NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Heavily indebted Indian telecoms firm Vodafone Idea (VODA.NS) won some reprieve on Tuesday as the country’s top court gave mobile carriers 10 years to settle government dues, but the company’s longer-term problems are not over. Vodafone I... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s top court on Tuesday gave telecom firms 10 years to pay back dues they owe to the federal government after they failed to make the payment by the January deadline. Telecom providers in India pay the Department of Telecommunication... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) on Tuesday said it would stop Australians sharing news content on its platforms if a proposal to make it pay local media outlets for their content becomes law, escalating tension with the Australian government. Under Aust... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) said it will block news sharing on its platforms in Australia if the government goes ahead with a law to force it, and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, to pay local media outlets for featuring their content on its platfor... More »
(Reuters) – Zoom Video Communications Inc raised its annual revenue forecast by more than 30% after comfortably beating quarterly estimates on Monday as it converts more of its huge free user base to paid subscriptions. Shares of Zoom, which have surged almost... More »
(Reuters) – Facebook Inc said on Monday it is partnering with external researchers to examine the impact of the social media site on society during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The company said findings of the studies will not be published until the mi... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – U.S streaming giant Netflix is ramping up its mobile-only subscription plans in Southeast Asia and expanding local content, senior executives told Reuters, just as arch-rival Disney arrives in the fast-growing market. The world’s biggest ... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian court on Monday fined Google 1.5 million roubles ($20,350) after finding it guilty of failing to block content banned in Russia, the Interfax news agency reported. Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-alphabet-lawsuit/... More »
MILAN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) – When COVID-19 plunged Italy into lockdown, it was decision time at the Verampio power station. The control room, which runs a fleet of hydroelectric plants across the Piedmont region, hard hit by the pandemic, had to be secured to k... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s plan to regulate “non-personal” data has jolted U.S. tech giants Amazon, Facebook and Google, and a group representing them is preparing to push back against the proposals, according to sources and a letter seen by Reuters. A gove... More »
BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – A potential shotgun wedding to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) for TikTok’s U.S. operations provoked an outcry on Monday on Chinese social media as well as criticism from a prominent Chinese investor in TikTok owner ByteDance. The U.S. te... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Zoom Video Communications (ZM.O) will shift to a partner-only model in mainland China from Aug. 23, suspending direct sales to all customers in the region, the company said on Monday. Zoom customers in China received an email on Monday inf... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s competition regulator on Monday accused Alphabet’s Google of misleading consumers to get permission for use of their personal data for targeted advertising, seeking a fine “in the millions” and aiming to establish a precedent. Th... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) total exports from small and medium sellers in India, part of a company programme to export products to global markets, have crossed the $2 billion mark, two company executives said on Monday. Amazon’s “Global Se... More »
WASHINGTON/BERLIN (Reuters) – Finance officials from the Group of 20 major economies on Saturday vowed to resolve major differences over taxing big tech companies and reach a broad, consensus-based solution on international taxation this year. The United State... More »
LAGOS (Reuters) – Oreoluwa Akinnawo is in his element. Lagos’s bars and restaurants are shut and Nigerians are struggling to socialise. The pandemic is his perfect time to find a soul mate online. “The dating thing during this restriction works perfectly for m... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google on Monday said it would spend around $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years through equity investments and tie-ups, marking its biggest commitment to a key growth market. The investments will be done ... More »
(Reuters) – Electric car maker Fisker will go public through a merger with a blank check company backed by private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc at a valuation of $2.9 billion, the companies said on Monday. Reuters reported last week that the specia... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd (6702.T) said on Monday it would halve its office space in three years as it rewrites the way employees work under a “new normal” amid the coronavirus pandemic. The IT solutions company said its roughly 80,000 group employ... More »
LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) – Sixteen banks from Germany, France and three other euro zone countries on Thursday said a “truly European” payments system was expected to be up and running in 2022 to fully digitalise a region where half of all retail payments are sti... More »
OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google upended plans by European media companies to block it from harvesting data about their readers and slash some of its dominance in online advertising, seven people involved in the talks said this month... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp messaging service rolled out a system across Brazil on Monday that will allow users to send money to individuals or local businesses within a chat, attaching payment as they would a photo or video. WhatsApp tested t... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese gaming giant NetEase on Monday announced a strategic partnership with Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment to develop a new “Lord of the Rings” mobile game, bolstering its pipeline following its secondary listing in Hong Kong. Th... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Alibaba Group said its cloud unit aims to recruit 5,000 staff globally from now until the end of this financial year, in areas including network, database, servers, chips and artificial intelligence, it said in a statement on Tuesday. “The... More »
(Reuters) – Logitech International (LOGN.S) reported a 13.6% rise in quarterly sales on Tuesday as more people used its computer products while working from home due to the coronavirus crisis. Logitech said demand accelerated in the three months to the end of ... More »
(Reuters) – China’s Tencent Music Entertainment (TME.N) narrowly missed market estimates for quarterly revenue on Monday as the COVID-19 crisis hurt the company’s social entertainment services business, sending its shares down 4.5% in extended trade overnight.... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Tim Hortons China said Tuesday it received an investment from Chinese tech giant Tencent, as the Canadian coffee brewer seeks to expand in the Chinese market. Tim Hortons said in a statement on its Weibo it will use the funds to upgrade d... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The French government has rejected a request by Amazon (AMZN.O) to tap a state partial unemployment scheme for employees at its six warehouses in the country, a spokeswoman for the labor ministry said on Monday. The e-commerce giant has shut ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s state-supported “StopCOVID” contact-tracing app should enter its testing phase in the week of May 11 when the country starts to unwind its lockdown, a government minister said on Sunday. Minister for Digital Affairs Cedric O, a membe... More »
CHAMBLON, Switzerland (Reuters) – In the battle against coronavirus, Swiss soldiers are using smartphones to test a new contact tracing application that could prevent infections while also protecting users’ privacy. Switzerland hopes to launch the app on May 1... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Starbucks on Monday said it has entered a strategic partnership with investment firm Sequoia Capital China that will see the two companies make strategic co-investments in China’s technology sector. The U.S. coffee giant said in a statement... More »
(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is piloting the use of video conference calls to verify the identity of merchants who wish to sell goods on its websites, in a new plan to counter fraud without in-person meetings in the pandemic, the company said on Sunday.... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany changed course on Sunday over which type of smartphone technology it wanted to use to trace coronavirus infections, backing an approach supported by Apple and Google along with a growing number of other European countries. Countries ... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – U.S. states promoting apps that could prove essential to ending the coronavirus lockdown may be headed for a showdown with the two Silicon Valley companies that control key software on 99% of smartphones over the collection of sensiti... More »
(Reuters) – The Silicon Valley venture capital firm known for its early backing of companies such as Uber Technologies Inc is raising a new fund, but without one of its most prominent general partners, a source close to the firm said on Wednesday. Benchmark is... More »
(Reuters) – International Business Machines Corp’s (IBM.N) clients have shifted priorities toward saving capital in recent weeks because of COVID-19, hitting software sales in particular, new Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said as the company withdrew ... More »
(Reuters) – The coronavirus crisis has seen millions locked in their homes turn to videoconferencing apps, bringing with it question marks over security and privacy and a new verb – Zoombombing – the practice of uninvited users crashing into conversations. Fro... More »
BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s Infosys suspended its full-year 2021 revenue forecast on Monday, joining its software outsourcing rivals in flagging a hit to its business as the coronavirus pandemic freezes client activity in the United States and Europe. Infosy... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – A rift has opened up over the design of smartphone apps to trace people in Europe at risk of coronavirus infection, potentially hindering efforts to curb the pandemic and ease crippling travel restrictions. Scientists and researchers from mo... More »
(Reuters) – The technology arm of Britain’s National Health Service has been working on a mobile phone app with Alphabet Inc’s Google and iPhone maker Apple that the government hopes will help in ending the coronavirus lockdown, the Sunday Times newspaper repo... More »
(Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said on Friday that they will work together to create contact tracing technology that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus by allowing users to opt into logging other phones they have bee... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – A Nintendo Switch video game has been pulled off China’s grey market e-commerce platforms, Reuters’ checks show, after Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong used the game to protest against Beijing’s rule of the Chinese territory. The game, “Ani... More »
(Reuters) – Private equity firm Silver Lake Partners is preparing to seek at least $16 billion from investors for its sixth flagship buyout fund, braving the economic uncertainty of the coronavirus outbreak, according to people familiar with the matter. Invest... More »
(Reuters) – Netflix Inc led rivals YouTube, Amazon Prime and Disney+ with over 59 million installs in the first quarter of 2020, but more time was spent on YouTube’s Kids service as usage boomed following the shutdown of thousands of schools in March. YouTube,... More »
(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp on Friday said it would sell its stake in AnyVision, an Israeli facial recognition startup, and said it no longer would make minority investments in companies that sell the controversial technology. The decision marks a policy change... More »
(Reuters) – Apple Inc and the White House said on Friday that the iPhone maker worked with the Trump administration and federal agencies to release an app and website that will direct users to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control on the disease caused... More »
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc will lower video streaming quality on its platform and on Instagram in Latin America, replicating measures adopted in Europe, to ease network congestion in a region that is starting to feel the grip of the coronavirus. On Sun... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google is exploring ways to use location information to slow the spread of the coronavirus by, for example, determining the effectiveness of social distancing. U.S. Senator Ed Markey, who has long championed consumer priva... More »
(Reuters) – Abigail Disney, grand daughter of Walt Disney Co’s co-founder Roy Disney, slammed a Twitter post showing a huge crowd at Sunday night’s showing of ‘Happily Ever After’, a fireworks show in Florida’s Magic Kingdom theme park. “Are you … kidding me??... More »
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. senators on the powerful judiciary committee on Thursday introduced a bill aimed at curbing online distribution of child sexual abuse material that technology and civil liberties groups said was a... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of ethnic Uighurs were moved to work in conditions suggestive of “forced labor” in factories across China supplying 83 global brands, an Australian think tank said in a report released on Sunday. The Australian Strategic P... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Rakuten Inc plans to set its big data mobile plan at 2,980 yen ($27.68) per month, or less than half of major rivals’ offerings, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday. The company said in a statement it was not the source of th... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – As the new coronavirus spreads in South Korea, private software developers have set up websites and apps to help people track cases and shun places where infected people have been in the hope of avoiding the fast-spreading virus. The governme... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook’s former sustainability chief has launched an organization to help employees at big companies press their bosses for more aggressive policies to fight climate change. Hundreds of companies have committed to reducing emissions... More »
(Reuters) – Twitter Inc said on Thursday that it was testing a new community moderation approach that would enable users to identify misleading information posted by politicians and public figures and add brightly colored labels under those tweets. NBC News ea... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Monday named its youngest president as its new smartphone chief as the firm seeks to defend its lead in the handset market from rising challenges from rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. The South Korean f... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Google, Alibaba and other “Big Tech” companies could be forced to share data on financial services customers with banks and financial technology firms to prevent unfair competition. As Facebook’s plan for its Libra “stablecoin” faces scrutin... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An intelligent robot equipped with emotion-sensing voice detectors was headed to the International Space Station after launching from Florida on Thursday, becoming the latest artificial intelligence-powered astronaut workmate in orbit. T... More »
(Reuters) – Britain’s competition watchdog on Monday said it was probing Google’s $2.6 billion buyout of privately held big-data analytics firm Looker Data Sciences. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was considering whether the deal could hur... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. Army cadets were this week instructed not to use China-owned social media app TikTok while representing the military, an Army spokeswoman said on Friday, amid concerns over the app’s handling of user data. The directive comes after Chuck Schum... More »
(Reuters) – Louis Moore Bacon, the billionaire hedge fund manager whose macroeconomic bets on currencies, interest rates and other securities earned his Moore Capital Management LP double-digit returns over 30 years, will stop investing for outside clients, ac... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s SoftBank Corp (9434.T) plans to merge internet unit Yahoo Japan with messaging app operator Line Corp (3938.T) to create a $30 billion tech giant, as it bags struggling internet companies to bulk up against rivals like Rakuten Inc (47... More »
LONDON/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Prosus PRX.AS held firm on its $6.3 billion offer to buy Just Eat (JE.L) on Monday as it argued the merits of its bid versus one from Takeaway.com for the British online takeaway delivery firm. The one change in the offer published... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Hartmut Braune comes to work in security communications at SAP, he never knows what emergency will land in his inbox. It is a challenging job, compounded by the fact that Braune also coordinates the company’s global Lighthouse Core Te... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Short video-sharing app TikTok has become the latest Chinese firm caught in U.S. regulatory crossfire, with Washington launching a national security review of its $1 billion acquisition of U.S. social media app Musical.ly. The review of Tik... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) unveils its streaming entertainment service, Apple TV+, in more than 100 markets on Friday. The offering will be free for a year for anyone who buys any new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch. The cost for othe... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) has won the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract, the Defense Department said on Friday, beating out favorite Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O). The contracting process had long been mired in conflict of interes... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) has won the U.S. Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud-computing contract, the Defense Department said on Friday, beating out favorite Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O). The contract, called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructu... More »
(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) said in a statement on Saturday that the company appreciates being chosen by the U.S. Defense department (DoD) for the Pentagon’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud (JEDI) contract. “We look forward t... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Gojek CEO and co-founder Nadiem Makarim said on Monday he had resigned to join Indonesia’s cabinet, and the ride-hailing and payments company said two senior officials would jointly take over running operations of the $10 billion firm. Pres... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O), facing growing skepticism about its digital currency project Libra, on Sunday said the initiative could use cryptocurrencies based on national currencies such as the dollar, instead of the synthetic one it initially ... More »
(Reuters) – LeBron James weighed in on the controversy between China and the NBA on Monday, saying that Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey “wasn’t educated” when he sent a tweet in support of protesters in Hong Kong this month. Morey’s tweet of suppor... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – London-based venture capital firm 83North said on Monday it had raised $300 million for a new fund targeting European and Israeli consumer and enterprise technology firms. 83North, former backer of food delivery company Just Eat and Swedish ... More »
(Reuters) – Apple Inc plans to give its feature-length film productions extended theatrical releases before making them available on its streaming TV service, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Friday demanded internal emails, detailed financial information and other company records from top executives of Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Alphabet Inc’s Google, widening the a... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Friday requested information from Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook as part of an investigation of competition in digital markets. The lawmakers in a letter sought information related to Apple’s App Store, whi... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Facebook Inc (FB.O) revealed lofty plans to establish a cryptocurrency called Libra in June, but the project quickly ran into trouble with skeptical regulators around the world. Opposition deepened on Friday, when both France... More »
HANGZHOU, China/SEOUL (Reuters) – Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) new, lower priced iPhone that comes with a faster processor but lacks 5G technology disappointed Asia, where cheaper and feature-packed handsets from rivals are already available. The iPhone 11, launched o... More »
(Reuters) – Office-sharing startup WeWork is pressing ahead with plans to go public despite lukewarm interest in its shares, three sources said, leaving its largest investor, SoftBank Group (9984.T), with a stark choice: take a haircut or pony up even more cas... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – SoftBank-backed ride hailer Grab is in talks to merge OVO, an Indonesian digital payments firm in which it owns shares, with an Ant Financial-backed local peer to build heft and power ahead of archrival Gojek, people familiar with the matte... More »
CUPERTINO, Calif. (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) caught up with hardware rivals on Tuesday by revealing a triple-camera iPhone, and it rolled out a streaming TV service priced at $5 a month, undercutting Disney and Netflix. The announcements came at the compan... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Wirecard (WDIG.DE) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Softbank’s (9434.T) Brightstar and anticipates “significant transaction volume” out of the deal, the German fintech announced on Monday. Under the agreement, digital financial ... More »
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp said on Friday it had scrapped a mainland share offering plan in order to focus on its business development. The company filed an application for a public offering of China depositary receipts (CDRs) i... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Uber (UBER.N) appointed a new boss for Britain and Ireland on Monday just over a month before its licence expires in London, one of its most important global markets where the regulator has previously stripped it of its right to operate. Tra... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s state communications watchdog has asked Google (GOOGL.O) to stop advertising “illegal mass events” on its YouTube video platform, it said on Sunday. Tens of thousands of Russians staged what observers called the country’s biggest po... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House officials and big social media companies met on Friday to talk about how to curb extremism online after two mass shootings last weekend that killed 31 people in Texas and Ohio. After the shootings, U.S. President Donald Trump... More »
DONGGUAN, China/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Huawei Technologies unveiled on Friday its proprietary operating system for smartphones and other devices, as U.S. trade restrictions imposed in May threaten to cut the Chinese firm’s access to U.S. technologies such as An... More »
WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to tax French wines on Friday in retaliation for France’s recent proposal to levy a tax aimed at big U.S. technology companies. Trump had told French President Emmanuel Macron last week that h... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Saturday that France would proceed with taxing revenues of big technology firms and urged the United States not to bring trade tariffs into the debate on how to fairly raise levies on digital services. ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – ROXi Music, the makers of the home-based music streaming device ROXi, said it had chosen investment bank Arden Partners as it prepares for an initial public offering in the fourth quarter of 2019. The offering is aimed at the alternative i... More »
(Reuters) – A proposal to prevent big technology companies from functioning as financial institutions or issuing digital currencies has been circulated for discussion by the Democratic majority that leads the House Financial Services Committee, according to a ... More »
(This July 4 story corrects to remove reference to self-driving push in headline) BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top search engine operator Baidu Inc has joined hands with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp to cooperate on areas related to... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google’s bet on balloons to deliver cell service soon faces a crucial test amid doubts about the viability of the technology by some potential customers. Loon says its balloons will reach Kenya in the coming weeks for its first commer... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday it was adding several Chinese companies and a government-owned institute involved in supercomputing with military applications to its national security “entity list” that bars them from buying ... More »
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Tuesday unveiled its most significant business reshuffle since co-founder Jack Ma announced his pending retirement, as the e-commerce firm looks to bolster its investment focus in the face of sl... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Energy major Total said its new supercomputer – which has propelled it to a world ranking as the most powerful computer in the sector – will enable its geologists to find oil faster, cheaper and with a better success rate. The Pangea III comp... More »
(Reuters) – Two app developers on Tuesday sued Apple Inc over its App Store practices, making claims similar to those in a lawsuit brought by consumers that the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed to proceed. California-based app developer Donald R. Cameron an... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) will roll out commercial 5G licenses “in the near future”, Xinhua said. It did not provide further details. Beijing had granted licenses at the end of 2018 to China’s three sta... More »
(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Sunday it had resolved the network congestion in the eastern United States that affected services in Google Cloud, G Suite and YouTube. Google said it would conduct an investigation of the outage and make appropriate i... More »
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) said on Monday curbs on employees of Huawei Technologies and its subsidiaries have been lifted, and they would be allowed to participate in a peer review process for its research... More »
