After years in shadows, online gambling in US picks up speed

After years in shadows, online gambling in US picks up speed

By Rob Lever, AFP
November 18, 2013, 12:08 am TWN

WASHINGTON–Internet gambling is on a roll in the U.S. market after years lurking in the shadows. New Jersey kicks off its online wagering Nov. 26, becoming the most populous state to do so after Nevada and Delaware. Other states have become active since 2011, when the federal government signaled it would not block most forms of Internet wagering. California, Illinois and Pennsylvania are considering such moves. Read more of this post

“Please take good care of Microsoft.” Ballmer on Ballmer: His Exit From Microsoft; Ballmer on how he came to believe he wasn’t the best person to remake the technology giant for its next act

Ballmer on Ballmer: His Exit From Microsoft

MONICA LANGLEY

Updated Nov. 15, 2013 4:34 p.m. ET

REDMOND, Wash.— Steve Ballmer paced his corner office on a foggy January morning here, listening through loudspeakers to his directors’ voices on a call that would set in motion the end of his 13-year reign as Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT -0.47% chief executive. Microsoft lagged behind Apple Inc.AAPL -0.60% and Google Inc.GOOG -0.16% in important consumer markets, despite its formidable software revenue. Mr. Ballmer tried to spell out his plan to remake Microsoft, but a director cut him off, telling him he was moving too slowly. Read more of this post

A Return to Internet Mania? Some Market Observers Fear That We’re in a Bubble Reminiscent of the One We Saw in the Dot-Com Era

A Return to Internet Mania?

Some Market Observers Fear That We’re in a Bubble Reminiscent of the One We Saw in the Dot-Com Era

MARK HULBERT

Nov. 15, 2013 6:10 p.m. ET

We aren’t heading for the next Internet bubble—at least not yet. At a time when the 23-year-old CEO of Snapchat, a two-year-old company with no revenue, turns down a nearly $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook, FB +0.04% and whenTwitter makes a spectacular debut, many people are reminded of the heady days of Internet stocks in the late 1990s and early 2000. Yet the analogy is misleading, according to the leading academic studies of investor sentiment. Read more of this post

Zulily Shares Jump 71% After IPO; Zulily has sheltered itself from having to compete with crosstown rival Amazon.com by focusing on flash-sales merchandise from specialized vendors.

Zulily Shares Jump 71% After IPO

GREG BENSINGER

Nov. 15, 2013 7:13 p.m. ET

Shares of online retailer Zulily Inc. jumped 71% in their debut Friday, a strong start as the Seattle company tries to compete in a space crowded by Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. Zulily has sheltered itself from having to compete with crosstown rival Amazon.com by focusing on merchandise from specialized vendors. The company sells items like charm bracelets and zebra-print pajamas primarily through short-term discounts, known as flash sales. Read more of this post

“Everybody wants to be the new Supercell”; Investors flock to Europe in search of next Supercell

Investors flock to Europe in search of next Supercell

12:14pm EST

By Mia Shanley and Jussi Rosendahl

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Riding a wave of euphoria surrounding the success of Finnish mobile game maker Supercell, venture capital firms are chasing after European tech start-ups in search of the next big thing. Japanese tech and telecoms group SoftBank’s 51 percent stake purchase in 3-year-old Supercell, announced last month, valued the maker of hit games “Clash of Clans” and “Hay Day” at $3 billion. “Everybody wants to be the new Supercell,” Torleif Ahlsand, General Partner at Nordic technology investor Northzone, said at the annual “Slush” tech start-up conference in the Finnish capital. Read more of this post

Dot London: City launches own domain to boost online presence

Dot London: City launches own domain to boost online presence

2:41pm EST

By Shadi Bushra

LONDON (Reuters) – London will join a handful of cities launching their own internet domain names next year to build a greater online presence and promote the British capital, the mayor’s office said on Friday. ICANN, the world body that oversees the web’s naming conventions, gave London the go-ahead this week to use its own unique domain name from 2014, along with New York, Berlin, Vienna and Brussels. Read more of this post

Here’s why Airbnb isn’t worried about New York’s crackdown

Here’s why Airbnb isn’t worried about New York’s crackdown

By Brian Fung, Updated: November 15 at 2:17 pm

Airbnb has been on a tear lately. On Tuesday, the service that connects travelers with private rooms for rent announced a slew of new features designed to streamline its experience for hosts and guests. But the company is alsoembroiled in a legal fight with the New York attorney general, who is concerned that some landlords are abusing the service and renting their properties illegally. On Thursday, I sat down with Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk to talk with him about the issue and about what else the company has learned by putting up 150,000 people a day. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. Read more of this post

Cisco CEO: ‘Never Seen’ Such a Falloff in Orders; Slowdown in China, Emerging Markets Deliver Blow; Shares Tumble

Cisco CEO: ‘Never Seen’ Such a Falloff in Orders

Slowdown in China, Emerging Markets Deliver Blow; Shares Tumble

DON CLARK

Updated Nov. 14, 2013 11:16 p.m. ET

A slowdown in Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO -10.96% ‘s business is turning into a tailspin, hobbled by weak demand in China and other emerging markets. The Silicon Valley network-equipment giant on Wednesday said revenue rose just 1.8% in its first fiscal quarter, compared with its projection of 3% to 5% growth. Cisco followed up by projecting a decline of 8% to 10% in the current period, an unusually grim forecast for a company seen as a bellwether for corporate technology spending. Cisco’s shares fell 10% to $21.58 in after-hours trading following the company’s earnings report late Wednesday. Read more of this post

Silicon Valley Nerds Seek Revenge on NSA Spies With Super Coding

Silicon Valley Nerds Seek Revenge on NSA Spies With Super Coding

Google Inc. (GOOG), Facebook Inc. (FB) and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) are fighting back against the National Security Agency by using harder-to-crack code to shield their networks and online customer data from unauthorized U.S. spying. The companies, burned by disclosures they’ve cooperated with U.S. surveillance programs, are protecting user e-mail and social-media posts with strengthened encryption that the U.S. government says won’t be easily broken until 2030. Read more of this post

Online Casinos Hobbled as Credit-Card Issuers Reject Bets

Online Casinos Hobbled as Credit-Card Issuers Reject Bets

Just as legal online gambling gets started in the U.S., banks and payment processors are refusing to play. Credit-card issuers Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and American Express Co., along with EBay Inc.’s PayPal, aren’t allowing the transactions, according to the companies. Delaware and Nevada permit Internet wagering, with New Jersey poised to become the third and biggest state on Nov. 26. Read more of this post

Tencent Finally Taps into Online Education Market,with A Live Video Course Feature Added to QQ IM

Tencent Finally Taps into Online Education Market,with A Live Video Course Feature Added to QQ IM

By Tracey Xiang on November 15, 2013

We have been waiting for Tencent to release an online education service, for  the largest Internet company in China by market cap and user base cannot miss out on such a potential market. The latest version of Tencent’s QQ IM added an Education Mode to the group video chatting service. So a teacher can give live courses to a group of students directly on QQ. Some tools are available for delivering classes such as Power Point support.  Read more of this post

China expected to issue MVNO licenses in December

China expected to issue MVNO licenses in December

Staff Reporter

2013-11-15

The year of 2014 is likely to mark the opening of China’s telecom market to the private sector, as the government is expected to issue licenses to the first group of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in December, the tech news website of the Chinese portal Tencent said. Read more of this post

Could Australia’s tech stock frenzy ignite the next Silicon Valley?

Could Australia’s tech stock frenzy ignite the next Silicon Valley?

PUBLISHED: 14 NOV 2013 20:32:00 | UPDATED: 15 NOV 2013 08:16:02

BIANCA HARTGE-HAZELMAN

Australia may not have a thriving technology epicentre like Silicon Valley, but if it is willing to take a little more risk, it may not be too far off. A frenzy of investor activity surrounds the initial public offering of online job-outsourcing company Freelancer.com, which debuts on the Australian stock exchange on Friday. The global company issued shares to 619 institutional and retail investors in the float, which will value Freelancer.com at $218 million, or a multiple of 463 times its forecast calendar 2013 revenues. Read more of this post

Will Google Docs kill off Microsoft Office?

Will Google Docs kill off Microsoft Office?

By Adrian Covert  @CNNMoneyTech November 13, 2013: 5:18 PM ET

For years, Microsoft has stockpiled a large amount of cash from sales of its Office productivity software suite.

Yet over the past year, something peculiar happened. Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500)has made it easier for consumers to access Office via the cloud and online downloads, regardless of what computer you’re using. In the past week, Office even enabled real-time, collaborative document editing for its free offering, Office Web Apps. Read more of this post

Twitter introduces self-serve ads outside US

Twitter introduces self-serve ads outside US

Friday, November 15, 2013 – 12:42

Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter Inc said on Thursday it would introduce self-serve ads for small- and medium-sized businesses in three countries outside the United States, marking one of its first moves to expand revenue as a publicly listed company. Businesses in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada will be able to buy “promoted” ads that can be shown to targeted Twitter users beginning this week, the company said. Read more of this post

The recorded world: Every step you take; As cameras become ubiquitous and able to identify people, more safeguards on privacy will be needed

The recorded world: Every step you take; As cameras become ubiquitous and able to identify people, more safeguards on privacy will be needed

Nov 16th 2013 |From the print edition

“THIS season there is something at the seaside worse than sharks,” declared a newspaper in 1890. “It is the amateur photographer.” The invention of the handheld camera appalled 19th-century society, as did the “Kodak fiends” who patrolled beaches snapping sunbathers. More than a century later, amateur photography is once more a troubling issue. Citizens of rich countries have got used to being watched by closed-circuit cameras that guard roads and cities. But as cameras shrink and the cost of storing data plummets, it is individuals who are taking the pictures. Read more of this post

Soros Takes a Stake in Microsoft

Nov 14, 2013

Soros Takes a Stake in Microsoft

By Geoffrey Rogow

Soros Fund Management LLC purchased a significant new stake inMicrosoft Corp. in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, as the technology giant continues to search for a new chief executive amid a series of broad company changes. The hedge fund, founded by billionaire investor George Soros, held firm its stake in nutrition company Herbalife Ltd., but lowered its stakes in J.C. Penney Co. and Google Inc. The fund raised its stake inChevron Corp. and purchased a new stake of 1.6 million shares in FedEx Corp. Read more of this post

NSA Fallout: Tech Firms Feel a Chill Inside China

NSA Fallout: Tech Firms Feel a Chill Inside China

SPENCER E. ANTE, PAUL MOZUR and SHIRA OVIDE

Nov. 14, 2013 8:02 p.m. ET

Big U.S. computer and software companies are reporting a sudden chill in sales to China, and some blame increased government hostility toward the U.S. In the latest sign, computer-networking-gear maker Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO -10.96%said Wednesday that orders from China in the latest quarter fell 18% from the same period a year earlier. Cisco further projected revenue world-wide would decline 8% to 10% in the current quarter, in part because of continued weakness in China. Read more of this post

Google wins legal fight over plan to scan world’s books

November 14, 2013 8:18 pm

Google wins legal fight over plan to scan world’s books

By Richard Waters in San Francisco

Google has won a long-running lawsuit over its ambitious plan to scan and index all the world’s books, removing a question over its right to display small extracts of text in response to search queries. Judge Denny Chin, the New York federal court judge who has presided over the case since it was launched eight years ago, ruled that Google’s display of snippets from books was protected under “fair use” provisions that allow limited use of copyrighted material. The decision clears one of the remaining legal questions surrounding a project, launched in 2004, that came to symbolise Google’s approach to opening internet access to more information. Read more of this post

Finland Tempts Japan Games Firm; Low Corporate Tax Rates Appeal to SoftBank’s GungHo Online Entertainment

Finland Tempts Japan Games Firm

Low Corporate Tax Rates Appeal to SoftBank’s GungHo Online Entertainment

SVEN GRUNDBERG And JUHANA ROSSI

Nov. 14, 2013 12:08 p.m. ET

Finnish game developer Supercell’s CEO Ilkka Paananen smiles next to a character of Supercell’s top-selling game “Clash of Clans” in Helsinki. European Pressphoto Agency

HELSINKI— GungHo Online Entertainment Inc., 3765.TO +0.16% the mobile-game arm of Japanese telecom giant SoftBank Corp. 9984.TO +1.18% , is considering moving its headquarters to Finland, lured by the European country’s low corporate taxes and its vibrant startup scene, the chairman and founder said on Thursday. Read more of this post

Comcast Plans to Start Selling Films

Comcast Plans to Start Selling Films

BEN FRITZ

Nov. 14, 2013 5:34 p.m. ET

Comcast Corp. CMCSA +0.63% is planning to start selling films directly through its cable boxes, according to people with knowledge of its plans, a move that could boost the still nascent digital movie ownership market considered critical in Hollywood. Comcast will offer newly released and older movies for sale as part of its cable service’s video-on-demand menu, which now offers movies only for rental. Major film studios see electronic sales of movies as a potentially big business that could offset the huge declines in DVD sales over the past decade. Read more of this post

Jeff Bezos Believes AWS Could Be Amazon’s Biggest Business; AWS is five times bigger than the other 14 companies combined

Jeff Bezos Believes AWS Could Be Amazon’s Biggest Business

Posted 6 hours ago by Alex Williams

In a press conference today, Amazon Web Services Senior Vice President Andy Jassy said that CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos believes AWS could be the company’s largest business. Amazon reported $61 billion in revenues  for the 2012 fiscal year. The company does not report revenues for AWS but it is widely believed to be a $3.5 billion business and growing rapidly. Read more of this post

Singaporean marketplace app Carousell snags $800K funding, sets sights on Malaysia and Indonesia

Singaporean marketplace app Carousell snags $800K funding, sets sights on Malaysia and Indonesia

November 13, 2013

by Vanessa Tan

Singapore-based marketplace mobile app Carousell has successfully raised S$1 million ($800,000) seed funding led by Rakuten, with follow-on investments by Golden Gate Ventures, 500Startups, and a few other angel investors such as Danny Oei Wirianto and Darius Cheung. For those who are not familiar with Carousell, it is a mobile C2C marketplace where you take a photo of your pre-loved or new items, list them on Carousell, then sell them. The new money in its pockets will aid in the expansion of both its product development and community teams, particularly its efforts within Southeast Asia. According to Carousell, it will focus on both Malaysia and Indonesia first. Users love Carousell, open app 10 times and spends 25 minutes on it daily Read more of this post

Botched bathroom renovation led to Kluje, a platform for finding home contractors

Botched bathroom renovation led to Kluje, a platform for finding home contractors

November 14, 2013

by Terence Lee

Singapore expatriate Jamey Merkel felt like he was taken advantaged of after a bathroom refurbishment gone wrong. Following hours of searching for a contractor, he received wildly different quotations ranging between $5,000 to $15,000 for the exact same job. “A quote was given on the phone even without even a visit,” he said. And when a contractor was finally secured, it didn’t do its job properly — measuring some custom glass panels incorrectly. The mistake cost Jamey extra money to fix. That was when he felt a pressing need to start Kluje, a web platform for home contractors to bid for jobs. Jamey’s decision was backed up by numbers too: Complaints against home renovation contractors have been on the rise in Singapore, jumping to 1,532 in 2012. Kluje was launched to the public this month, and it has already registered over 9,000 contractors while listing another 4,000 contractors that did not sign up with the platform. Read more of this post

No Stores? No Salesmen? No Profit? No Problem for Amazon. Amazon’s massive investments in technology shape the future for retailers everywhere

No Stores? No Salesmen? No Profit? No Problem for Amazon.

Amazon’s massive investments in technology shape the future for retailers everywhere.

By George Anders on November 7, 2013

Amazon is forcing every retailer in the world to reconsider how it does business.

Highly engineered:Boxes are swept along a conveyor at Amazon’s one-million-square-foot fulfillment center in San Bernardino, California.

Why do some stores succeed while others fail? Retailers constantly struggle with this question, battling one another in ways that change with each generation. In the late 1800s, architects ruled. Successful merchants like Marshall Field created palaces of commerce that were so gorgeous shoppers rushed to come inside. In the early 1900s, mail order became the “killer app,” with Sears Roebuck leading the way. Toward the end of the 20th century, ultra-efficient suburban discounters like Target and Walmart conquered all. Read more of this post

MakerBot aims to put a 3D printer in every school, and wants you to help pay for it

MakerBot aims to put a 3D printer in every school, and wants you to help pay for it

By Carl Franzen on November 12, 2013 05:40 pm 

MakerBot, the Brooklyn-based company that makes a variety of desktop 3D printers, accessories and associated software, announced a new plan today designed to put one of its signature devices into every school in America. Called the “MakerBot Academy,” the new effort relies on DonorsChoose, a crowdfunding website designed specifically for budget-strapped teachers, which lets them post requests for specific supplies online and solicit donations to help pay for the costs. Read more of this post

Vinod Khosla bets big on big data

Vinod Khosla bets big on big data

By Michal Lev-Ram, writer November 13, 2013: 5:48 PM ET

The Silicon Valley startup Ayasdi is just the beginning, the Sun Microsystems co-founder says.

FORTUNE—Last year, entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Vinod Khosla made waves when he said technology would someday replace 80% of doctors. This morning, at a Menlo Park, Calif.-based event hosted by one of his firm’s portfolio companies, Ayasdi, Khosla reiterated his belief that computational power–not people–will bring about massive improvements in nearly every field, particularly healthcare. Read more of this post

Why Snapchat wasn’t crazy to rebuff Facebook

Why Snapchat wasn’t crazy to rebuff Facebook

By Dan Primack November 13, 2013: 2:33 PM ET

Snapchat turned down a $3 billion buyout offer from Facebook. And that’s okay.

FORTUNE — When word came last month that Snapchat had turned down an acquisition offer from Facebook (FB), I wrote the following in the Term Sheet email: Most interesting is the question of how Facebook’s interest is impacting Snapchat’s plan to raise new capital at a big valuation (a deal that likely will include more founder liquidity). One theory is that it’s an effort to make Zuckerberg increase his offer, by showing that others believe the company is far more valuable than his opening volley. An alternate – and more likely – theory is that this raise is to eliminate any temptation to sell the company, both for the founders and early investors (who may also get some cash back). Well, it seems to have been the latter. Read more of this post

Good Eggs, a Virtual Farmer’s Market, Delivers Real Food; The website and delivery service lets you order products online from local farmers and artisanal food producers

November 13, 2013

Good Eggs, a Virtual Farmer’s Market, Delivers Real Food

By JENNA WORTHAM

When I was growing up, my father was fond of ordering steaks through the mail. When they arrived, my sister and I gleefully danced around the icy packages and argued over who got to open them. I can still remember marveling at the novelty of meat arriving in the same pile as regular letters, and our amazement that it tasted as good as — if not better than — the beef we purchased in the supermarket. Read more of this post

The Rise of Mobile Messaging Service as Game Distributor

The Rise of Mobile Messaging Service as Game Distributor

By Ben Chiang on November 13, 2013 

Kakao Talk and Line’s latest financial results epitomized the success of building profitable business upon mobile messaging platform. In-game purchases contributed more than half (about 53%, or US$ 53.7 million) to Line’s revenue in Q2 of this year while KakaoTalk announced earlier this year that its game platform generated US$ 311 million for the first half of this year. It seems Asian messaging services now find a new and rosier revenue source in addition to the ‘traditional’ sticker business. Read more of this post