Organic ranchers eye Amazon distribution ahead of Whole Foods deal

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc plans to meet on Wednesday with a dozen U.S. ranchers, seeking to expand distribution of organic and grass-fed meats as it takes over Whole Foods Market Inc, according to the meeting's organizer. Analysts and investors have speculated that Amazon is aiming to combine its e...

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Jana Partners invests in Pandora seeing growth opportunity

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jana Partners has made an investment in Pandora Media Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter, seeing the stock as under-valued with an opportunity to grow its advertising revenue. The size of Jana's stake is unclear. Jana Partners declined to comment. Bloomberg New...

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Digital revolution: student touts prosthetic third thumb

LONDON (Reuters) - "I've only got one pair of hands", is the refrain of overworked office staff or stressed parents everywhere. But now a design student is suggesting that it could be possible to have more, with a prosthetic third thumb to aid productivity. The thumb is the brainchild of Dani Clode,...

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Exclusive: Spotify, Warner hope to clinch royalty deal by September - sources

LONDON (Reuters) - Music streaming company Spotify is close to agreeing a new licensing pact with Warner Music Inc, the last big music royalty deal it needs before pushing ahead with a U.S. stock market listing, four sources familiar with the situation said. The parties are positive a deal could be ...

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Roomba vacuum maker iRobot betting big on the 'smart' home

(Reuters) - The Roomba robotic vacuum has been whizzing across floors for years, but its future may lie more in collecting data than dirt. That data is of the spatial variety: the dimensions of a room as well as distances between sofas, tables, lamps and other home furnishings. To a tech industry ea...

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Samsung takes aim at TSMC with plans to triple chip foundry market share

YONGIN, SOUTH KOREA (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) plans to triple the market share of its contract chip manufacturing business within the next five years by aggressively adding clients, a senior company executive said, as it targets new growth drivers for the chips business. The estima...

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Exclusive: Germany wants more EU sanctions on Russia over Siemens Crimea turbines - sources

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany is urging the European Union to add up to four more Russian nationals and companies to the bloc's sanctions blacklist over Siemens gas turbines delivered to Moscow-annexed Crimea, two sources in Brussels said. The EU has barred firms from doing business with Crimea since...

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Qatari websites unblocked in Saudi due to technical glitch: royal adviser

RIYADH (Reuters) - Websites and some television channels linked to Qatar were unblocked in Saudi Arabia on Monday morning but the change arose from a technical glitch and the restrictions will be reimposed shortly, a key Saudi royal court adviser said. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain...

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Malaysia's CIMB to partner Alipay for mobile payment platform

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, Malaysia's second-biggest bank, on Monday said its subsidiary will form an equity joint venture with Ant Financial Services Group, the parent of Alipay, to provide mobile wallet and related financial services. The CIMB unit, Touch 'n Go Sdn Bhd, will...

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Telecom Italia CEO says Vivendi plan to appoint new executive triggered clashes

MILAN (Reuters) - One of the reasons Telecom Italia's (TIM) CEO Flavio Cattaneo fell out with the phone group's top shareholder Vivendi was the French company's plan to appoint a managing director at his side, daily La Repubblica said on Monday. Cattaneo is expected to leave within days, sources tol...

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U.S. venture capital's digital coin quandary: cash-rich startups

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. venture capital firms lining up for a slice of the burgeoning digital currency market are grappling with a novel challenge - some of the hottest tech startups that sell the coins just don't need their money. Only a few years ago, digital currency entrepreneurs, like other S...

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Grab, Uber's SEAsia rival, to raise $2.5 billion from Didi, SoftBank, others

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Grab, Uber Technologies Inc's biggest ride-hailing competitor in Southeast Asia, said it expects to raise $2.5 billion in its latest financing round that will help bolster its leading position in the region and grow its payments platform. Chinese peer Didi Chuxing and Japan's S...

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Madrid asks anti-trust watchdog to probe Uber's new airport service

MADRID (Reuters) - Authorities in Madrid asked Spain's anti-trust watchdog on Saturday to investigate whether Uber's new low-cost airport transfer service constitutes unfair competition. The city council's request follows the ride-hailing app's return to the Spanish capital last year after the CNMC ...

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Toyota eyes mass EV output in China as early as 2019: report

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is likely to begin mass production of electric vehicles (EVs) in China as early as 2019, the Asahi daily reported on Saturday. The model will be based on the C-HR sport utility vehicle and manufactured for Chinese market only, the report said without citing source...

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Bitcoin averts split as miners back new software upgrade

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin on Friday averted a split into two currencies after its network supported an upgrade to its software that would enhance its ability to process an increasing number of transactions. Bitcoin's miners have signaled their support for the so-called Bitcoin Im...

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Kenya's latest mobile phone bond falls short of target

NAIROBI (Reuters) - An innovative Kenyan bond which is bought via mobile phone had raised far less than the 1 billion shillings ($9.6 million) targeted on Friday, failing to match a previous success. In March, the East African nation became the first country to issue a mobile phone-based bond, which...

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Lyft accelerates efforts to develop self-driving cars

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Lyft Inc has formed a self-driving car division, company executives said, a bold investment for the second-largest U.S. ride-services firm as it jockeys for position in the highly competitive autonomous vehicle race. The executives said on Thursday the company would soon op...

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Half of German companies hit by sabotage, spying in last two years, BSI says

BERLIN (Reuters) - More than half the companies in Germany have been hit by spying, sabotage or data theft in the last two years, the German IT industry association Bitkom said on Friday, and estimated the attacks caused around 55 billion euros' worth of damage a year. Several high-profile attacks h...

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Arista loses bid to lift import ban in Cisco battle

(Reuters) - The U.S. government on Thursday dealt Arista Networks Inc a loss in its technology dispute with Cisco Systems Inc and refused to set aside an order blocking importation of some of Arista's network switches. The U.S. International Trade Commission refused to rescind its May 4 ruling that ...

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MasterCard says $18 billion British class action lawsuit blocked

LONDON (Reuters) - A 14 billion pound ($18 billion) class action lawsuit against MasterCard for allegedly overcharging more than 45 million people in Britain over a 16-year period was blocked from proceeding by a judge, MasterCard said on Friday. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has sided with ...

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Exclusive: Baidu, JD.com to join others investing $12 billion in China Unicom - sources

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Baidu Inc (BIDU.O) and JD.com (JD.O) will join other big Chinese technology firms, including Tencent Holdings (0700.HK), to jointly invest about $12 billion into state-owned mobile carrier China Unicom, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The move is part of ef...

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Exclusive: Baidu, JD.com to join others investing $12 billion in China Unicom - sources

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Baidu Inc and JD.com will join other big Chinese technology firms, including Tencent Holdings, to jointly invest about $12 billion into state-owned mobile carrier China Unicom, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The move is part of efforts by China's governmen...

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FTC probing allegations of Amazon's deceptive discounting

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As part of its review of Amazon's agreement to buy Whole Foods, the Federal Trade Commission is looking into allegations that Amazon misleads customers about its pricing discounts, according to a source close to the probe. The FTC is probing a complaint brought by the advocacy...

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Vodafone reports better-than-expected 2.2 percent growth in firs quarter

LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone, the world's second largest mobile operator, reported better-than-expected 2.2 percent revenue growth in its first quarter, reflecting a robust performance in Italy and Spain and an acceleration in demand in Turkey. The company said the rise in organic service revenue, wh...

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LG Chem to provide Apple's iPhone batteries next year: Korea Economic Daily

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's LG Chem Ltd is slated to exclusively provide batteries for Apple's iPhone 9 which is likely to be launched next year, a Korean newspaper reported on Friday. LG Chem has invested hundreds of billions of won in a dedicated line for the purpose and will produce "L-shaped...

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Microsoft profit beats expectations on strong cloud demand

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft on Thursday reported strong fourth-quarter earnings on the back of its fast-growing cloud computing business, stoking optimism that the once-stagnant company has found a new groove. The results were the clearest sign yet that the strategy put in place by Chief Exe...

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Tech group sides with Apple in Qualcomm's iPhone ban dispute

(Reuters) - A group representing major technology companies has aligned itself against Qualcomm Inc in its legal dispute with Apple Inc by calling on regulators to reject Qualcomm's bid to ban the import of iPhones. A lobbying group that represents Alphabet Inc's Google, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Co...

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Snap under pressure as Wall Street eyes share lock-up expirations

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A potential flood of newly available Snap shares is weighing on Wall Street's already shaky support for the owner of the Snapchat social media app. Snap's (SNAP.N) shares fell as much as 1.7 percent on Thursday as analysts focused on the expiry of lock-up periods starting a...

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Musk says received 'verbal' approval for NY-DC hyperloop, gives no detail

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday said that he had received "verbal government approval" to build an underground transport hyperloop between New York and Washington, D.C., although he did not say who gave the approval or how any such project would proceed. Musk, the outspo...

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Moscow in talks with U.S. to create cyber security working group: RIA report

MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) - Moscow and Washington are in talks to create a joint cyber security working group, Russia's RIA news agency reported on Thursday, citing Andrey Krutskikh, a special presidential envoy on cyber security. "The talks are underway ... different proposals are being exchanged, no...

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