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| Man called Bitcoin's father denies ties, leads LA car chase Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 07:07 PM PST  By Aron Ranen and Brandon Lowrey TEMPLE CITY, California (Reuters) - A Japanese American man thought to be the reclusive multi-millionaire father of Bitcoin emerged from a modest Southern California home and denied involvement with the digital currency before leading reporters on a freeway car chase to the local headquarters of the Associated Press. Satoshi Nakamoto, a name known to legions of bitcoin traders, practitioners and boosters around the world, appeared to lose his anonymity on Thursday after Newsweek published a story that said he lived in Temple City, California, just east of Los Angeles. Newsweek included a photograph and a described a short interview, in which Nakamoto said he was no longer associated with Bitcoin and that it had been turned over to other people. The magazine concluded that the man was the same Nakamoto who founded Bitcoin. Full Story | Top |
| Bitcoin true believers unfazed by losses in Mt. Gox collapse Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 07:07 PM PST By Kevin Krolicki and Nathan Layne TOKYO (Reuters) - Like other bitcoin evangelists, Ken Shishido is ready to write off the money he lost in the bankruptcy of Tokyo-based virtual currency exchange Mt. Gox as the price of revolutionizing global finance. "In the early days of the automobile, there were traffic accidents because you didn't have traffic lights or pedestrian crossings," he said hours after Mt. Gox said on Friday it had lost up to half a billion dollars of investor funds, including some of his own. "But we didn't ban automobiles." Shishido, who lives in Tokyo, was one of about 1,000 investors in Japan who became creditors in Mt. Gox's bankruptcy when the company capped a tumultuous period of weeks by filing for bankruptcy on Friday. He lost about a tenth of his investment in bitcoin in Mt. Gox, he said, and expected none of that money to come back. Full Story | Top |
| Japan says not fully apprised of bitcoin situation Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 05:24 PM PST  Japan's government said it was not yet fully apprised of the situation around bitcoins, showing it was still struggling to determine its approach to the virtual currency a week after the collapse of Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Friday that the government would act if needed on bitcoin issues. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico regulator decides on dominant players in telecoms, TV Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 05:00 PM PST  Mexico's telecoms regulator said on Thursday it has decided who is dominant in telecommunications and broadcasting, a key ruling widely expected to impose tougher anti-trust measures on the local mobile and fixed line units of tycoon Carlos Slim's America Movil as well as broadcaster Televisa. The Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) said it had approved the imposition of measures to boost competition that include the unbundling of the local loop for the dominant telecoms player, which it did not identify. The dominance ruling is part of a wider telecommunications and broadcast reform approved by the government. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico telco regulator has decided on market dominance: industry sources Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 04:16 PM PST  Mexico's telecoms regulator has decided on market dominance, industry sources said on Thursday, a key ruling widely expected to go against the local mobile and fixed line units of tycoon Carlos Slim's America Movil as well as broadcaster Televisa. A regulatory official said separately that the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) held an extraordinary session on Thursday, and decided on the issues on its agenda. Full Story | Top |
| Man called Bitcoin's father denies any ties, wrangles free lunch Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 02:59 PM PST  A reclusive Japanese American man thought to be the father of Bitcoin emerged from his Southern California home and denied any involvement with the digital currency, before leading reporters on a car chase leading to the headquarters of the Associated Press. Satoshi Nakamoto, a name known to legions of bitcoin traders, practitioners and boosters around the world, appeared to lose his anonymity on Thursday after Newsweek published a story that said Nakamoto lived in Temple City, California, just east of Los Angeles, and included a photograph. In the afternoon, Nakamoto stepped outside and told reporters he had nothing to do with bitcoin but was looking for someone who understood Japanese, to buy him a free lunch. According to a Los Angeles Times reporter, who followed his car, Nakamoto was driven to the Associated Press offices in downtown Los Angeles, where he again denied any involvement with bitcoin. Full Story | Top |
| Sprint networks executive Azzi to quit in new post-Softbank shakeup Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 02:11 PM PST  Sprint Corp's senior vice president in charge of network infrastructure is leaving the company, the latest in a series of executive reshuffles following the acquisition of the wireless carrier by Japan's SoftBank Corp last year. Bob Azzi, a 26-year veteran of Sprint, will leave the Overland Park, Kansas-based company on March 14, according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters. "Bob and Sprint reached a mutual understanding and Bob will be leaving. He is very actively engaged with the team to ensure a smooth transition of responsibility and we wish him well," Roni Singleton, a spokeswoman for Sprint, told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| Head of Sony's North American PlayStation business to step down Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 01:29 PM PST  Sony Corp said on Thursday that the chief executive and president of its North American videogame operations, Jack Tretton, who has played a crucial role in increasing its PlayStation business, will step down at the end of March. Sony said in a statement that Tretton, who has led its North American videogames division, Sony Computer Entertainment America, since 2006, resigned following a mutual agreement between them to "not renew their contractual relationship." "As one of the founding members of the executive team, Tretton played a pivotal role in launching all PlayStation platforms in North America," Sony said in its statement. The division's executive vice president and chief operating officer, Shawn Layden, will succeed Tretton starting on April 1, Sony said. Tretton has worked with Sony Computer Entertainment America since its inception in 1995. Full Story | Top |
| Disney overhauls troubled interactive unit, lays off 700 Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 01:21 PM PST  By Ronald Grover and Malathi Nayak LOS ANGELES/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Walt Disney overhauled its struggling interactive division in a sweeping reorganization that will reduce the number of video games it develops and alter its advertising strategy to focus more on the fast-changing mobile market. As part of the revamp, Disney will lay off 700 employees, roughly one-quarter of the interactive division, according to a person with knowledge of the layoffs. A Disney spokeswoman would not confirm the number. Disney's games and online division has for years been a persistent money loser and a small but significant drag on a corporate empire that spans movie-making and television to cable network ESPN, theme parks and cruise lines. Full Story | Top |
| Icahn says fight for PayPal spinoff just getting started Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 01:09 PM PST  Activist investor Carl Icahn told eBay Inc shareholders in a letter on Thursday he has "not yet begun to fight" to get the e-commerce company to spin off its PayPal payments unit. Icahn, who owns just over 2 percent of eBay, also used the letter to lay out new arguments for the split. He has sparred with eBay management via open letters and press releases since January, when eBay said the pugnacious billionaire had made an unsolicited proposal for eBay to hive off PayPal and nominated two directors to the eBay board. In his latest missive, Icahn said a spinoff "could allow two separate management teams to focus more closely on the core businesses" and could also "provide a more compelling currency to attract top talent to the respective companies." He also said an independent PayPal would find it easier to land strategic partnerships with companies that compete with eBay. Full Story | Top |
| Privacy groups ask regulators to halt Facebook's $19 billion WhatsApp deal Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 12:46 PM PST  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Privacy advocates have asked U.S. regulators to halt Facebook Inc's $19 billion acquisition of messaging service WhatsApp until there is a clearer understanding of how the company intends to use the personal data of WhatsApp's 450 million users. But there's no guarantee that that commitment will hold true once the service becomes part of Facebook, according to the filing to the Federal Trade Commission by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy, both non-profit groups. The complaint asks regulators to investigate the deal "specifically with regard to the ability of Facebook to access WhatsApp's store of user mobile phone numbers and metadata." Facebook, the world's No.1 social network with 1.2 billion users, generates the majority of its revenue by showing ads that target users by age, gender and other traits. Full Story | Top |
| China needs to curb risks posed by booming online finance: former ICBC president Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 11:21 AM PST  China needs to regulate booming online financial services firms to curb the risks they pose to the wider financial sector, the former president of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Yang Kaisheng, said on Thursday. Tens of millions of people have flocked to Internet companies' wealth management products since last year, attracted by interest rates on deposits higher than those the banks offered to customers, which remain subject to a cap of 3.3 percent for one-year savings. Individual savers have not been the traditional target market for China's commercial banks. "If they (online financial firms) are allowed to do whatever they want for too long, the chances that something could go wrong will become bigger and the impact on the stability of financial markets will be bigger," Yang said on the sidelines of China's annual parliament meeting. Full Story | Top |
| Growth in global tablet shipments to slow in 2014: research firm Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 11:10 AM PST  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Tablet shipments will increase this year but at a much slower pace than in 2013 as consumers remain content with the devices they already own, market research firm IDC said on Thursday. Global tablet shipments are set to expand 19.4 percent this year, compared to 51.6 percent in 2013, it said. IDC's prediction for tablet growth in 2014 is 3.6 percentage points less than its previous forecast for the year. Full Story | Top |
| Bouygues bids for Vivendi's SFR to create telecoms powerhouse Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 11:08 AM PST  By Leila Abboud and Matthieu Protard PARIS (Reuters) - French conglomerate Bouygues has made an offer for the telecoms arm of Vivendi that would give the seller a bigger potential payday than a rival bid but take longer to arrive and face more regulatory risk. Bouygues, with interests from telecoms to construction, offered 10.5 billion euros ($14.4 billion) in cash for Vivendi's SFR and 46 percent of the new company in a planned spin-off. A competing bid from French cable operator Numericable included 11 billion euros in cash, granting Vivendi a 32 percent stake in the new company, sources said earlier. A tie-up between SFR and Bouygues would create Europe's seventh-biggest telecoms group by sales. Full Story | Top |
| It's cool to be a geek, EU tells women Thursday, Mar 06, 2014 11:04 AM PST  A lack of women in high-tech jobs is costing the European Union billions of euros, the bloc's technology Commissioner Neelie Kroes said on Thursday, starting a campaign to attract women into a sector that faces a deepening skills shortage. Only nine in 100 European app developers are women and women make up less than 30 percent of Europe's information and communications technology (ICT) workforce, according to figures from the Commission, the EU executive. Figures released by the Commission on Thursday showed the European ICT sector had more than 400,000 job vacancies in February, a figure the EU executive predicts will rise to more than 500,000 in 2015 and more than 900,000 in 2020. But the number studying technology at university is stable for men and falling for women. Full Story | Top |
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