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| SEC says shuts cloud computing scam targeting Asians, Hispanics Friday, Mar 28, 2014 11:56 AM PDT  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said it has shut down a worldwide pyramid scheme that falsely promised fast gains to tens of thousands of Asian-American, Hispanic and foreign investors from cloud computing services. A federal judge on Thursday granted the regulator's request for an asset freeze over entities operating as WCM and WCM777, which are based near Los Angeles and in Hong Kong and run by Ming Xu of Temple City, California. WCM and WCM777 allegedly raised more than $65 million since March 2013 by promising people they could double their money in 100 days by investing between $399 and $1,999 in cloud services such as website hosting, data storage and software support. Full Story | Top |
| French watchdog calls for more transparent SFR bid talks Friday, Mar 28, 2014 11:55 AM PDT  French market regulator AMF has asked Vivendi, cable firm Numericable, its parent Altice and rival bidder Bouygues for more transparency in their talks over a takeover of Vivendi's telecom unit SFR. The bidding war for SFR, France's second-largest mobile operator, has been raging for over a month. Vivendi has already begun exclusive talks with Numericable that are due to last until April 4, but Bouygues hit back last week with an improved offer for SFR. Full Story | Top |
| Chairman candidate says Telecom Italia must act as true public company Friday, Mar 28, 2014 11:38 AM PDT  By Lisa Jucca MILAN (Reuters) - Giuseppe Recchi, the frontrunner to become chairman of Telecom Italia, said Italy's largest telecoms group by market value must act as a true public company and as chairman he would represent all shareholders equally. In his first interview since he became a candidate for the post, Recchi, who will leave his job as chairman of oil major Eni if elected by Telecom Italia shareholders on April 16, said he would ensure good corporate governance practices. The board of Telecom Italia, which has competitor Telefonica and three Italian financial institutions as its core shareholders, has been accused by investors of not caring for the interest of smaller shareholders. Full Story | Top |
| Amazon.com says not planning free TV service Friday, Mar 28, 2014 11:02 AM PDT  By Deepa Seetharaman SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has no plan to offer a free streaming TV service, a spokeswoman said on Friday following a report that the online retailer might turn up the heat against Netflix and Hulu. Speculation about Amazon's plans for its TV service, including the possibility that it could launch its own streaming device, has increased ahead of a news conference in New York next week. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the online retailer was considering a free, add-supported streaming TV and music service. Amazon spokeswoman Sally Fouts said no such plan was in the works. Full Story | Top |
| BlackBerry loss less than feared, but revenue plunge worries Friday, Mar 28, 2014 10:13 AM PDT  By Euan Rocha and Allison Martell TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd reported a smaller-than-expected loss on Friday as new chief executive John Chen slashed costs, but a 64 percent drop in revenue underscored the challenge he faces in turning around the struggling smartphone maker. "John Chen did what John Chen is known for. Shares of BlackBerry, whose global smartphone market share was below 1 percent at the end of 2013, rose in early trading but were down 0.8 percent at $8.97 midday. BlackBerry's Nasdaq-listed shares were trading above $60 in early 2011 but dropped sharply that year, and have not touched above $20 since. Full Story | Top |
| Italy sells Jaguars, Maseratis on eBay to cut costs Friday, Mar 28, 2014 07:40 AM PDT  By Naomi O'Leary ROME (Reuters) - Italy's government is selling off scores of official cars including Jaguars and Maseratis, on online auction site eBay, as it strives to show it is responding to public pressure to cut spending and the privileges of the powerful. A total of 151 vehicles, including 40 BMWs, are up for sale - a fraction of a 60,000-strong fleet owned by Italy's public bodies that the state estimates costs more than 1 billion euros ($1.37 billion) a year to run. The auction is unlikely to make a dent in Italy's 2 trillion euro debt. But it is widely seen as a highly visible and symbolic move by new Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico regulator probes internet market after monopoly complaint Friday, Mar 28, 2014 07:08 AM PDT Mexico's new telecommunications regulator IFT said on Friday it had opened a probe into possible monopolistic practices in the country's internet services market following a complaint, the federal government's official gazette said. The IFT also said it is also probing the distribution and sales of content transmitted domestically by internet and pay television companies. Billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil dominates Mexico's telecoms market, and is a major player in internet via its fixed line operator Telmex and mobile operator Telcel. Broadcaster Televisa also dominates cable-based pay television and internet services. Full Story | Top |
| New BlackBerry phones to cater to keyboard aficionados: CEO Friday, Mar 28, 2014 04:49 AM PDT By Euan Rocha TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd plans to introduce high-end smartphones that cater to keyboard aficionados in the coming 18 months, in an effort to win back core corporate and government clients who have shunned the company's touch-screen devices. Chief Executive John Chen said in an interview that the company's engineers have designed at least three different next-generation handsets that are being "kicked around right now." "The focus is going to be very keyboard centric," said Chen, the former Sybase CEO who took the reins of the Canadian company just over four months ago. Chen, viewed by tech industry insiders as a turnaround artist, wants BlackBerry to zero in on its core base of corporate and government clients, and on its services arm, which secures mobile devices on the internal networks of big clients. BlackBerry reported a fiscal fourth-quarter loss on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| GN Store Nord's iPhone hearing aid boosts U.S. customer base Friday, Mar 28, 2014 04:00 AM PDT Danish hearing aids group GN Store Nord has seen a jump in its U.S. costumer base following the launch of a new product developed jointly with Apple for the iPhone, the company told analysts at an industry conference in Orlando. GN Store Nord obtained at least 20 percent more new costumers in the United States in the first two weeks of March compared to same period in February, thanks to their launch of Resound Linx late February. Resound Linx is a hearing aid packed with bluetooth-like technology that installed in the ear allows users to stream voice and music from their iPhones. "The first data indicates that Resound Linx has been very well received in the U.S. Market," head of investor relations Michael Bjergby told Reuters on Friday, after the presentation which analysts from both Danske Bank and Nordea called 'very bullish'. Full Story | Top |
| China says hacking attacks soar in 2013, U.S. partly to blame Friday, Mar 28, 2014 03:31 AM PDT Hacking attacks on Chinese computers in 2013 rose by more than half compared with the previous year, with attacks coming from the United States making up a significant proportion, China's top Internet security agency said on Friday. Beijing and Washington have been squaring off for months over the issue of cyber attacks, each accusing the other of hacking into sensitive government websites. China has long singled out the United States as the top source of intrusion on its computers. China's National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Centre, said the country's Internet faced "many security threats", creating a "challenge" for China's overall security. Full Story | Top |
| Journalists, media under attack from hackers: Google researchers Friday, Mar 28, 2014 02:48 AM PDT  By Jeremy Wagstaff SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Twenty-one of the world's top-25 news organizations have been the target of likely state-sponsored hacking attacks, according to research by two Google security engineers. While many internet users face attacks via email designed to steal personal data, journalists were "massively over-represented" among such targets, said Shane Huntley, a security software engineer at Google. The attacks were launched by hackers either working for or in support of a government, and were specifically targeting journalists, Huntley and co-author Morgan Marquis-Boire said in interviews. Their paper was presented at a Black Hat hackers conference in Singapore on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| Sony names new chief financial officer, Masaru Kato to step down Friday, Mar 28, 2014 02:10 AM PDT  Sony Corp, which is struggling to bring its electronics division into the black, said on Friday it would appoint Kenichiro Yoshida as new chief financial officer on April 1, replacing Masaru Kato. "After discussing the matter over the last four months, we decided it would be appropriate to appoint Yoshida at the beginning of the new financial year," said Sony spokeswoman Yo Kikuchi. "We had already been considering a succession plan and Yoshida had been appointed deputy CFO last December 1." Yoshida joined the company in 1983 and previously worked for So-net, a Japanese Internet service provider owned by Sony. Full Story | Top |
| China's Baidu defeats U.S. lawsuit over censored search results Friday, Mar 28, 2014 01:32 AM PDT  By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chinese Internet company Baidu Inc on Thursday won the dismissal of a U.S. lawsuit by pro-democracy activists who complained that Baidu illegally suppressed political speech on China's most widely used Internet search engine. Eight New York writers and video producers had accused Baidu of creating search engine algorithms, at the behest of China, to block users in the United States from viewing articles, videos and other information advocating greater democracy in China. The plaintiffs said this kept Baidu users from seeing their work, unlike users of other search engines such as Google and Microsoft's Bing. Full Story | Top |
| Microsoft CEO signals new course with Office for iPad Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 08:24 PM PDT  By Gerry Shih and Bill Rigby SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp's new Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella, finally unveiled Office for Apple Inc's iPad in a polished debut that set him apart from his energetic predecessor while signaling his plans to make mobile apps the top priority at the world's largest software company. At a news conference Thursday, executives demonstrated a new "touch-first" version of Office crafted for the iPad, available for download as a free app, though a subscription is needed to let users create or edit documents rather than just read them. Significantly, they did not demonstrate any software on Windows machines, telegraphing a departure from former Chief Executive Steve Ballmer's focus on the personal computer operating software and its own devices. "Their absence speaks volumes," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets. Full Story | Top |
| Twitter to launch mobile advertising product for apps: report Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 05:59 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Twitter Inc plans to release a mobile-advertising product in the next few weeks that will allow app-makers to encourage downloads of their software, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. The format will lead users to the advertiser's page in a mobile app store where they can download the software, Bloomberg said. There had been speculation that Twitter and other internet firms would try their hand at this sort of marketing, which has proven lucrative for Facebook. ... Full Story | Top |
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