LONDON (Reuters) - Germany’s Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) is moving to secure long-term supplies of cobalt, a vital component of rechargeable batteries, as the group accelerates its ambitious shift to electric cars. Cobalt industry sources told Reuters that VW, the world’s largest automaker, h...

TAIPEI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - When HTC Corp (2497.TW) brought back founder Cher Wang two years ago to turn around the struggling Taiwanese mobile phone maker, investors hoped she could stem a sharp loss in market share to Apple (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS). But the gamble to rebuild t...

(Reuters) - T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.O) is close to agreeing tentative terms on a deal to merge with peer Sprint Corp (S.N), people familiar with the matter said, a major breakthrough in efforts to merge the third and fourth largest U.S. wireless carriers. Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), wh...

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Friday it was testing a service in the Silicon Valley to deliver groceries straight to customers’ refrigerators as it looks to gain an edge over Amazon.com. The retailer said it is partnering with August Home, a provider of smart locks and smart home acc...

LONDON (Reuters) - London stripped Uber [UBER.UL] on Friday of its license to operate from the end of September in a huge blow to the taxi app that will affect more than 40,000 drivers in one of the world’s biggest cities. Regulator Transport for London (TfL) said Uber’s conduct posed ri...

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia on Friday said it passed laws regulating ride-hailing services after extensive stakeholder consultation and legal processes, after media reported U.S. authorities were investigating ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] for possible breach of bribery law...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Germany’s three biggest carmakers have accelerated R&D spending at HERE after their 2015 acquisition of the digital mapping company as they race to develop the navigation technology needed for self-driving cars. HERE, the biggest provider of digital maps for the autom...

LONDON (Reuters) - London’s transport regulator on Friday stripped Uber [UBER.UL] of its license to operate from the end of the month, affecting over 40,000 drivers in a huge blow to the taxi app. “Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility in relati...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia did not place adverts on Facebook Inc to try to influence the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. U.S. lawmakers have urged the Federal Election Commission to require transparency for social media advertising after Russian entiti...

SYDNEY/TOKYO (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) launch of iPhone 8 kicked off in a less lively mood in Asia, versus previous debuts, as fans held out for the premium iPhone X due out in early November. Hundreds of people usually gather at Apple’s Sydney city store with queues winding down ...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone 8 launch in Sydney, one of the first cities to access the product in Australia, saw a bleak turnout as fans held out for the soon-to-be-released premium iPhone X. Hundreds of people usually gather at Apple’s Sydney city store with queues win...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) on Thursday launched an overhaul of how it handles paid political advertisements, giving a concession to U.S. lawmakers who have threatened to regulate the world’s largest social network over secretive ads that run during election campaigns. The co...

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China-focused venture capital funds are increasing their bets on local technology companies and a further opening of Chinese domestic capital markets, raising money in the yuan at the fastest pace in five years. Fund managers have raised 95.8 billion yuan ($14.54 billion) this ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumer credit reporting bureau Equifax Inc (EFX.N) risks losing support from banks unless it can show its database on millions of borrowers is secure from another cyber-attack. Banks are critical to Equifax’s operations as they give the company information on consum...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) on Thursday launched an overhaul of how it handles paid political advertisements on the world’s largest social network, responding to criticism that it has not done enough to prevent the manipulation of elections. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg sa...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) said on Thursday it plans to share with U.S. congressional investigators some 3,000 political ads that it says Russia-based operatives ran on Facebook in the months before and after last year’s U.S. presidential election. Chief Executive Mark Zucke...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wall Street’s top regulator came under fire on Thursday about its cyber security and disclosure practices after admitting hackers had breached its database of corporate announcements in 2016 and may have used it for insider trading. The breach involved Securities and Exc...

(Reuters) - National Bank of Canada, the country’s sixth largest lender, said on Thursday a website glitch earlier this week may have exposed personal information of about 400 customers. Some people may have seen other customer’s data while filling an electronic form on the bank’s ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Wall Street’s top regulator came under fire on Thursday about its cyber security and disclosure practices after admitting hackers had breached its database of corporate announcements in 2016 and may have used it for insider trading. The incursion at the Securities and Ex...

(Reuters) - A glitch in National Bank of Canada’s website may have exposed personal information of about 400 customers, Bloomberg reported, citing an email statement from the bank. Some people filling out an electronic form on the bank’s website could have seen data provided by a previou...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security detected five “critical” cyber security weaknesses on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s computers as of January 23, 2017, according to a confidential weekly report reviewed by Reuters. The report’s finding...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street’s top regulator faced questions on Thursday about its defenses against cyber criminals after admitting hackers breached its electronic database of corporate announcements and may have used it for insider trading. The incursion at the Securities and E...

An alert reader recently pointed my attention to a free online service offered big-three credit bureau Experian that allows anyone to request the personal identification number (PIN) needed to unlock a consumer credit file that was previously frozen at Experian. Experian’s page for retrie...

An alert reader recently pointed my attention to a free online service offered big-three credit bureau Experian that allows anyone to request the personal identification number (PIN) needed to unlock a consumer credit file that was previously frozen at Experian. Experian’s page for retrie...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. electronic chipmaker GlobalFoundries has asked European antitrust regulators to investigate market leader TSMC (2330.TW), accusing the Taiwanese firm of unfair competition, an industry source said on Monday. GlobalFoundries is the closest challenger to Taiwan-based TSMC in ...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission said on Thursday it may seek to implement tax reform to raise more revenue from online giants without the backing of the United States and other rich nations, in a move that could spark a new transatlantic dispute. The EU is frustrated at how long it is t...

TAIPEI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google said it would pay $1.1 billion for the division at Taiwan’s HTC Corp (2498.TW) that develops the U.S. firm’s Pixel smartphones - its second major foray into phone hardware after an earlier costly failure. The all-cash...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. markets regulator said on Wednesday that hackers accessed its corporate disclosure database and may have illegally profited by trading on the insider information stolen. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the hack occurred in 2016 but that it had on...

RIYADH (Reuters) - The Saudi government is lifting a ban on calls made through online apps on Thursday but will monitor and censor them, a government spokesman said. All online voice and video call services - such as Microsoft’s Skype, Facebook’s WhatsApp and Messenger, and Rakuten&rsquo...

JUDABERG, Norway (Reuters) - The Norwegian island of Finnoey has the highest density of electric cars in the world. The reason? They are exempt from the $6,000-a-year toll charges for the tunnel to the mainland. There has been a surge in sales of fully electric cars like Teslas (TSLA.O) and Nissan (...