2011. Autonomy was supposed to be the $11.1 billion centerpiece of a shift into software for HP, but the deal turned sour a year later when it wrote off three quarters of the company's value, accusing Lynch and his colleagues of financial mismanagement.A HP spokeswoman confirmed the company had filed a claim against Lynch and Hussain in London's Chancery Division High Court alleging they engaged in fraudulent activities while executives at Autonomy. "The lawsuit seeks damages from them of approximately $5.1 billion," the spokeswoman said. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Susan Thomas)
Sprint settles U.S. class-action lawsuit for $131 million
- Sprint Corp (S.N) has agreed to a $131 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit accusing the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier of defrauding investors about problems dating back to its $36 billion merger with Nextel Communications Inc in 2005. The all-cash settlement made public on Monday resolves claims that Sprint, former Chief Executive Gary Forsee and other officials fraudulently inflated the company's stock and bond prices between October 2006 and February 2008.Investors said the defendants falsely touted how Sprint was receiving billions of dollars of benefits from the merger and improving its subscriber base by tightening credit standards.Instead, investors said Sprint was struggling to integrate its cellular networks and was losing hundreds of thousands of subscribers, culminating in a $29.7 billion goodwill writedown in February 2008.All of the defendants denied liability in agreeing to settle the 6-year-old lawsuit, according to settlement papers filed with the federal court in Wichita, Kansas. The preliminary accord requires court approval.Sprint did not immediately respond on Tuesday to requests for comment. Japan's SoftBank Corp (9984.T) now owns 80 percent of the Overland Park, Kansas-based company.The lead plaintiffs are the United Steelworkers' Pace Industry Union-Management Pension Fund, Skandia Life Insurance Co and the West Virginia Investment Management Board.Their lawyers, led by Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd and Motley Rice, said the payout represented 12.1 percent of the estimated $1.079 billion of damages, a percentage they called "very large."The plaintiffs' lawyers plan to seek legal fees of up to 22 percent of the settlement, plus up to $4 million for expenses, court papers show.Sprint's market value was about $18.8 billion at Monday's close. The company has in recent months offered discounts to entice prospective subscribers to switch carriers. Its rivals include AT&T Corp (T.N) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N). The case is Bennett et al v. Sprint Nextel Corp et al, U.S. District Court, District of Kansas, No. 09-02122. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
China to punish Tencent, Youku Tudou, other video sites for pornography
- China will punish Internet companies including Tencent Holdings Ltd, Youku Tudou Inc and Baidu Inc's iQiyi for hosting videos suspected of containing violence and pornography, which it said causes juvenile delinquency. The offending material is primarily Japanese animation on the video streaming websites of Tencent, Youku Tudou, iQiyi, Sohu.com Inc and Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp Beijing (LeTV), the Ministry of Culture said on its website on Tuesday.The ministry's animation "blacklisting" is part of a broader campaign to control Internet content. That includes eradicating material deemed damaging to society and the ruling Communist Party, which cybersecurity experts say oversees the world's most sophisticated Internet censorship.The titles in question - 'Blood-C', 'Terror in Resonance' and 'Highschool of the Dead' - include scenes of violence, pornography, terrorism and crimes against public morality, the ministry said.'Blood-C' depicts girls fighting monsters, heavy blood-letting, the severing of limbs and beheading, while 'Highschool of the Dead' features borderline-pornographic imagery, the ministry said.The ministry said it would despatch agencies to carry out punishment according to the law, even though the companies are merely suspected of hosting pornographic content. It did not detail what the punishment would be.Tencent, Youku Tudou, iQiyi and LeTV were not available for immediate comment. Sohu declined to provide immediate comment. On April 1, China's online video sites will be subject to new regulations tightening control of foreign content. Websites which have not sought approval for their foreign programs by then will be prohibited from broadcasting the media.While the latest regulations apply to domestic companies, experts say China's attempts to control and censor the Internet has evolved into attacks on overseas websites deemed a threat by the government.An ongoing cyberattack on U.S. coding site GitHub, which began last week from China, is attempting to paralyze the site by using distributed denial of service attacks, or DDoS, online security researchers said.The attacks appear to target two GitHub pages that link to copies of websites banned in China - a Mandarin-language site from the New York Times Co and Greatfire.org, which helps Chinese users circumvent government censorship, the researchers said. (Reporting by Paul Carsten; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
Monday, March 30, 2015
Australia's MYOB says to raise up to $636 million in IPO
- Australian accounting software maker MYOB Ltd said it plans to raise up to A$833.8 million ($635.69 million) in an initial public offering which is expected to be one of the country's biggest listings this year. The Melbourne-based owner of software used by 1.2 million businesses said in a listing prospectus on Tuesday that it planned to sell up to 277.2 million of a total of up to 633.4 million shares for between A$3 and A$4, while its current controlling shareholder, private equity firm Bain Capital, would keep the rest.The sale would give the company a market capitalization of up to A$2.3 billion, MYOB said, more than double the A$1.2 billion that Bain paid when it bought it from Australian buyout group Archer Capital in 2011. Archer took previously listed MYOB private in 2009.The purpose of the sale is to pay down debt, let management shareholders cash in their investments, broaden the company'sinvestor base and boost its profile, the prospectus said.Bain had until recently considered a trade sale for its first Australian exit and its decision to list MYOB confirms its faith in Australian equities, which have risen 9 percent so far in 2015 despite sharp declines in the resources sector and a growing national deficit.Australia in 2014 had its biggest-ever year for new listings, with $15 billion raised in IPOs, as company owners, including private equity firms, focused on a buoyant share market for offloading assets.But IPO activity has been subdued so far in 2015, echoing investors' caution as vendors wait to see if unfavorable macroeconomic factors like slowing Chinese growth, sliding commodity prices and an imminent U.S. rate hike hit the broader economy.While likely to be a marquee deal for Australia this year, the MYOB listing will be far smaller than last year's biggest IPO, the A$5.7 billion sale of health insurer Medibank Private Ltd.MYOB said Bain was keeping its 57 percent stake under escrow, without giving further details.Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Ltd, Goldman Sachs Australia Pty Ltd [GS.UL], Merrill Lynch Equities (Australia) Ltd and UBS AG were joint lead managers on the offer, while Australian firm Reunion Capital was financial adviser.They will conduct a bookbuild on April 29 before listing starts on May 4.($1 = 1.3116 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Miral Fahmy and Stephen Coates)
Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics agree to end legal disputes
- South Korean rivals Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc said on Tuesday they have agreed to end ongoing legal disputes and work out future disagreements through dialogue. The announcement comes over a month after LG appliances chief Jo Seong-jin was indicted by prosecutors on a charge of deliberately damaging Samsung washing machines.The agreement also extends to subsidiaries Samsung Display and LG Display Co Ltd. Samsung Display employees were indicted in February on charges of stealing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel technology from LG Display.Samsung and LG in the joint statement said they will reach out to relevant authorities to take the agreement into account. It was not immediately clear how prosecutors would respond. (Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Tony Munroe)
IBM says to invest $3 billion in 'Internet of Things' unit
- International Business Machines Corp said on Tuesday it will invest $3 billion over the next four years in a new 'Internet of Things' unit, aiming to sell its expertise in gathering and making sense of the surge in real-time data. The Armonk, New York-based technology company said its services will be based remotely in the cloud, and offer companies ways to make use of the new and multiplying sources of data such as building sensors, smartphones and home appliances to enhance their own products.For its first major partnership, IBM said a unit of the Weather Co will move its weather data services onto IBM's cloud, so that customers can use the data in tandem with IBM's analytics tools. As a result, IBM is hoping that companies will be able to combine live weather forecasting with a range of business data, so companies can quickly adapt to customer buying patterns or supply chain issues connected to the weather. For example, insurance companies could send messages to policyholders in certain areas when hailstorms are approaching and tell them safe places to park, saving money all round. Or retail stores could compare weather forecasts with past data to predict surges or drop-offs in customer buying due to extreme weather, and to adjust staffing and supply chain logistics accordingly.IBM said it was already working with some large companies, such as German tire maker Continental AG and jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney to help them use data in their processes. Focusing on the cloud is part of IBM's gradual shift away from its traditional hardware and consulting business. The company is targeting $40 billion in annual revenue from the cloud, big data, security and other growth areas by 2018, which should be about 45 percent of its total revenue at that time, based on analysts' growth estimates. (Reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
China to delay bank tech restrictions, U.S. Treasury official says
- China has agreed to delay implementing new bank technology restrictions that Washington has complained represent unfair regulatory pressure on foreign firms, a senior U.S. Treasury official said in Beijing on Monday. China said this month work was ongoing on a draft anti-terrorism law that would require foreign companies to hand over encryption keys and otherwise facilitate Beijing's ability to bypass security measures, triggering U.S. protests. Another set of financial sector regulations would push China's state-owned banks to buy technology from domestic vendors.Beijing is now delaying the regulations that applied to the banks, according to the official, speaking after meetings between U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and senior Chinese officials, including Premier Li Keqiang. There was no immediate comment from China, but U.S. industry groups, which have been lobbying hard on the issue, cautiously welcomed the move."We are encouraged that there seems to be a delay; what we now need is a transparent, open consultation process with stakeholders and we're hopeful that will be part of the next steps," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce executive director for China Jeremie Waterman.BSA The Software Alliance, whose members include Adobe Systems, Apple Inc, IBM, Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp, and the Software and Information Industry Association, which represents financial institutions and tech companies including Google Inc and Thomson , also found the news encouraging.SIIA senior director for international public policy Carl Schonander said the delay was a positive development, noting the industry asked for the rules to be suspended."We have to see what this means in practice," he said. "We definitely would like to see the draft bank regulations published and we'd like to have the opportunity to provide input to this."Lew earlier said the issue needed to be resolved because even having the rules pending created a difficult environment for U.S. firms in China."We made clear that suspending them is the right approach," Lew told reporters. While the policy applied to both domestic and foreign firms, it is seen largely benefiting domestic players.The rules issued by China's banking regulator would restrict the kinds of computers and equipment purchased by the Chinese banking industry to ensure that they meet "security and controllability" requirements, seen as a way to make Chinese banks buy "indigenous" software applications."We have already made clear our concerns regarding forced technology transfer and other attempts to bar technological competition, most recently in the banking sector, and I look forward to further discussion today," Lew said, in remarks made during a meeting with Vice Premier Wang Yang in Beijing.The U.S. government has complained of industrial espionage by Chinese firms against its companies, saying it is often backed by government agencies including the Chinese military.Beijing denies the allegations.Earlier, Lew said the United States looked forward to China deepening its financial reforms, in particular its management of the exchange rate."As part of these reforms, it is critical that China continue to move to a more market-determined exchange rate and a more transparent exchange rate policy," he said.China's move towards a more market-driven exchange rate could help its bid to get the yuan included in the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights (SDR) basket, the Treasury official said. The official added that Washington will continue to press against any unfair intervention in the China's yuan, particularly if there was upward pressure on the currency.(This March 30, 2014 story was refiled to correct the wording in the headline and paragraph 3 to make clear that China is delaying, not suspending bank tech rules) (Reporting by Kevin Yao, and by Pete Sweeney in SHANGHAI; Editing by Nicholas Heath and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
China's Huawei Technologies 2014 profit grows 33 percent
- China's Huawei Technologies Ltd [HWT.UL], the world's No.2 telecommunications equipment maker, reported a 33 percent rise in profit for 2014, matching company guidance, as the global adoption of fourth-generation (4G) mobile technology boosted sales. Net profit for 2014 rose to 27.9 billion yuan, the Shenzhen-based company told media in an earnings briefing on Tuesday.Global revenue rose 21 percent to 288.2 billion yuan in 2014, from 239 billion yuan a year earlier. (Reporting By Yimou Lee and Gerry Shih; Editing by Richard Pullin)
Hyundai Motor aims to have autonomous driving tech on market in 2020
- Hyundai Motor Co on Tuesday said it aims to commercialize autonomous driving capabilities in some of its cars in 2020, as the South Korean automaker plays catch-up in the increasingly competitive technology. Car makers such as Mercedes and General Motors Co as well as technology giants like Google Inc and Apple Inc are already developing driverless vehicles which can complete whole journeys without human input.But some analysts expect self-driving cars will not appear on global markets until the early- or mid-2020s, partly due to regulatory hurdles.Hyundai Motor, like other automakers, already has autonomous features in premium vehicles like the Genesis, which can be programmed to hit the brakes when a pedestrian steps out. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Stephen Coates)
China suspends bank tech restrictions: U.S. Treasury official
- China has agreed to delay implementing new bank technology restrictions that Washington has complained represent unfair regulatory pressure on foreign firms, a senior U.S. Treasury official said in Beijing on Monday. China said this month work was ongoing on a draft anti-terrorism law that would require foreign companies to hand over encryption keys and otherwise facilitate Beijing's ability to bypass security measures, triggering U.S. protests. It followed an earlier set of draft financial sector regulations that pushes China's state-owned banks to buy technology from domestic vendors.Beijing was now "suspending" the regulations that applied to the banks, according to the official, speaking after meetings between U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and senior Chinese officials, including Premier Li Keqiang. There was no immediate comment from China, but U.S. industry groups, which have been lobbying hard on the issue, cautiously welcomed the move."We are encouraged that there seems to be a delay; what we now need is a transparent, open consultation process with stakeholders and we're hopeful that will be part of the next steps," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce executive director for China Jeremie Waterman.BSA The Software Alliance, whose members include Adobe Systems, Apple Inc, IBM, Microsoft Corp and Oracle Corp, and the Software and Information Industry Association, which represents financial institutions and tech companies including Google Inc and Thomson , also found the news encouraging.SIIA senior director for international public policy Carl Schonander said the delay was a positive development, noting the industry asked for the rules to be suspended."We have to see what this means in practice,” he said. “We definitely would like to see the draft bank regulations published and we'd like to have the opportunity to provide input to this.”Lew earlier said the issue needed to be resolved because even having the rules pending created a difficult environment for U.S. firms in China."We made clear that suspending them is the right approach," Lew told reporters. While the policy applied to both domestic and foreign firms, it is seen largely benefiting domestic players.Another regulation from China restricts the kinds of computers purchased by the Chinese banking industry to ensure that they meet "security and controllability" requirements, seen as a way to make Chinese banks buy "indigenous" software applications."We have already made clear our concerns regarding forced technology transfer and other attempts to bar technological competition, most recently in the banking sector, and I look forward to further discussion today," Lew said, in remarks made during a meeting with Vice Premier Wang Yang in Beijing.The U.S. government has complained of industrial espionage by Chinese firms against its companies, saying it is often backed by government agencies including the Chinese military. Beijing denies the allegations.Earlier, Lew said the United States looked forward to China deepening its financial reforms, in particular its management of the exchange rate."As part of these reforms, it is critical that China continue to move to a more market-determined exchange rate and a more transparent exchange rate policy," he said.China's move towards a more market-driven exchange rate could help its bid to get the yuan included in the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights (SDR) basket, the Treasury official said. The official added that Washington will continue to press against any unfair intervention in the China's yuan, particularly if there was upward pressure on the currency. (Reporting by Kevin Yao, and by Pete Sweeney in SHANGHAI; Additional reporting by Krista Hughes and Alina Selyukh in Washington; Editing by Nicholas Heath, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Grant McCool)
Amaya to sell Cadillac Jack subsidiary to Apollo for $375 million
- Amaya Gaming Group Inc (AYA.TO) said on Monday it has agreed to sell its Cadillac Jack subsidiary that makes slot machines and electronic bingo games for casinos to an affiliate of private equity firm Apollo Global Management (APO.N) for C$476 million ($375 million). Montreal-based Amaya, which is pivoting to focus on the fast-growing online gambling market, said the deal is expected to close this year, subject to receipt of gaming regulatory and antitrust approvals. The proceeds from the planned sale will be used to lower debt. "We view the transaction as positive. Although at the bottom of our expected range," said Canaccord analyst Robert Young in a note to clients.Amaya had put the business on the block back in October, a short while after it had announced its $4.9 billion takeover of Rational Group, operator of online gambling website PokerStars, just as several U.S. states have begun to move on legislation to legalize online gambling. At the time, Amaya said it was looking to maximize value for its shareholders, given a spate of consolidation in the gaming machine supplier industry.In August, U.S. slot machine maker Scientific Games (SGMS.O) agreed to buy larger rival Bally Technologies in a $3.27 billion takeover. That deal came just a month after Italian gaming group GTech (GTCH.MI) agreed to buy slot machine maker International Game Technology (IGT.N) for $4.7 billion to strengthen its U.S. presence. Amaya acquired Duluth, Georgia-based Cadillac Jack, which was focused on serving small to medium-sized casinos and bingo halls, for about $177 million in 2012. Amaya has since grown the business and also recently began to develop some online versions of its popular slot machine games for online casinos.Last week, Amaya announced it plans to spin out and list its Diamond Game subsidiary into a new entity dubbed Innova Gaming. Diamond Game designs, develops, and markets games mainly for the North American lottery industry. Young said, however, that the sale of Cadillac Jack is likely to be dilutive for Amaya, which is set to report results early on Tuesday. He estimates Cadillac Jack would have boosted Amaya revenue by C$115 million and its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by C$55 million in 2015. Macquarie and Deutsche Bank acted as Amaya's co-financial advisers on the sale of Cadillac Jack, and Greenberg Traurig, served as its legal adviser.($1 = 1.2691 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Bernard Orr)
Tesla CEO Musk's upbeat tweets about China boost stock
- Elon Musk, the widely followed chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc, tweeted several optimistic statements about the company's sagging China operations on Monday, sparking a sharp rebound the company's stock. On his Twitter feed around midday, Musk said that he was "very optimistic about Tesla's long-term future in China, despite our earlier mistakes."He also tweeted that he visited Chinese President Xi Jinping and other government officials and expressed "great faith" in Tesla's embattled team in China.Tesla shares rose 3 percent to $190.60 after trading earlier in the day as low as $181.80, near its 52-week low of $177.22.In one of his tweets, Musk said the company plans to unveil "a major new Tesla product line -- not a car" on April 30 at its southern California design studio. The announcement will involve a Tesla-branded storage battery for the home, according to a source familiar with the plan. Musk previously announced the battery in February during a year-end earnings briefing.The company's stock has been battered this year by investors concerned about the automaker's failure to hit sales targets in China and the departures last year of two top Tesla executives in that country.In February, disclosed that Musk was prepared to fire overseas executives after weak Chinese sales cast doubt on his ambitious global expansion plans, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Tesla shares had slumped in mid-January. "We'll fix the China issue and be in pretty good shape probably in the middle of the year," Musk said at the time.In an internal email to Tesla managers in late January, Musk threatened to fire or demote country managers if they are "not on a clear path to positive long-term cash flow," according to two people who had seen the email. (Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Alan Crosby)
Bionic ants could be tomorrow's factory workers
Robotic ants the size of a human hand that work together could be the future of factory production systems. The developers, German technology firm Festo, say it's not just the unusual anatomy of real-world ants that inspired the bionic version - the collective intelligence of an ant colony was also something they wanted to replicate.The bionic ants cooperate and coordinate their actions and movements to achieve a common aim - in the same way individual ants complete tasks for the whole colony. Festo says that in the future production systems will be based on intelligent individual components that adjust themselves to different production demands by communicating with each other.The ants are able to complete complex tasks, like transporting large, heavy loads, that they wouldn't be able to achieve individually by working together.The robot features a stereo camera and a floor sensor that together allow the ant to work out its location and identify objects to be grabbed by grippers at the front of its "head". The antennae double up as chargers for the lithium batteries that power the ants' movements. A radio module in the abdomen allows the ants to communicate with each other wirelessly. Just like their natural counterparts, the ants have six articulated legs.Festo says the way the ants are constructed is unique too. The bodies of the bionic ants are made from a 3D printed plastic powder melted layer by layer with a laser. The circuitry is also 3D printed on top of the body. Festo says this is the first time the techniques have been combined.The ceramic legs and pincers are flexible actuators that move quickly and precisely without using much energy. Again Festo says the application of this so-called 'piezo' technology to miniature robots like its bionic ants is a first.The bionic ants are part of the developer's Bionic Learning Network. Festo works on transferring natural phenomena to engineering techniques and equipment.The technology firm says the factories of the future will have to produce customized products, meaning that they will have to adapt to different production requirements.Festo plans to exhibit its robotic ants in April at the world's biggest industrial technology fair, Hannover Messe, where the German engineering company will also show off other recent creations like cooperative artificial butterflies.
Former U.S. agents charged for Bitcoin theft during black market probe
- The U.S. Justice Department said on Monday it has charged two former federal agents with wire fraud, money laundering and other offenses for stealing the digital currency Bitcoin during their investigation of the underground marketplace Silk Road. Former Drug Enforcement Agent Carl Force allegedly developed online personas and engaged in illegal activities including "complex Bitcoin transactions to steal from the government and the targets of the investigation," the Justice Department said. Meanwhile, Secret Service Agent Shaun Bridges allegedly diverted to his personal account over $800,000 in digital currency that he controlled during the Silk Road investigation.Force was arrested in Baltimore on Friday, and Bridges self-surrendered on Monday. Both were scheduled to appear in court on Monday, the Justice Department said. (Reporting By Lisa Lambert; Editing by Emily Stephenson)
German firms embrace start-ups to catch up with digital world
- Latecomers to the digital age, big German companies have started teaming up with start-ups to shake up their conservative business culture and keep pace with a world increasingly dominated by nimble tech giants. More than half of the firms on Germany's blue-chip DAX index trace their roots back to the 19th century or earlier. The youngest corporate, SAP, was founded 43 years ago.In contrast, around half of the top 30 companies on the Nasdaq were set up in the 1980s or later and the fourth-biggest firm, Facebook, was established about a decade ago.German companies are the engine of Europe's biggest economy, which is the financial bedrock of the euro zone. But government officials and company executives fear they could fall far behind if they cannot swiftly identify and adopt innovations in web and smartphone technology that have driven the success of Google, Apple and Amazon.Mindful of the danger, companies such Metro, Bayer, Evonik, Merck KGaA and Deutsche Telekom are now investing in start-ups - seeking to gain digital expertise, as well as to embrace newcomers whose innovations could represent threats to their own businesses.This trend could help address a shortage of venture capital that has stunted innovation. Although investment in German start-ups more than doubled to $1.74 billion last year, this was less than the amount raised by U.S. car-sharing company Uber alone. In contrast, U.S.-based start-ups drew $49.39 billion, according to Thomson data."What's missing is that companies like ourselves open up their resources to help others to grow," Metro Chief Executive Olaf Koch told at an Innovation in Retail Meetup event on the retailer's campus in Duesseldorf. "We can make small companies big."VENTURE FUNDSThe cash-and-carry chain will choose 10 start-ups for an "accelerator" program in which it will supply its business experience, as well as use of its sales force.Among those hoping to catch Koch's eye at the informal Duesseldorf Meetup were POSpulse, which uses crowdsourcing and smartphones to conduct market research, Dinnery, an online high-end meal delivery service, Bauerntuete, an online farmers' market, and KptnCook, an app that combines daily recipes with shopping lists for local supermarkets. Healthcare firms Bayer, Merck and Boehringer Ingelheim, Deutsche Telekom and chemicals group Evonik, meanwhile, have all set up multi-million euro in-house venture funds. Deutsche Telekom has pledged to invest 500 million euros ($542 million) in Germany's start-up scene over the next five years.Companies that have seen digital innovations savage the business models of industries such as telecoms and media are desperate not to snooze through the next revolution, said Christian Miele, of Germany's Start-up Association."Every big corporate has the problem of being too slow to adapt and move at the same speed as a startup," he said."If a WhatsApp comes around the corner, disrupts your business and kills a billion dollars in revenue for every telco in the world, you start to think, what did we not see here?" Fewer than half of Germany's top 500 companies have a comprehensive digital strategy, according to a study by Accenture. Moreover, just 11 percent use social media and only 6 percent cloud computing, the European Commission's Digital Economy Index published at the end of February showed.RISK-TAKINGMail order company Otto's catalog model, for example, meant it was ideally placed to capitalize on the online shopping boom, but the 66-year-old firm has been steadily losing market share to digital upstart Zalando and Amazon.The company announced plans in February to invest a high double-digit million euro sum in a venture capital fund over the next business year. The German government - seeking to encourage the kind of game-changing innovation that saw Daimler disrupt the horse-carriage industry at the end of the 19th Century - has announced plans to try to promote startups. They include a pre-market web platform to connect young companies with investors.But critics say the measures do not go far enough. "We must make venture capital investment in Germany easier and, above all, more attractive in terms of taxation. This would strengthen the country's innovative capability and would also be an important step towards more growth and new jobs," Bayer boss Marijn Dekkers said last month. Chancellor Angela Merkel believes a bigger obstacle may be an entrenched fear of failure."This culture of investing in start-ups ... of taking risks and of being able to live with the fact that only one in 10 projects will end successfully ... is something that is perhaps more pronounced in the United States and maybe even in South Korea," she said in her weekly podcast this month.Still, Christoph Keese, executive vice president at media group Axel Springer, dismisses the notion that Germans lack the national character for risk-taking and insists the country can make up digital ground."We've lost the first round but that doesn't mean we can't win the second or third round."($1 = 0.9232 euros) (Additional reporting by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Pravin Char)
Amazon.com expands into professional services with home marketplace
- Amazon.com Inc is launching a home services marketplace that will connect customers with electricians, plumbers and painters in a move to have its services tied to every product sold on its website. Amazon Home Services, which will launch on Monday, will allow customers to buy 700 services such as car maintenance, TV wall-mounting and house cleaning at upfront prices. The quality of the service will be backed with an Amazon guarantee, which the retailer uses to vouch for products sold by third-party sellers on its website.A home services marketplace will extend Amazon's role as a middleman for third-party vendors, which account for about 40 percent of its sales. It would also help Amazon gain an edge in the fast-growing services industry in the U.S. which the retailer estimates to be around $630 billion. "Third party estimates show that customers spend four times more on services each year than they do on physical products," Peter Faricy, vice-president, Amazon Marketplace told ."So for us the opportunity is very big," he said.Around 85 million Amazon shoppers buy products that require servicing or installation, the company said. Amazon will roll out the service nationwide with "high coverage" in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.Services marks a new frontier for Amazon, which has focused on selling products as it expanded from books into consumer goods, groceries and media. Local services have been tough for marketplace companies to turn a profit, since offerings must be tailored to each city or region.Amazon will be in direct competition with Angie's List Inc, Craigslist Inc, and Yelp Inc as well as U.S. home improvement chains like Home Depot Inc and Lowe's Companies Inc, which have invested in ways to link customers with local plumbers, painters and other service providers.Amazon will hand pick service professionals after running background checks and offer to match prices if customers get a lower price for the same service and professional on another site, store or directly from the professional within 30 days of a purchase, Faricy said.Amazon Home Services will have a revenue share model with the service providers. The retailer will charge a 5 percent transaction fee, along with platform fees ranging from 10 percent for custom services and 15 percent for standardized services. (Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago)
Chinese carpooling app Dida in partnership talks with Uber: investor
- An early investor in Chinese carpooling app Dida Pinche said he has held talks with U.S. ride-hailing app Uber Technologies Inc to help grow Dida in a market 99 percent controlled by Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache. Andy Zhang, chief financial officer of Dida investor Bitauto Holdings Ltd, told late last week that he met with Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick in Beijing to discuss possible investment or tie-ups.A spokeswoman for Uber declined to comment on the matter.Investing in Dida could give Uber a second avenue into a rapidly growing Chinese market for mobile ride-hailing services. A tie-up would also help it dent the near monopoly of Didi and Kuaidi, which last month announced a $6 billion merger.Ridesharing apps have had a troubled start to life, with regulators in Beijing and other cities across the world banning apps that earn revenue from drivers who do not hold commercial licenses. That has not stopped them attracting huge investment from Internet giants such as Tencent Holdings Ltd and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.Dida does not collect revenue - unlike Didi, Kuaidi and Uber - though it aims to monetize its app eventually. At present, it matches drivers and passengers who contribute toward fuel and parking, for instance, making costs roughly half that of a taxi.Dida CEO George Song declined to comment on talks with potential partners, but said Dida is seeking a third round of investment. It raised $10 million in its first round and earlier this year closed a second, led by car sales platform Bitauto.Song said Dida, which has clocked 2 million users in 8 cities since its May launch, would be open to investment from taxi or professional car hailing apps such as Uber."They have a relatively clear segmentation of customers and drivers," Song said. "Overall, this is a different market." (Additional reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
Taiwan seeks stronger cyber security ties with U.S. to counter China threat
- Taiwan wants to join a major anti-hacking drill conducted by the United States to strengthen cyber security ties with its staunchest ally, its vice premier said on Monday, a move which would help safeguard against constant targeting by hackers in rival China. Many hacks into Taiwan systems have been traced to sites belonging to China's People's Liberation Army, Vice Premier Simon Chang told in an interview, without elaborating on the locations."Taiwan has no enemy in the international community except you-know-who. Who in the world would try to hack Taiwan?" Chang, a former director of Asia hardware operations for internet giant Google Inc, said. China has vehemently denied accusations of cyber theft.Making the case for Taiwan's inclusion in the "Cyber Storm" drill, Chang reiterated the long-held view that China's 'cyber army' regularly uses Taiwan as a 'testing ground' for its most advanced hacking attempts."The U.S. has the Cyber Storm drill – we were not invited. We would like to be invited," Chang said.The drill is held biennially, according to the website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, though the timing for the next one is unknown.Taiwan had invited U.S. officials to observe its own mock drill against cyber attacks in 2013.Cooperation between Taiwan and the United States would aim to strengthen defenses against hackers looking to steal government, military and industrial intelligence.Taiwan was the most-targeted country in the Asia-Pacific region during the first half of 2014 for hacking attempts aimed at penetrating computer systems to steal data, according to U.S. data security firm FireEye Inc.Chang said the percentage of cyber attacks on government systems originating from mainland China was "very high", and warned that there was potential for hackers to use Taiwan as a back door into the U.S. systems. "The possibility is there," Chang said, while emphasizing that the main purpose of Chinese hacking attempts into Taiwan is not to steal U.S. data and that he has "no way of knowing" if an incursion into Taiwan has led to any U.S. intelligence leaks.Despite a raft of recent trade deals between the two historical foes, China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and has not ruled out the use of force to bring it back under its control.The two sides' shared language, culture and political animosity make Taiwan a particularly high-profile target for Chinese hackers.Chang warned in January that all of Taiwan's government departments were subject to "staggering" numbers of hacking attempts, including departments that were not related to cross-straits matters but could be used as spring-boards to gain access elsewhere.The Center for Strategic and International Studies, based in Washington, published a paper in January that noted Taiwan could be a major asset for exercises like "Cyber Storm"."Taiwan is uniquely positioned to assist the international community in protecting itself from cyber theft," the authors wrote.Earlier this month, U.S. President Barack Obama told he was concerned about Beijing's plans for a far-reaching counter-terrorism law that would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys, the passcodes that help protect data, and install security "backdoors" in their systems to give Chinese authorities surveillance access.Taiwan is not discussing cyberspace with China, Chang said."I don't think raising this issue is any help," Chang said. "You're only going to let them know that you know what they're doing. It's only going to make them more cautious and more crafty." (Editing by SImon Cameron-Moore)
China's Alibaba signs digital distribution deal with music rights group BMG
- Germany's BMG music rights company said on Monday it had signed a music digital distribution deal with China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), as the world's largest e-commerce firm firms up its bid to become a digital media empire. The deal, one of the first in China made by a major music publisher rather than a label, will bring more than 2.5 million copyrights to Alibaba, whose music platforms already had many of the songs from artists including Kylie Minogue, the Rolling Stones and Jean-Michael Jarre, an Alibaba spokeswoman said.Alibaba has set its eyes on becoming an online-media powerhouse, with music, film and television. The $210-billion firm has touted the potential for selling digital products as well as physical products in China, despite the country's track record of users not paying for media content.In the process, it is vying with Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK), China's biggest social networking and online entertainment firm, and search leader Baidu Inc (BIDU.O) and its online video unit, iQiyi.For BMG, the tie-up is both a chance to boost earnings by its artists in China and part of its attempt to "grow the legitimate music market in China", the company said.BMG last November linked up with Chinese independent company Giant Jump to manage publishing and recording rights both at home and overseas.Alibaba's Digital Entertainment arm will "promote BMG writers and artists through channels such as its streaming apps Xiami and TTPod" and "monitor and take action against digital and mobile services who may infringe the rights of BMG clients," the subsidiary of Bertelsmann AG, Europe's largest media company, said in a statement."Internet and particular mobile media are quickly providing an answer to the music industry's long-time challenge of how to monetize the vast untapped potential of the Chinese market," BMG Chief Executive Hartwig Masuch said in Monday's statement. (Reporting by Paul Carsten; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
No truth to talk Japan's Sharp will exit solar business: executive
- Sharp Corp will continue making solar cell products at its Sakai plant and there is no truth to speculation it will sell or exit the business, an executive at the money-losing electronics maker said on Monday. "There is no truth to talk that we will quit, or sell, the solar business," Kazushi Mukai, head of Sharp's energy system solution business, told reporters at the company's state-of-the-art solar cell plant in Sakai, western Japan.Sharp is negotiating its second major bailout since 2012, with bankers calling for a radical overhaul and exit from loss-making businesses. Its solar cell business has struggled to cope with tough price competition from rivals in China and slow housing starts in Japan, adding to losses from its TV and LCD display operations. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Clarence Fernandez)
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Australia looks at GST, company tax in planned tax overhaul
- Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey hinted on Monday at changes that could force digital companies like Apple Inc, Google Inc, Alibaba Group Holding and Uber to pay more tax on transactions that take place in Australia. "I want to find a way for them to pay the GST," Hockey told reporters, referring to the goods and sales tax, after releasing a discussion paper on the country's "unsustainable" tax system."We're not collecting the revenue that we should be collecting and that we want to collect, that is fair," Hockey said.The long-awaited 200-page "Re:Think" report does not outline any definitive changes but political and market analysts believe its focus on a few key areas heralds forthcoming changes.Up for discussion are a cut to Australia's corporate tax rate, a broadening of the goods and services that are included in the GST and a new levy on bank deposits."New technology, changing consumer behavior and increasing global trade are threatening the medium and long-term viability of our taxation system," Hockey told reporters in Canberra. "For too long, our taxation system has been reactive not proactive."Australia led a push by the Group of 20 as its chair last year to develop stricter rules on cross border taxation to close loopholes that have allowed companies like Google, Amazon.com Inc and Starbucks Corp to avoid paying taxes.The Australian government collects up to 70 percent of its revenue from company tax and personal income tax, a level that Hockey said is unsustainable. It needs the support of the state governments to make any changes to the GST, which at 10 percent is one of the lowest in the developed world.At the other end of the spectrum, Hockey suggested that Australia's company tax was too high and is being eroded by online-based companies. Australia's 30 percent company tax rate is higher than many of its competitors' and a third of all company tax is paid by just 12 companies.Hockey stressed that the existing bank deposit levy of 0.5 percent on deposits up to A$250,000 was introduced by the previous labour government and suggested it was not enough."There's many things I don't like that I have to implement at the moment, that have been a legacy from six years of bad Labor government," Hockey said. Submissions and suggestions on the paper are due by Jan. 1. (Reporting By Jane Wardell; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
U.S. coding site undergoes denial-of-service cyber attack
- U.S. coding site GitHub said on Sunday that it was deflecting most of the traffic from a days-long cyber attack that had caused intermittent outages for the social coding site, with the Wall Street Journal citing China as the source of the attack. "Eighty-seven hours in, our mitigation is deflecting most attack traffic. We're aware of intermittent issues and continue to adapt our response," a tweet from the GitHub Status account said.The attack took the form of a flood of traffic, known as a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack. Those kinds of attacks are among the most common on the Internet.The Wall Street Journal reported that the flood of Internet traffic to GitHub came from Chinese search engine Baidu Inc, targeting two GitHub pages that linked to copies of sites that are banned in China. On its blog, GitHub said that the attack began early on Thursday "and involves a wide combination of attack vectors.""These include every vector we've seen in previous attacks as well as some sophisticated new techniques that use the web browsers of unsuspecting, uninvolved people to flood github.com with high levels of traffic," the blog post continued. "Based on reports we've received, we believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content." GitHub supplies social coding tools for developers and calls itself the world's largest code host.A Beijing-based Baidu spokesman said the company had conducted a thorough investigation and found that it was neither a security problem on Baidu's side nor a hacking attack."We have notified other security organizations and are working to get to the bottom of this," the spokesman said. (Reporting by Luciana Lopez; Additional reporting by Paul Carsten in Beijing; Editing by Eric Walsh and Alan Raybould)
LG Chem to supply batteries for Daimler's Smart EVs
- South Korea's LG Chem said it had been picked by Daimler AG as the sole battery supplier for the automaker's new range of Smart electric vehicles, which will be launched in 2016. LG Chem did not disclose the value or volume of the deal, but said EVs account for a small portion of about 100,000 Smart mini cars sold a year currently.LG Chem, which is also an EV battery supplier for General Motors and Renault SA, said it will provide Smart EV battery cells, which will be made into packs by Daimler's wholly owned subsidiary Deutsche ACCUmotive.Daimler is LG Chem's 13th automaker client for EV battery packs. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Miral Fahmy)
Interoute eyes roll-up of European and U.S. cloud network firms
- Britain's Interoute, a high-capacity data network and corporate cloud services provider, is taking on new private equity investors to fund acquisitions across Europe and the United States, the company said on Monday. Aleph Capital Partners, a UK investment firm headed by former Goldman Sachs European private equity investment chief Hugues Lepic, and Crestview Partners, a U.S. private equity firm founded by ex-Goldman colleagues, have agreed to buy a 30 percent stake in London-based Interoute. The value of the investment was undisclosed, but Aleph is chartered to make investments that range from 100 million to 400 million euros. The deal is expected to close in April, it said.The investment, Aleph's first since it was set up two years ago, is a share purchase deal to buy out shareholder Emirates International Telecommunications (EIT), part of a conglomerate owned by the ruler of Dubai, which has been looking to pare debt. Privately held Interoute is majority-owned by Switzerland's Sandoz Family Foundation.Interoute said the new financing would allow it to build out its network of datacenters and cloud computing services linking around 124 cities across Europe, as it seeks to more than double revenue to 1 billion euros in five years."This change in the shareholder structure means that instead of being considered potential prey, we can now turn to being one of the predators," Interoute Chief Executive Gareth Williams said in a phone interview.The pan-European network operator aims to consolidate highly fragmented markets where national datacenter players have arisen in recent years amid spiraling corporate demand for cloud-based Internet services and tight local controls over data transfer.The London-based company said it had 425 million in revenue in 2014, up 2 percent from the year earlier. Core earnings rose slightly to 93 million euros, while free cash flow grew to $25 million, reversing a shortfall of 20 million euros in 2013.Currently, around 25 percent of European data traffic flow over its networks and datacenters in 24 countries. It also has datacenters in key Asian and U.S. locations.Sixty percent of revenue comes from providing computing, voice and video communications services over its networks to corporate customers such as the European football association and Coca-Cola. The other 40 percent comes from its older business wholesaling raw network capacity to interconnect European telecom network operators and Internet services such as Google and Facebook. (Editing by Gareth Jones)
U.S. coding site undergoes denial of service cyber attack
- U.S. coding site GitHub said on Sunday that it was deflecting most of the traffic from a days-long cyber attack that had caused intermittent outages for the social coding site, with the Wall Street Journal citing China as the source of the attack. "Eighty-seven hours in, our mitigation is deflecting most attack traffic. We're aware of intermittent issues and continue to adapt our response," according to a tweet from the GitHub Status account.The attack took the form of a flood of traffic, known as a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack. Those kinds of attacks are among the most common on the Internet.The Wall Street Journal reported that the flood of Internet traffic to GitHub came from Chinese search engine Baidu Inc, targeting two GitHub pages that linked to copies of sites that are banned in China. On its blog, GitHub said that the attack began early on Thursday "and involves a wide combination of attack vectors.""These include every vector we've seen in previous attacks as well as some sophisticated new techniques that use the web browsers of unsuspecting, uninvolved people to flood github.com with high levels of traffic," the blog post continued. "Based on reports we've received, we believe the intent of this attack is to convince us to remove a specific class of content." GitHub supplies social coding tools for developers and calls itself the world's largest code host. (Reporting by Luciana Lopez; Editing by Eric Walsh)
Former HP CEO Fiorina: chances of presidential bid 'higher than 90 percent'
- Former Hewlett-Packard Co Chief Executive Carly Fiorina on Sunday said the chances of her running for U.S. presidency were "very high" and she would announce her plans in late April-early May. Fiorina, speaking on Fox News Sunday, put the chances of her running for president in 2016 at 'higher than 90 percent' but said she could not yet announce the bid as she was working to establish her team, get "the right support" and financial resources. (Reporting by Alina Selyukh; editing by Susan Thomas)
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Uber plans legal taxi service in Germany - manager in WiWo magazine
- Uber aims to launch a service in Germany by this summer that will allow its novel taxi-hailing service to operate legally in Europe's biggest economy, the company's German chief was quoted saying by weekly magazine Wirtschafts Woche (WiWo). The move comes after a German court earlier this month banned Uber from running services using unlicensed cab drivers and set stiff fines for any violations of local transport laws. Under the new service, drivers would hold commercial passenger transport licenses whose cost of between 100 euros ($109) and 200 euros will be paid by Uber, the magazine quoted Uber's Fabien Nestmann as saying."We will also pay the 150 to 200 euros it would cost our partners to have the Chamber of Commerce license them as taxi companies," he said.Nestmann did not say what the new service would be called but Wirtschafts Woche said it was likely to be named UberX to match similar offerings in France and Britain.($1 = 0.9185 euros) (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by David Holmes)
Salesforce aims to surpass SAP on German market: executive tells WiWo
- Cloud software company Salesforce.com Inc aims to overtake SAP in terms of sales on the German company's home market in the coming years, the Europe chief of Salesforce told a German magazine. "We want to become the biggest software company in Germany by sales," weekly Wirtschafts Woche quoted Joachim Schreiner as saying, without saying exactly when U.S.-based Salesforce aimed to surpass its rival.He said Salesforce was growing at a rate of more than 30 percent per year in Europe, adding Germany was one of its strongest markets on the continent.SAP last year generated sales of 17.6 billion euros ($19.2 billion), of which close to 2.6 billion were in Germany. Salesforce had revenues of $5.4 billion, of which close to $1 billion were in Europe. It does not break out figures for the German market.($1 = 0.9185 euros) (Reporting by Maria Sheahan, editing by David Evans)
Friday, March 27, 2015
Jury clears Kleiner firm in Silicon Valley gender bias case
- A California jury on Friday cleared venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers of gender discrimination claims brought against it by a woman former partner, in a trial that transfixed Silicon Valley. After further deliberation, the jury also cleared Kleiner on a claim that the firm had retaliated against the former partner, Ellen Pao, by terminating her employment after she sued in 2012.Despite days of courtroom drama about affairs, books of erotic poetry and office flirting, juror Steve Sammut, who mostly voted for Kleiner, said the decision came down to Pao's effectiveness at her job.“We were focused on the performance,” he said.The verdict dashed Pao's hopes for personal vindication, but the trial revealed embarrassing disclosures about how Pao and other women were treated at Kleiner and Silicon Valley's corporate culture and its lack of diversity.In a statement, Kleiner thanked the jury and said it was committed to supporting women in venture capital and technology. "There is no question gender diversity in the workplace is an important issue," it said.Supporters of Pao sent Twitter messages tagged #ThankYouEllenPao immediately after the final verdict. Pao shone a light on the "toxic culture" of Silicon Valley and "empowered other women in tech", some tweets said.Pao remained composed as the decision on each claim was delivered. As the crucial decisions on gender bias were read, her two lawyers gently patted her on the back.
"If I've helped to level the playing field for women and minorities in venture capital, then the battle was worth it," she said.The California Superior Court case laid bare the personnel matters of the firm that backed Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc, with Pao's attorneys painting Kleiner as a quarrelsome pressure cooker where a former male partner used business trips as opportunities to make advances to female colleagues.BRIEF AFFAIRPao, now interim chief executive at social-news service Reddit, claimed her standing at Kleiner crumbled after she ended a brief affair with partner Ajit Nazre. Her career deteriorated after he and Kleiner started retaliating against her, amid a climate that was overall unfriendly toward women, her lawyers argued. The firm disputed those charges, presenting evidence that Kleiner went out of its way to hire women.Pao sought to illustrate her point with testimony during the five-week-long trial from former Kleiner partner, Trae Vassallo, who said Nazre appeared at her hotel room on a business trip. He wore a bathrobe and carried a glass of wine, according to testimony.Kleiner countered that it investigated Nazre after Vassallo complained, after which he quickly left the firm.Some witnesses, including Pao's onetime mentor John Doerr, have testified that Pao's lack of advancement stemmed from subpar performance, not discrimination or retaliation.But Pao's attorneys argued she laid the groundwork for the firm's highly successful investment in RPX, the patent company, and suggesting an investment in Twitter, an idea more senior partners rejected at the time.Pao herself testified for five days and faced tough questions both from Kleiner's legal team and from jurors. One juror asked if it was "professional to enter into an affair with a married partner?""Going back I would not have done it again, but I didn't think it was inappropriate at the time," Pao said, emphasizing that Nazre had told her he was separated.The case is Pao v. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers LLC, CGC-12-520719, in California Superior Court, in the County of San Francisco. (Additional reporting by Noel Randewich and Jim ChristieEditing by Peter Henderson and Grant McCool)
After the jury was dismissed, Pao told reporters in the courthouse that people around the world had reached out to her and told her that they had stories similar to her own.
"If I've helped to level the playing field for women and minorities in venture capital, then the battle was worth it," she said.The California Superior Court case laid bare the personnel matters of the firm that backed Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc, with Pao's attorneys painting Kleiner as a quarrelsome pressure cooker where a former male partner used business trips as opportunities to make advances to female colleagues.BRIEF AFFAIRPao, now interim chief executive at social-news service Reddit, claimed her standing at Kleiner crumbled after she ended a brief affair with partner Ajit Nazre. Her career deteriorated after he and Kleiner started retaliating against her, amid a climate that was overall unfriendly toward women, her lawyers argued. The firm disputed those charges, presenting evidence that Kleiner went out of its way to hire women.Pao sought to illustrate her point with testimony during the five-week-long trial from former Kleiner partner, Trae Vassallo, who said Nazre appeared at her hotel room on a business trip. He wore a bathrobe and carried a glass of wine, according to testimony.Kleiner countered that it investigated Nazre after Vassallo complained, after which he quickly left the firm.Some witnesses, including Pao's onetime mentor John Doerr, have testified that Pao's lack of advancement stemmed from subpar performance, not discrimination or retaliation.But Pao's attorneys argued she laid the groundwork for the firm's highly successful investment in RPX, the patent company, and suggesting an investment in Twitter, an idea more senior partners rejected at the time.Pao herself testified for five days and faced tough questions both from Kleiner's legal team and from jurors. One juror asked if it was "professional to enter into an affair with a married partner?""Going back I would not have done it again, but I didn't think it was inappropriate at the time," Pao said, emphasizing that Nazre had told her he was separated.The case is Pao v. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers LLC, CGC-12-520719, in California Superior Court, in the County of San Francisco. (Additional reporting by Noel Randewich and Jim ChristieEditing by Peter Henderson and Grant McCool)
Yahoo, Microsoft extend search partnership talks for 30 days
- Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) agreed to extend by 30 days the deadline to re-negotiate a ten year search deal, as the two Internet companies attempt to revamp a thorny partnership crafted by former chief executives. The search partnership, which took effect in 2010, allowed the companies to negotiate changes or to terminate the arrangement entirely after five years. Under the terms of the deal, the companies had 30 days to make changes following Feb. 23.According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Yahoo and Microsoft mutually agreed to extend that deadline to a 60-day period following Feb. 23."We value our partnership with Microsoft and continue discussions about plans for the future. We have nothing further to announce at this time," Yahoo said in a statement. Microsoft declined to comment. It was not immediately clear if the extension signaled progress or lack of consensus between Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The announcement to extend the talks comes a few days after Nadella's mother passed away in Hyderabad, India, according to a report in The Economic Times. Yahoo and Microsoft began a 10-year search partnership in 2010, in a deal crafted by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz. The two companies hoped their combined efforts could mount a more competitive challenge to Google Inc (GOOGL.O), the world's No. 1 search engine.The partnership has not lived up to expectations. Google still controls roughly two-thirds of the U.S. search market, while Microsoft and Yahoo's combined share of the market is essentially unchanged at roughly 30 percent.Yahoo's Mayer, who joined Yahoo in 2012 and who has been critical of the deal in the past, tried to hold off on adopting Microsoft search technology in certain markets in 2013. A court ruled at the time that Yahoo must use Microsoft's search technology. (Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Chris Reese)
Apple's Cook joins tech CEOs in blasting Indiana religious freedom law
- Apple Inc's Tim Cook, one of the most prominent openly gay American CEOs, has joined fellow tech industry chiefs in decrying a controversial Indiana law that opponents say could allow companies to deny services to gay people. Cook, who publicly declared his sexual orientation last year, joined other tech chief executives, including Salesforce.com Inc's Marc Benioff, in blasting the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which could let business and individuals turn away customers by citing "religious freedom."Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the controversial bill into law on Thursday."Apple is open for everyone. We are deeply disappointed in Indiana's new law," Cook tweeted on Friday to his 1 million-plus followers. "Around the world, we strive to treat every customer the same - regardless of where they come from, how they worship or who they love."Legal experts say the act sets a legal standard that will allow people of all faiths to bring religious freedom claims, but opinions differ over its impact.Supporters of the bill, which was passed overwhelmingly by both chambers of the Republican-controlled state legislature, say it will keep the government from forcing business owners to act against strongly held religious beliefs.Opponents say it is discriminatory and broader than other state religious freedom laws. Gay rights groups worry it will be used by businesses that do not want to provide services for same-sex weddings. Gay marriage became legal in Indiana last year, following an appeals court ruling.Other tech CEOs have also spoken out against the bill. Benioff said on Twitter that his San Francisco-based company would cancel programs that require travel to Indiana. And Yelp Inc CEO Jeremy Stoppelman wrote an open letter criticizing discrimination laws. (Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Richard Chang)
Intel in talks to buy Altera: WSJ report
- Intel Corp (INTC.O) is in talks to buy fellow chipmaker Altera Corp (ALTR.O) in a deal that would likely top $10 billion, marking the latest merger in the semiconductor business, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. An acquisition of Altera, which makes programmable chips widely used in cellphone towers, the military and other industrial applications, underscores Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich's determination to expand into new markets as the personal computer industry looses steam. Terms of the potential deal and its timing were not known, the Journal said. Intel declined comment on what would be its largest takeover ever if a deal were to be reached. Altera did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, and Altera have already been forming a close relationship. In 2013, Intel agreed to manufacture chips on behalf of Altera, a major change for the world's top chipmaker, which traditionally has been unwilling to share its cutting-edge technology. Since then the two companies have also expanded their cooperation to include other kinds of chip development.Shares of Altera, valued at $10.4 billion at Thursday's close, were up 24.5 percent at $43.16 per share on the Nasdaq on Friday. Intel shares were up 6.4 percent to $32 on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in Bengaluru, Noel Randewich in San Francisco and Bill Rigby in Seattle.; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Alan Crosby)
Jury has reached a verdict in Silicon Valley discrimination trial
- A California jury has reached a verdict in a high profile gender discrimination lawsuit brought by former Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers partner Ellen Pao against the venture capital firm, a court official said on Friday. The verdict will be read at 2 p.m. PT (5 p.m. ET) in San Francisco Superior Court in a case that helped spark a broad discussion about sexism in Silicon Valley. The case has laid bare the personnel matters of the firm that backed Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc, with Pao's attorneys painting Kleiner as a quarrelsome pressure cooker where a former male partner used business trips as opportunities to make advances to female colleagues.Pao, now interim chief executive at social-news service Reddit, claimed her standing at Kleiner crumbled after she ended a brief affair with partner Ajit Nazre. Her career deteriorated after he and Kleiner started retaliating against her, amid a climate that was overall unfriendly toward women, her lawyers argued. The firm vigorously disputed those charges, presenting evidence that Kleiner went out of its way to hire women. (Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Tiffany Wu)
Google to pay CFO Porat more than $70 million
(This March 26th story has been corrected to remove 'in the next two years' from headline and first paragraph) - Google Inc said it would pay its new Chief Financial Officer, Ruth Porat, more than $70 million through a combination of restricted stock units and a biennial grant. The company hired Morgan Stanley CFO Porat as its finance chief earlier this week, a sign it is aiming to rein in costs as it invests in new businesses such as self-driving cars and Internet-connected eyeglasses.Porat's compensation package includes a grant of $25 million through restricted stock units, a $40 million biennial grant in 2016 and a special one-time $5 million sign-on bonus, Google said in a regulatory filing on Thursday. (1.usa.gov/1byDpVm)Porat, who will join Google on May 26, will also get an annual base salary of $650,000. She earned a base salary of $1 million at Morgan Stanley for 2013, according to the bank's proxy filing. Her pay last year will be disclosed once the bank files its latest proxy. Porat is the latest among a string of Wall Street executives to leave an industry that is increasingly regulated to move into the more free-wheeling technology sector, where fortunes can be built fast but businesses can also become irrelevant overnight. Google paid its outgoing CFO Patrick Pichette, who announced his retirement earlier this month, $62.2 million for the three years through 2013, more than twice the $29.6 million Porat earned at Morgan Stanley, according to regulatory filings.Mountain View, California-based Google said it would stop annual cash bonuses for senior vice presidents from next year and shift to a system that includes annual base salary and biennial equity grants.Shares of Google closed at $563.64 on Thursday on the Nasdaq. (Reporting by Avik Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
New apps to help business get in step with mobile customers
- Nine months after Apple and IBM began working together on building mobile apps for businesses, some of the first fruits are about to appear at UK pharmacy chain Boots, which has begun equipping store employees with iPads to serve shoppers in the aisles. These customer service apps are part of a bid by Boots to encourage consumers to pre-order cosmetics and toiletries online, similar to calling ahead for medical prescriptions, while turning its 2,500 retail outlets into convenient pick-up points."These apps put all of Boots' inventory at (employees') fingertips," said Robin Phillps, who is in charge of digital and e-commerce business at the company, now part of Walgreens Boots Alliance. "This makes it easier for them ... to interact with customers on their own terms."Companies across dozens of different industries are now eyeing how these mobile business apps from Apple and IBM can hook up front-line staff to back-office systems and make them smarter in face-to-face dealings with customers in the field.Businesses which first invested heavily in apps for mobile shoppers have just begun to put customer-service employees on an equally mobile footing, Forrester Research said in a report this month on the phenomenon.With many companies' in-house technical staff struggling to keep pace with the ways their employees use mobile phones, Apple and IBM are part of a growing market for supplying business and government organizations with a new class of apps for employees on the move.Technology consultants Accenture, Cap Gemini and Deloitte [DLTE.UL] are also top suppliers to this changing way of doing business, along with dozens of other service providers and hundreds of custom designer app firms.MAKING STAFF "SMARTER"IBM says it now has more than 200 global companies gearing up to use mobile phone apps through its partnership with Apple. These include U.S. banking group Citi and Banorte of Mexico, Air Canada, and retailers American Eagle Outfitters and Boots UK.The partnership has announced 14 app templates so far, which IBM then works with clients to customize with specific company data and analytics. Each app lets employees look up customer profiles and answer questions on the go rather than anchoring them to counter terminals as most businesses typically do."We are trying to bring that same 'wow' factor, the same changes we have had in our personal lives, to our working lives," said Katharyn White, IBM's global sales and marketing lead for the IBM-Apple partnership.The goal is to create 100 business apps running on iPhones or iPads by the end of this year, White said. Companies pay a monthly subscription fee per device running the app, plus the costs of the secure iPhones or iPads running the software, as well as for services to hook them up to back-office systems.For the airline industry, these apps will let flight attendants help passengers rebook flights in mid-air. Financial service apps allow bankers, wealth advisors or insurance agents to make on-the-spot account decisions with clients in the field. Other Apple-IBM apps give police secure, instant access on iPhones to crime-scene maps, video feeds and suspect profiles.Besides design expertise for the apps themselves, Apple provides remote technical support for a company's own technology departments managing the apps. And as part of the deal IBM sells iPhones and iPads along with the business apps, a potentially important new revenue stream for Apple as big businesses begin to mobilize more of their workforces.For IBM, which has software and design teams developing the MobileFirst apps, the apps themselves also take corporate and government customers to a range of IBM services -- technical support, mobile device management, back-office software integration and cloud computing.BRINGING ONLINE WORLD TO STORESAt Boots UK the retailer plans to introduce the business apps in hundreds of pharmacies to employees equipped with 4,000 iPads it has purchased so far. Boots also plans to make Wi-Fi ubiquitous in its pharmacies, both for employees using the business apps and for shoppers on their phones.Currently 7.5 million shoppers visit Boots stores each week while 2.7 computer and phone users research and purchase goods via its online sites. About one-third of online shoppers, or around 1 million consumers, do so using mobile phones, so far. The aim is to get customers to order the bulk of their goods online and then pick them up the next morning at local pharmacies, Phillips said. Employee apps complement this mission with a means of interacting with in-store customers. Its Sales Assist app, which provides an internal version of the company's public e-ecommerce site, enables Boots employees to serve shoppers in the aisles and eventually they will also be able to take payments with a quick swipe of the customer's phone."The direction we are moving is purchasing in the aisles," Phillips says, adding that the goal is to remove the check-out till as a barrier to buying. (Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Hi-tech and Big Data offer hope to battered U.S. oil industry
- The tech geeks are coming to the oil industry's rescue. With the price of crude plumbing lows not seen since 2009, Royal Dutch Shell, Whiting Petroleum Corp and many others are turning to rocket fuel, Big Data, lasers, spectrometers and other new or revamped technologies to do more for less.As North America's oil companies slash spending and lay off workers, established services firms and start-ups are hawking products that better assess oil and gas deposits, help drill fewer but bigger new wells, and boost output from old ones.Baker Hughes Inc saw more client inquiries about products that increase efficiency of existing wells in the first three months this year than in all of the past two years, said HC Freitag, vice president of integrated technology at the oil service giant."Since the beginning of the year, we've had a dramatically higher number of conversations with customers."It is too early to judge whether the new tools can produce gains similar to those of the past six years, when well output kept rising at double-digit rates and the time needed to drill and frack new wells dwindled to about 10 days from 40.But U.S. shale oil producers have a history of repeatedly exceeding expectations with their ability to innovate and lift productivity.Scott Johnson, a petroleum engineering professor at the University of North Dakota, says new technologies do have the potential to help the industry offset the impact of lost jobs and spending cuts. "Companies are often so busy when prices are high, they don't have an opportunity to take a look at new technology," said Johnson, who is leading a high-tech analysis of core samples taken from across the state's Bakken shale formation."That's why they want the engineers to think out of the box and take new opportunities especially when prices are low." SILICON VALLEY MEETS NORTH DAKOTATo be sure, oil producers are only beginning to experiment with some of these newer solutions and tech firms that offer them are talking about rapid expansion, but from a low base. For example, privately held GroundMetrics Inc originally used its technology applying electromagnetic sensors to track fluid movements deep underground in geothermal wells and only late last year started marketing it for shale formations.The company, which grew out of U.S. Department of Defense research, has two shale customers now - BP and Statoil - but expects that number to grow to 12 by the end of this year.GroundMetrics estimates that its cheaper and more efficient alternative to microseismic technology used now in energy exploration will allow oil firms to drill 10 percent fewer wells. That, executives say, could translate into over $20 billion in annual savings for the whole industry if widely applied."Oil companies drill more wells than they need to," said George Eiskamp, the GroundMetrics chief executive. "We can help reduce the number of wells that are fracked without reducing production, thus cutting costs." WellDog Inc is another company that is adapting an existing technology for shale oil clients. The privately-held firm was founded to work with coalbed methane producers. It's now started to market its spectroscopy technology to shale clients to help distinguish between cheap reserves of methane and more-lucrative ethane, propane and butane reserves. The technology also helps gauge pressure in oil wells so they can be managed better. Since last year, WellDog has taken on seven U.S. shale companies as customers, including Whiting Petroleum, which operates in Texas, North Dakota and Colorado.WellDog, which said its sales doubled to $18.5 million last year, aims to double or even triple the number of customers this year, expanding at a time when most of the industry is scaling back. "We're hiring," said WellDog's executive vice president James Walker. Baker Hughes, which counts Shell as a key client, is heavily marketing well "rejuvenations," using proprietary software and crunching Big Data from thousands of wells to find new ways to coax more oil from existing wells.In some cases, Baker Hughes has been able to double a declining well's output, Freitag said.In Houston, which doubles as the world's energy capital and home to the U.S. space program, there is also occasional crossover between aerospace and energy. Core Laboratories is reporting a surge in demand from the oil industry for its Kodiak Enhanced Perforating system, which uses cartridges filled with a substance used in solid-fuel rockets. Instead of propelling rockets into space, it is used to explode inside a well to help create fracks, says sales executive Mike Peveto."Now that the price of oil is dropping, there's some people who want to squeeze as much oil as they can out of a well." (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Terry Wade and Tomasz Janowski)
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