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| Baidu eyes buying its way into more mobile screens in China Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 10:47 PM PST  By Alexei Oreskovic and Paul Carsten SAN FRANCISCO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Internet company Baidu Inc is poised to make more acquisitions this year to entice smartphone users to tap into its services, a strategy that will put it on a collision course with bigger rivals like Tencent Holdings Ltd. The biggest Internet search engine company in China saw mobile revenues grow last year to exceed, for the first time, a fifth of its total revenue as a $2.5 billion buying spree boosted mobile products. Chief Executive Robin Li wants to raise this stake, even at the expense of profit growth this year. "Whenever there is the opportunity to do an acquisition to buy us either time or resources or talent we will be open for that," Li told a briefing on Thursday after Baidu announced fourth-quarter revenues had soared by more than half year-on-year, exceeding its own forecasts. Baidu has been racing to catch up to Tencent, owner of the wildly popular messaging app WeChat, and e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, in the race to dominate screen space in China, the world's largest smartphone market where more than 80 percent of all Internet users access the web through mobile devices. Full Story | Top |
| Mt. Gox bitcoin customers could be out of luck, experts warn Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 09:02 PM PST By Joseph Ax and Karen Freifeld NEW YORK (Reuters) - What can you do if you deposited bitcoins at Mt. Gox, which shuttered on Tuesday with little explanation? Customers of the bitcoin exchange may have little chance of recovering their funds if they prove to be missing, legal and regulatory experts said. Japan-based Mt. Gox went dark on Tuesday, weeks after a spate of cyber attacks, leaving customers unable to access their accounts and underscoring the risks associated with bitcoins. Mt. Gox had been the largest as recently as February 7, when it and other exchanges were forced to halt withdrawals following several cyber attacks. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. attorney subpoenaed Mt Gox, other bitcoin businesses: source Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 08:54 PM PST  By Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has sent subpoenas to Mt. Gox, other bitcoin exchanges, and businesses that deal in bitcoin to seek information on how they handled recent cyber attacks, a source familiar with the probe said on Wednesday. At least three exchanges were forced to halt withdrawals of bitcoins on February 7, including Mt. Gox, which was the largest at the time. Mt. Gox never resumed service before going dormant on Tuesday, leaving customers unable to recover their funds. "As there is a lot of speculation regarding Mt Gox and its future, I would like to use this opportunity to reassure everyone that I am still in Japan, and working very hard with the support of different parties to find a solution to our recent issues," Karpeles said in a statement posted on the Mt. Gox website. Full Story | Top |
| Shanghai cracks down on booming taxi app market Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 08:41 PM PST The Shanghai city government has followed Beijing's lead by restricting the use of increasingly popular taxi booking apps, putting investment into the technology by local and foreign companies at risk. New rules ban the use of booking apps by cab drivers during rush hour periods and ban their use entirely by private vehicles licensed for hire, according to a statement released late on Wednesday by the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority. The fast-growing sector attracted over $43 million in investment over the last two years, according to internet data firm iResearch, from the likes of tech giants Tencent Holdings Ltd and IPO-bound Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, as well as U.S. venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. The market is dominated by Didi Taxi and Kuaidi Taxi, backed by Tencent and Alibaba respectively, which together held almost 90 percent of the market by daily taxi app orders last year, according to iResearch. Full Story | Top |
| China's Baidu Q4 revenue tops forecast, shares jump after hours Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 02:45 PM PST By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Chinese Internet company Baidu Inc finished 2013 with its fastest revenue growth in more than a year and forecast revenue for the first quarter that beat Wall Street targets thanks to strength in its mobile business. Shares of Baidu, the largest Internet search engine in China, jumped more than 6 percent in after-hours trade on Wednesday to $184.10. Baidu projected that revenue in the first quarter will range between 9.240 billion yuan ($1.526 billion) and 9.520 billion yuan ($1.573 billion). Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were looking for first-quarter revenue of 8.697 billion yuan. Full Story | Top |
| Smartphone wars shift from gadgetry to price Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 01:13 PM PST  By Eric Auchard and Paul Sandle BARCELONA (Reuters) - The mobile phone industry is now looking to the fast-growing demand for smartphones priced at $100 or below as the market for fancier high-end devices has become saturated, but not all handset makers are able or willing to trade down. Much of the talk this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the industry's biggest annual trade fair, has turned from the latest big screen, premium-priced devices to the new, entry-level smartphones that analysts say now overwhelmingly represent the industry's best hope for growth. "The ability of top brands like Samsung, Apple and Nokia to differentiate themselves is getting harder," he said. Growth in global smartphone shipments will fall sharply this year and keep slowing through 2018, with average prices dropping significantly as the demand shifts to China and other developing countries, market research firm IDC said earlier on Wednesday. Full Story | Top |
| Hackers target Brazil's World Cup for cyber attacks Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 12:59 PM PST  By Esteban Israel SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian hackers are threatening to disrupt the World Cup with attacks ranging from jamming websites to data theft, adding cyber warfare to the list of challenges for a competition already marred by protests, delays and overspending. In a country with rampant online crime, a challenging telecommunications infrastructure and little experience with cyber attacks, authorities are rushing to protect government websites and those of FIFA, soccer's governing body. Furious about the 33 billion reais ($14 billion) in federal funds being spent on World Cup preparations, more than a million Brazilians took to the streets last June in a wave of mass demonstrations, calling for better public services, greater transparency, and a crackdown on corruption. "We are already making plans," said an alleged hacker who goes by the nom de guerre of Eduarda Dioratto. Full Story | Top |
| Google ordered to remove anti-Islamic film from YouTube Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 12:25 PM PST  A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday ordered Google Inc to remove from its YouTube video-sharing website an anti-Islamic film that had sparked protests across the Muslim world. By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Google's assertion that the removal of the film "Innocence of Muslims" amounted to a prior restraint of speech that violated the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiff, Cindy Lee Garcia, had objected to the film after learning that it incorporated a clip she had made for a different movie, which had been partially dubbed and in which she appeared to be asking: "Is your Mohammed a child molester?" In a statement, Google said: "We strongly disagree with this ruling and will fight it." Cris Armenta, a lawyer for Garcia, said she is delighted with the decision. "Ordering YouTube and Google to take down the film was the right thing to do," Armenta said in an email. Full Story | Top |
| Bitcoin derivatives market BTC suspends trade after Mt. Gox goes dark Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 11:32 AM PST By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - The bitcoin derivatives market BTC.sx has suspended trading after its key bitcoin exchange partner, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, went dark this week following weeks of turmoil, the company's chief operating officer George Samman said. Prior to the suspension, BTC offered derivatives on Mt. Gox prices. If Mt. Gox's troubles do any damage, it would be short-lived, he said. BTC has some exposure in Mt. Gox because the company trades on the site. Full Story | Top |
| Icahn, eBay trade barbs as feud over governance escalates Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 11:07 AM PST  By Sam Forgione and Phil Wahba NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn and eBay Inc took their war of words up a notch on Wednesday. Icahn, who last month called for eBay to sell off its fast-growing PayPal payments business, called corporate governance at the e-commerce giant "dysfunctional" in his second letter to eBay shareholders this week. The activist investor, who has a 2.15 percent stake in eBay, promised to lay out a detailed case for spinning off fast-growing PayPal in coming weeks. He sent an open letter to eBay shareholders this week accusing two company directors of conflicts of interest. Full Story | Top |
| Target shares recover after reassurance on data breach impact Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 10:52 AM PST  By Dhanya Skariachan and Jim Finkle NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) - Target Corp shares made strong gains after it reassured investors that customers were beginning to return to its U.S. stores, suggesting that the impact of a massive data breach may not be as severe as some had feared. The third-largest U.S. retailer said on Wednesday that customer traffic had started to improve this year after falling significantly at the end of the holidays when news of the cyber attack and theft of payment card data spooked shoppers. Chief Financial Officer John Mulligan said on a conference call he expected first-quarter sales at its established U.S. stores to be flat to down 2 percent and so far in February, they have been running within that range and nearly flat to last year. Target shares, which had fallen 11 percent since news of the breach broke before Wednesday, were up 6.8 percent at $60.37, their highest level for almost six weeks. Full Story | Top |
| Target says same-store sales flat vs. year ago so far in February Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 10:52 AM PST Target Corp Chief Financial Officer John Mulligan said on Wednesday that same-store sales at the No. 3 U.S. retailer so far in February have been flat compared to a year ago. He also said in a conference call with analysts that he expects same-store sales to be flat to down 2 percent during the full first quarter when compared to a year earlier. Full Story | Top |
| Global smartphone growth to fall sharply in 2014: IDC Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 09:12 AM PST  By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Growth in global smartphone shipments will fall sharply this year and keep slowing through 2018, with average prices dropping significantly as demand shifts to China and other developing countries, according to market research firm IDC. That follows a 39.2 percent jump in 2013 when smartphone shipments topped 1 billion units for the first time. Full Story | Top |
| No insurance, no ridesharing, cities tell UberX, Lyft and others Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 09:01 AM PST  By Sarah McBride SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Using mobile apps to connect passengers with drivers, ridesharing services like UberX and Lyft say they are bringing new zip to transportation. On one side stand the ridesharing companies, which believe their business plans are undermined by forcing drivers to add higher-cost commercial insurance to services intended to attract casual drivers for an hour here and there. On the other stand many city officials, who worry that ridesharing lacks adequate coverage. The city council is currently weighing insurance requirements and other rules for ridesharing, which operates in a legal limbo in Seattle. Full Story | Top |
| Apple urges U.S. appeals court to void 'radical' e-books ruling Wednesday, Feb 26, 2014 07:30 AM PST  By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc urged a U.S. appeals court to throw out a judge's "radical" finding that it violated antitrust law by manipulating electronic book prices, and blamed publishers for running a conspiracy it claimed to know nothing about. The request on Tuesday night came after U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in New York concluded last July after a nonjury trial that Apple had played a "central role" in illegally scheming as early as December 2009 with five publishers to raise e-book prices and impede competitors such as Amazon.com Inc. The publishers previously agreed to pay more than $166 million to settle related antitrust charges. In a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, Apple said it "had no knowledge that the publishers were engaged in a conspiracy" at any time. It said it lawfully took advantage of market "discord" and the publishers' own frustrations with Amazon, and "kick-started competition in a highly concentrated market, delivering higher output, lower price levels, and accelerated innovation." Cote's decision "is a radical departure from modern antitrust law," Apple said. Full Story | Top |
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