U.S. biotech companies Alnylam, Dicerna settle trade secrets case

BOSTON (Reuters) - Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc on Friday said that it will pay $15 million plus stock to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc to resolve a lawsuit claiming it stole trade secrets about gene-silencing technology used to develop drug treatments.

Uber CEO and transport boss had second meeting over London license battle

LONDON (Reuters) - London's Transport Commissioner Mike Brown met Uber [UBER.UL]boss Dara Khosrowshahi in January, a freedom of information request revealed, as the Silicon Valley app fights to keep its cars on the streets of its most important European market.

Is Facebook’s Anti-Abuse System Broken?

Facebook has built some of the most advanced algorithms for tracking users, but when it comes to acting on user abuse reports about Facebook groups and content that clearly violate the company’s “community standards,” the social media giant’s technology appears to be woefully...

Continue reading

Samsung Electronics to expand production in Vietnam

HANOI (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co. is determined to further expand production in Vietnam, co-CEO Koh Dong-jin told Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Friday.

Crypto trading tumbles as investment scramble unwinds

LONDON (Reuters) - Trading activity on cryptocurrency exchanges has halved from its December peak, industry data shows, as retail interest in the virtual coins declines and the prices of many remain far below their recent highs.

Facebook's damage limitation drive hits trouble in Germany

BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Facebook's attempt to limit fallout from a massive data breach hit trouble in Germany on Friday as a privacy watchdog opened a case against the social network and politicians accused its bosses of evasion.

Indonesia's Go-Jek planning Philippine expansion: regulator

MANILA (Reuters) - Indonesian ride-hailing and online payment company Go-Jek is looking to expand into the Philippines, Manila's transport regulator said on Friday, just days after Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] shut down its local business as part of its exit from Southeast Asia.

China trade body urges tighter corporate compliance after ZTE woes: document

BEIJING (Reuters) - A state-backed Chinese trade body said compliance is now a core risk for Chinese firms and that the government must speed up the implementation of guidelines on corporate oversight following a U.S. ban on sales to ZTE Corp.

Facebook to roll out political ad feature in time for German state vote

BERLIN (Reuters) - Facebook said on Friday it would roll out a new feature designed to make political advertising more transparent in time for a key German regional election, as it seeks to restore trust after a massive data breach.

Chips down: China aims to boost semiconductors as trade war looms

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has long pushed the development of top-end semiconductors as a key strategic objective.

Daimler recalls 24,763 Mercedes-Benz cars in Russia - Russian watchdog

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's standards agency said on Friday it had been informed about the voluntary recall by German carmaker Daimler of 24,763 Mercedes-Benz cars sold from 2014 to 2017.

Japan's cryptocurrency exchanges need tighter rules: Monex CEO

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's cryptocurrency exchanges should be regulated more like banks as they hold investors' assets while offering trading platforms, the chief executive of online brokerage Monex Group Inc said.

Hamburg data protection officer opens non-compliance procedure against Facebook

BERLIN (Reuters) - Hamburg's data protection ombudsman has opened non-compliance procedures against Facebook, which has been accused of abusing its users' data, a spokesman for the representative said.

Alibaba buys Chinese chipmaker to aid IoT biz, help drive local chip sector

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - E-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has bought a Chinese microchip maker to further its cloud-based "internet of things" (IoT) business, underscoring its commitment to the chip industry, an Alibaba spokeswoman said on Friday.

Alibaba acquires Chinese chipmaker C-SKY Microsystems

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has acquired Chinese chip maker Hangzhou C-SKY Microsystems to underpin its cloud-based "internet of things" (IoT) business, an Alibaba spokeswoman said on Friday.

Indonesia demands more answers from Facebook on data misuse

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia has given Facebook a week to provide more information on how personal data of about one million of its citizens was misused and on the steps the company is taking to prevent such breaches, the country's communications ministry said.

PwC had cleared Facebook's privacy practices in leak period

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc's privacy practices were cleared by auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in an assessment completed last year of the period in which data analytics consultancy Cambridge Analytica gained access to the personal data of millions of Facebook users.

Japanese companies see big things in small-scale industrial robots

TOKYO (Reuters) - A two-armed robot in a Japanese factory carefully stacks rice balls in a box, which a worker carries off for shipment to convenience stores. At another food-packaging plant, a robot shakes pepper and powdered cheese over pasta that a person has just arranged in a container.

JPMorgan, National Bank of Canada, others test debt issuance on blockchain

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co has tested a new blockchain platform for issuing financial instruments with the National Bank of Canada and other large firms, they said on Friday, seeking to streamline origination, settlement, interest rate payments and other processes.

China's ZTE slams U.S. ban on sales, says company's survival at risk

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's ZTE Corp said on Friday that a ban on the sale of parts and software to the company was unfair and threatens its survival, and vowed to safeguard its interests through all legal means.

China's ZTE slams U.S. ban on sales as unfair, vows to safeguard interests

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp said on Friday a U.S. decision to impose sanctions on the company was unfair and threatens the survival of the technology giant as it pledged to safeguard its rights through all legal means.

TSMC shares slide as revenue estimate cut; other Apple, chip stocks also fall

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd tumbled and other Apple supplier and chip stocks fell after it cut its full-year revenue target on softer demand for smartphones.

TSMC shares tumble after full-year revenue estimate cut

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd opened down 6.8 percent on Friday, after it revised its full-year revenue target to the low end of its earlier forecast due to softer demand for smartphones and uncertainty in the cryptocurrency mining market.

Consumer activists, experts advise against buying ZTE phones

(Reuters) - Consumer activists and technology experts are advising consumers to hold off on buying Android handsets from China's ZTE until the company clarifies whether U.S. sanctions against the company prevent it from providing operating system updates for its devices.

Qualcomm cutting 1,500 jobs at its California offices

(Reuters) - Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc is cutting 1,500 jobs across multiple divisions at its offices in California, as part of its promise to investors to cut annual costs by $1 billion.

Rakuten weighs $1.8 billion bond issue to launch mobile service: Nikkei

(Reuters) - Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten Inc will issue as much as 200 billion yen ($1.86 billion) to prepare for its entry into the country's mobile phone service market, the Nikkei business daily reported on Thursday.

German lawmakers to grill Facebook manager on data privacy

BERLIN (Reuters) - German lawmakers will question a senior Facebook Inc manager about data privacy in the wake of revelations that the personal information of millions of users wrongly ended up in the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

TSMC's smartphone warning points squarely at Apple: analysts

(Reuters) - Shares in Apple Inc and its suppliers fell on Thursday after a raft of analysts read a prediction of softer smartphone sales from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd as driven chiefly by concern about demand for iPhones.

British lawmakers to interview Cambridge academic Kogan over Facebook data

LONDON (Reuters) - A Cambridge University academic who harvested data on millions of Facebook users will appear before a British parliamentary committee investigating the scandal on April 24.

DeBeers rolls out app to clean up Sierra Leone diamond supply chain

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Global diamond giant De Beers is rolling out an app to help small-scale, artisanal diamond miners in Sierra Leone certify that gems they pry from the soil are legal, the Anglo American unit said on Thursday.