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| 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 |
| China's Baidu defeats U.S. lawsuit over censored search results Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 07:16 PM 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 |
| 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 |
| Yahoo Japan slumps to near four-month low after eAccess buy Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 05:45 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares in Yahoo Japan Corp slumped 10.2 percent to a near four-month low on Friday after it said it will buy mobile network operator eAccess from Japanese wireless carrier Softbank Corp for 324 billion yen ($3.17 billion). "Yahoo is a content provider. What are they picking up spectrum for?" a Tokyo-based senior trader at a foreign bank said. "This is a very much non-core business. It doesn't make much rational sense for them." Yahoo Japan shares were the fifth-most traded on the main board, while SoftBank, down 2.7 percent at 7,604 yen, was the most-traded. ... Full Story | Top |
| Facebook to use satellites, drones to spread the Internet Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 03:25 PM PDT  By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc is harnessing satellite, drone and other technology as part of an ambitious and costly effort to beam Internet connectivity to people in underdeveloped parts of the world. The world's No. 1 social network said on Thursday it has hired aerospace and communications experts from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and its Ames Research Center for the new "Connectivity Lab" project. "Today, we're sharing some details of the work Facebook's Connectivity Lab is doing to build drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the internet to everyone," Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook. Full Story | Top |
| Settlement progress seen in Silicon Valley hiring lawsuit Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 03:16 PM PDT  By Dan Levine SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - Apple Inc, Google Inc and two other Silicon Valley companies are making progress toward settling a closely watched lawsuit where tech workers allege the companies conspired to avoid competing for each other's employees in order to drive down wages. At a hearing on Thursday in federal court in San Jose, California, Google attorney Robert Van Nest said the companies and the plaintiffs have been consulting daily with a mediator to try to resolve the dispute, and that they are making progress. Kelly Dermody, an attorney for the plaintiffs, agreed with the assessment. Trial is currently scheduled to begin in May. The case began in 2011 when five software engineers sued Apple, Google, Adobe Systems Inc, Intel Corp and others over an alleged conspiracy to suppress pay by agreeing not to recruit or hire each other's employees. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Air Force names companies eligible for $5.8 billion IT network orders Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 02:54 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force on Thursday named 12 companies that are eligible to receive orders under a contract valued at up to $5.8 billion for computer network operations and infrastructure. The companies are Centech Group Inc, Epsilon Systems Solutions Inc, Smartronix Inc, SMS Data Products Group Inc, Indus Corp, Technica Corp, Telos Corp, Sumaria Systems Inc, BTAS Inc, American Systems Corp, STG, Inc, and MicroTechnologies LLC. ... Full Story | Top |
| Swedish eye tracking technology firm Tobii plans IPO: report Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 02:50 PM PDT  STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish eye tracking technology firm Tobii, co-owned by chipmaker Intel, is planning a stock market listing which could value the firm at around 2 billion crowns ($309 million), business daily Dagens Industri reported. Tobii, which develops eye-controlled devices that can be used in computer interaction and in human behavior analysis, was founded in 2001 and employs around 380, according to its website. Among its owners it counts U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Amazon aims for TV business with free video streaming: WSJ Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 02:26 PM PDT  Online retailer Amazon.com Inc plans to enter the battle for living-room viewership in the coming months, launching a free, ad-supported streaming TV service, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing anonymous sources. Amazon is likely to stream original, self-produced TV series and perhaps licensed programming for free to viewers, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Amazon did not respond to requests for comment. Earlier on Thursday, Amazon said it will hold a press conference in New York on April 2, a rare move that comes amid rife speculation that it will unveil a streaming device, such as a set-top box, to rival the Apple TV and Google Chromcast. Full Story | Top |
| Tiger Global leads Wall Street pack turning to Silicon Valley Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 01:49 PM PDT By Sarah McBride and Svea Herbst-Bayliss SAN FRANCISCO/BOSTON (Reuters) - As increasing numbers of technology companies defer initial public offerings, one influential Wall Street investor has stepped up to the plate in Silicon Valley. Tiger Global Management, part private equity manager and part hedge fund manager, has emerged as among the most prominent of a growing club of Wall Street financiers now eyeing technology start-ups. They include hedge funds such as Coatue Management and Valiant Capital Management; Full Story | Top |
| Red Hat results shine as subscription revenue rises 16 percent Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 01:33 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Red Hat Inc, the world's largest commercial distributor of the Linux operating system, reported better-than-expected quarterly results as subscription revenue rose 16 percent. Shares of the company rose 4 percent in extended trading. "The fourth quarter was ... highlighted by a record number of deals over $1 million and 24 percent growth in our billings proxy to $565 million," Chief Executive Jim Whitehurst said in a statement. Billings proxy is defined by the company as total revenue plus change in deferred revenue. ... Full Story | Top |
| GameStop shares fall as 2014 forecast disappoints Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 01:22 PM PDT  Video game retailer GameStop Corp on Thursday forecast full-year earnings below market expectations as it is yet to see an uptick in sagging video game software sales, despite robust hardware sales driven by the launches of Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4 consoles. GameStop shares fell as much as 9.3 percent, making the stock one of the top percentage losers on the New York Stock Exchange, before paring losses to close down 4.0 pct at $37.33. ... You're seeing some investors get jittery that maybe it's a structural trend that will continue." In addition to uncertainty around sales of new games, GameStop's used-game business, historically its most profitable, will face new competition from retail giant Wal-Mart, which said last week it would allow U.S. shoppers to trade in used games for anything from groceries to gadgets. GameStop forecast full-year earnings of $3.40-$3.70 per share and revenue growth of 8-14 percent or about $9.76 billion-$10.30 billion. Full Story | Top |
| Sprint in talks with Dish on broadband partnership Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 12:55 PM PDT  By Marina Lopes SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Sprint Corp is in talks with Dish Network Corp on a fixed wireless broadband partnership, the chairman of Sprint Corp told Reuters on Thursday. We are looking at a technology alliance and we are doing some tests together," Masayoshi Son, the billionaire CEO of SoftBank who gained control of Sprint Corp last year, said on the sidelines of a conference in San Antonio. Earlier this month, Son called the U.S. wireless market an oligopoly plagued by slow speeds and high prices and said Sprint could shake up the competition, but it would require a scale that Sprint cannot reach alone. Sprint said in December they are developing a trial wireless service in Texas and Son's comment on Thursday indicates that partnership is still ongoing. Full Story | Top |
| Intel takes 'significant' stake in Big Data startup Cloudera Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 11:10 AM PDT  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp said on Thursday it made a significant investment in Cloudera and will make the fast-growing startup its preferred distributor of software for crunching Big Data. The top chipmaker said its equity investment in Cloudera makes it the company's single largest strategic shareholder and it comes as Intel looks to expand its server business to make up for falling sales of personal computers. Intel said the stake in Cloudera is its largest data center technology investment ever, although it did not disclose the size of the deal. Intel said it will promote Cloudera's Hadoop platform and transition away from its own customized version that it had been promoting as optimal for Intel server chips. Full Story | Top |
| Turkey blocked YouTube over purported Syria leak: source Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 10:55 AM PDT  ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey blocked YouTube as a precaution after voice recordings purportedly of senior officials discussing a potential military operation in Syria created "a national security issue", a source at the prime minister's office said on Thursday. The source said that Turkey was in talks with the video sharing platform and may lift the ban if YouTube agreed to remove the content. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun, Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Nick Tattersall) Full Story | Top |
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