End of a chip boom? Memory chip price drop spooks investors

SEOUL (Reuters) - After a blistering year-and-a-half long surge, a sudden drop in some memory prices, followed by Samsung Electronics Co’s disappointing profit estimate, is causing jitters among investors who had bet the chip boom would last at least another year. Amid news that the market has...

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SoftBank plans $18 billion IPO of mobile phone unit: Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group plans to list its mobile phone business and raise some US$18bn, the Nikkei newspaper has said, a spin-off that would complete the Japanese telecoms conglomerate’s transformation into a global technology investor. The parent will sell some 30% of SoftBank Corp. ...

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South Korea says planned ban on cryptocurrency market not yet finalized

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea said on Monday that its plans to ban virtual coin exchanges had not yet been finalized as government agencies were still in talks to decide how to regulate the market. “The plan to ban cryptocurrency exchanges, recently mentioned by the nation’s justice mini...

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Softbank plans $18 billion IPO of mobile phone unit this year: Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) plans to list its mobile-phone business and raise some $18 billion, the Nikkei newspaper said, a spin-off that would complete the Japanese telecoms conglomerate’s transformation into a global technology investor. The parent will sell some 30 perce...

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Ford plans $11 billion investment, 40 electric vehicles by 2022

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) will significantly increase its planned investments in electric vehicles to $11 billion by 2022 and have 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its model lineup, Chairman Bill Ford said on Sunday at the Detroit auto show. The investment figure is sharply hig...

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Ford ups electric vehicle plans to $11 billion by 2022: executive

(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) will increase significantly its planned investments in electric vehicles to $11 billion by 2022, Chairman Bill Ford told reporters on Sunday at the Detroit auto show. This is up from a previously announced target of $4.5 billion by 2020. The investments will be made i...

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Softbank plans $18 billion IPO of mobile phone unit as soon as spring: Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) plans to list its core mobile-phone unit in Tokyo and overseas as early as this spring, raising some 2 trillion yen ($18 billion) in one of Japan’s biggest initial public offerings, the Nikkei newspaper said on Monday. The parent will sell some 30...

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Softbank invests 460 million euros in Germany's Auto1: sources

BERLIN (Reuters) - Japan’s Softbank will invest 460 million euros ($561 million) in used-car dealing platform Auto1, marking the first investment in Germany by its Vision Fund, according to sources familiar with the matter. Around half of the investment will be made via new shares, valuing Aut...

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U.S. transport chief to unveil revised self-driving car guidelines

DETROIT (Reuters) - The Trump administration plans to unveil revised self-driving car guidelines this summer as the government works to rewrite regulations that pose legal barriers to robot vehicles, U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said on Sunday. Chao said at a Detroit auto show forum the...

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Saudi Electricity signs deal with Japanese firms for first EV pilot

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - State-controlled Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) has signed a deal with Japanese Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), Nissan Motor Co and Takaoka Toko for the first electric vehicle (EV) pilot project in the world’s largest oil exporter, it said on Sunday. Saudi Arabia ...

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French telcos commit three billion euros to cover network black spots: report

PARIS (Reuters) - France’s mobile telephone operators will spend more than 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) rolling out a 4G network in black spots across the country to ensure there are no coverage gaps by 2020, according to a government minister. Julien Denormandie, junior minister for territo...

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Indonesia central bank warns over cryptocurrencies

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s central bank has issued a fresh warning about trading in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin because of the risk of losses to the public and even a potential threat to the stability of the financial system. Bank Indonesia (BI) has previously said that cryptocurrencies...

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Exclusive: Current and former Uber security staffers cast doubt on spying claims

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The former security chief of Uber Technologies Inc. [UBER.UL] swore in a closed legal proceeding that he knew of no attempts to steal trade secrets from anyone, including Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit Waymo, and would be “shocked” if that had occurred. ...

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Facebook's Sandberg, Twitter's Dorsey to leave Disney board

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) Chief Executive Jack Dorsey will not seek re-election to Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) board because of conflicts of interest between the media giant and the technology companies, Disney sai...

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House Republicans want answers on Apple throttling older iPhone speeds: letter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four U.S. House Republicans, including the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, on Friday wrote Apple Inc chief executive Tim Cook asking him to answer questions about its disclosure that it slowed older iPhones with flagging batteries. The California-based company a...

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Which voice in your fridge? Makers pick virtual assistants

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Who would you rather have in your fridge? Alexa, Cortana, or some as-yet unknown virtual assistant? Manufacturers of appliances and other products are considering factors such as ease of use and language support as they pick voice technology from what they view as a wide open b...

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Google removes gaming apps with pop-up porn malware

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said on Friday it took down 60 gaming applications after security firm Check Point said it had discovered new malicious software in the apps available to both children and adults at Google Play Store. The malicious software displayed pornographic ads...

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Facebook changes News Feed; investors click on 'sad'

(Reuters) - Shares of Facebook Inc (FB.O) fell more than 4 percent on Friday and were on track for their worst session in more than three months after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced changes that he said would hit user engagement in the near term. Zuckerberg said late on Thursday the world...

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Alibaba's Taobao again on U.S. blacklist list for fakes

(Reuters) - The U.S. Trade Representative put Alibaba’s Taobao on its blacklist for the second year in a row over suspected counterfeits sold on the shopping platform, a move the Chinese e-commerce giant said did not reflect its IP-protection efforts. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (BABA.N)...

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Researchers find pop-up porn malware on Google game apps

BERLIN (Reuters) - Security firm Check Point on Friday said it had discovered new malicious software on 60 gaming apps available to both children and adults at Google Play Store that displayed pornographic ads and tried to trick users into buying premium services. Dubbed “AdultSwine,” th...

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Facebook shares slip after News Feed overhaul

(Reuters) - Shares of Facebook Inc (FB.O) fell 4 percent on Friday after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to the platform’s centerpiece News Feed that he said would hit user engagement in the near term. Zuckerberg said on Thursday the company would change the filter for the Ne...

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Some Chinese Apple users warned by firm on dodging new data law

BEIJING (Reuters) - Some Chinese users of Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) products who have created Apple IDs overseas to circumvent a new law that requires their personal data to be stored within China say they have been warned by the tech giant that they risk losing the data. China introduced a new cyb...

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Uproar over crackdown on cryptocurrencies divides South Korea

SEOUL (Reuters) - With a tech-savvy population quick to adopt the latest gadgets and a young generation facing dim prospects in the conventional workplace, South Korea has been a fertile ground for virtual currencies. But the country’s swift embrace of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has be...

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China's blockchain fever gets hotter even as regulator queries price surge

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s blockchain-related companies extended their bullish run on Friday, as punters brushed aside concerns raised by regulators about the rationality of stock price surges this week. Blockchain mania continued to propel the shares of a dozen companies which recently disc...

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No pedal to the metal in GM's planned self-driving Cruise AV car

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) is seeking U.S. government approval for a fully autonomous car - one without a steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator pedal - to enter the automaker’s first commercial ride-sharing fleet in 2019, executives said. For passengers who cannot open d...

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Chinese bitcoin miners eye sites in energy-rich Canada

MONTREAL/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s Bitmain Technologies is eyeing bitcoin mining sites in Quebec, a company spokesman told Reuters, as expectations of a potential Chinese crackdown on cryptocurrency mining make the energy-rich Canadian province an attractive alternative. China has grown int...

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Facebook to emphasize friends, not news, in series of changes

SAN FRANCISCO/LONDON (Reuters) - Facebook Inc on Thursday began to change the way it filters posts and videos on its centerpiece News Feed, the start of what Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said would be a series of changes in the design of the world’s largest social network. Zuckerberg, in a ...

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Zuckerberg changes Facebook's focus to be more 'meaningful'

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc will change the way it does business to emphasize “meaningful social interactions” rather than the type of News Feed scrolling that critics say is addictive, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday. Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook tha...

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Intel asks some customers to delay security updates: WSJ

(Reuters) - Intel Corp is asking some of it customers to hold off installing patches that address new security flaws that affect nearly all of its processors as the patches have bugs of their own, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Intel has identified three issues in updates released ove...

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SS&C boosts banking software heft with $5.4 billion DST deal

(Reuters) - SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc said on Thursday it would buy DST Systems Inc in a $5.4 billion deal, expanding its financial technology software prowess through its largest deal to date. SS&C’s offer of $84 in cash for each DST share represents a premium of 29 percent to th...

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