Starboard says chipmaker Mellanox's 2018 targets insufficient

(Reuters) - Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP criticized Israeli chipmaker Mellanox Technologies Ltd’s 2018 targets on Monday, saying they were insufficient and too heavily reliant on revenue growth. In December, Mellanox had forecast low to mid-teens revenue growth in fiscal 2018, compar...

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South Korea inspects six banks over virtual currency services to clients

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean financial authorities on Monday said they are inspecting six local banks that offer virtual currency accounts to institutions, amid concerns the increasing use of such assets could lead to a surge in crime. The joint inspection by the Financial Services Commission (FSC...

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South Korea inspects six banks over clients' virtual currency accounts

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s financial regulator said on Monday it is jointly carrying out inspections on six local banks that offer virtual currency accounts to institutions. The joint inspection by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) will check ...

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Nvidia partners with Uber, Volkswagen in self-driving technology

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Nvidia Corp will partner with Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) as the graphics chipmaker’s artificial intelligence platforms make further gains in the autonomous vehicle industry. The company, which already has partnerships in the industry wit...

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Denmark's GN takes aim at Apple with wireless earbuds

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark’s GN Store Nord is aiming to win a bigger slice of the rapidly growing market for wireless earbuds by introducing a new product challenging Apple’s popular Airpods. Wireless is expected to account for an increasing share of the $9.6 billion global earphone ...

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Apple should address youth phone addiction, say two large investors

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc shareholders Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System are urging the smartphone maker to take steps to address what they say is a growing problem of young people getting addicted to Apple’s iPhones, Jana partner Charles Penner said...

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German opposition calls for abolition of online hate speech law

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s opposition parties on Sunday called for the abolition of a new law that aims to rid social media of hate speech, saying it was wrong for private companies to be making decisions about whether posts are unlawful. The legislation, which came into force on Jan. 1, can...

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U.S. company plans funds that double bitcoin price moves

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. fund managers are ramping up efforts to tap into the fever surrounding digital assets, and the latest planned bitcoin products could deliver some head-turning and stomach-churning price movements if they come to market. The new idea is to build “leveraged” and &...

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CES kicks off with no lead women speakers or code of conduct

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The technology industry’s premier annual gathering kicks off next week with no women leading the keynote sessions and no code of conduct that might prevent incidents of sexual harassment, despite efforts by organizers to cast the show as a more inclusive event. CES, t...

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Twitter says world leaders like Trump have special status

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter Inc on Friday reiterated its stance that accounts belonging to world leaders have special status on the social media network, pushing back against users who have called on the company to banish U.S. President Donald Trump. “Blocking a world leader from Twitter...

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Twitter again says it will not remove world leaders like Trump

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter Inc on Friday reiterated its stance that accounts belonging to world leaders have special status on the social media network, pushing back against users who have called on the company to banish U.S. President Donald Trump. “Blocking a world leader from Twitter...

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Internet Association to join expected net neutrality lawsuit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Internet Association, a trade group representing companies such as Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Facebook Inc (FB.O), said on Friday it intends to join an expected lawsuit against a decision to roll back net neutrality rules. Several states including New York, a...

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Scary Chip Flaws Raise Spectre of Meltdown

Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants have released updates for a pair of serious security flaws present in most modern computers, smartphones, tablets and mobile devices. Here’s a brief rundown on the threat and what you can do to protect your devices. At issue are two different vuln...

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Scary Chip Flaws Raise Spectre of Meltdown

Apple, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants have released updates for a pair of serious security flaws present in most modern computers, smartphones, tablets and mobile devices. Here’s a brief rundown on the threat and what you can do to protect your devices. At issue are two different vuln...

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Indonesia's new cyber agency looks to recruit staff of hundreds

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s recently established cyber security agency will recruit hundreds of personnel in the coming months, its chief said on Friday. The agency has been set up amid rising concern over online misinformation and hoaxes ahead of simultaneous local elections set to take p...

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Intel says performance impact of security updates not significant

(Reuters) - Intel Corp (INTC.O) said fixes for security issues in its microchips would not slow down computers, rebuffing concerns that the flaws found in microprocessors would significantly reduce performance. The performance impact of the recent security updates should not be significant and will ...

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Consumer loan securitization boom put on hold as China clamps down on leverage

BEIJING (Reuters) - A boom in asset-backed securities issued by micro-lenders aiming to expand in China’s fast-growing online credit market looks set to slow this year amid growing regulatory scrutiny. Micro-lenders have raised billions of dollars packaging consumer loans into securities for s...

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Code crackdown: China payments restrictions to hit profits

BEIJING (Reuters) - A decision by China’s central bank to rein in reserve funds held by payment firms could cost the industry upwards of $689 million a year, spur consolidation and alter the way Asia’s biggest tech firms move money. Mobile payments using in-app QR or bar-codes have becom...

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Google eyes Chinese e-sports market with $120 million investment in Chushou

BEIJING (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google has led a $120 million investment in Chinese live-stream mobile game platform Chushou, the two companies said on Friday, as the U.S. firm eyes new inroads to China where its search engine is blocked. Founded in 2015, Chushou is an online e-sp...

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Uber ex-CEO Kalanick selling nearly a third of stake for $1.4 billion: source

(Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc co-founder Travis Kalanick, who was ousted as chief executive in June, is selling nearly a third of his 10 percent stake in the ride-services company for about $1.4 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Kalanick’s sale is part of a deal ...

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Uber ex-CEO Kalanick plans to sell 29 percent of stake: source

(Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] co-founder Travis Kalanick, who was ousted as chief executive in June, will sell nearly a third of his shares in the ride-services company for about $1.4 billion, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Kalanick’s sale is part of a deal w...

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GoPro cuts 200-300 jobs in aerial products unit: TechCrunch

(Reuters) - Action camera maker GoPro Inc (GPRO.O) is cutting about 200 to 300 jobs in its aerial products division this week, technology news website TechCrunch reported on Thursday. The job cuts are part of a bigger restructuring in the company, TechCrunch reported, citing a letter sent to impacte...

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Apple to issue fix for iPhones, Macs at risk from 'Spectre' chip flaw

(Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) will release a patch for the Safari web browser on its iPhones, iPads and Macs within days, it said on Thursday, after major chipmakers disclosed flaws that leave nearly every modern computing device vulnerable to hackers. On Wednesday, Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) G...

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Samsung Elec on track for record fourth quarter earnings

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) is expected on Tuesday to forecast a record quarterly profit in the fourth quarter, as a world hungry for processing power and high-tech smartphones snaps up its semiconductors and screens. While a stronger won and falling NAND chip prices cou...

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Intel shares fall as investors worry about costs of chip flaw

(Reuters. - Intel Corp shares fell nearly 2 percent on Thursday as investors worried about the potential financial liability and reputational hit from recently disclosed security flaws in its widely used microprocessors. The largest chipmaker had confirmed on Wednesday that flaws reported by researc...

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Spotify reaches 70 million subscribers

(Reuters) - Music streaming service Spotify, which filed confidentially with U.S. regulators for an initial public offering on Wednesday, has 70 million subscribers, it said in a tweet on Thursday. Spotify, valued at as much as $19 billion last year, is targeting a direct listing in the first half o...

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CEO Zuckerberg sets 2018 goal: 'fix' Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday his goal for 2018 was to put the business he co-founded on a more solid footing, a break with his longstanding practice of setting a purely personal annual goal. “The world feels anxious and divided, and Fa...

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Zuckerberg's 2018 personal challenge focuses on Facebook

(Reuters) - Protecting users of the social network from abuse and hate and defending it from nation state interference are part of Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s 2018 personal challenge. Zuckerberg visited every U.S. state, ran 365 miles and learned Mandarin since he first star...

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U.S. derivatives regulator announces meetings to review futures based on cryptocurrencies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leading U.S. derivatives regulator announced Thursday it would be holding a pair of meetings to review the process for allowing futures based on cryptocurrencies to come to market. The late January meetings to be held by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission comes after...

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How a researcher hacked his own computer and found worst chip flaw

(Please note strong language in paragraph 13) By Douglas Busvine FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Daniel Gruss didn’t sleep much the night he hacked his own computer and exposed a flaw in most of the chips made in the past two decades by hardware giant Intel Corp (INTC.O). The 31-year-old information sec...

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