FTC set to make second request on Broadcom's bid for Qualcomm: sources

(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is set to make a second request for information on chipmaker Broadcom Ltd’s $103 billion hostile bid for Qualcomm Inc, people familiar with the matter said on Friday, indicating heightened antitrust scrutiny. The FTC review is part of a process und...

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Amazon boosts monthly fee for Prime by $2, maintains yearly rate

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) raised the monthly fee for the U.S. version of its fast-shipping and video-streaming service Amazon Prime by $2 on Friday, making the case for subscribers to upgrade to an annual plan. It was the first increase of Prime fees in almost four years and comes at the e...

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Amazon raises monthly fee for Prime service by 18 percent

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) on Friday raised the monthly fee for Amazon Prime, its fast-shipping and video-streaming service, to $12.99 from $10.99, while maintaining the annual fee. The company also hiked the monthly subscription fee for Amazon Prime Student members, its service targeting c...

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IBM shares fall on soft profit outlook

(Reuters) - Shares in International Business Machines fell 2.6 percent on Friday as analysts judged a “disappointing” full-year profit forecast showed that the company would take more time to get back on a path of steady growth. IBM’s results call after U.S. markets closed on Thurs...

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Xiaomi to expand store network in Indian tussle with Samsung

MUMBAI (Reuters) - China’s Xiaomi plans to expand its Indian store network as it attempts to grab the lead in a smartphone market which Korea’s Samsung has dominated for more than five years. A little over three years after Xiaomi entered India, its cheap, high-spec handsets have helped ...

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India sends tax notices to cryptocurrency investors as trading hits $3.5 billion

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has sent tax notices to tens of thousands of people dealing in cryptocurrency after a nationwide survey showed more than $3.5 billion worth of transactions have been conducted over a 17-month period, the income tax department said. Tech-savvy young investors, real estate ...

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China targets cryptocurrencies in online pyramid scheme crackdown

(Reuters) - China will crack down on online pyramid schemes, including speculation masked as cryptocurrencies and online games, the public security ministry said on Friday. The ministry will act jointly with the industrial and commercial department to stamp out pyramid-type schemes, besides punishin...

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Huawei founder, top executives to pay $469,000 fine for management oversight

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Top executives of Huawei Technologies Co [HWT.UL], including founder Ren Zhengfei, will pay a self-imposed fine totaling 3 million yuan ($469,000) for management oversight of some quality breaches at the firm, an internal company memo shows. In a notice sent to Huawei staff on ...

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Bitcoin use under scrutiny in Indonesian island of Bali

JAKARTA/KUTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities are investigating the use of bitcoin in the holiday island of Bali, amid warnings by the central bank in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy over the risks posed by virtual currencies, an official said. The probe started after the central...

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Nokia signs its first official 5G equipment deal with NTT DoCoMo

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Finland’s Nokia said on Friday it signed its first major deal to supply new 5G wireless radio base stations to Japanese telecom operator NTT DoCoMo, which boasts nearly half of the country’s mobile subscribers. The contract marks Nokia’s first sizeable deal fo...

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Google announces patent agreement with Tencent amid China push

BEIJING (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Google has agreed to a patent licensing deal with Tencent Holdings Ltd as it looks for ways to expand in China where many of its products, such as app store, search engine and email service, are blocked by regulators. The U.S. technology company has signed si...

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SEC says bitcoin funds raise 'investor protection issues'

(Reuters) - The U.S. securities regulator on Thursday raised alarm about the safety of bitcoin-themed investments, telling the fund industry they want answers to their concerns before endorsing more than a dozen proposed products based on cryptocurrencies. A top division chief at the U.S. Securities...

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South Korean group files complaint against Apple CEO over iPhone slowdown

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean consumer group has filed a criminal complaint against Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook over slower iPhone devices, after probes in Europe into allegations the firm had deliberately shortened the life of its handsets. Apple is already facing lawsuits in the United States and el...

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SoftBank is now Uber's largest shareholder as deal closes

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A group of investors led by SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) closed a deal with Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] on Thursday, making SoftBank the largest stakeholder in the ride-services firm and providing a much-needed boost to controversy-ridden Uber. The deal includes a large...

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IBM returns to growth after six years, but dour forecast hits shares

(Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp’s (IBM.N) revenue rose for the first time in 23 quarters, beating analysts’ estimates, but the company warned that a higher tax rate this year would eat into its profit. IBM’s shares, which have rallied 10 percent so far this year on...

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IBM returns to growth, but shares drop after recent rally

(Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp’s (IBM.N) revenue rose for the first time in 23 quarters and beat analysts’ estimates as the company’s shift into its focus areas such as cloud computing and security services gains traction. IBM’s shares tumbled about 4 percen...

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Amazon's review of Toronto could escalate tension with Trump

TORONTO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc’s inclusion of Canada’s largest city on a list of 20 finalists for a massive new campus could escalate tensions between the tech giant and U.S. President Donald Trump. Amazon said on Thursday that Toronto and 19 U.S. locales made the first cut in a cont...

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Apple to release software update to resolve iPhone slowdown: CEO

(Reuters) - Apple Inc will release a software update that will allow users to turn off a feature that slows down iPhones when batteries are low on charge, Chief Executive Tim Cook told ABC News. Apple will release a test version of its iOS software next month that shows users the health of their bat...

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Senate passes bill renewing internet surveillance program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a bill to renew the National Security Agency’s warrantless internet surveillance program for six years with minimal changes, overcoming objections from civil liberties advocates that it undermined the privacy of Americans. The legislati...

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Fears of global crackdown fail to dampen cryptocurrency interest

MIAMI (Reuters) - Worries about a crackdown by global regulators on cryptocurrency trading could slow the pace of bitcoin’s rise but should not threaten its existence, investors and market participants at a cryptocurrency conference said on Thursday. At the North American Bitcoin Conference in...

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Uber-SoftBank deal has closed, making SoftBank largest shareholder

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A group of investors led by SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) closed a deal with Uber Technologies Inc on Thursday, making SoftBank the largest stakeholder in the ride-services firm and providing a much-needed boost to controversy-ridden Uber. The SoftBank-led deal includes a la...

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Spotify launches visual content in multimedia push ahead of IPO

(Reuters) - Music streaming company Spotify launched a feature that will allow listeners to see stories, news and other content through photos, videos and text, the company said on Thursday, expanding beyond music ahead of taking itself public. The feature, called 'Spotlight', will have content from...

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Senate passes bill renewing NSA's internet surveillance program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a bill to renew the National Security Agency’s warrantless internet surveillance program for six years and with minimal changes, overcoming objections from civil liberties advocates that it did too little to safeguard the privacy of Ame...

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Amazon shortlists 20 cities, including Toronto, for second headquarters

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) has short-listed 20 cities and regions, including Canada’s Toronto, for the construction of a second headquarters that it says will generate 50,000 new, high-paying jobs in a $5 billion investment. Major U.S. centers including New York City, Los Angeles, Chi...

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Eni launches world's biggest industrial supercomputer

MILAN (Reuters) - Italian oil and gas group Eni said on Thursday it had installed new capacity at its supercomputing centre near Milan to create the world’s most powerful industrial computer. The new capacity quadruples the group’s computing power, allowing it to process up to 22.4 quadr...

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WhatsApp inches closer to revenue plan with accounts for businesses

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Messaging application WhatsApp said on Thursday that it would begin allowing business accounts for the first time, a step that brings the free service closer to a plan that would make money for its corporate parent, Facebook Inc (FB.O). Some businesses already use WhatsApp,...

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Reedeux Media seeks IPO after first coin offering sells out

(Reuters) - U.S. tech startup Reedeux Media said it plans to list on the Nasdaq exchange later this year, seeking a valuation of up to $1 billion after selling out the first tranche of its media cryptocurrency coin offering on Thursday. Reedeux, which has an app that allows consumers to instantly bu...

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Amazon shortlists 20 cities for second headquarters

(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) has short-listed 20 cities and regions, including one in Canada, for the construction of a second headquarters that it says will generate 50,000 new, high-paying jobs. Major U.S. centers including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington D.C. were on the...

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Schneider Electric says software bug exploited in watershed hack

TORONTO (Reuters) - Schneider Electric SE disclosed on Thursday that hackers exploited a flaw in its software in a watershed hack discovered last month that halted plant operations at an industrial facility. Schneider security officials told Reuters that they are working on a software update to fix ...

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Apple's U.S. tax payment does not change EU's Irish tax ruling

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Apple’s (AAPL.O) announcement that it will pay $38 billion in U.S. tax on its overseas cash will not reduce the $16 billion tax bill the company owes Ireland following a European Union ruling, the EU’s executive said on Thursday. “Nothing has changed,” a ...

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