South Korea approves LG Display's plan to build OLED factory in China

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s trade ministry said on Tuesday that a committee had approved LG Display Co Ltd’s plan to build a new organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel production facility in China. The approval comes five months after LG Display announced it would invest in large-...

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China regulator summons founder of debt-laden LeEco back to China

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - 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 ...

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Japan's Denso considering $440 million investment in JOLED: Kyodo

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese auto parts maker Denso Corp is considering a 50 billion yen ($440 million) investment in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel maker JOLED, Kyodo news reported, citing sources close to the matter. JOLED, a Japan Display affiliate, sold its inaugural batch of OLED scree...

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Russia's Putin calls for Web activities of some firms to be monitored

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday the Russian authorities should monitor the activity of “some companies” on social media during next year’s presidential election and assess the extent of their involvement in domestic politics. He did not name the companies...

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Israel regulator seeks to ban bitcoin firms from stock exchange

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s markets regulator said on Monday he will propose regulation to ban companies based on bitcoin and other digital currencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). Shmuel Hauser, the chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), told the Calcalist...

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Israel central bank mulls issuing digital currency for faster payments

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Bank of Israel is examining issuing digital currency as a means of creating a faster payments system as well as reducing the amount of cash in the economy, a central bank source said on Sunday, though he stressed no decision had yet been made. The source, who spoke on condi...

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China closes more than 13,000 websites in past three years

BEIJING (Reuters) - 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 contr...

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Cryptocurrency stocks holding gains despite bitcoin pullback

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks that surged in recent weeks because of the cryptocurrency mania have managed to hold onto most of their gains despite the recent retreat in the price of bitcoin and scepticism from market participants. A Reuters analysis of 17 stocks of companies that have made blockchain...

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CNN to end daily Snapchat show 'The Update' from 2018

(Reuters) - Time Warner Inc’s CNN will stop producing its daily show on Snap Inc’s Snapchat app, called the “The Update”, from 2018, the two companies said on Friday. CNN began streaming the daily show on Snapchat in August, featuring at least five news stories in each episod...

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Qualcomm board rejects Broadcom, Silver Lake director nominees

(Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc said on Friday its board unanimously determined not to nominate any of the 11 candidates picked by Broadcom Ltd and Silver Lake Partners to replace the chipmaker’s current directors. Earlier this month, Broadcom made its first formal move toward a hostile bid to take o...

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U.S. experts resign from monitoring China’s ZTE Corp: sources

(Reuters) - Two consulting firms hired to help the United States police ZTE Corp’s compliance with trade sanctions have resigned, according to four people familiar with the matter. China’s second-largest telecommunications company agreed earlier this year to pay a nearly $900 million pen...

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Belarus adopts crypto-currency law to woo foreign investors

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus has legalized transactions in crypto-currencies, part of a drive to foster private sector growth and attract foreign investment by liberalizing parts of its Soviet-style economy. President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree on the move on Thursday, his press service said....

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Bracing for EV shift, NGK Spark Plug ignites all solid-state battery quest

NAGOYA, Japan (Reuters) - Facing the eventual demise of gasoline engines, the world’s biggest maker of spark plugs is turning its focus to a component it believes will be just as vital in the coming era of electric vehicles - next-generation all solid state batteries. Japan’s NGK Spark P...

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Robot growing pains: Two U.S. factories show tensions of going digital

COLUMBUS, Ind. (Reuters) - When Sandy Vierling took a job at a new robot-packed factory her company built just a few miles from an older plant where she made automotive exhaust systems, she crossed into the future of manufacturing in the United States. She didn’t like it at all. Auto supplier ...

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In Silicon Valley, much-feared tax bill pays dividends for workers

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. tax overhaul is a boon to Silicon Valley technology companies like Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), which will enjoy big tax cuts and the chance to bring back billions of dollars from overseas at a reduced rate. And contrary to the dire warnings of Ca...

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Exclusive: U.S. experts resign from monitoring China’s ZTE Corp - sources

(Reuters) - Two consulting firms hired to help the United States police ZTE Corp’s (000063.SZ) (0763.HK) compliance with trade sanctions have resigned, according to four people familiar with the matter. China’s second-largest telecommunications company agreed earlier this year to pay a n...

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Australia's digital agriculture dream stymied as government scrimps on broadband

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Gooda Creek Farm, located just outside Australia’s capital city of Canberra, exemplifies the country’s agricultural ambitions - a boutique producer that sells more than 2,000 kilograms a week of highly sought shiitake mushrooms to domestic and Asian consumers. But when...

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Alphabet's Eric Schmidt to step down as executive chairman

(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) said on Thursday its Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will step down from his position to become a technical adviser as of its next regular board meeting in January. He will continue to serve on the Alphabet's board of directors, the company said. (bit.ly/2BXJzz6) &...

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Exclusive: IPO hopeful Xiaomi set to blow past 2017 revenue target - sources

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc has told bankers it would top its annual revenue target by as much as 18 percent, sources with knowledge of the matter said, marking a comeback from a sales slump in recent years that triggered a business overhaul. Xiaomi, which has been hear...

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Online, but can't ditch paper? You may be future-proofing yourself

GENEVA (Reuters) - You’re on the web, you’re in the cloud. But don’t neglect good old-fashioned paper. That’s the advice from internet pioneer Vint Cerf, who is afraid that all our digital memories could be lost as technology moves on. “People say: ‘What should I ...

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Goldman Sachs to set up cryptocurrency trading desk: Bloomberg

(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc is setting up a trading desk to make markets in digital currencies like bitcoin, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street bank aims to get the business running by the end of June, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. (bloom.bg/2BgDNFb...

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High-tech lenders target the decades-old store credit card

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The once-hot online lending industry has been battered by scandal and losses since last year, but one of the oldest forms of lending - store credit - is increasingly attracting tech companies aiming to supplant a retailer’s credit card. One such lender, San Francisco ...

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Facebook, Universal Music strike multi-year licensing deal

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc and Universal Music Group signed a global agreement that will give users access to Universal’s music catalogs to be used in videos uploaded across the social media network as well as Instagram and Oculus. The multi-year agreement will be expanded later to include Faceb...

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Lithuania bans Kaspersky Lab software on sensitive computers

VILNIUS (Reuters) - Software from Moscow-based company Kaspersky Lab is a threat to Lithuanian national security and its products will be banned on sensitive computers, Lithuania’s government said on Thursday. It is the latest setback for the software maker. The software will be removed from c...

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Long Island Iced Tea skyrockets after renaming itself Long Blockchain

(Reuters) - Beverage maker Long Island Iced Tea Corp’s (LTEA.O) shares jumped 300 percent after the company said it would rebrand itself Long Blockchain Corp, the latest obscure U.S. firm to tap into the frenzy surrounding crypto currencies. Long Island Ice Tea said it was shifting its primary...

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Britain's digital banks: profitable or just popular?

LONDON (Reuters) - British app-based bank Monzo and others like it want to make money by allowing other firms access to their customers rather than lending to them, but this is an untested path to profitability. Monzo’s user numbers soared by 300 percent to 450,000 in nine months this year, wh...

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Singapore cryptocurrency cafe launches as regulators sound warnings

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Just a street away from Singapore’s central bank, a cryptocurrency firm has set up what it claims is the first cafe in the city-state to be owned and operated by a business promoting its own digital coin. The downtown pitstop, which launched on Thursday, sells “hand...

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Japan Display says report it sought Apple, Huawei funds is 'speculative'

TOKYO (Reuters) - Cash-strapped smartphone screen maker Japan Display Inc (6740.T) dismissed a report on Thursday that it was seeking investment from Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] as “speculative” and declined to comment further. Japanese news agency Kyodo, w...

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Honda, Nissan developing solid-state batteries for EVs: report

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co are developing all solid-state batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), Kyodo News reported on Thursday. It was not clear from the report whether the two companies were expected to work together. Tighter global emissions regulations ar...

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North Korea rejects U.S. accusation, says it is not linked to any cyber attacks

SEOUL (Reuters) - A spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry said on Thursday Pyongyang is not linked to any cyber attacks, the North’s first response since the United States publicly blamed it for a massive worldwide cyber security breach. “As we have clearly stated on several...

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