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2Jan By reutersNo Comments

CHINA

LeEco Founder Defies China Return Order, Stays In U.S. For Car Fundraising

The founder of debt-laden tech conglomerate LeEco has defied orders from Chinese regulators to return to the country before end-2017, saying he needed to stay in the United States as a fundraising for his electric car startup was making progress. The Beijing branch of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued a notice last week ordering LeEco CEO Jia Yueting to return to China to sort out a mounting debt pile linked to his firms and protect investors’ rights. Jia said in a statement that he had asked his brother, Jia Yuemin, to meet the regulator face-to-face last Friday to provide a report after the notice was issued. “I am deeply sorry and blame myself for the negative impact of LeEco’s debt crisis,” he said in the statement that was posted on his official WeChat ...

2Jan By reutersNo Comments

CHINA

China’s WeChat Denies Storing User Chats

Tencent Holdings’ WeChat, China’s most popular messenger app, on Tuesday denied storing users’ chat histories, after a top businessman was quoted in media reports as saying he believed Tencent was monitoring everyone’s account. “WeChat does not store any users’ chat history. That is only stored in users’ mobiles, computers and other terminals,” WeChat said in a post on the social media platform. “WeChat will not use any content from user chats for big data analysis. Because of WeChat’s technical model that does not store or analyse user chats, the rumour that ‘we are watching your WeChat everyday’ is pure misunderstanding.” Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holdings, owner of the Volvo car brand, was quoted in Chinese media on Monday as saying Tencent Chairman Ma Huateng “must be watchi...

Apple Apologizes After Outcry Over Slowed iPhones

30Dec By reutersNo Comments

News

Apple Apologizes After Outcry Over Slowed iPhones

Facing lawsuits and consumer outrage after it said it slowed older iPhones with flagging batteries, Apple Inc is slashing prices for battery replacements and will change its software to show users whether their phone battery is good. In a posting on its website Thursday, Apple apologized over its handling of the battery issue and said it would make a number of changes for customers “to recognize their loyalty and to regain the trust of anyone who may have doubted Apple’s intentions.” Apple made the move to address concerns about the quality and durability of its products at a time when it is charging $999 for its newest flagship model, the iPhone X. The company said it would cut the price of an out-of-warranty battery replacement from $79 to $29 for an iPhone 6 or later, starting ...

Ukraine Kidnappers Free Bitcoin Analyst After $1M Ransom Paid

30Dec By reutersNo Comments

News

Ukraine Kidnappers Free Bitcoin Analyst After $1M Ransom Paid

Kidnappers in Ukraine have released an employee at a United Kingdom-registered cryptocurrency exchange after getting more than $1 million in bitcoins as ransom, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister told Reuters on Friday. Pavel Lerner, a leading analyst and blockchain expert, was abducted by unknown masked people on Dec. 26, according to a statement by his company, EXMO Finance, on its website. “This is the first such case in Ukraine linked to bitcoins,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, said in a phone text message. It was unclear who paid the ransom. Lerner’s work at EXMO did not involve access to the financial assets of its users, the company said, adding that the platform was operating normally. “At the moment, he is safe, and ther...

Reliance Jio To Buy RCom’s Wireless Assets In $3.75B Deal: Sources

29Dec By reutersNo Comments

BUSINESS

Reliance Jio To Buy RCom’s Wireless Assets In $3.75B Deal: Sources

Debt-laden Reliance Communications has signed a deal to sell its wireless assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm for nearly 240 billion rupees ($3.75 billion), two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. The two companies had announced late on Thursday that Reliance Communications, backed by businessman Anil Ambani, would sell all its spectrum, tower, fibre optic and other telecom infrastructure assets to Jio, which is owned by Reliance Industries and is controlled by Anil Ambani’s elder brother Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest person. They firms did not give the value of the deal. Jio and Reliance Communications, or RCom as the company is known as, did not respond to messages seeking comment on the value of the deal. The sale, if finalised, would mark a big step in RCom’s...

29Dec By reutersNo Comments

CHINA

Huawei’s China Smartphone Sales Chief Detained For Suspected Bribe-Taking

Huawei Technologies, the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, said on Wednesday that Chinese police are conducting an investigation, after the China sales head of its smartphone unit was detained on suspicion of accepting bribes. Huawei, which in recent years has overtaken Apple Inc and others to take the top share of China’s smartphone market but is now under pressure from fast-growing domestic rivals, declined to disclose details of the case. “The authorities are investigating the matter, and we defer to their discretion as to what can be disclosed,” the company said in e-mailed comments to Reuters when asked about the case. “We take our business ethics extremely seriously, and have zero tolerance for corrupt behavior.” It gave no further comment. In an internal memo to st...

28Dec By reutersNo Comments

CHINA

China Temporarily Exempts Foreign Firms From Taxes For Reinvested Profits

China said on Thursday it will temporarily exempt foreign firms from paying provisional income tax on profits they re-invest into the economy, in a bid to stop foreign firms shifting their operations out of the country. The move will help “promote growth of foreign investment, improve quality of foreign investment and encourage overseas investors to continuously expand their investment in China,” the finance ministry said on its website. Analysts say a planned tax cut by U.S. President Donald Trump, which could lead to a repatriation of earnings by U.S. firms, poses a challenge China’s bid to lure foreign investment. The temporary exemption on provisional income tax is retroactive from Jan. 1 this year, which means firms that have paid taxes this year will be refunded. But fore...

Indian Regulator Says Axis Results Leaked, Orders Lender To Investigate

28Dec By reutersNo Comments

BUSINESS

Indian Regulator Says Axis Results Leaked, Orders Lender To Investigate

India’s market regulator ordered Axis Bank on Wednesday to conduct an internal investigation into a suspected leak of financial information and to strengthen its handling of such data, as part of a probe into messages about company results being circulated on private WhatsApp groups. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) order comes after Reuters reported last month that Axis Bank was among 12 companies where messages about quarterly results or other key financial details had circulated through private WhatsApp chatrooms before their official release. The information on Axis Bank, which included key metrics on bad loans and net interest margins, “were either identical or matched closely with the figures” except for one metric, the regulator said in the order, published on...

Apple Faces Lawsuits After Saying It Slows Down Aging iPhones

27Dec By reutersNo Comments

News

Apple Faces Lawsuits After Saying It Slows Down Aging iPhones

Apple Inc defrauded iPhone users by slowing devices without warning to compensate for poor battery performance, according to eight lawsuits filed in various federal courts in the week since the company opened up about the year-old software change. The tweak may have led iPhone owners to misguided attempts to resolve issues over the last year, the lawsuits contend. All the lawsuits - filed in U.S. District Courts in California, New York and Illinois - seek class-action to represent potentially millions of iPhone owners nationwide. A similar case was lodged in an Israeli court on Monday, the newspaper Haaretz reported. Apple did not respond to an email seeking comment on the filings. The company acknowledged last week for the first time in detail that operating system updates...

26Dec By reutersNo Comments

CHINA

Pressure Of Debt Piles Up On LeEco’s Jia Yueting, Summoned To China

China’s securities regulator has formally ordered the founder of indebted tech conglomerate LeEco to return to China and sort out a mounting debt pile linked to his firms, ramping up pressure on the head of the embattled entertainment-to-autos group. The Beijing branch of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said in a notice late on Monday that LeEco Chief Executive Jia Yueting must return to China before Dec. 31 to “fulfill his obligation” and protect investors’ rights. LeEco, an entertainment, electronics and electric vehicles group founded by Jia, has struggled to pay its debts after rapid expansion into multiple sectors sparked a cash crunch, a plunge in the shares of a listed unit and led to multiple defaults. The watchdog said it had previously asked Jia to retu...

26Dec By reutersNo Comments

CHINA

China Closes More Than 13,000 Websites In Past Three Years

China has closed more than 13,000 websites since the beginning of 2015 for breaking the law or other rules and the vast majority of people support government efforts to clean up cyberspace, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday. The government has stepped up already tight controls over the internet since President Xi Jinping took power five years ago, in what critics say is an effort to restrict freedom of speech and prevent criticism of the ruling Communist Party. The government says all countries regulate the internet, and its rules are aimed at ensuring national security and social stability and preventing the spread of pornography and violent content. A report to the on-going session of the standing committee of China’s largely rubber stamp parliament said the authorities ha...

Trump’s Christmas Wish: ‘We’ve Got Prosperity, Now We Want Peace’

25Dec By reutersNo Comments

USA

Trump’s Christmas Wish: ‘We’ve Got Prosperity, Now We Want Peace’

On Christmas Eve, U.S. President Donald Trump took calls from children, asking them what they wanted most from Santa, and revealing what was on his own wish list. One boy wanted building blocks. Another wished for his grandma to get out of the hospital. And as for Trump - who has sent a series of combative tweets since arriving at his Florida vacation home - he said he wants “peace for the country.” “We’ve got prosperity - now we want peace,” Trump told a child named Ryan, who called the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to check on Santa’s progress. Every year on Christmas eve NORAD purports to track the flight of Santa and his reindeer-pulled sleigh, a tradition since 1955 when a department store misprinted a phone number, sending a flood of calls to a NORAD c...