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| Amazon.com workers reject unionization in Delaware vote Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 08:21 PM PST  By Bill Rigby SEATTLE (Reuters) - A small group of Amazon.com Inc technicians at a distribution center in Delaware voted on Wednesday not to join a union, marking a victory for the U.S. online retailer which is strongly opposed to any kind of third-party representation for its employees. The vote was a symbolic test of Amazon's employee relations policies, but did not affect the vast majority of the 1,500 or so packers and shippers who work at the Middletown, Delaware facility, one of more than 40 distribution centers in the United States. "Our employees have made it clear that they prefer a direct connection with Amazon," said Mary Osako, an Amazon spokeswoman, in an emailed statement. John Carr, a representative of the IAM, said Amazon had worked behind the scenes to sway workers. Full Story | Top |
| Citi to replace debit cards involved in Target data breach: NYT Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 07:21 PM PST  (Reuters) - Citigroup will replace all customer debit cards involved in the data breach at Target Corp, the No.3 U.S. retailer, the New York Times reported quoting a person briefed on the bank's decision. The bank did not replace the debit cards sooner because it wanted to minimize disruptions during the holiday shopping season, the newspaper reported. (http://link.reuters.com/ruv95v) Target said last week an investigation found that hackers stole the personal information of at least 70 million customers, including names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. Previously, the retailer said the hackers stole data from 40 million credit and debit cards. Full Story | Top |
| Contractor that vetted Snowden hires restructuring advisers: WSJ Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 06:00 PM PST (Reuters) - U.S. defense contractor Altegrity Inc has hired restructuring advisers as it contends with a debt burden of about $1.8 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Altegrity is the holding company for U.S. Investigations Services (USIS), the nation's largest private provider of federal government background checks that became the focus of congressional scrutiny last year after it was discovered USIS vetted Edward Snowden before he leaked documents about U.S. spying efforts. USIS was also responsible for vetting Aaron Alexis, the technology contractor who killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard in September. Full Story | Top |
| Microsoft pondering Ericsson CEO for top job: Bloomberg Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 05:49 PM PST  Microsoft Corp is considering Ericsson AB Chief Executive Hans Vestberg as a possible successor to outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer, Bloomberg cited sources briefed on the software giant's executive search as saying on Wednesday. Bloomberg did not report on whether the company has reached out to Vestberg, who as CEO of the Swedish firm runs one of the world's largest telecommunications equipment makers. Analysts have discussed potential candidates ranging from company insiders Satya Nadella and Tony Bates to several outsiders. But speculation refocused on internal choices this month after leading external candidate, Ford Motor Co CEO Alan Mulally, took himself off the list. Full Story | Top |
| Yahoo COO de Castro departs; no reason given Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 05:26 PM PST  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc chief operating officer Henrique de Castro, the high-profile recruit Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer poached from Google Inc shortly after she took the helm, will leave on Thursday after about a year on the job. Yahoo did not give a reason for his departure in a Wednesday filing, but in an unusually blunt memo to Yahoo staff obtained by the Recode technology blog Mayer said she had fired him. "During my own reflection, I made the difficult decision that our COO, Henrique de Castro, should leave the company," Mayer wrote in the memo. Yahoo declined to comment. Full Story | Top |
| Marvell says not in talks with shareholder KKR on a buyout Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 04:58 PM PST (Reuters) - Marvell Technology Group Ltd on Wednesday said it is not in talks with KKR & Co on a major transaction such as a buyout, a little over two weeks after the private equity firm reported a 6.8 percent stake. The chipmaker made the disclosure in a filing with the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, where it is defending against a lawsuit by Carnegie Mellon University alleging patent infringement in connection with computer disk drives. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer rejected Marvell's bid to cut $620 million from a $1.17 billion jury verdict against the company. Marvell, in its filing, rejected what it called Carnegie Mellon's concern that the KKR investment might herald "extraordinary corporate transactions" that could threaten the university's ability to collect a final judgment. Full Story | Top |
| AOL surrenders control of Patch in joint venture Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 03:00 PM PST  By Jennifer Saba NEW YORK (Reuters) - AOL Inc is handing majority ownership of Patch, a money-losing network of local news websites, to New York investment firm and turnaround specialist Hale Global in a joint venture announced by the companies on Wednesday. AOL will transfer Patch to a new limited liability company run by Hale Global. AOL will retain a minority interest. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but AOL said it was not financially material. Full Story | Top |
| Apple to refund at least $32.5 million in disputed kids' app purchases Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 02:46 PM PST  By Diane Bartz and Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc will refund consumers at least $32.5 million to settle a longstanding complaint that the technology company billed U.S. consumers for charges incurred by children through mobile apps without their parents' consent. Under the terms of the settlement, announced on Wednesday by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Apple also will be required to change its billing practices to ensure it obtains consent from parents before charging for such in-app spending. "Whether you're doing business in the mobile arena or the mall down the street, fundamental consumer protections apply," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. "You cannot charge consumers for purchases they did not authorize." She estimated that children spent millions of dollars without their parents' knowledge, with one mother telling the agency that her daughter spent $2,600 while playing the game "Tap Pet Hotel." Ramirez said the commission had received "tens of thousands of complaints" from consumers over the unauthorized purchases through apps such as Dragon Story and Tiny Zoo Friends. Full Story | Top |
| Amazon.com's Delaware union vote expected Wednesday Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 01:41 PM PST A small group of Amazon.com Inc technicians at a distribution center in Delaware are voting Wednesday whether to join a union to push for better benefits and safety rules. Around 30 technicians are voting on whether to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). A 'yes' vote, requiring a simple majority of those who cast a ballot, would mean the first union organization of Amazon employees in the United States. Amazon has consistently argued against any sort of union representation for employees. Full Story | Top |
| AT&T CEO says awaiting clarity on U.S. surveillance rules Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 12:34 PM PST  By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc CEO Randall Stephenson said on Wednesday he was anxious to hear details of President Barack Obama's proposals to reform U.S. surveillance programs, hoping for more clarity on the rules guiding the data collection operations. Obama is slated on Friday to unveil proposed reforms of National Security Agency surveillance programs, potentially including its once-secret program to collect metadata of billions of domestic and foreign telephone calls, whose existence was disclosed last year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. A presidential review panel recommended that the controversial bulk phone metadata collection program be reformed by having telecommunications companies or private third parties, rather than the NSA, record and store the data. Full Story | Top |
| Intel launches marketing campaign aimed at cloud Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 08:01 AM PST  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Chipmaker Intel Corp is taking its long-running Intel Inside marketing campaign into cloud computing in a bid to head off competition from smaller rivals designing low-power chips for servers. Intel said on Wednesday that providers of data-center services would begin offering their customers details about the Intel chips used to power their servers - helping those customers make better buying decisions. Intel controls nearly all of the server market and is determined not to cede ground to Advanced Micro Devices and other companies developing energy-efficient server chips based on technology from Britain's ARM Holdings. "Strengthening awareness of the quality, features and impact of Intel technologies within (cloud providers') infrastructure highlights the challenge competing vendors and architectures will have," Intel marketing director Raejeanne Skillern said in an interview. Full Story | Top |
| Norwegian students blow U.S. algebra record away with 5 million equations Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 07:39 AM PST Norwegian students solved nearly 5 million algebra equations in a week long challenge, using an app aimed at popularizing mathematics among children whose maths skills have been steadily sliding in international rankings. Students hoped to just beat the previous record of 40,000 equations set by students in Washington state using the Dragonbox app; "This has been a mind-blowing experience for us," Dragonbox co-founder Jean Baptiste Huynh said as the competition came to an end on Wednesday. Norwegian students were ranked 30th in the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a big drop from 21st just three years earlier. Full Story | Top |
| Novo Nordisk's IT company to look at independent listing Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 07:07 AM PST By Teis Jensen and Shida Chayesteh COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish pharmaceuticals company Novo Nordisk has asked its fully-owned IT subsidiary NNIT to study the possibility of a separate listing on the Copenhagen stock exchange, company officials told Reuters on Wednesday. "We don't think Novo Nordisk are the best owners, and that's why we are looking to see if we can find new co-owners," said Jesper Brandgaard, chief financial officer at Novo Nordisk and chairman of NNIT. "Novo Nordisk's main activity is to sell pharmaceutical products, which is not a main activity for us," he said. NNIT financial officer Carsten Thomsen said the study was prompted by the fact that NITT's revenues from clients outside Novo Nordisk should reach about 50 percent this year. Full Story | Top |
| Google to appeal French fine over data privacy Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 06:59 AM PST  PARIS (Reuters) - Google will appeal against a 150,000 euro ($205,300) fine issued by France's data-protection watchdog over how user information is tracked and stored, the U.S. search engine said on Wednesday. The privacy watchdog, known as CNIL, had objected to Google's method of combining data collected on individual users across services such as YouTube, Gmail and social network Google+. The move towards broad storage was introduced by Google in March 2012 and combined 60 privacy policies into one. ... Full Story | Top |
| Marvell loses bid to reduce $1.17 billion U.S. patent verdict Wednesday, Jan 15, 2014 06:53 AM PST Marvell Technology Group Ltd has failed to convince a federal judge to reduce by more than half a $1.17 billion jury verdict for infringing two hard disk drive patents held by Carnegie Mellon University. U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer in Pittsburgh, where Carnegie Mellon is based, on Tuesday denied Marvel's bid to cut about $620 million from the award on the basis that the university unreasonably delayed pursuing its claims for patent infringement. Marvell had contended that Carnegie Mellon had constructive knowledge of the allegedly infringing products six years before the lawsuit was filed in March 2009. Carnegie Mellon countered that it had at most heard "rumors" or "suspicions" that its patents were being infringed. Full Story | Top |
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