MediaTek to focus more on western markets as it targets Qualcomm

February 23, 2014 5:49 pm

MediaTek to focus more on western markets as it targets Qualcomm

By Daniel Thomas in London

MediaTek will focus more on western markets and on the fastest growing tier of the smartphone market, which the Taiwanese chipmaker hopes will erode the dominance of US rival Qualcomm.

MediaTek, which is second to Qualcomm in the mobile phone market, unveiled its latest range of next generation processors able to use 4G, or LTE, networks at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday. Read more of this post

Why Super-Fast Internet Is Coming Super Slowly; The FCC could change this overnight by focusing on what’s best for the economy, not just for those it regulates

Why Super-Fast Internet Is Coming Super Slowly

The FCC could change this overnight by focusing on what’s best for the economy, not just for those it regulates.

ANDY KESSLER

Feb. 23, 2014 7:11 p.m. ET

In 1982, rock star Pete Townsend asked Americans to call their cable operators and, “Demand your MTV. I want my MTV!” It’s 2014, and two-minute music videos on a cable channel have given way to high-definition movies, concerts and sports streamed live to your TV, computer and phone. So where the heck is my superfast gigabit Internet access? Who do I even call? Read more of this post

Facebook: What is Mark Zuckerberg’s end game?

Facebook: What is Mark Zuckerberg’s end game?

February 23, 2014 – 4:00PM

Matt Warman

The first time I met Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder was wearing his trademark hooded sweatshirt, as he visited London’s Barbican Centre to try to convince a specially gathered group of software writers that they should be working with his social network. Read more of this post

Microsoft resets Windows Phone to reach lower cost markets

Microsoft resets Windows Phone to reach lower cost markets

5:53pm EST

By Paul Sandle

BARCELONA (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp is pushing to reach a far wider audience for smartphones running its Windows Phone software by turning to cheaper chipsets and easing restrictions on how phone makers use its software to encourage them to drive down costs. Read more of this post

Beyond cute cats: How BuzzFeed is reinventing itself

Beyond cute cats: How BuzzFeed is reinventing itself

9:00am EST

By Jennifer Saba

NEW YORK (Reuters) – BuzzFeed has come a long way from cat lists. This month one of its journalists was on the ground in Kiev reporting on the crisis in Ukraine, and last December it published an in-depth article on a Chinese dissident living in Harlem, New York. Read more of this post

SEEK’s interest in Asia’s online employment company JobStreet, dates back at least six years; JobStreet was started by founder Mark Chang, who graduated from MIT with a science master’s degree in mechanical engineering

Behind the deal: SEEK’s Asia push a long game

Published 24 February 2014 10:54, Updated 24 February 2014 10:55

Joyce Moullakis

SEEK’s interest in Asia’s online ­employment company, JobStreet ­Corporation, dates back at least six years, about the time James Packer was still chairman of the burgeoning ­Melbourne-based company. Read more of this post

Looking both ways: Governments’ relationship with the tech sector is hideously complicated

Looking both ways: Governments’ relationship with the tech sector is hideously complicated

Feb 22nd 2014 | From the print edition

IF THERE IS an industry that exemplifies the virtues of the private sector, it is technology. In the past 30 years a wave of innovations has transformed the lives of consumers in the developed world, allowing people to engage in a huge range of activities by using devices they can hold in their hand. Read more of this post

The Founder Of A Multi-Billion-Dollar Startup Felt ‘Depressed’ When He Learned Of WhatsApp’s $19 Billion Acquisition

The Founder Of A Multi-Billion-Dollar Startup Felt ‘Depressed’ When He Learned Of WhatsApp’s $19 Billion Acquisition

ALYSON SHONTELL TECH  FEB. 22, 2014, 2:03 AM

Silicon Valley was throughly impressed and shaken when news broke about Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp.

Even entrepreneurs who have been given high, multi-billion-dollar valuations, felt pangs of jealousy and disbelief. Read more of this post

Naver challenged by Facebook

2014-02-21 16:01

Naver challenged by Facebook

By Kim Yoo-chul
Facebook is likely to stand in the way of Naver’s attempt to become a major force in the global mobile messenger market because the U.S. firm’s buyout of WhatsApp is expected to limit the global expansion of its messaging app Line.
The concern arose after U.S. SNS giant Facebook Thursday announced its decision to purchase the rapidly growing messaging startup WhatsApp for $19 billion. Read more of this post

Facebook buys Whatsapp for $19 billion: Value and Pricing Perspectives

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Facebook buys Whatsapp for $19 billion: Value and Pricing Perspectives

This week, I was at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, talking about the difference between price and value. I built the presentation around two points that I have made in my posts before. The first is that there are two different processes at work in markets. There is the pricing process, where the price of an asset (stock, bond or real estate) is set by demand and supply, with all the factors (rational, irrational or just behavioral) that go with this process. The other is the value process where we attempt to attach a value to an asset based upon its fundamentals: cash flows, growth and risk. For shorthand, I will call those who play the pricing game “traders” and those who play the value game “investors”, with no moral judgments attached to either. The second is that while there is absolutely nothing wrong or shameful about being either an investor  (No, you are not a stodgy, boring, stuck-in-the-mud old fogey!!) or a trader (No, you are not a shallow, short term speculator!!), it can be dangerous to think that you can control or even explain how the other side works. When you are wearing your investor cape, you can be mystified by what traders do and react to, and if you are in your trader mode, you are just as likely to be bamboozled by the thought processes of investors. So, at the risk of ending up with a split personality, let me try looking at Facebook’s acquisition of Whatsapp for $19 billion, with $15 billion coming from Facebook stock and $4 billion from cash, using both perspectives. Read more of this post

Here’s why Intel’s CEO thinks companies like his own go wrong

Here’s why Intel’s CEO thinks companies like his own go wrong

By Max Nisen @MaxNisen February 21, 2014

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who took over the chip maker’s top job last May, this week went on Reddit for an “ask me anything” question and answer session. In addition to revealing that his favorite sandwich is slightly frozen peanut butter and jelly, Krzanich talked about where Intel went wrong, what he sees for the future, and what it means to be a great leader. Here are some of the most interesting parts:

Spectacular technology isn’t worth much if it’s not great to use Read more of this post

Why Google’s latest acquisition could be good for the whole online ad industry

Why Google’s latest acquisition could be good for the whole online ad industry

By Leo Mirani @lmirani February 21, 2014

Half the ads on the internet are never seen by anybody, according to ComScore, a web traffic measurement company. And of those ads that are seen, it’s not clear how many are seen by human beings. Last year, the London-based start-upSpider.io, which tracks ad fraud, revealed a network of 120,000 infected computers (paywall) that together “viewed” ads billions of times, meaning that advertisers were paying millions of dollars for fake views. Today, Google announcedthat it had acquired Spider.io for an undisclosed amount. Read more of this post

Ever wished you could yell at your appliances? Get ready for Siri for the Internet of Things

Ever wished you could yell at your appliances? Get ready for Siri for the Internet of Things.

BY JAMES ROBINSON 
ON FEBRUARY 21, 2014

I’m sitting in a cafe on Market Street in San Francisco with Duy Huynh, looking on his laptop at a live feed from a webcam set up in his New York apartment. It’s not part of the demonstration, but a woman comes through the front door. We both laugh, awkwardly. He hands me his phone, with the app he’s spent the last four months in San Francisco creating turned on. I repeat the prompt he’s just instructed me to say. Read more of this post

Google shows some leadership, buys the company that’s been pointing out how dubious online ad traffic can be

Google shows some leadership, buys the company that’s been pointing out how dubious online ad traffic can be

BY JAMES ROBINSON 
ON FEBRUARY 21, 2014

Late in 2013, spider.io, a UK-based company dedicated to fighting advertising fraud, posted a video to its website. It shows a computer desktop with no programs running on it visibly, but which is infected by TDSS malware that is running 23 hidden windows, with fake cursor activity darting all over the page and clicking on ads at random. It is like watching a robot use a computer that only likes ads. Read more of this post

WhatsApp Deal Bets on a Few Fewer ‘Friends’; Is Facebook’s WhatsApp deal a sign of a tech bubble?

WhatsApp Deal Bets on a Few Fewer ‘Friends’

By JENNA WORTHAMFEB. 21, 2014

The address book is making a billion-dollar comeback.

Weary of noisy social networks filled with mundane updates from the most remote acquaintances, millions of people have turned to their smartphone address books — and the diverse array of messaging services that rely on them, like Snapchat, Secret, Kik and WhatsApp — for more intimate social connections. Now the stampede toward those messaging services has Silicon Valley’s giants scrambling to catch up. Read more of this post

After topping box office, Lego Movie sequel set for May 2017

After topping box office, Lego Movie sequel set for May 2017

Saturday, February 22, 2014 – 11:44

Reuters

LOS ANGELES – After becoming the top-grossing movie released in 2014 so far, The Lego Movie will be reassembling for a sequel scheduled for May 26, 2017, movie studio Warner Bros said on Friday. Read more of this post

Strange Brew: Beer Enters The Internet of Things

February 21, 2014, 4:55 PM ET

Strange Brew: Beer Enters The Internet of Things

By Clint Boulton

A startup is looking to save restaurant staff repeated trips to the cooler to check beer quantities, which can be an especially onerous task for large establishments where it’s not uncommon to have 30 or more barrels of brew. SteadyServ Technologies LLC outfits kegs with sensors that monitor beer levels and let managers know when it’s time to tap a fresh keg. Read more of this post

Fitbit to Stop Selling and Recall Its Force Wristband; Fitbit CEO Says Recall ‘Out of Abundance of Caution’; Huawei’s Answer to FuelBand and Fitbit

Fitbit to Stop Selling and Recall Its Force Wristband

Fitbit CEO Says Recall ‘Out of Abundance of Caution’

KATHERINE ROSMAN

Updated Feb. 21, 2014 7:00 p.m. ET

One user says she developed this rash after wearing the Fitbit Force. Kim Reichelt

Fitbit said it is halting sales of its newest fitness-tracking bracelet and recalling the product after months of complaints from consumers who say the band has caused rashes on their wrists. Read more of this post

Blackstone and GIC are in advanced talks to buy minority stakes in human resources software company Kronos at $4.5 billion, including debt

Blackstone, GIC nearing Kronos minority stake deal: sources

1:20am EST

By Nadia Damouni and Greg Roumeliotis

New York (Reuters) – Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC are in advanced talks to buy minority stakes in Kronos Inc that could value the human resources software company at around $4.5 billion, including debt, three people familiar with the matter said. Read more of this post

Facebook to Pay $19 Billion for WhatsApp; Messaging Startup to Operate Independently, Retain Brand

Facebook to Pay $19 Billion for WhatsApp

Messaging Startup to Operate Independently, Retain Brand

REED ALBERGOTTI, DOUGLAS MACMILLAN and EVELYN M. RUSLI

Updated Feb. 19, 2014 8:31 p.m. ET

Jan Koum, founder of the WhatsApp messaging service, speaks at a conference in Germany last month.European Pressphoto Agency

Facebook Inc. FB +1.13% agreed to buy messaging company WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock, a blockbuster transaction that dwarfs the already sky-high prices that other startups have been able to recently command. Read more of this post

The Israeli take on start-up risk

February 19, 2014 5:14 pm

The Israeli take on start-up risk

By John Reed

From his government office in Jerusalem, Avi Hasson undertakes an esoteric-sounding but important job at the centre of Israel’s innovation-rich, high tech-focused economy.

As Israel’s chief scientist, he oversees a department with a budget of $450m, through which the state funds research and development, and primes the pump for private-sector in­vestment in new businesses and technologies by signing on as an an­chor lender itself. Its funding projects range from incubators for new start-ups to costly research and development schemes undertaken by long-established Israel-based companies. Read more of this post

How to tackle the great American cable monopoly

February 19, 2014 6:47 pm

How to tackle the great American cable monopoly

By Susan Crawford

The Federal Communications Commission has too often proved supine, writes Susan Crawford

What harm is there in merging Comcast, America’s biggest cable company, withTime Warner Cable, the second biggest? The trouble is not that it would create a slothful monopoly where once there was energetic competition. The industry has always been a patchwork of local monopolies. In 1997 the large operators reordered the map into a convenient tartan, with each controlling large contiguous territories. Leo Hindery, then chief executive of a cable company that was later absorbed by Comcast, called it the industry’s “summer of love”. These giants have never encroached on each other’s turf. Read more of this post