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| HP agrees to pay $57 million to settle shareholder lawsuit Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:41 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co agreed to pay $57 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the personal computer maker's former management of defrauding shareholders by abandoning a business model it had long touted. The lawsuit was filed after former Chief Executive Leo Apotheker shocked investors on August 18, 2011 by announcing plans to refocus the company on business services and products. He also revealed plans to scrap WebOS, whose rights HP had obtained when it bought Palm Inc in 2010; pay $11. ... Full Story | Top |
| New iPhone 6 screens to enter production as early as May: sources Monday, Mar 31, 2014 08:35 PM PDT  By Reiji Murai TOKYO (Reuters) - Apple Inc suppliers will begin mass producing displays as early as May for the next iPhone, expected to be launched this autumn, with a 4.7-inch screen likely to be produced first while a 5.5-inch version could be delayed, supply chain sources said. Japan Display Inc, Sharp Corp and South Korea's LG Display Co Ltd have all been tapped to make the screens, said the sources, who asked not to be identified. Representatives for the three suppliers and for Apple declined to comment. Both iPhone 6 screens will be larger than the 4.0-inch panels on Apple's existing iPhone 5S and 5C models. Full Story | Top |
| OkCupid urges boycott of Mozilla, cites CEO's gay marriage views Monday, Mar 31, 2014 06:14 PM PDT  By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - OkCupid.com, the popular online dating site, called for a boycott of Mozilla Firefox to protest the world's No. 2 Web browser naming a gay marriage opponent as chief executive. OkCupid visitors who accessed the website through Firefox on Monday were told in a message to use other browsers such as Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer or Google Inc's Chrome. "Mozilla's new CEO, Brendan Eich, is an opponent of equal rights for gay couples," the message said. "We would therefore prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid." "Especially in the kind of modern hero culture, the CEO is equivalent to the company," said Christian Rudder, an OkCupid co-founder. Full Story | Top |
| Samsung Electronics' mobile head paycheck hits $5.8 million, beating Apple's Cook Monday, Mar 31, 2014 05:16 PM PDT  The 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 litigation 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 6.77 billion won, while third co-CEO Yoon Boo-keun, the head of its consumer electronics business, received 5.09 billion won. Full Story | Top |
| Yahoo in talks to buy News Distribution Network for $300 million: report Monday, Mar 31, 2014 02:32 PM PDT  Yahoo Inc is in preliminary talks to acquire online video service News Distribution Network for $300 million, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The deal could further Yahoo's efforts to bolster its online video programming and video advertising revenue, according to the report, which cited anonymous sources. Yahoo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. NDN spokeswoman Krystal Olivieri was quoted in the Wall Street Journal story as stating that the company was not in talks to be acquired by Yahoo. Full Story | Top |
| Telus names new CEO, Entwistle stays on as executive chairman Monday, Mar 31, 2014 12:57 PM PDT  By Alastair Sharp TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian telecommunications company Telus Corp shuffled its top ranks on Monday, with Chief Executive Officer Darren Entwistle set to become executive chairman and long-time lieutenant Joe Natale due to replace him. Analysts were broadly positive about the promotion of Natale, who is currently Telus' chief commercial officer, though Entwistle is expected to remain active in his new role. ... Full Story | Top |
| 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 |
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