TechSpot

Monday, June 1, 2015

Intel to buy Altera for $16.7 billion to boost data center business

Intel Corp (INTC.O) agreed to buy Altera Corp (ALTR.O) for $16.7 billion as the world's biggest chipmaker seeks to make up for slowing demand from the PC industry by expanding its line-up of higher-margin chips used in data centers.By combining with Altera, Intel will be able to bundle its processing chips with the smaller company's programmable chips, which are used, among other things, to speed up Web-searches.Intel said on Monday it would offer $54 per share in cash, a 10.5 percent premium to Altera's closing price on Friday.Altera, based in San Jose, California, rejected an earlier unsolicited offer of $54 per share from Intel in April, a person familiar with the matter had told .The deal is the third big one in the highly fragmented chip industry this year. Avago Technologies Ltd (AVGO.O) agreed last week to buy Broadcom Corp (BRCM.O) for $37 billion in the industry's biggest-ever takeover.The deal, Intel's biggest since it bought security software maker McAfee in 2011 for $7.7 billion, follows the expiry on Monday of a standstill agreement between the companies. The companies said they expected the deal to closed in six to nine months.Intel will continue support and development of Altera's ARM-based and power management chips, the companies said.Intel already makes chips for Altera, which does not have its own foundry. The partnership, set up in 2013, is unusual for Intel, which has traditionally been unwilling to share its technology. The New York Post reported on Thursday that Intel and Altera had restarted talks.Up to Friday's close, Altera's shares had risen 41.3 percent since the Wall Street Journal reported on March 27 that Intel and Altera were in takeover talks.NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI.O) set off the latest round of chip industry deals in March when it agreed to buy Freescale Semiconductor Ltd (FSL.N) for $12 billion. Net revenue in Intel's data center group increased 18 percent in 2014, providing just over a quarter of overall revenue. Revenue from the company's PC group increased 4 percent, generating about 62 percent of total revenue.J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Rothschild Inc are financial advisers to Intel and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP are legal advisers.Goldman Sachs & Co is Altera's financial adviser and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Professional Corp is legal adviser. (Reporting By Lehar Maan and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)

BlackBerry settles patent dispute with Seacrest's company Typo

BlackBerry Ltd and television host Ryan Seacrest's keyboard company Typo Products have agreed to settle a patent dispute over the sale of smartphone keyboards of a certain size, the Canadian smartphone maker said on Monday.Under the terms of the settlement, Typo will stop selling keyboards for smartphones and other devices with screens smaller than 7.9 inches, BlackBerry said. It can continue selling keyboards for larger devices.In February, a U.S. district court sanctioned Typo, co-founded by "American Idol" host Seacrest, for violating an injunction that barred it from selling a $99 iPhone keyboard case that BlackBerry said infringed its patents. Physical keyboards have remained a key selling point for BlackBerry, loved by many of the company's most loyal fans, as it loses market share to Apple's iPhone and phones that run on Google's Android operating system, which typically have touchscreen keyboards. (Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Ex-Sony executive criticised CEO Hirai of ahead shareholder meet

An influential former Sony Corp executive on Monday urged current Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai to focus on innovation than just restructuring in a letter criticising the Japanese firm's management ahead of a shareholder meeting this month.The letter by Tamotsu Iba, a former Sony CFO and vice chairman, was sent to Sony executives the same day that Japan's corporate governance code took effect with the aim of improving shareholder accountability in a country where companies have been criticised for not looking after investors' interests. obtained a copy of the letter from a source. A Sony spokesman declined to comment about the contents of the letter, the third that Iba has sent to Sony's management since the beginning of the year.In Monday's letter, Iba criticised Hirai's plans to give Sony units more independence in decision-making and said the company should consider issuing class shares - similar to plans by Toyota Motor Corp - to secure long-term funds. He also lamented the lack of innovation which he said dimmed the once iconic brand's appeal. Sony is due to hold is annual shareholder meeting on June 23. While Iba owns only a small stake, according to people with knowledge of the matter, he is part of a so-called "old boys" network of influential former executives who played a role in pushing out Hirai's predecessor, Howard Stringer.Investors, however, have said Iba's criticism of Hirai and his management team is unlikely to gain much traction because Sony stocks have more than doubled over the past year amid the restructuring drive. (Reporting by Reiji Murai; Writing by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Japan's Softbank increases controlling stake in Finnish 'Clash of Clans' maker

Japan's SoftBank Corp said on Monday it has increased its controlling stake in Supercell, the Finnish mobile games maker best-known for its hit title 'Clash of Clans'.The Japanese communications and media company said it had acquired an additional 22.7 percent share in Supercell, boosting its total stake to 73.2 percent. It did not disclose the price of the deal. SoftBank bought a majority stake in the firm in 2013 for about $1.5 billion. Last year, Supercell saw its revenue triple to 1.5 billion euros ($1.64 billion) while profit doubled to 515 million euros, making it the world's top-grossing company in the sector. A sluggish Japanese economy is forcing Softbank to increasingly look overseas for growth.SoftBank, in a statement, said that Supercell would continue to operate independently, and Ilkka Paananen would continue to serve as the chief executive officer. The remaining stake is owned by Supercell's management and employees. (Reporting By Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by Susan Fenton)

Nokia launches localised datacenter service for telecoms firms

Finnish telecoms equipment maker Nokia launched a new localised datacenter service for mobile network operators on Monday, enabling the operators to better compete with the likes of Amazon and Google in providing internet services. Nokia said it will offer cloud-based datacenters running on Intel Corp's platform to network operators seeking to contend with the soaring growth in mobile data traffic. Nokia is turning the notion of highly centralised datacenters on its head by allowing mobile operators to spread datacenter functions across their networks, enabling customer data to be handled locally and thereby boosting the speed of network services. These local datacenters can then be connected to and backed up by centralised, large datacenters. Normally datacenters are massive facilities used to house vast amounts of computers needed to run the most demanding Web and mobile services. By taking a modular approach, Nokia's datacenters come in pizza box-sized services and provide operators with ultradense computing power they can install alongside existing antennas and base station gear that connect callers in local areas to wider voice and data networks. Nokia's AirFrame datacenter products will allow data processing capacity to be shared by adjacent base station cell sites or by a centralised datacenter when any particular part of the network becomes congested with mobile users. "It is entirely practical to put these anywhere that you might put a base station, for example," said Phil Twist, a Nokia Networks executive. "You can actually put the processing right to the edge (of the network)", he said, which means mobile phone users would not get many of the delays they currently experience in watching video or downloading emails. Telecom network operators are keen to build datacenters to reduce the cost of hardware spending within their networks, improve services they offer subscribers and to obtain the Web-wide reach of the big internet companies. The new datacenter offering puts Nokia in competition with technology suppliers such as Hewlett & Packard and Cisco, while its larger rival in the network gear business, Ericsson, has also recently entered the datacenter market with products based on Intel's platform. "Nokia's announcement shows an openness that is distinct from similar approaches by Ericsson, HP and others," said Elisabeth Rainge from technology market research firm IDC. Nokia is set to become the world's second-biggest network equipment maker once it completes its takeover of French rival Alcatel-Lucent. (Additional reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Google increases user privacy controls

Google increased privacy controls for users and rolled out a website on Monday that answers frequently asked questions in response to increasing concern over how the search giant collects and uses its massive amounts of data. Users have been able to control certain privacy settings for months or years, such as whether to save web browser and location history, which is also used in targeted advertising.But managing the controls is confusing and time consuming because the settings are in various places across the web that are not always easy to find.Now users will be able to use My Account, which provides a privacy checkup and security checkup, or lists where people can check off which data they want to be public and private. Google's new website answers frequently asked questions, such as whether the company sells personal data and what information is given to advertisers. "We knew that users find privacy and security really mysterious so we wanted to make it very approachable," said Guemmy Kim, product manager for account controls and settings. Data control has become increasingly important to users in recent years as more day-to-day activity has moved to the Internet. In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked classified documents that showed the U.S. National Security Agency was engaging in mass collection of phone records, placing companies that have enormous amounts of data, such as Google, Facebook and Apple, under increasing scrutiny. Only 9 percent of people in a recent Pew survey felt they had a "lot" of control over their data. Monday's rollout comes on the heels of newly increased app permissions for Android, which Google announced at its annual developer’s conference last week. The new system mirrors the app permissions on Apple's iPhones, which do not allow apps to automatically access numerous types of data, such as location or phone contacts. (Reporting By Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Michael Perry)

Microsoft says Windows 10 available on July 29

Microsoft Corp said on Monday its new Windows 10 operating system will be available worldwide on July 29, as a free upgrade for users of the most recent versions of Windows.The world's largest software company had earlier said Windows 10 would be released this "summer".Touch-friendly Windows 10, which features the return of the Start menu and will run across PCs, tablets and smartphones, is Microsoft's latest attempt to win over mobile users and features a new browser called 'Edge'. It will be offered as a free upgrade to users of Windows 7 and 8.1, a strategy announced in January, designed to capture as many users as possible. Microsoft also said new PCs and tablets running Windows 10 will go on sale July 29, while Windows 10 for other devices such as smartphones would be available later this year. (Reporting by Bill Rigby; editing by Jason Neely)

Japan pension system hacked, over million cases of personal data leaked: NHK

Japan's pension system has been hacked and over a million cases of personal data leaked, Japanese media said on Monday.The data from the Japan Pension System's computers included names and identification numbers, said public broadcaster NHK. The pension system and the welfare ministry would brief reporters shortly, the reports said. (Writing by William Mallard)