| | |
| BlackBerry wins court order against TV host Ryan Seacrest's Typo Friday, Mar 28, 2014 08:13 PM PDT  (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd won a preliminary injunction on Friday to ban Ryan Seacrest's Typo Products LLC from selling a $99 iPhone case after a judge agreed that television host's company had likely infringed on BlackBerry's patents. U.S. District Judge William Orrick in San Francisco said that the Canadian mobile phone maker had established a "likelihood" of proving that Typo infringed its patents, while mentioning that Typo had not sufficiently challenged the patents in question. The preliminary injunction prohibits Typo from the sale of its keyboard, which is a part of the relief sought by Blackberry. "BlackBerry is pleased that its motion for a preliminary injunction against Typo Products LLC was granted. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. judge OKs class action in e-book suit against Apple Friday, Mar 28, 2014 06:27 PM PDT  By Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge in New York granted class certification on Friday to a group of consumers who sued Apple Inc for conspiring with five major publishers to fix e-book prices in violation of antitrust law. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said the plaintiffs had "more than met their burden" to allow them to sue as a group. She rejected Apple's contentions that the claims were too different from each other, or that some plaintiffs were not harmed because some e-book prices fell. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. Full Story | Top |
| Apple, Google lose bid to avoid trial on tech worker lawsuit Friday, Mar 28, 2014 05:17 PM PDT  By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday rejected a request from Apple, Google and two other tech companies to avoid a trial in a class action lawsuit alleging a scheme to drive down wages. Trial is scheduled to begin in May. Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe asked for a judgment in their favor without a trial, arguing that any no-hire agreements between the companies were reached independently, and were not part of an overarching conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, Calif., however, rejected that argument. An Intel spokesman said the company is studying the ruling, and representatives for Google and Apple declined to comment. Full Story | Top |
| Candy Crush brings IPO market back to earth Friday, Mar 28, 2014 04:59 PM PDT  By Nicola Leske NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the weeks leading up to the IPO of King Digital Entertainment, the company's bankers scrambled to persuade investors that the maker of popular online game "Candy Crush Saga" was more than a one-trick pony, according to a source familiar with the situation. On Tuesday, Facebook Inc said it would pay $2 billion for Oculus VR, a two-year-old virtual reality startup that has yet to put a product on the market. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the deal as the social media giant's desire to bet on "the platforms of tomorrow." But for some investors, the deal brought back memories of the Internet boom and bust in 1998-2001, where profitability and other financial fundamentals of companies took the back seat to a raging fad about anything with a dotcom identity, according to the source. Bankers underwriting King Digital's offering had to call in favors with investors who had received large allocations in previous successful IPOs, the source said. Full Story | Top |
| Microsoft beefs up customer privacy policy Friday, Mar 28, 2014 02:31 PM PDT  Microsoft Corp, under fire for accessing an employee's private Hotmail account to prove he was leaking computer code to a blogger, has said it will now refer all suspicions of illegal activity on its email services to law enforcement. The decision, announced by head lawyer Brad Smith on Friday, reverses Microsoft's initial reaction to complaints last week, when it laid out a plan to refer such cases to an unidentified former federal judge, and proceed to open a suspect email account only if that person saw evidence to justify it. "Effective immediately, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property from Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer's private content ourselves," said Smith, in a blog post on the software company's website. "Instead, we will refer the matter to law enforcement if further action is required." Microsoft - which has recently cast itself as a defender of customer privacy - was harshly criticized last week by civil liberties groups after court documents made public in the prosecution of Alex Kibkalo in Seattle federal court for leaking trade secrets showed that Microsoft had accessed the defendant's email account before taking the matter to legal authorities. Full Story | Top |
| BlackBerry revenue plunges 64 percent, shares drop Friday, Mar 28, 2014 01:44 PM 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 Chen faces in turning around the struggling smartphone maker. "John Chen did what John Chen is known for. Shares of BlackBerry, whose share of the global smartphone market was below 1 percent at the end of 2013, rose in early trading but closed down 7.1 percent at $8.41. BlackBerry's Nasdaq-listed shares were trading above $60 in early 2011 but dropped sharply that year, and have not risen above $20 since. Full Story | Top |
| 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 |
| 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 |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment