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| Proxy adviser Glass Lewis backs Recchi as chairman of Telecom Italia Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:02 PM PDT  Proxy advisor Glass Lewis has recommended that Telecom Italia investors vote in favor of Giuseppe Recchi as chairman of the board when shareholders meet on April 16, it said in a document seen by Reuters. Telecom Italia's largest investor Telco said earlier this month it had proposed Recchi as chairman of Italy's largest phone group. Recchi is a former executive at General Electric and is currently chairman of Italian state-owned oil group Eni. Telco is owned by Spain's Telefonica, Italian insurer Generali and two banks, Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca, and owns 22.4 percent of Telecom Italia. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. top court wary of major change to software patent law Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:56 AM PDT By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices stepped gingerly into a raging debate over computer software on Monday, voicing concerns about vaguely defined patents but signaling they would avoid any radical change to existing law. This may help tech companies fend off lawsuits filed by "patent trolls," defined as companies that hold patents only for the purpose of suing firms seeking to develop new products, but not as much as a broad ruling would. From their questions during an hour-long oral argument, the justices appeared likely to rule, as expected, that patents held by Australian company Alice Corp Pty Ltd for a computer system that facilitates financial transactions were not patent eligible. CLS Bank International, which uses similar technology, challenged the patents in 2007. Full Story | Top |
| Microsoft's Nadella reshuffles senior ranks Monday, Mar 31, 2014 10:32 AM PDT  By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Monday named three executives to its cloud, devices and Xbox gaming divisions in one of new Chief Executive Satya Nadella's first management shakeups. In a public email, the world's largest software maker promoted Scott Guthrie to head of the cloud and enterprise group, the $20 billion division that Nadella helmed before replacing Steve Ballmer as CEO in February. Former Nokia Oyj chief executive Stephen Elop - at one time considered a candidate to replace Ballmer - will join Microsoft as executive vice president of the devices group, reporting to Nadella, after Microsoft closes its $7.2 billion acquisition of the Finnish device manufacturer. Full Story | Top |
| Amazon workers in Germany strike again in protracted pay dispute Monday, Mar 31, 2014 09:04 AM PDT  Hundreds of workers at online retailer Amazon in Germany went on strike on Monday, the first stoppage this year in a pay dispute that has dragged on for months. A spokesman for the Verdi labor union had said that about 500 of around 1,200 workers at Amazon's distribution center in Leipzig were expected to strike. Amazon employs a total of 9,000 warehouse staff at nine distribution centers in Germany - its second-biggest market behind the United States - plus 14,000 seasonal workers. Three of Amazon's German logistic centers were hit by stoppages in the run-up to Christmas, though the company said that deliveries were not affected. Full Story | Top |
| New apps help people avoid unwanted encounters Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:18 AM PDT New apps can help people avoid bumping into others and provide escape routes if they do. By logging on to Facebook and other social networking sites, users can choose people they do not want to see. "Everybody has somebody they want to avoid," said Udi Dagan, chief executive officer of Israel-based technology company Split. The Cloak app for iOS works in a similar way through Foursquare or Instagram, sending a notification if the person comes from within half a block to 2 miles away. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: NSA infiltrated RSA security more deeply than thought - study Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:01 AM PDT  By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Security industry pioneer RSA adopted not just one but two encryption tools developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, greatly increasing the spy agency's ability to eavesdrop on some Internet communications, according to a team of academic researchers. Reuters reported in December that the NSA had paid RSA $10 million to make a now-discredited cryptography system the default in software used by a wide range of Internet and computer security programs. The system, called Dual Elliptic Curve, was a random number generator, but it had a deliberate flaw - or "back door" - that allowed the NSA to crack the encryption. A group of professors from Johns Hopkins, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois and elsewhere now say they have discovered that a second NSA tool exacerbated the RSA software's vulnerability. Full Story | Top |
| Mila sees big firms using web to outsource customer support Monday, Mar 31, 2014 06:18 AM PDT By Caroline Copley ZURICH (Reuters) - Mila, a Swiss peer-to-peer online marketplace for services ranging from IT support to furniture assembly, expects big European firms to turn to such platforms as a cheap way to improve their customer care. Mila has, for example, struck a partnership with Swisscom to help the telecom provider's customers hire a local "geek next door" to solve IT problems rather than calling on the services of a Swisscom technician. Since the pilot launched in Zurich in November, hundreds of members of the public have signed up to become "Swisscom Friends" ranging from tech-savvy students and the unemployed to IT professionals who want to make extra cash. Swisscom vets these freelance tech workers, but does not pay them. Full Story | Top |
| Telecoms firms brace for EU 'net neutrality' vote to limit service fees Monday, Mar 31, 2014 04:45 AM PDT By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European lawmakers will vote on proposals this week that could severely curtail the ability of telecoms operators to mine a potentially lucrative source of revenue - charging content providers more to deliver their services at faster speeds. The EU recommendations would enshrine net neutrality, which means Internet service providers must treat all traffic equally regardless of the source or content, in European Union law applicable across 28 countries. They would also set restrictions on the kind of online services for which Internet providers can charge extra. The European Parliament will vote on the recommendations at noon on Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Intel invested $740 million to buy 18 percent of Cloudera Monday, Mar 31, 2014 04:02 AM PDT  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp's investment in Cloudera announced last week amounts to $740 million and gives the chipmaker an 18 percent stake in the distributor of software for crunching Big Data, Cloudera said in a press release on Monday. In the release, Cloudera announced the completion of a $900 million round of funding, which it said includes Intel's previously undisclosed stake and another $160 million that was announced earlier in March from T Rowe Price, Google Ventures and others. Intel said last Thursday it had made a "significant" investment in Cloudera and that it would make the fast-growing startup its preferred distributor of "Hadoop" data management software. As part of the deal, Intel will transition away from its own customized version of Hadoop that it had been promoting as optimal for Intel server chips. Full Story | Top |
| China's Huawei aims to double last year's record revenue by 2018 Monday, Mar 31, 2014 02:33 AM PDT  By Yimou Lee and Paul Carsten SHENZHEN/BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has targeted 2018 revenue almost double the record reaped last year when the company booked 34 percent profit growth and became the world's third-biggest smartphone manufacturer. Smartphones last year contributed the most to revenue growth in yuan terms and are likely to feature prominently in reaching a revenue target which translates as roughly 10 percent annual growth. Huawei also missed its smartphone sales target as local peers Lenovo Group and ZTE Corp pursued similar strategies to close the gap with leaders Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co. "In 2014, we are aiming our sales efforts at improving our branding image," Eric Xu, Huawei's rotating and current chief executive, said on Monday. "At the same time, we are going to build our (smartphone) product portfolio in the mid-range and high level," Xu said after the unlisted company released audited earnings results. Full Story | Top |
| China hopes U.S. matches words with policy on cybersecurity Monday, Mar 31, 2014 02:27 AM PDT China's Foreign Ministry on Monday it welcomed comments by the U.S. defense chief saying the United States would exercise restraint in using the military in cyberspace, but added Beijing hoped Washington would match its words with actual policy. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, pushing for openness ahead of a trip to China next month, said the Pentagon sought to be "open and transparent" about its cyber capabilities and intentions with both allies and competitors. He also urged other nations to exercise restraint in cyberspace, saying the United States wanted to promote the qualities of the Internet that have made it a "catalyst for freedom and prosperity". Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that China paid great attention to Hagel's comments and also believes the Internet should be used for promoting development and people's wellbeing. Full Story | Top |
| Samsung Electronics' mobile head paycheck hits $5.8 million, beating Apple's Cook Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:59 AM PDT  Head of Samsung Electronics Co's mobile business, J.K. Shin, received a $5.8 million compensation package last year, beating the paycheck of his counterpart at U.S. rival Apple Inc, the South Korean firm said on Monday in its first such disclosure under new regulations. By comparison, Apple chief executive Tim Cook received $4.25 million in 2013, little changed from the previous year when he had been paid $4.17 million. Shin, who has led Samsung's mobile business since 2009, has since overseen the launch of its flagship Galaxy handsets that helped it unseat Apple in the smartphone market and also sparked patent litigations the world over that claimed Samsung copied the look and feel of the U.S. firm's iconic mobile products. Samsung's other co-chief executive Kwon Oh-hyun, who leads the component business, earned even more, taking 6.77 billion won home, while third co-CEO Yoon Boo-keun, the head of its consumer electronics business, received 5.09 billion won. Full Story | Top |
| China's Huawei 'maintained calm' during NSA hacking reports Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 10:24 PM PDT  China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd "maintained calm" and operated "business as usual" after media reports saying the U.S. accessed servers at the telecom giant's Shenzhen headquarters, acting Chief Executive Eric Xu said on Monday. Earlier this month, the New York Times and Der Spiegel cited documents leaked by former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden as saying the National Security Agency obtained sensitive data and monitored Huawei executives' communications. "I think it will take a lot of effort to address (allegations that Huawei has the capacity to spy)." (Reporting by Yimou Lee in SHENZHEN; Full Story | Top |
| Alibaba invests $692 million in Chinese department store operator Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 09:24 PM PDT  By Elzio Barreto HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd agreed to invest $692 million in a Chinese department store operator as the e-commerce giant looks to bring the benefits and convenience of online shopping to customers who visit real bricks-and-mortar stores. Alibaba, whose businesses will come under investor scrutiny ahead of the group's planned mega IPO in the United States this year, said it will buy $214 million worth of shares in Hong Kong-listed Intime Retail (Group) Co Ltd. It also agreed to acquire $478 million of convertible bonds, which would give Alibaba a 26.1 percent stake in the department store operator once the bonds are converted into shares in three years. In recent months Alibaba has gone on a shopping spree, spending more than $2.7 billion to expand into media, chat services and mapping technology. The expansion has encroached on the turf of social networking giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, which has in turn made inroads into Alibaba's territory with its partnership with China's No.2 online retailer JD.com. Full Story | Top |
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