Friday, April 26

Author: reuters

Nest CEO Tony Fadell Steps Down, to Remain Adviser to Google Co-founder Larry Page
News

Nest CEO Tony Fadell Steps Down, to Remain Adviser to Google Co-founder Larry Page

Tony Fadell, a well-known Silicon Valley executive who was once expected to play a central role in Alphabet's hardware efforts, has stepped down as chief executive of the search giant's Nest unit, the company said. Fadell will remain an adviser to Alphabet and Google co-founder Larry Page. He will be replaced at Nest, which makes smart thermostats and smoke detectors, by Marwan Fawaz, who had prior stints at Motorola Mobility and Charter Communications. Google bought Nest in 2014 for $3.2 billion, one of the company's largest acquisitions ever. In a blog post announcing his departure, Fadell said Nest's revenue is growing 50% a year and boasted that "the connected home went mainstream because of Nest." "We've created a hardware + software + services ecosystem, which is still in...
Salesforce Acquires Demandware About $2.8 billion To Enter in E-Commerce Services
ACQUISITION

Salesforce Acquires Demandware About $2.8 billion To Enter in E-Commerce Services

Cloud-based software maker Salesforce.com Inc said it would buy Demandware Inc, whose software is used by businesses to run e-commerce websites, for about $2.8 billion. The deal will help Salesforce open a new front as it looks to take away more market share from traditional software providers such as Oracle Corp and SAP AG, both of which already offer cloud-based e-commerce services. The e-commerce market has been growing at a blistering pace as retailers expand their online presence, boosting demand for software that helps manage functions such as payment processing and inventory management. The lofty premium indicates that there were most likely multiple bidders at the table for Demandware, Stifel Nicolaus & Co analyst Thomas Roderick said, naming Adobe Systems Inc and Orac...
Snapchat Raises $1.81Bn For a Reported $20Bn Valuation
FUNDING

Snapchat Raises $1.81Bn For a Reported $20Bn Valuation

Messaging app Snapchat has raised $1.81 billion in an equity offering, indicating strong investor interest in the company despite concerns that it is struggling to attract advertisers. Snapchat did not disclose its valuation in the latest round of funding in its filing on Thursday but technology website TechCrunch reported on Monday, citing sources, that the company could be valued at about $20 billion. Snapchat, which makes a free mobile app that allows users to send videos, photos and messages that vanish in seconds, has faced concerns that the company's estimated valuation is not justified because of its uneven revenue stream. Investors in this round included General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price, Lone Pine and Fidelity, among others, TechCrunch reported on Thursday,...
Exclusive: Apple Explores Charging Stations For Electric Vehicles
News

Exclusive: Apple Explores Charging Stations For Electric Vehicles

Apple is investigating how to charge electric cars, talking to charging station companies and hiring engineers with expertise in the area, according to the sources. The moves show Apple responding to a key shortcoming of electric vehicles: "filling up" the batteries. A shortage of public charging stations, and the hours wasted in charging a car, could be an opportunity for Apple, whose simple designs have transformed consumer electronics. Apple, which has never publicly acknowledged a car project, declined to comment for this story. Last year Apple was studying a self-driving electric vehicle (EV), as the Silicon Valley icon looks for new sources of revenue amid a maturing market for its iPhone. It is unclear whether Apple would want its own proprietary technology, such as Tesla M...
Microsoft Will Cut off 1800 Jobs
News

Microsoft Will Cut off 1800 Jobs

Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it will trim down its smartphone business by cutting 1,850 jobs, most of them in Finland, and write down $950 million from the operation. The U.S. company, which entered the phone business in 2014 by buying Finnish firm Nokia's handset unit, said it would "streamline" its smartphone business and close down its research and development site in Tampere, Finland. Microsoft said it will continue to develop Windows 10 Mobile platform and support its Lumia smartphones, but declined to say whether it would develop new phones. "We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation," said chief executive Satya Nadella in a statement. We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud services across all mobile platforms." Earlier this ...
Nokia to Cut 10,000-15,000 Jobs Worldwide: Finnish Union
News

Nokia to Cut 10,000-15,000 Jobs Worldwide: Finnish Union

Nokia is likely to cut 10,000 to 15,000 jobs globally as part of a cost-cutting programme following its acquisition of Franco-American rival Alcatel-Lucent, a Finnish union representative said. Nokia kicked off the programme in April with a target to slash $1 billion of operating costs by 2018, but it has yet to give a figure for how many jobs will be reduced in total. "We haven't heard any official numbers, but based on the information from our union contacts, I would estimate the global impact of this round would likely be around 10,000 to 15,000 jobs," said Risto Lehtilahti, a trade union shop steward at Nokia's Oulu site. A Nokia spokeswoman declined to comment on the 10,000-15,000 figure. Nokia employs around 104,000 people worldwide. Last week the company specified its pl...
Can Warren Buffett Backed Bid Unlock Yahoo Growth Where Others Failed?
News

Can Warren Buffett Backed Bid Unlock Yahoo Growth Where Others Failed?

Warren Buffett struck media gold with a 2012 investment in debt-laden Media General Inc. Now the famed investor may try to reprise that success by supporting a bid for Yahoo Inc's Internet assets. The Berkshire Hathaway Inc chairman is backing a consortium that includes Quicken Loans Inc founder Dan Gilbert, that is seeking to buy Yahoo's online portfolio, Reuters reported on Friday. The consortium is in the second round of bidding in the auction for Yahoo's assets, people familiar with the matter said. Buffett is helping to finance the offer, one of the people added. If they succeed, the investment would be a relatively rare foray into digital media for Buffett, whose portfolio is heavily weighted toward U.S. insurers, industrial companies and major consumer brands. Yahoo,...
FUNDING

Apple Invests $1 Billion in Chinese Ride-Hailing Service Didi Chuxing

Apple Inc said on Thursday it has invested $1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, a move that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said would help the company better understand the critical Chinese market. The tech giant's rare investment gives it a stake in two burgeoning waves of technology - the sharing economy and car technology - as the iPhone business that propelled it to record profitability shows signs of maturing. Apple is trying to reinvigorate sales in China, where it has come under greater pressure from regulators, and Cook is traveling to the country this month. The move aligns Apple with Uber Technologies Inc's chief rival in China, as automakers and technology companies forge new alliances and make cross investments. General Motors, for example, recently...
Facebook Loses First Round in Suit Over Storing Biometric Data
News

Facebook Loses First Round in Suit Over Storing Biometric Data

Facebook Inc lost the first round in a court fight against some of its users who sued the social networking company, alleging it "unlawfully" collected and stored users' biometric data derived from their faces in photographs. The judge presiding over the case in a California federal court on Thursday turned down Facebook's motion seeking dismissal of the suit. Facebook filed the motion arguing that the users could not file a complaint under Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) as they had agreed in their user agreement that California law would govern their disputes with the company, and that BIPA does not apply to "tag suggestions." The court found that Illinois law applies and that the plaintiffs have stated a claim under BIPA. The complainants had alleged that Faceb...
Alibaba’s Revenue Rises 39 percent As More Shoppers Buy Online
CHINA

Alibaba’s Revenue Rises 39 percent As More Shoppers Buy Online

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's biggest e-commerce company, said fourth-quarter revenue rose 39 percent, beating Wall Street estimates, helped by growth in gross merchandise volume. The company's American Depository shares were up 3.5 percent at $78.48 on Thursday. Revenue rose to 24.2 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) in the quarter ended March 31 from 17.4 billion yuan a year earlier, beating the average analyst estimate of 23.22 billion yuan. "Whatever they are doing must be working, and most importantly it's a sign that the Chinese consumer may not be weakening quite yet," said Gil Luria of Wedbush Securities. Gross merchandise volume (GMV), or the total value of goods transacted on its platforms on China retail marketplaces, rose 24 percent to 742 billion yuan. "Alibaba represent...
Rich and powerful warn robots are coming for your jobs
News

Rich and powerful warn robots are coming for your jobs

Some of the richest, smartest and most powerful humans have an important message for the rest of us as they convened this week to discuss pressing global issues: the robots are coming. At the Milken Institute's Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, at least four panels so far have focussed on technology taking over markets to mining - and most importantly, jobs. "Most of the benefits we see from automation is about higher quality and fewer errors, but in many cases it does reduce labor," Michael Chui, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute, said on Tuesday during a panel on "Is Any Job Truly Safe?" The four-day annual conference, which began on Sunday, has 3,500 invite-only participants exploring "The Future of Human Kind." Technology has not only done away with l...
Second Time WhatsApp blocked in Brazil, Affecting 100 million Users
News

Second Time WhatsApp blocked in Brazil, Affecting 100 million Users

A Brazilian judge ordered wireless phone carriers to block access to Facebook Inc's WhatsApp for 72 hours throughout Latin America's largest country on Monday, the second such move against the popular messaging application in five months. The decision by the judge in the northeastern state of Sergipe applies to the five main wireless operators in Brazil and affects WhatsApp's more than 100 million users in the country. The reason for the order is not known due to legal secrecy in an ongoing case in the Sergipe state court. In a statement, WhatsApp said the company is "disappointed at the decision" after doing the utmost to cooperate with Brazilian tribunals. The decision "punishes more than 100 million users who depend upon us to communicate themselves, run their business and more, ...