Qualcomm proposes due diligence, price talks with Broadcom

(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) urged peer Broadcom Ltd (AVGO.O) to enter into direct negotiations on a price for merging the two companies and said they had made progress on regulatory and other deal certainty issues at a meeting last week. Qualcomm maintained that all of Broadcom’s previou...

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Indonesia's Go-Jek raises $1.5 billion as ride-hailing market heats up: sources

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Indonesia’s Go-Jek has raised a higher than targeted $1.5 billion in a fundraising round from a dozen investors including BlackRock and Google, sources said, as the ride-hailing firm builds its war chest to fight deep-pocketed rivals. Go-Jek had planned last year to raise...

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Vodafone's mobile data to be deployed to fight epidemics in Ghana

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Mobile data will be used in Ghana to track and control epidemics, helping prevent a repeat of the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, in a pioneering program announced by Vodafone Foundation on Monday.   The initiative will use aggregated anonymized mobile data to track real-...

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Airbus, Delta, telecom companies form alliance for in-flight internet

(Reuters) - European planemaker Airbus SE and U.S.-based Delta Air Lines Inc have formed an alliance with U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Corp, satellite startup OneWeb backed by Japan’s SoftBank, and India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd to develop in-flight 5G services, the companies said. The allian...

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Ericsson signs China Mobile for industrial internet trials

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Sweden’s Ericsson, the world’s No.2 maker of mobile network equipment, said on Monday the company had signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) with world’s biggest network operator, China Mobile, over the weekend. Slideshow (3 Images) Ericsson Chief Executiv...

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Sony pins hopes on 4K video to revive smartphone sales

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Japan’s Sony Corporation (6758.T) is turning its focus to 4K high-definition video recording in its new Xperia XZ2 smartphone to differentiate itself from rivals that have caught up in camera technology. Unwrapped at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress on Monday, the ...

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Europe seeks power to seize overseas data in challenge to tech giants

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is preparing legislation to force companies to turn over customers’ personal data when requested even if it is stored on servers outside the bloc, a position that will put Europe at loggerheads with tech giants and privacy campaigners. The EU executive h...

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Crypto 'noobs' learn to cope with wild swings in digital coins

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After researching digital currencies for work last year, personal finance writer J.R. Duren hopped on his own crypto-rollercoaster. Duren bought $5 worth of litecoin in November, and eventually purchased $400 more, mostly with his credit card. In just a few months, he experience...

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Fintech Revolut Britain's first digital bank to break even

LONDON (Reuters) - Financial technology firm Revolut has become the first of a new breed of digital banks in Britain to break even on a monthly basis after a swelling user base and a suite of new products helped it bolster revenues in December. Revolut, which has gained popularity with users for che...

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Few phone makers will survive industry's brutal economics: Huawei

BARCELONA (Reuters) - The smartphone industry is bound to consolidate as the heavy investments required to remain competitive mean that, in the long-run, only a handful of firms can make money, the consumer chief of China’s Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL] said on Sunday. Richard Yu, chief executi...

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Nokia phones look to the future, and to the past

BARCELONA/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Seeking to capitalise on their comeback over the past year, the makers of Nokia phones are expanding to include a premium Android smartphone, their first, and a remake of one of its biggest hits of the 1990s, the 8110 “slider” phone. Set up by ex-Nokia exec...

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Samsung launches Galaxy S9 with focus on social media

BARCELONA/SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone on Sunday with an emphasis on visual applications for social media, hoping to attract tech-savvy young consumers to weather a market slowdown. With the global smartphone market set to stay flat or even ...

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Nokia phones to expand to high-end while also striking nostalgia chord

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Seeking to capitalize on a remarkable comeback over the past year, Nokia phones are expanding to include their first premium Android smartphone model, as well as a remake of one of its biggest hits of the 1990s, the 8110 “slider” feature phone. Set up by ex-Nokia ex...

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Nokia CEO sees big 5G rollouts nearly a year ahead of schedule

BARCELONA/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Telecom operators are accelerating their timelines for the roll-out of next-generation 5G networks, lifting Nokia’s confidence of an uplift for its business this year, Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said on Sunday. The telecom network industry, dominated by China&rs...

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Telefonica launches 'Aura' voice assistant in six countries

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Spanish mobile operator Telefonica on Sunday launched a voice-activated assistant, called ‘Aura’, in six countries, using artificial intelligence to interact with its customers. The announcement, on the eve of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, comes a year aft...

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Nokia CEO sees Europe lagging China, U.S. in 5G roll-outs

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Europe does not have the catalysts for rapid, large-scale rollouts for next-generation 5G networks, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri said on Sunday. “Far and away, the U.S. and China activity will dwarf Europe... It is just lower than the rest of the markets,” Suri told the Mo...

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U.S. Supreme Court weighs Microsoft overseas data fight

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A major privacy rights fight between Microsoft Corp(MSFT.O) and the Justice Department reaches the Supreme Court this week, with the justices considering whether U.S. law allows prosecutors to compel technology companies to hand over data stored overseas. The nine justices wil...

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Major firms learning to adapt in fight against start-ups: IBM

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Major corporations are learning to defend against start-ups that threaten their business models, hitting back by adopting the disruptors’ playbook, according to a survey of top executives by computer services firm IBM. The proportion of executives who thought competitors ...

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Cisco says most network gear needed for 5G is ready now and can cut costs

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) said on Sunday it aims to disrupt the wireless radio access market led by Huawei HWT.UL, Ericsson (ERICb.ST) and Nokia (NOKIA.HE) by backing challengers who make more flexible software versions of traditional mobile gear. Cisco, known for making networkin...

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Apple moves to store iCloud keys in China, raising human rights fears

SAN FRANCISCO/BEIJING (Reuters) - When Apple Inc begins hosting Chinese users’ iCloud accounts in a new Chinese data center at the end of this month to comply with new laws there, Chinese authorities will have far easier access to text messages, email and other data stored in the cloud. That&r...

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Dropbox files for IPO of up to $500 million

(Reuters) - Data-sharing business Dropbox Inc on Friday filed for an initial public offering of up to $500 million with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said it plans to have its common stock listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "DBX". bit.ly/2omUnih Dropbox, which st...

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Self-driving cars with "remote" drivers could test on Calif roads in April: DMV

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Self-driving cars that back up their computerized system with a remote human operator instead of a fallback driver at the wheel could be tested on California roads as early as April, the state department of motor vehicles said. Relying on a remote human operator - who could...

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Mobile industry promises smarter everything at Barcelona show

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Two words - artificial intelligence - promise to upstage familiar technology industry themes like 5G, the Internet of Things and virtual reality at next week’s Mobile World Congress, Europe’s biggest annual technology industry gathering. Telecom operators are lookin...

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Google raises price of YouTube TV, adds sports, Turner

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google is raising the price of its YouTube TV online service for new customers as it adds channels from Time Warner Inc’s Turner, National Basketball League and Major League Baseball, the company said Wednesday. Less than one year after launching YouTube TV, th...

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HPE shares soar on $7 billion repurchase plan, upbeat forecast

(Reuters) - Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE.N) rose 7 percent to a record in early trading on Friday after the company unveiled a $7 billion share buyback program, reported strong quarterly results and raised its full-year profit forecast. At least eight brokerages lifted their price targe...

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'Sooner, faster, now' - the companies surfing the e-commerce wave

LONDON (Reuters) - Amazon’s (AMZN.O) assault on the retail industry has brought misery to traditional retailers without a strong web presence. Less well noticed is the patchwork of European companies that are turning the e-commerce revolution to their advantage, supplying online giants with ev...

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Tencent, JD.com buy stakes in Chinese retail chain

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings and JD.com will pay $140 million and $117 million respectively for minority stakes in a Chinese retail chain as China’s tech giants extend their battles in the retail space. A Tencent subsidiary is buying a 6 percent stake in Better Life Commercial Chain ...

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Google starts taking payments for apps via Kenya's M-Pesa service

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Google Play apps and games store has started accepting payments in Kenya through Safaricom’s mobile phone M-Pesa service to boost downloads in a market where many people do not have a credit card. M-Pesa, which enables customers to transfer money and pay bills via mobile ph...

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Easy Ride trial to mark Nissan's first stop on road to taxi services

YOKOHAMA (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co is taking its first steps to becoming an operator of autonomous vehicle services, hoping to break into a segment set to be dominated by Uber [UBER.UL] and other technology firms. While automakers for more than a century have based their business models on individ...

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China's Huawei set to lead global charge to 5G networks

FRANKFURT/HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s Huawei is forging closer commercial ties with big telecom operators across Europe and Asia, putting the company in prime position to lead the global race for next-generation 5G networks despite U.S. allegations it poses a security threat. Huawei’s ...

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