TSMC reveals successors of Morris Chang

TSMC reveals successors of Morris Chang

Wednesday, Nov 13, 2013

Ted Chen

The China Post/Asia News Network

TAIPEI – The board of TSMC, the world’s leading semiconductor foundry, on Tuesday announced personnel appointments to succeed Morris Chang, the company’s longtime CEO. According to the company, two high ranking officers, Mark Liu (劉德音) and C.C.Wei (魏哲家) will be promoted to the position of co-CEOs, an outcome in line with the expectation of industry observers. Following the change, Liu and Wei will report directly to Chang, who will retain his post as the company’s chairman. Read more of this post

Why Twitter will keep growing: Its best ideas come from the users

Why Twitter will keep growing: Its best ideas come from the users

By Brian Fung, Updated: November 12 at 2:56 pm

Twitter’s just unveiled a new offering that’ll surely delight organizers and curators everywhere: It’s called Custom Timelines, and it lets users compile a list of selected tweets in any order for others to look at — whether on Tweetdeck, embedded in a Web site or on Twitter.com. For things you want to keep a record of but don’t necessarily update very often, this can be a good way to hand-craft (and share) an archive. For instance, if you’re an app developer, you might build a custom timeline that functions as a changelog, helping people understand how your app has evolved over the past few versions. Read more of this post

Vice Media, known for its edgy, youth-oriented online and TV programming, is more than doubling the size of its news operations, the latest sign that digital-media outlets see growth potential in news

Vice Media Bulks Up News Division

Company With Knack for Reaching Young Adults Ads More Journalists

WILLIAM LAUNDER

Nov. 12, 2013 12:02 a.m. ET

Vice Media Inc., known for its edgy, youth-oriented online and TV programming, is more than doubling the size of its news operations, the latest sign that digital-media outlets see growth potential in news. Over the past two months, Vice has quietly hired more than 60 additional journalists, increasing the size of its formal news team to more than 100, to cover everything from Middle East war zones to health-care reform through an expansion of its digital video offering, Chief Executive Shane Smith said in an interview. Read more of this post

Twitter Lets Users Build Timelines Around TV Shows, News

Twitter Lets Users Build Timelines Around TV Shows, News

Twitter Inc. (TWTR) is letting users create customized news feeds around real-time events as the microblogging service aims to boost engagement on the site. Custom timelines will help users collect tweets around conversations, television shows or breaking news so messages that are of most interest will float to the top, the San Francisco-based company said today in a blog post. “When the conversation around an event or topic takes off on Twitter, you have the opportunity to create a timeline that surfaces what you believe to be the most noteworthy, relevant tweets,” the post said. Twitter, which held its stock market debut last week, is investing in products to keep users on the site for longer and lure advertisers as it competes with Facebook Inc. for social-media ad sales. Twitter’s research and development costs surged 170 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, and the company spent more than half its revenue on R&D. Twitter fell 2.3 percent to $41.90 at the close in New York. The stock has climbed 61 percent since it started trading Nov. 7, in the biggest technology initial public offering since Facebook’s last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Frier in New York at sfrier1@bloomberg.net

Secretive Indian Twitter investor Rivzi, 47, makes $4.7 billion with 15.6% stake

Secretive Indian Twitter investor makes $4.7 billion

Wednesday, Nov 13, 2013

The New Paper

The man is so secretive that he is reported to have an assistant who scrubs the Internet of his personal photographs and information, the Times of India reported. So who is the secretive India-born Twitter investor who earned an estimated US$3.8 billion (S$4.7 billion) in the tech titan’s recent initial public offering (IPO)? The India-born Mr Rizvi, 47, owns a 15.6 per cent stake in the IPO darling, but what is known about him would barely fill a 40-character tweet. Read more of this post

Pay-TV Industry Loses More Subscribers; Evidence Grows on TV Cord-Cutting

Pay-TV Industry Loses More Subscribers

Worst 12-Month Stretch Adds to Evidence that Consumers Are Cutting the Cord

SHALINI RAMACHANDRAN

Nov. 12, 2013 4:55 p.m. ET

The pay TV industry continued to lose subscribers in the third quarter, analysts estimated on Tuesday, providing further evidence that some consumers are dropping their pay TV subscriptions, or cutting the cord. The industry as a whole lost 113,000 subscribers in the quarter compared with 101,000 in the year ago-period, according to a report by Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson LLC, issued on Tuesday after Dish Network Corp. DISH +6.00% released its quarterly report. Dish was the last of the publicly traded pay TV providers to report for the quarter. MoffettNathanson’s estimate includes a calculation for performance of privately-held distributors. The firm estimates that total pay-TV subscribers shrank 0.2% over the 12 months ended Sept. 30. Read more of this post

Meet the Man Who Really Runs Amazon Web Serviecs

Meet the Man Who Really Runs the Internet

Much of the Internet Runs Under the Watch of Amazon’s Web Services Chief

GREG BENSINGER

Andy Jassy, the head of Amazon’s Web Services, wants cloud computing to be as vital to the Seattle-based retailer as diapers, books and skin-care products. Drew Kelly for The Wall Street Journal

 Nov. 12, 2013 8:25 p.m. ET

From Netflix Inc. NFLX -1.24% ‘s streaming video service to Pinterest Inc.’s social network, much of the Internet runs under Andy Jassy’s watch. The head of Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -1.37% ‘s Web Services division, which sells computing power to other companies from network of Internet-connected servers, wants cloud computing to be as vital to the Seattle-based retailer as diapers, books and skin-care products. Numerous technology startups and even government agencies rent server space from Amazon Web Services, including the Central Intelligence Agency, which recently chose AWS for a $600 million data storage contract. Read more of this post

Malone’s Liberty Global in Talks for Intel TV Service

Malone’s Liberty Global in Talks for Intel TV Service

John Malone’s Liberty Global (LBTYA) Plc, the European cable operator, is in talks to acquire Intel Corp. (INTC)’s online pay-TV service under development, said three people with knowledge of the situation. Malone would use Intel’s system outside the U.S., said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. London-based Liberty Global owns Virgin Media in the U.K., and operates in Germany, Belgium and elsewhere. Negotiations are early and could fall apart, said the people, who declined to comment on the price being discussed. Read more of this post

Ireland’s Would-Be Carlos Slim Sells Mobiles to Masses

Ireland’s Would-Be Carlos Slim Sells Mobiles to Masses

Hiking along the Kokoda Trail in remote eastern Papua New Guinea last summer, Denis O’Brien discovered he didn’t have a mobile phone signal. The sturdily built Irish telecommunications tycoon knew how to fix that. He stormed into the local office of Digicel Group Ltd., the wireless operator he’d founded in 2001, and demanded that extra phone towers be erected along the route. Read more of this post

Hulu Wants to Be Offered With Pay-TV Bundles; Online Video Outlet Could Be Centralized Location for Full Seasons of Shows

Hulu Wants to Be Offered With Pay-TV Bundles

Online Video Outlet Could Be Centralized Location for Full Seasons of Shows

SHALINI RAMACHANDRAN And AMOL SHARMA

Nov. 12, 2013 11:46 a.m. ET

Online video outlet Hulu LLC is in early discussions with several pay-TV providers about potential partnerships, said people familiar with the situation, the latest sign that the media company-owned service is trying to become integrated with pay television. Among ideas being discussed is for pay-TV operators to sell Hulu’s subscription service, Hulu Plus, as part of pay-TV operators’ TV bundles, the people said. Read more of this post

GE Printing Engine Fuel Nozzles Propels $6 Billion 3D-Printing Market

GE Printing Engine Fuel Nozzles Propels $6 Billion Market

General Electric Co. (GE) is on the hunt for ways to build more than 85,000 fuel nozzles for its newest jet engine. Instead of assembling them from 20 different parts, it plans to create the units in one piece — with 3-D printers. Constructing the components with lasers one layer at a time will producer stronger, lighter nozzles than with conventional machining, according to GE. That means ensuring the printers evolve into equipment sturdy enough for assembly-line production, not just tools to fashion plastic prototypes. Read more of this post

From Netscape to eHarmony: The High Risks and Big Rewards of Platform Markets; Companies that link complementary partners, like dating sites or online auctions, can dominate for years or be swept away in an instant

November 12, 2013 / Winter 2013 / Issue 73

From Netscape to eHarmony: The High Risks and Big Rewards of Platform Markets

Companies that link complementary partners, like dating sites or online auctions, can dominate for years or be swept away in an instant.

by Dylan Minor

Platforms are market structures that bring together complementary partners. Think eBay, which pairs buyers and sellers online, or credit cards, which similarly connect consumers and the companies with which they want to do business. Platforms enable all sorts of relationships: Apple’s iOS joins mobile software programmers and iPhone users; myriad online dating services couple potential life partners. In short, any company that matches two sides of a market is a platform. Read more of this post

For $99, Eliminating the Mystery of Pandora’s Genetic Box; 23andMe, a Silicon Valley start-up that offers a $99 DNA test, as easy as spitting into a tube, that provides detailed genetic information from disease risk to family lineage

NOVEMBER 11, 2013, 1:25 PM

For $99, Eliminating the Mystery of Pandora’s Genetic Box

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

IF DNA is destiny, then Anne Wojcicki is in the right business. She is the co-founder and chief executive of 23andMe, a Silicon Valley start-up that offers a $99 DNA test, as easy as spitting into a tube, that provides detailed genetic information from disease risk to family lineage. In a recent interview at 23andMe’s office in Mountain View, Calif., Ms. Wojcicki (pronounced wo-JIT-skee) discussed the Silicon Valley girls’ club, the ties connecting her marriage and her business and why she is convinced that personal genetics will change health care. What follows are excerpts from that interview, edited for length and clarity. Read more of this post

Etsy Tops $1 Billion in 2013 Product Sales on Mobile Lift

Etsy Tops $1 Billion in 2013 Product Sales on Mobile Lift

Etsy Inc., a website for handmade and vintage goods, has already sold more than $1 billion in merchandise this year as customers increasingly view products on mobile devices. The New York startup, which had $895 million in gross merchandise sales for all of last year, passed the $1 billion milestone in October, setting the company up for another year of growth, Chief Executive Officer Chad Dickerson said in an interview. Read more of this post

Cisco Tries to Shake the Sand From its Gear

Cisco Tries to Shake the Sand From its Gear

DAN GALLAGHER

Updated Nov. 12, 2013 8:35 p.m. ET

Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO +1.22% is staring down a long track with plenty of hurdles. Fortunately, the first bar is pretty low. Wall Street expects Cisco on Wednesday to report adjusted earnings of 51 cents a share for its fiscal first quarter and revenue of $12.35 billion. That would compare with adjusted earnings of 48 cents a share a year earlier on revenue of $11.9 billion. Read more of this post

Cisco rival Arista Networks picks banks for IPO – sources

Cisco rival Arista Networks picks banks for IPO – sources

6:01pm EST

By Nicola Leske and Soyoung Kim

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Arista Networks, a maker of network switches that competes with much bigger rival Cisco Systems Inc, has selected banks to lead a proposed initial public offering for next year, according to people familiar with the matter. Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc and Credit Suisse Group will lead the offering that is at an early stage of planning, the people said on Tuesday, asking not to be named because the matter is not public. Read more of this post

At E-Commerce Firms, Russia Rises; Emerging Web-Sales Sector Lures Global Marketplaces and Retailers

At E-Commerce Firms, Russia Rises

Emerging Web-Sales Sector Lures Global Marketplaces and Retailers

JAMES MARSON

Nov. 12, 2013 5:31 p.m. ET

MOSCOW—Russia has become the next big frontier for global e-commerce companies that for years ignored the country because of payment and delivery issues. EBay Inc., China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and U.K. fashion retailer ASOS PLC are among those moving in to take advantage of Russia’s increasingly wealthy and Internet-savvy population of some 143 million. Read more of this post

84% Of US Adults Don’t Use Twitter, Only 4% Of Americans Over 30 Get Their News From Twitter, Pew Study Finds

84% Of US Adults Don’t Use Twitter, Only 4% Of Americans Over 30 Get Their News From Twitter, Pew Study Finds

Tyler Durden on 11/12/2013 09:39 -0500

When it comes to Twitter, there seems to be a discrepancy in the publicly available user data. Recall that according to the company’s S-1 filing, Twitter’s US monthly user base has risen from 10 million in 2010 to just shy of 50 million. And yet, according to a just released Pew Research poll, a whopping 84% of the US adults were not Twitter users, and perhaps more importantly, of the 16% of adult users, half admitted to using Twitter for news.

Read more of this post

3-D Firm Shifts Focus From Movies

3-D Firm Shifts Focus From Movies

ERICH SCHWARTZEL

Nov. 12, 2013 7:09 p.m. ET

RealD Inc. RLD 0.00% told investors it will bring to market 2-D and 3-D consumer electronics in 2014 as it tries to mitigate continued losses due to falling 3-D ticket sales and market saturation in North America. Speaking Tuesday on an earnings conference call, RealD executives withheld most details of the electronics, saying only that they would most likely be with mobile and tablet applications. Some of the electronics will be announced in 2014, while others are expected to come to market within the calendar year. Read more of this post

Pegatron Finds iPhone Is No Money-Spinner

Nov 11, 2013

Pegatron Finds iPhone Is No Money-Spinner

EVA DOU

Thin is in for smartphones these days, including the newest iPhone. Unfortunately forApple Inc.AAPL -0.29% assembler Pegatron Corp.4938.TW -3.35%, that also describes the state of its margins. Pegatron – named after the flying horse Pegasus – soared out of obscurity as an increasingly important manufacturer of Apple’s mobile products. It’s the main assembler of the iPhone 5C, and it also makes iPad Minis. Read more of this post