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Premera Blue Cross breached, medical information exposed Health insurer Premera Blue Cross said on Tuesday it was a victim of a cyberattack that may have exposed medical data and financial information of 11 million customers, in the latest serious breach disclosed by a healthcare company.Premera said the attackers may have gained access to claims data, including clinical information, along with banking account numbers, Social Security numbers, birth dates and other data in an attack that began in May 2014. It is the largest breach reported to date involving patient medical information, according to Dave Kennedy, an expert in healthcare security who is chief executive of TrustedSEC LLC.About 6 million of the people whose accounts were accessed are residents of Washington state, where customers include employees of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O), according to Premera. The rest are scattered across every U.S. state.The insurer said it has so far uncovered no evidence to show that member data was "used inappropriately."Medical records are highly valuable on underground criminal exchanges where stolen data is sold because the information is not only highly confidential but can also be used to engage in insurance fraud."Medical records paint a really personal picture of somebody's life and medical procedures," Kennedy said. "They allow you to perpetrate really in-depth medical fraud."A Starbucks spokesman told Reuters that Premera notified the coffee chain on Tuesday that Starbucks may have been affected by the attack. A representatives from Amazon did not respond to requests for comment, and a representative at Microsoft declined comment.Although a breach at Anthem disclosed earlier this year and another large one disclosed last year by hospital operator Community Health Systems Inc (CYH.N) involved larger numbers of records, those companies said they believed the attackers did not access medical information. The Premera breach was uncovered on Jan. 29, the day that insurer Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) disclosed a cyber attack involving records of some 79 million members in Blue Cross Blue Shield plans across the country.Premera spokesman Eric Earling said the two attacks were unrelated and that his company independently identified its breach.Still, experts expect that other healthcare companies will find that they have been breached as the latest attack prompts them to look for intrusions."I think other insurance providers are compromised today and we still don't know it. More and more are going to disclose attacks," Kennedy said.Premera hired FireEye Inc (FEYE.O) to investigate the matter and is also working with the FBI.The attack affected Premera Blue Cross, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska, and affiliated brands Vivacity and Connexion Insurance Solutions.

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Pressure mounts on shippers, union to settle U.S. West Coast ports dispute Two U.S. Cabinet secretaries joined congressional leaders, three governors and a big-city mayor on Wednesday in pushing shipping lines and the dockworkers' union to settle a contract dispute that has led to months of turmoil and cargo backups at 29 West Coast ports.Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker weighed in as emissaries of President Barack Obama, who has come under rising political pressure to intervene in a conflict that has reverberated through the trans-Pacific commercial supply chain and could, by some estimates, cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars.Worsening cargo congestion that the union and shippers blame on each other has slowed freight traffic since October at the ports, which handle nearly half of all U.S. maritime trade and more than 70 percent of the country's imports from Asia. More recently, the shipping companies have sharply curtailed operations at the terminals, suspending the loading and unloading of cargo vessels for night shifts, holidays and weekends at the five busiest ports.Work has continued around the clock in the dockyards, rail yards and terminal gates for most of the ports. Some smaller ports remained open to nighttime vessel operations as well.The union and shipping companies each accuse the other side of instigating the disruptions to gain leverage in contract negotiations that have dragged on for nine months, appearing to hit a roadblock in the last two weeks.ARBITRATION CITED IN SNAGGED TALKSThe bargaining agent for the shippers and terminal operators, the Pacific Maritime Association, has said talks hit a snag over a union demand for changes in the system of binding arbitration of contract disputes.The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, representing 20,000 dockworkers, has insisted that an accord was near in the negotiations, which a federal mediator was assigned to oversee last month.Perez joined the San Francisco talks for the first time on Tuesday, according to his spokeswoman, Xochitl Hinojosa, urging the parties to "come to an immediate agreement to prevent further damage to our economy." He was joined for another round of talks on Wednesday, she said, by Pritzker and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, whose city encompasses the nation's busiest cargo port and lies adjacent to the No. 2 cargo hub at Long Beach.Sources familiar with the situation said Perez huddled with each party separately, then briefly together on Tuesday, and met with both sides again on Wednesday as negotiations and "sidebars" stretched into the evening.Meanwhile, the governors of the three West Coast states - California, Oregon and Washington - all Democrats, issued a statement on Wednesday welcoming Perez' involvement and calling for a quick resolution to the dispute.Separately, eight congressional Republicans who chair House or Senate panels with jurisdiction over transportation and labor sent a letter to Obama on Wednesday urging him to take further unspecified action if a settlement is not reached by March 2 - two months from the date the federal mediator was appointed.A Senate Commerce Committee spokeswoman, Lauren Hammond, said the letter's reference to "exercising additional leadership to resolve the situation" could be interpreted to mean invoking the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act.Under that law, a president can seek a federal court order compelling the end to a work stoppage in a labor dispute if it poses a national emergency. But labor law experts have said it would be difficult to make such a case to a judge under current circumstances.The union and the PMA have declined public comment since a federal mediator called for a news blackout last Friday.The last time contract talks led to a full shutdown of the West Coast ports was in 2002, when the companies imposed a lockout that was lifted 10 days later under a court order sought by President George W. Bush under Taft-Hartley.

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U.S. FCC inspector general reviewing net neutrality process The Federal Communications Commission's inspector general has opened an investigation into how the agency arrived at its new rules for Internet service providers, U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz said at a hearing on Tuesday.Republicans have accused the FCC, an independent agency, of being unduly influenced by the White House in setting stricter "net neutrality" rules earlier this year. The rules largely followed the tack that President Barack Obama publicly supported in a video released in November, which sought a more drastic change in the regulatory regime for Internet providers than the one previously proposed by the FCC.FCC Inspector General David Hunt could not immediately be reached but Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Jay Keithley said in an email that it was the office's policy "not to comment on the existence or non-existence of an investigation." FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and the Democrats on Chaffetz's House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform pushed back against the notion that the White House called the shots on the new Internet rules. The regulator instead has said his views on how to write them evolved over months."There were no secret instructions from the White House," Wheeler said at the hearing. "I did not, as CEO of an independent agency, feel obligated to follow the president's recommendation."Wheeler said that he was unaware of the investigation but would cooperate with it. FCC spokeswoman Kim Hart referred inquiries to the inspector general's office.Chaffetz told reporters after the hearing that he learned of the process investigation from the FCC inspector general's office in recent days but didn't have any further details.

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Microsoft to offer biometric sign-in for Windows 10 Microsoft Corp will introduce an automatic biometric sign-in option with its Windows 10 operating system due out later this year, the first time it has offered such a service widely across devices. The feature, called Windows Hello, means users will be able to scan their face, iris or fingerprint to verify identity and access Windows phones, laptops and personal computers.Microsoft, which announced the feature on Tuesday, said users' biometric data would be stored locally on the device and kept anonymous to make sure personal data is safe from hackers. Windows Hello will only be available on new devices that are capable of running the new feature. Chip-maker Intel Corp said all machines incorporating its RealSense F200 sensor will run Windows Hello.The feature is the latest effort from Microsoft to make its products more amenable to natural interaction with users, following its Kinect motion sensor for the Xbox game console and its Cortana personal assistant on Windows phones, a rival to Apple Inc's Siri.

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Orange to boost network investments to fuel recovery by 2018 France's Orange will plow 15 billion euros ($15.9 billion) into upgrading networks until 2018 to differentiate itself from rivals in a price war in its domestic market.Orange, Europe's fifth-largest telecom operator by market value, also said that it would take until 2018 for its sales and core operating profit to exceed 2014 levels.The investment push, much of which will go into fiber broadband in France, follows similar moves by Deutsche Telekom and Britain's Vodafone, which leads the pack with its 19 billion pound ($28.1 billion), two-year investment plan dubbed Project Spring. "We want to clearly set ourselves apart from others by offering customers better connectivity," said Chief Executive Stephane Richard as he unveiled a 2020 strategy plan.In France, Orange is still coping with the fall-out from the entry of low-cost player Iliad into the mobile market in 2012, which sent prices down by more than a third and left rivals Numericable-SFR and Bouygues Telecom scrambling to revise their own offers.To help it attract customers who are willing to pay more, Orange plans to triple its investment in fiber broadband by 2020 to connect 12 million homes by 2018 and 20 million by 2022. Orange is aiming to triple average data speeds on mobile and fixed lines by the end of 2018.CEO Richard said he thought the low point for group sales would come next year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) would bottom out this year. "Our revenues have been falling for five years. We've been through a major re-set in France and the impact is still being felt, although most of our customers have passed over to the lower prices," he said.Orange pledged to pay a dividend of at least 0.60 euros per share from 2015 to 2018, unchanged from 2014 levels, adding that the payout could increase if operating profit was better than expected.Orange's dividend yield is 3.9 percent compared with 4.1 percent for the European stock index overall, while Telefonica and Vodafone both offer 5.5 percent yields. Deutsche Telekom's dividend yield stands at 2.9 percent but it has said its dividend will rise in the coming years.Orange will also keep up its cost cutting with a further 3 billion euros in gross savings targeted through 2018, on par with an earlier plan that was lauded by investors.($1 = 0.9454 euros)($1 = 0.6763 pounds)

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U.S. judge approves HP shareholder deal over Autonomy acquisition Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N) won preliminary approval from a U.S. judge to settle shareholder litigation on Friday involving the information technology company's botched acquisition of Autonomy Plc.The ruling, from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, comes after HP failed to win approval of two previous proposed deals. Breyer had written that the last deal may not have been fair for shareholders because it could have forced them to give up claims beyond the Autonomy deal.However, Breyer said the latest settlement appears to be limited solely to HP's conduct involving Autonomy.In a statement HP said it is pleased with the ruling.HP announced a $8.8 billion writedown in November 2012, just over one year after buying Autonomy, and linked more than $5 billion to accounting fraud and inflated financials by Autonomy executives. The British company and its executives have denied any wrongdoing.Under the terms of the settlement, shareholder attorneys agreed to drop all claims against HP's current and former executives, including Chief Executive Meg Whitman, board members and advisers to the company.HP, in turn, agreed to some governance reforms. The company has also said it would pursue claims against former Autonomy executives, including Chief Executive Michael Lynch.The case is In re: Hewlett-Packard Co Shareholder Derivative Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 12-06003.

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India plans IPO rule changes to lure homegrown start-ups: sources India's market regulator is planning rule changes that will make it easier for homegrown start-ups to list their shares on local bourses, sources involved in the process said, helping domestic investors to bet on the country's booming online economy.While many of India's largest online players are set to list in the coming year or two as they mature, none is currently expected to make its market debut at home. That could mean a significant loss for local exchanges and investors: marketplace Flipkart has prompted valuations of as high as $11 billion.To remedy this, sources said, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is considering easing rules on mandatory disclosure for the draft prospectuses of Internet-based firms.One of the main items that could be scrapped is the need to detail the use of proceeds from the initial public offering of shares, they said. This is an obstacle particularly for technology start-ups, that don't usually use the cash to invest in plants, factories or mines."A lot of them operate without any tangible assets," said one of the sources directly involved in the process. "That creates an issue when declaring the use of proceeds (in the draft prospectus)."The source said other issues including accounting and financial reporting practices used by the e-commerce firms were also under review to ease pre-IPO disclosure requirements.An official at SEBI said separately that the regulator's chairman, U.K. Sinha, has held meetings with startup executives and bankers to discuss the proposed changes.All the sources declined to be named, as they were not authorized to speak to the media given the new rules are still being finalised. A spokesman for SEBI did not respond to Reuters calls and e-mail requesting comment.India is seeing a boom in private investments in start-ups and a large number of funds including Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL], U.S.-based Accel Partners and Japan's SoftBank Corp have invested billions of dollars in online firms.Most of these private equity investors are expected to exit from their portfolio companies through share listings, putting a spotlight on the sector and the potential IPO candidates.Many Indian start-ups including online marketplaces Flipkart and Snapdeal are expected to be preparing for IPOs, hoping to raise capital and to give some of their early backers an opportunity to cash in on investments worth billions of dollars.But bankers are expecting them to explore overseas markets, mainly U.S. exchange operator NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. That is due to regulatory requirements in India as well as the difficulty in finding valuation benchmarks on exchanges on which no comparable rivals trade.Investment bankers said the SEBI rule changes, if implemented, may encourage some of these companies to consider a listing at home, giving Indian investors the chance to put money into a sector that is expected to boom in the next few years as more Indians shop, live and work online.

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Rand Paul woos donors and hackers at tech conference As his likely rivals spent the weekend shaking hands in New Hampshire, potential Republican candidate Rand Paul flew to Texas to court the software developers and entrepreneurs who are likely to play a central role in the 2016 election.The libertarian-leaning Kentucky Senator tweeted, Snapchatted and Instagrammed his way through the South by Southwest Interactive conference as he sought to make inroads among an independent-minded crowd that could serve as an important source of money, votes and programming talent for his expected presidential bid."If you want talent you gotta go where the talent is," he said on Monday.It was the first time a potential candidate has participated in the conference, according to organizers. Paul spent much of the weekend talking about the shared DNA of the tech community and the libertarian movement, but he spent little time talking about net neutrality, the thorny question of how to ensure that all Internet traffic is treated equally.While many tech companies back recently approved rules that broadband providers such as Verizon and Comcast should be regulated like utilities, Paul and other Republicans have argued that the new regulations will choke off innovation.It's an argument he has made in great detail in other forums. In front of this crowd, he framed the debate in the broadest terms possible."I don't want the government to screw up one of the greatest technologies we've had," he told the conference on Sunday, drawing applause.The applause that line drew came as a surprise for tech consultant Warren Hanes, who said he thought many at the conference weren't aware of his opposition to the new rules."It’s possible there are people who simply responded emotionally to the issue of less regulation," he said.TECHNOLOGY ARMS RACEPaul's decision to spend the weekend in Texas, rather than early-voting states like Iowa or New Hampshire, highlight the crucial role the technology industry is likely to play in 2016 - both as a source of money and talent. While former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has locked down many big donors on Wall Street and Florida Senator Marco Rubio has made inroads with the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, Paul has worked hard to cultivate ties in Silicon Valley, where many entrepreneurs share his frustration with government eavesdropping. Campaigns have also engaged in a technology arms race since 2004 to find ever more sophisticated ways to target voters. Planting the flag at South by Southwest could help Paul build a cutting-edge operation.On Monday, he opened an office for his political-action committee at the Capital Factory, a shared-office space for technology startups in a downtown Austin high-rise. The tech industry gave twice as much money to Democratic President Barack Obama than his Republican rival Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. Paul's conservative stances on social issues like gay marriage and abortion could prove troubling for many in the industry, where liberal social views are widespread. Mozilla Corp. CEO Brendan Eich, for example, resigned under pressure in 2014 after board members objected to his support for a previous campaign against gay marriage.Paul's views on social issues are "a real problem for people like me," said Jeff Boedeker, a producer at a multimedia company. Still, he says he believes the final say on abortion and same sex marriage will go to the courts, not the president, making support of Paul more palatable.

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Online music licensing venture makes offer to allay EU concerns Three of Europe's biggest groups, which collects royalties for songwriters and performers, have offered concessions in a bid to soothe European Union regulatory concerns about their plan to set up an online music licensing venture.The European Commission in January said it was concerned that the planned online venture by Britain's PRS for Music Limited (PRSfM), Sweden's Foreningen Svenska Tonsattares Internationella Musikbyra (STIM) and Germany's Gesellschaft für musikalische Auffuehrungs- und mechanische Vervielfaeltigungsrechte (GEMA) could lead to higher prices.The EU extended its investigation to June 26 from May 29 after the three collecting societies submitted their concessions, the EU said on its website on Monday, without providing details.Its preliminary review said that the joint venture would reduce the number of market players from four to two, would increase its bargaining power and could lead to higher prices for online music licences.

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Boeing eyes satellite deal with tech giant this year Boeing Co (BA.N) on Monday said it could clinch a deal this year to build a high-throughput communications satellite for top technology companies such as Google Inc (GOOGL.O), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Facebook Inc (FB.O) or Apple Inc (AAPL.O).Jim Simpson, vice president of business development and chief strategist for Boeing Network and Space Systems, told Reuters the big technology firms were keen to expand Internet access around the world to help them grow. "The real key to being able to do these type of things is ultra high-throughput capabilities, where we’re looking at providing gigabytes, terrabytes, petabytes of capability," Simpson told Reuters after a panel at the Satellite 2015 conference.Simpson declined to give specific details about discussions with the tech companies. He said the challenge was to drive down the cost of satellite communications to be more in line with terrestrial costs, which would help the tech firms justify the expense of building a larger communications satellite.But if sufficient demand failed to materialize, the tech companies would be left with the cost of "a really high performance satellite," he said.Boeing and other satellite makers have been eying a new source of demand from technology firms such as Google and Amazon.com, given their interest in reaching the estimated 70 percent of the globe that still lacks access to the Internet.Privately held Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has said it plans to build a system of 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) for global Internet connectivity. In January, it received $1 billion in investments from Google and mutual-fund giant Fidelity Investments.Simpson noted that the Google investment was an equity stake in the company, not in the satellite project, but declined to say whether that meant Google could still be a possible customer for a higher-end Boeing system in geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO).Mark Spiwak, president of Boeing Satellite Systems International, said he expected demand for GEO satellites to remain steady at about two dozen a year, but he said those satellites would clearly need to have greater processing power and larger bandwidth, given rising demand for global connectivity.He said GEO satellites were larger and more expensive, but they would save the cost of more frequent maintenance and launch costs for a large network of low-earth orbit satellites. At the same time, he said Boeing was also prepared to build LEO satellites, depending on customer preference.(Story refiles to correct typo in "petabytes" in 3rd paragraph)

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SAP sees procurement services as the cloud's silver lining Business software maker SAP is betting its development of online corporate purchasing services for its multinational customers can boost revenue and profits as it shifts its core business onto the cloud.Steve Singh, head of SAP's recently created Business Network division for cloud-based corporate procurement services, says that by making a dent in the several trillions of dollars in total which big companies spend each year on purchasing goods and services, his company stands to take in billions of fees."There is a $75 billion opportunity," Singh says of the overall market that SAP is targeting.Analysts also say subscription fees for providing such procurement and vendor management services could give SAP the buffer on margins it needs as it shifts to deliver more of its software from the cloud, a move that brings higher upfront costs on each sale than older localized software installations. By creating a network of preferred business-to-business suppliers for big-ticket material purchases, temporary staffing, hotels and travel, SAP says it can help its multinational customers rein in on huge amounts of spending.SAP is looking to take advantage both of its position as the world's leading supplier of corporate financial management software and the nearly $20 billion it has spent on making cloud-based business acquisitions in recent years. These include ecommerce specialist Ariba, contract staffing firm Fieldglass and staff travel and expenses manager Concur. It is now combining these to produce a single Business Network for procurement services.It's a market where Europe's largest software maker faces competition from traditional rivals such as Oracle, Salesforce and Microsoft but also from less obvious names like China's Alibaba, with its own vast supplier network, and smaller, but fast-growing companies like staff management software specialist Workday.But because SAP has a vast base of customers using its financial planning software and now specific applications for managing key purchasing functions, analysts say it has a headstart in trying to win a big chunk of this market.A PIECE OF THE ACTION The success of this strategy is vital to ensure operating margins well above 30 percent don't shrink too far as it seeks over the next five years to generate roughly half of all revenue from software services delivered from the cloud, analysts say. SAP told an investor meeting last month it expected the Business Network to produce a 30 percent compound annual growth rate through 2020. It generated more than $1 billion of SAP's total revenues of $18.7 billion (17.6 billion euros) last year. And this added revenue stream could mean the difference between hitting its five-year profit target goals, or suffering sinking margins with the rest of the cloud industry.By 2020 SAP is aiming for an underlying operating profit of 8-9 billion euros on revenue of 26-28 billlion euros. Reported operating profit in 2014 was 4.33 billion euros.What scares investors is that cloud industry norms on profit margins are far below SAP's current 30 plus percent levels. For while pure-play cloud software names have enjoyed rapid sales growth for years, most still struggle to turn a profit. More pessimistic analysts predict cloud margins to settle closer to computer services margins, at or around 10 percent. "SAP has to offset lower cloud margins with a more profitable business and that is where the Business Network comes in," said Gregory Ramirez, a financial analyst with brokerage Bryan Garnier in Paris.

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Apple TV entices networks with promise of mobile viewers Apple Inc's planned video streaming service may not be a tough sell for media companies who could be enticed by the company's ubiquitous iPhones and iPads, which represent a new stream of growth for an industry losing viewers.Rising mobile viewership, and faster and more reliable mobile networks are paving the way for online TV subscription services to go mainstream in the near future. Add in a gradual decline in cable users in general and it offers a compelling opportunity for media firms to take notice.The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that some broadcasters are in talks to sign on to a new Apple service. Such talks have been reported for years, but the Journal said that Apple hoped to launch in the fall. Apple and the networks declined to comment.Viewers have grown comfortable with online streaming because of Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc's Prime, and traditional media is following suit with Sony Corp preparing a Web TV service, and satellite operator Dish launching its own version, called Sling TV.But an Apple offering may be able to provide viewers something traditional cable and satellite distributors cannot: a huge user base and the ability to work in concert with smartphones and tablets."The time is right," said BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk. "Holding the screen in front of you is an experience that a new generation is growing up with." And cable "operators by not developing their own technology fast enough have really left the door open for Apple not only to provide a lower-cost solution that has greater functionality, but that's easier to use when on the sofa looking at the 50-inch."Apple offers roughly 100 million active iPhone users in the United States alone, by some estimates. Although there is certainly overlap, that's roughly the same size as the U.S. pay television market.By comparison, there are only 10 million broadband subscribers in the country who do not have pay television said Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi. That smaller group, often seen as the prime target for Web TV, may not be seen as significant enough for some content companies."Risking revenues on the former group to attract the latter is likely bad business, unless the content providers believe that the former will inevitably decay," he said. "These issues are real and likely the biggest stumbling blocks to an Apple television service."However, analyst Craig Moffett says that broadcasters and cable channels see the writing on the wall, since pay TV subscription growth has been stalling for years."There is now real economic pressure on the model. The old way of doing business isn’t working any more. For the first time the media companies feel compelled to experiment," said Moffett, of MoffettNathanson Research.

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Defense Secretary Carter sworn in, calls for 'better use' of tax dollars New U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter was sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden in a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday after the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly voted to confirm him last week.Carter, 60, served from 2011 to 2013 as deputy defense secretary, the Pentagon's No. 2 position. He was confirmed by a vote of 93-5 on Thursday.In a message to Department of Defense staff that was made public by the Pentagon, Carter said a top priority would be dealing with congressional funding limits that create "wasteful uncertainty" for defense programs. "To win support from our fellow citizens for the resources we need, we must show that we can make better use of every taxpayer dollar," Carter said.

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Panasonic agrees to base pay rises bigger than last year Panasonic Corp said on Wednesday it has agreed to increase the base salary for its employees by 3,000 yen a month, higher than last year's 2,000 yen hike, following annual wage negotiations with the electronics maker's labor union.Many Japanese firms are due to announce the results of their wage talks on Wednesday. Higher wages are considered key to sustaining growth and decisively ending deflation in the world's No.3 economy.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has been urging Japanese companies - which are sitting on record levels of cash amid hefty profits - to do their part and lift workers' pay.But real, inflation-adjusted wages fell 2.5 percent in 2014, with households squeezed by higher consumers prices and an increase in the national sales tax rate.

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Pinterest's latest funding round values it at $11 billion: WSJ Photo-sharing application company Pinterest has raised $367 million in its latest round of funding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The amount raised values the company at $11 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.The current round of funding is expected to close in a few weeks, the paper said, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.

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AT&T-DirecTV merger escapes heat as all eyes on Comcast AT&T Inc's proposed acquisition of satellite television company DirecTV is getting a smooth ride from U.S. regulators and industry rivals, who instead are directing their firepower at a merger deal between the nation's two biggest cable operators.U.S. Federal Communications Commission filings and interviews with several people familiar with the Justice Department show the $48.5 billion AT&T-DirecTV deal is getting far less attention than Comcast Corp's agreement to buy Time Warner Cable Inc for $45 billion.At the core is how Comcast's deal would bolster the company's already dominant position in broadband Internet, an important growth area as more Americans drop cable subscriptions to watch video on the Web. Each merger would create a company controlling more than a quarter of the pay TV market. But it is the Comcast deal that has triggered FCC and Justice Department inquiries resulting in hours-long depositions, hundreds of meetings and nearly 90,000 comments, according to disclosures and people who have met with the regulators.Muted opposition does not necessarily guarantee a painless regulatory process for AT&T and DirecTV, but it does reduce pressure on regulators, whose bar is high for rejecting a merger, antitrust and FCC experts say. COMCAST CONCERNSWith Time Warner Cable, Comcast would provide high-speed Internet access to almost 40 percent of Americans, according to SNL Kagan data. Critics at advocacy groups and telecom, media and Web companies say they fear Comcast would gain unparalleled control over how content providers reach millions of pay-TV subscribers, as well as consumers' access to video delivered by competitors over the Internet.By contrast, AT&T covers about 17 percent of the broadband market, and DirecTV does not offer Internet access."The customers aren't anxious, and the competitors aren't rattled," said former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, now at law firm Covington & Burling. "The FCC or the Justice Department will be looking for markets where this will have an impact, and hardly anyone is telling them that there are such markets."The FCC, which determines if deals are in the public interest, has received nearly 20 petitions to deny Comcast's proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable, but only five such petitions for AT&T-DirecTV, a review of disclosures shows. The FCC has received about 14,000 "brief comments" on the AT&T deal, many from members of the public concerned about the merger, according to a Reuters tally. On Comcast-Time Warner Cable, the agency has gotten about 88,000 such comments.FCC disclosures show officials there have held more than 300 meetings with supporters and opponents of Comcast's proposed merger, compared with about 70 for AT&T-DirecTV. A critic of the AT&T-DirecTV deal who met with the Justice Department said reviewers there asked "few questions" and gave "blank stares." The Justice Department, which looks at antitrust issues, and the FCC declined to comment for this story. A Comcast spokeswoman declined to comment on comparisons with AT&T's merger. But she said merging with Time Warner Cable would not cause consumers to lose any video, broadband or phone choices as the two companies do not directly compete in any market.An AT&T spokesman said the DirecTV acquisition received support from "labor, rural interests, the tech community, and many others eager for an alternative to cable."

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Bain-backed MYOB to file for $2.3 billion Australia IPO by end-March: sources Bankers running the expected A$3 billion ($2.29 billion) initial public offering of Australian software firm MYOB Ltd, owned by Bain Capital, plan to file a prospectus for the sale by end-March, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.Domestic advisor Reunion Capital Partners and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs [GSGSC.UL] and UBS plan to run a bookbuild after lodging the prospectus with regulators, the people said on Monday. The people are working on the deal, expected to be one of Australia's biggest IPOs this year, but asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.Lodging a prospectus would confirm U.S. private equity giant Bain's faith in the Australian share market for its first major asset ownership sale in the country. Bain had kept its options open for cutting its MYOB investment, including the possibility of a trade sale.Bain, which paid A$1.2 billion for MYOB in 2011, plans to keep a significant portion of the tech firm, one of people said. While likely to be a marquee deal for Australia this year, the listing is likely to be far smaller than last year's biggest IPO, the A$5.7 billion sale of health insurer Medibank Private Ltd.Australia in 2014 had its biggest-ever year for new listings, with $15 billion raised in IPOs, as company owners, including private equity firms, focused on a buoyant share market for offloading assets.But IPO activity has been subdued so far in 2015, echoing investors' caution amid unfavorable macroeconomic factors like slowing Chinese growth, sliding commodity prices and an imminent U.S. rate hike. The Australian benchmark index has fallen 3.5 percent since March 3.MYOB was not immediately available for comment. A Bain spokesperson was also not immediately available for comment.($1 = 1.3123 Australian dollars)

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Big problem for fund managers: liking Apple too much At more than 15 percent of his fund's assets, John Burnham, manager of the $136 million Burnham Fund, has a larger stake in Apple Inc than any other diversified fund. "I think they are doing everything right and it's still a cheap stock based on earnings and revenue," he says. Yet that devotion for Apple is a problem for Burnham and some other managers of so-called diversified funds like his - they want more Apple than they can buy under self-imposed risk-reducing guidelines that typically have them holding no more than 5 percent of their assets in any one company.Burnham and the 174 fund managers like him who hold large stakes of their diversified portfolios in Apple are pulled in two directions: hoping to prevent an unforeseen drop in Apple shares from upending their portfolios, while also benefiting from a company whose shares are up 12 percent this year so far."Your positioning in Apple may hold a big sway in how your fund does overall, particularly in categories like large blend where every basis point counts," said Laura Lutton, who oversees equity fund research at fund tracker Morningstar. In 2014, for instance, funds that underweighed Apple compared to broad market indexes were the most likely to underperform their peers, she said.RISKSHolding a concentrated position in one company is one way for stockpickers to stand out as investors move money to passive index funds. Yet it is unusual for diversified funds like Burnham's to hold more than 10 percent of their portfolios in one company, said Todd Rosenbluth, director of mutual fund research at S&P Capital IQ. "Investors may not realize that their fund manager is taking on a higher amount of risk," he said.Most fund managers are inclined to take profits when a stock hits 7 percent of a portfolio, yet there are few set mandates set down by fund firms, Rosenbluth said. He said that he can’t think of any fund families that have to sell if holdings exceed guidelines as a result of appreciation. Diversified mutual funds are allowed by law to add shares of a company as long as its total weight is below 24.9 percent of their portfolios overall, but do not have to sell shares if they appreciate above that level, said Jay Baris, an attorney at Morrison & Foerster in New York. BIG BETSBurham didn't set out to have such a big stake in Apple, he said. He began buying shares in 2005 when they traded at a split-adjusted level of less than $7 each. Those shares have now appreciated over 2,000 percent. "It's the world's greatest company. I just don't see any reason to sell it," Burnham said, adding that he thinks that the stock should trade above $200 a share. Shares of the company closed at $123.59 on Friday. His big weighting in the company is also helping his performance, which may in turn bring in more investor dollars. Burnham's fund, which also has significant positions in Chipotle Mexican Grill and Williams Companies Inc, is up 4.8 percent for the year to date, according to Lipper, a return about 4 percentage points better than the S&P 500. Over the last 5 years, the fund has returned an average of 14.3 percent a year, a performance slightly better than average large cap fund. The fund costs $1.36 per $100 invested, a rate slightly above average.Other fund managers with large stakes in Apple who aren't selling say that they didn't set out to have an oversized position in the company. David Chiueh, the manager of the Upright Growth fund, has 13.4 percent in Apple, the second-largest among diversified funds tracked by Lipper, mostly because shares he bought in 2008 have appreciated, he said. The BlackRock Science and Technology Opportunities Portfolio, the third-largest Apple holder, has an underweight position according to the fund's chosen benchmark, the MSCI World Information Technology index, a company spokeswoman said. Other large holders of Apple have started to trim their positions. Mark Mulholland, whose Matthew 25 fund is classified as a non-diversified fund, has 15.3 percent of his portfolio's assets in Apple. He expects to trim the position down to 10 percent of his portfolio, in part because the company's shares do not look as attractive on a valuation basis, he said. "It's not a company under duress by any means, but it's not trading at as big as a discount as it was before," Mulholland said.

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Alibaba options show investors wary ahead of lock-up expiration Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's blockbuster IPO has been followed by a steady slide in its stock price, which options market players do not expect to abate, with nearly a fifth of its shares to be released for trading on Wednesday. The Chinese e-commerce giant's stock soared after it first went public in September, but the party didn't last. Trading just above $84 on Tuesday, the stock has dropped 29 percent from an all-time closing high of $119.15 in November on concerns about slowed growth in China and fake items on its website. With an additional 437 million shares set to be freed in a post-IPO lockup, there has been an increase in bearish sentiment as investors hedge against more losses, with some even believing the shares will soon fall below the original IPO price of $68.“It’s a subtle but important sign that investors are more fearful,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York, who is short Alibaba shares. Earlier this year, Chinese regulators sharply criticized the company for selling substandard, fake or banned products.The 180-day post-IPO lock-up period bars various insiders from selling their shares. Of the 437 million shares to be sold publicly, about 100 million will remain subject to trading restrictions that apply to employees until after the company reports results in May. Short interest in Alibaba's shares has risen to 57 million shares as of Feb. 27, up 30 percent since the beginning of the year, according to Thomson Reuters data.Alibaba's options have been busy heading into the lock-up's expiration. In the last two weeks, puts betting on the stock dipping below $80 by Friday were the most actively traded. Deep out-of-the money puts, with their strike price well below the current share price and set to expire in April, have also seen an uptick in activity."A lot of people who are long the stock from the beginning want to try to let it run and they may be buying way out-of-the money puts against it [as a hedge] instead of putting a stop order on their stock," said J.J. Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade.Overall, open interest in Alibaba puts - usually used for bearish bets - has risen more quickly than open interest in calls this year, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert. The ratio of puts-to-calls is 0.75, about the highest it has been since the options were listed in September.In recent months, there has been a sharp spike in open interest for strikes below the IPO price. For example, open interest in put options betting on Alibaba shares dipping below $65 by July 17 has increased to more than 8,500 from less than 1,000 contracts at the beginning of February.

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Blackberry launches new secure tablet Seeking to extend its range of secure mobile devices, BlackBerry Ltd said on Saturday it was launching a high-security tablet, developed with International Business Machines Corp and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.The SecuTABLET, based on Samsung's Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and being presented by BlackBerry unit Secusmart at tech fair CeBIT 2015 in Germany, reflects the Canadian company's stress on secure connections for governments and businesses as it seeks to preserve a niche market after a drubbing in recent years at the hands of emerging smartphone makers such as Apple Inc.“Security is ingrained in every part of BlackBerry’s portfolio, which includes voice and data encryption solutions,” said Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle, chief executive officer of Secusmart GmbH, in a statement on the new device. The device was undergoing certification by the German Federal Office for Information Security for secure rating, the statement said, adding that the new tablet used the same security technology as the Secusmart Security Card."Working alongside IBM and Samsung, we have added the last link in the chain of the Federal Security Network. Subject to certification of the SecuTABLET, German government agencies will have a new way to access BlackBerry’s most secure and complete communications network in the world,” Quelle said.

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Super Mario to go mobile as Nintendo ventures into smartphone games Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co Ltd will venture into smartphone games, heeding calls from investors to boost revenue by taking iconic characters like Super Mario to players increasingly shunning its consoles.Nintendo, which already warned its annual operating profit would halve on weak console sales, said on Tuesday it was teaming up with online gaming firm DeNA Co Ltd to develop and operate gaming apps.The two companies will also launch later this year an online membership service accessible on mobile devices as well as Nintendo's existing Wii U console and the portable 3DS."This will allow us to build a bridge between smart devices and gaming consoles," Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told reporters. "It doesn't mean smart devices will eat away at gaming consoles, it will create an entirely new type of demand."Investors have long called on Nintendo to shift its focus to mobile devices after losing customers to both smartphone gaming app makers and console rivals like PlayStation maker Sony Corp and Xbox maker Microsoft Corp.The company had so far resisted these calls, pinning its hopes on hit games such as "Mario Kart 8". But in January, it halved its operating earnings target for the fiscal year through March to 20 billion yen ($169 million), citing weak 3DS sales in the year-end holiday season.Under the partnership, Nintendo and DeNA would buy 22 billion yen worth of shares in each other. As a result, Nintendo will acquire a 10 percent stake in DeNA while DeNA will acquire a 1.2 percent stake in Nintendo. Although Iwata didn't disclose any details about Nintendo's first mobile game, he said it would not be a hand-me-down from the company's famed console titles.He also said Nintendo was currently developing NX, a new gaming platform, but declined to give further details. For DeNA, which grew from a startup launched in 1999 to a major online gaming company, a tie-up with Nintendo will help it regain momentum lost in the past two years as users moved on to more popular gaming apps. DeNA mainly develops games played on browsers. As a result of the capital alliance, Nintendo will become the second largest shareholder of DeNA after its founder, Tomoko Namba, who has a 13.1 percent stake.

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eBay, Sotheby's launch new online auctions platform Going, going, gone! Sold to the highest bidder at the auction, on the phone or on a new eBay platform that will stream Sotheby's New York auctions live beginning next month.The new live auctions platform - ebay.com/sothebys - that launches on Tuesday pairs Sotheby's 270 years of experience selling art and antiques with eBay's digital expertise and 155 million active users worldwide to meet the demand for online bidding.The first auctions on the platform will begin on April 1 with photographs and a themed New York sale that will include the 13 letters of the 1970s Yankee Stadium sign that could fetch up to $600,000 from the collection of baseball great Reggie Jackson.Online art sales are not new. Sotheby's and its rival Christie's conduct them. But the platform will bring Sotheby's vast inventory to a new audience in the hopes of boosting sales and prices."What this partnership is about is leveraging eBay's audience and ability to target that audience and find clients that have the means to participate in a Sotheby's auction," Josh Pullan, senior vice president, director of e-commerce at Sotheby's, said.Online sales of art and antiques are estimated to have reached 3.3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) or about 6 percent of global sales in 2014, according to a report commissioned by the Netherlands-based European Fine Art Foundation.The majority of online sales, it added, was in the $1,000 to $50,000 range.Most of Sotheby's New York auctions will be streamed on the platform except for high-priced evening sales of contemporary, modern and Impressionist art and other specialist categories.Sotheby's has seen a nearly 25 percent rise in online bidding in 2014 over the previous year. In an auction of Picasso Ceramics, 75 percent of the lots offered attracted online bids.The platform includes photographs, commentary and audio/ video components. It is designed to emulate the auction catalog in a digital format and to replicate the experience of seeing art in a museum before taking bidders to the live auction where they can bid in real time.Megan Ford, director, emerging verticals and live auctions at eBay, said technology is changing and people have become more comfortable purchasing high-ticket items online in the past few years.The premier tier of inventory for art and collectibles, she added, was previously only available in the live-sale format at auction houses.

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'Formula E' electric car race creates a quiet buzz in Miami The streets snaking through downtown Miami's high rises will be buzzing this Saturday as commuters make way for dart-shaped racing cars zooming by at breakneck speeds - and little noise.The race drivers will be competing in the first Formula E race in the United States since the all-electric series was launched in Beijing in September 2014.Halfway through its inaugural season, Formula E has offered the same, albeit quieter, thrills as the popular Formula One events, with low-slung, opened-wheeled cars capable of speeds up to 136 miles per hour (220 kilometers per hour).The Beijing race ended with a spectacular crash that sent one of the $500,000 Renault SA cars flying.Danger and adrenaline are not all that you find on the track, however."It's really something to see how racing has evolved to fully electric motors. It could revolutionize racing and transportation in general," said Daniel Fernandez, 17, who bought tickets with several high school friends to attend the race, which is expected to attract more than 50,000 spectators.The series was launched by Jean Todt, a French racing icon and former Ferrari chief executive who heads of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) that oversees Formula One.It is backed by environmentalist and actor Leonardo DiCaprio and entrepreneur Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group sponsors a two-car team.FIA, which has partnered with Spanish private equity fund Amura Capital, Qualcomm Inc and cable billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Global Plc, has attracted sponsors such as tire maker Michelin and courier service DHL hoping the series will help the development of mainstream electric cars."The technology improves unbelievably once these large companies start investing in research," said Pier Luigi Ferrari, the managing director of DHL motorsports.The public has shown an interest and Elon Musk’s electric car firm Tesla Motors Inc has already built up a following, although its stock has fallen lately as it missed sales targets.Developing a so-called green racing series has meant overhauling how the races are run. Car batteries cannot be charged mid-race, forcing drivers at some point to rush into a second, fully charged car.The cars give off a high-pitched whistling sound, a bit like a dentist's drill. Drivers also must carefully manage their power, a challenge for race cars with a limited battery life."We have a target (power) consumption per lap and we need to respect that like the Bible," said Jaime Alguersuari, a 24-year-old Spanish driver with Virgin. "You want to win, but if you burn up all your energy you won’t finish."

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Labor secretary to hold more talks in West Coast ports dispute U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez planned to hold a second round of talks with shipping company executives and union leaders for 20,000 dockworkers on Wednesday, seeking to broker a deal to end months of labor turmoil clogging cargo traffic at 29 West Coast ports.Perez was sent to San Francisco as an emissary of President Barack Obama, who has come under mounting pressure to intervene in a conflict that has reverberated through the trans-Pacific commercial supply chain and, by some estimates, could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars.Steadily worsening cargo congestion that the union and shippers blame on each other has slowed freight traffic since October at the ports, which handle nearly half of all U.S. maritime trade and more than 70 percent of the nation's imports from Asia. More recently, the shipping companies have sharply curtailed operations at the terminals, limiting the loading and unloading of cargo vessels to daytime shifts at the five busiest ports and to non-holiday weekdays only throughout the system.Daytime work has continued in the dockyards, rail yards and terminal gates. Some smaller ports remained open to nighttime vessel operations as well.The union and shipping companies each accuse the other side of instigating the disruptions to gain leverage in contract negotiations that have dragged on for nine months, appearing to hit a roadblock in the last two weeks.The bargaining agent for the shippers and terminal operators, the Pacific Maritime Association, has said talks hit a snag over a union demand for changes in the system of binding arbitration of contract disputes.The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has insisted the two sides are near an accord.Perez joined the talks for the first time on Tuesday, meeting separately with each party, then briefly with both sides together, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters."Secretary Perez made clear that the dispute has led to a very negative impact on the U.S. economy, and further delay risks tens of thousands of jobs and will cost American businesses hundreds of millions of dollars," Labor Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement at day's end.Perez urged the parties "to come to an immediate agreement to prevent further damage to our economy," she said.More talks were scheduled for Wednesday. The union and the PMA have declined public comment since agreeing last Friday to honor a news blackout requested by a federal mediator who joined the talks last month.Effects of the port slowdowns have rippled through the U.S. economy, extending to agriculture, manufacturing, retail and transportation.The last time contract talks led to a full shutdown of the West Coast ports was in 2002, when the companies imposed a lockout that was lifted 10 days later under a court order sought by President George W. Bush.

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China's Li Ning to team up with Xiaomi on 'smart' running shoes China's Li Ning Co Ltd is teaming up with Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi [XTC.UL] to produce a new generation of "smart" running shoes this year, in the sports brand's latest effort to revive its waning fortunes. Li Ning, backed by private equity powerhouse TPG Capital [TPG.UL] and Singapore wealth fund GIC [GIC.UL], warned in January that it expects to post its third consecutive full-year loss, as it grapples with a restructuring, bloated inventories and slowing demand following the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Li Ning's efforts to recapture its glory days by appealing to a younger generation have been evident in its product design and high-profile marketing campaigns. In 2013, it signed a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with NBA basketball superstar Dwayne Wade. Li Ning said its partnership with Huami Technology, the fitness wearable company behind the Mi band and part of the Xiaomi ecosystem, is the first collaboration between sports and "smart" technology in China. "We have chosen to collaborate with the Mi band because of Huami Technology's strength in "smart" wearable products," Li Ning said in a statement on Monday. "We hope to use this opportunity to provide professional "smart" running shoes to running enthusiasts in China at an affordable price." "Smart" chips are to be placed in the soles of Li Ning running shoes. The "smart" running shoes will be connected to a Xiaomi mobile app, allowing runners to keep track of their progress and results, analyse their form, and monitor their achievements. Li Ning is due to announce its 2014 results on Wednesday.

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Google X boss says company should have curbed Glass hype Google Inc (GOOGL.O) (GOOG.O) was wrong to let expectations about its Glass wearable gadget get overheated, the head of the Google X research lab said on Tuesday. The Internet company did not do enough to make clear that the $1,500 computer that mounts to a pair of eyeglasses was merely a prototype and not a finished product, Google’s Astro Teller said during a talk at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin. “We allowed and sometimes even encouraged too much attention for the program,” said Teller, whose official title at Google is Captain of Moonshots, during a talk that focused on how his group has learned from some of its failures.Google stopped selling Glass to consumers earlier this year, noting that it was time for a “pause” and a strategy “reset.” The company still sells Glass to businesses. The device was greeted with enthusiasm among tech aficionados when it was first unveiled in 2012. But Glass, which allows users to access e-mail messages on its eye-level screen and to record video with a tiny camera, quickly ran into problems. Some mocked its awkward appearance, while others expressed concern it could be used to make video recordings surreptitiously.Teller said the “bumps and scrapes” the company experienced with Glass were “absolutely critical for informing the future of Glass and wearables in general.”He also discussed the learning benefits of setbacks in other high-profile projects at the five-year-old Google X division, including drones, solar-powered balloons and self-driving cars. Google initially designed its autonomous cars so that human drivers could take the controls when necessary but abruptly changed course when the company concluded that such a set-up was not safe enough, Teller said. Google’s current self-driving car prototypes eliminate the steering wheel and brake pedal entirely, putting the machine always in control. The decision to make such a change was not easy, he said, noting that the initial version of the company's self-driving modified Lexus SUVs had advanced to the point where the vehicles could handle highway driving extremely well.“We probably could have made a lot of money selling those,” Teller said.

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German court to rule on legality of Uber ride service A German court is set to rule on Wednesday whether Uber's novel taxi-hailing service violates driver licensing rules, a decision that could lead to a nationwide ban on the service.The case in a Frankfurt court brought by German taxi operator group Taxi Deutschland against Uber is one of more than a dozen lawsuits filed across Europe in recent months by taxi industry associations against the San Francisco-based company.Taxi drivers around the world consider Uber unfairly bypasses local licensing and safety regulations by using the internet to put drivers in touch with passengers.Uber offers a range of local transport options from professional limousine services to informal ride-sharing options. UberPop, a ride-sharing service that links private drivers with passengers, is the target of many of the lawsuits, including Taxi Deutschland's. In his opening remarks on Wednesday, presiding judge Joachim Nickel at the Frankfurt district court, said Uber violated German laws on commercial passenger transportation since its drivers did not have the right kinds of licenses.Last September, Frankfurt Regional Court Judge Frowin Kurth had at first issued a temporary injunction against UberPop, then granted the service a temporary reprieve, saying the issues in the case deserved a wider airing by the court.

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All new EU cars will need emergency call technology from 2018 All new cars sold in the European Union from March 2018 will have to be equipped with technology to contact emergency services in the case of an accident.The European Parliament's Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee voted 26-3 on Tuesday in favor of draft EU rules to mandate eCall technology, which would call the EU-wide 112 emergency number automatically if a car crashed.The vote confirmed a deal approved by the EU's 28 member states earlier in March setting out obligations for car manufacturers. The rules are likely to become law after a vote by the full European Parliament in April.Separate rules entered into force in June 2014, requiring EU members to ensure they have the infrastructure required to handle eCalls by October 2017.Some car manufacturers already have comparable systems in place, such as General Motors' OnStar service in the United States and Canada which can summon emergency services after an incident.

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China says deliberation on draft anti-terrorism law goes ahead Deliberation on a controversial Chinese anti-terrorism law is going on and it will be formulated based on national security needs, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday, after a senior U.S. official suggested the legislation had been put on hold.The draft law, which could require technology firms to install "backdoors" in products or hand over sensitive information such as encryption keys to the government, has been criticized by some Western leaders and business groups.U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview with Reuters on March 2 that he had raised concern about the law directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping.White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel said on Thursday that China had suspended a review process for the law."Currently, the deliberation on this law is ongoing," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular news briefing, adding that China was willing to "communicate with relevant parties" on the drafting."China will formulate its anti-terrorism law based on its own counter-terrorism needs, and protect national security. This is an important necessity of China's current national development," Hong said.China will maintain communication to ensure the law also fits international practice, he said.The initial draft of the law, published by the National People's Congress late last year, requires companies to also keep servers and user data within China, supply law enforcement authorities with communications records and censor terrorism-related Internet content.Parliamentary spokeswoman Fu Ying has said many Western governments, including the United States, had made similar requests for encryption keys and Chinese companies operating in the United States had long been subject to intense security checks. The legitimate interests of technology firms would not be affected, she said. Although the counter-terrorism provisions would apply to both domestic and foreign technologies, officials in Washington and Western business lobbies argue the law, combined with new banking rules and a slew of anti-trust investigations, amount to unfair regulatory pressure targeting foreign companies.

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Raytheon in talks to buy Websense Inc: Bloomberg U.S. arms maker Raytheon Co is in talks to buy network-security company Websense Inc, owned by private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners LLC, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.Vista has hired Citigroup Inc to sell Austin-based Websense for more than $1 billion, according to the report. The company bought Websense for about $900 million in 2013. Websense makes software that protects companies and their networks from cybercrime, malware and data theft.Raytheon also bought privately held Blackbird Technologies, which provides cybersecurity, surveillance and secure communications to spy agencies and special operations units, for $420 million in November last year.Spokeswoman Pam Erickson said Raytheon did not comment on rumors and speculation.Representatives for Vista and Websense were not immediately available for a comment.

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Sony revises third quarter profit upwards in official announcement Japanese consumer electronics maker Sony Corp (6758.T) said on Tuesday its official third-quarter operating profit was 182 billion yen ($1.5 billion), up 2.2 percent from the estimate it reported last month, boosted by cost cuts and strong sales of sensors and videogames. The earlier estimate wasn't final, as Sony had not yet compiled accurate data for its Hollywood movie studio after a massive hack into its computer systems. On Feb.4 Sony said third-quarter operating profit was about 178 billion yen, nearly double year-earlier.On Tuesday, Sony said that including official results for the movie studio, quarterly revenue rose 6.5 percent from a year earlier to 2.567 trillion yen, instead of the 2.558 trillion it estimated earlier.Forecasts for the full-year ending March 31 were unchanged.Sony has struggled to gain market share in high-end smartphones, lagging far behind Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS). But its shares have risen more than 30 percent so far this year on hopes of a turnaround, following a program of massive cuts in unprofitable segments and targeted expansion in lucrative areas such as sensors for smartphone cameras. ($1 = 121.3800 yen)

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Forget streaming, aging boomers still want their fitness DVDs Despite the ubiquity of online fitness offerings from Pilates videos on YouTube to indoor-cycling smartphone apps, fitness experts say aging boomers reluctant to go with the streaming flow want their home exercise in a DVD format. Fitness DVDs generated $297.2 million in sales last year and are likely to remain popular with older audiences, according to market researchers, even as the industry’s giants turn their focus to Web-based technology. “Every time I do a (DVD) shoot, I think this will be the last one, but we keep meeting our revenue goals,” said Miami-based fitness instructor Jessica Smith, whose company JessicaSmithTV produces streaming and DVD fitness videos. “'Please don’t stop selling DVDs' is something I hear from fans all the time," she added.Fueled by aging baby boomers, fitness DVD production grew at an annual rate of 7.7 percent in the five years to 2014, a report by market research company IBIS World showed.The company predicts growth will slow to 3.8 percent in the next five years, as streaming competition increases and fitness DVD giants like Gaiam boost their investments in Web-based formats.“I'd say streaming is an option for almost all providers of fitness content at this point,” Smith said. “Everybody offers some form of streaming in some way or another."Smith puts her DVD demographic at 55 years and older. “The DVD audience is a little older. They want the physical DVD,” said Smith. “The bulk of our YouTube audience is younger.” Some home exercisers, especially outside of big cities, lack Internet service fast enough to download and play streaming videos in real time, she added.  But Donna Cyrus, senior vice president of programming for Crunch Fitness, believes the popularity of DVDs will decrease.   “Because of the Internet, it’s a lot easier to access streaming,” said Cyrus, whose company streams some 60 fitness classes from Pilates to yoga to hip-hop over its live subscription service.“We saw a huge drop” in DVD sales, Cyrus said, “but we still sell them on Amazon.” Both Cyrus and Smith believe the future for streaming is bright, especially if the workouts reach a huge platform, such as Apple TV, Hulu or Netflix.“Long-term, I want to expand my YouTube presence and partner with a large brand,” said Smith. “You always have to be looking two steps ahead, but I don’t want to change too quickly. There’s still a market for DVDs.”

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China's TCL Corp to build factories in India, Brazil China's TCL Corp, one of the world's biggest mobile handset and television manufacturers, is seeking to build factories in India and Brazil next year to overcome high import tariffs in these rapidly expanding consumer electronics markets."We hope to complete factory construction next year and have a better foundation for growth in the future in these two emerging markets," TCL Corp Chief Executive Li Dongsheng told Reuters in an interview last week.He declined to say how much the factories would cost.TCL Corp's revenue increased 18.4 percent to $16.44 billion last year, led by a 60.3 percent sales growth at TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd, the group's handset manufacturer.TCL Communication, which sells smartphones and wearable computing devices under the Alcatel OneTouch and TCL OneTouch brands, last year ranked as the world's seventh-largest handset provider, according to technology consultant Gartner Inc.Despite "intense" competition, TCL Communications is targeting 30 percent revenue growth this year, Li said.TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings, the conglomerate's television unit and China's largest LCD TV maker, also aims to improve profit margins this year, Li said, without giving specific details. The company posted a 15.1 percent drop in revenue to HK$33.53 billion ($4.32 billion) last year.TCL Corp is investing some 50 billion yuan ($7.99 billion) in LCD screens, and in August, started construction of a 16 billion yuan project that will make high-end small- and medium-size panel displays in 2016.The move underscores a wider push by the company to transform itself into a manufacturer of connected technologies.In recent years, TCL has partnered with internet firms, including Tencent Holdings Ltd and video streaming site iQiyi, backed by Baidu Inc, to develop content.($1 = 6.2610 Chinese yuan renminbi)($1 = 7.7648 Hong Kong dollars)

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Google app store gets more oversight Google Inc is tightening supervision of its freewheeling Play store, forming a special team to screen new apps for malware and sexually explicit material, and strengthening its age-based rating system. The change brings Google Play, a bazaar for digital games, social media apps and entertainment software, closer to Apple Inc's tightly controlled App Store. But Google is not adopting Apple's practice of only approving apps that meet its stringent quality standards.The change underscores the growing importance of apps in the success of the companies' rival mobile gadgets. Google, whose Android software runs most of the world's smartphones, and the iPhone and iPad maker each manage online hubs with more than one million apps ranging from calendars to video games.Google said in its official blog on Tuesday that its expert team will screen each app submitted by developers to spot earlier anything that runs afoul of its rules. Google had only used automated technology for screening at the time of submission.The new process will not create bottlenecks, Google said in a post, promising that approved apps will become available on Google Play within "a matter of hours" after submission.Apple does not disclose its app review period, but the website appreviewtimes.com puts the average wait time at seven days for Apple's App Store.Developers must answer special questionnaires about their apps to help independent ratings organizations assign age-based ratings, Google said. "We know that people in different countries have different ideas about what content is appropriate for kids, teens and adults, so today's announcement will help developers better label their apps for the right audience," Google said in the blog post. As of May, apps submitted without the questionnaire will not be published in Google Play, and existing apps that do not seek a rating could be blocked in certain markets or for certain users, Google said. Until now, Google has let developers rate their own apps using a system created by Google.Google, whose Android software runs most of the world's smartphones, and Apple each manage online hubs with more than one million apps ranging from calendars to video games.

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Biden kicks off White House summit on countering violent extremism Vice President Joe Biden kicked off a three-day White House summit on countering violent extremism by lauding the U.S. "melting pot" of assimilating immigrants, a model the administration believes Europe needs to emulate more.The summit, which started Tuesday and brings together local officials from across the country and ministers from around the world, follows recent shootings in Copenhagen and Paris that have galvanized Western resolve against such extremist attacks. "We have to ... engage our communities and engage those who might be susceptible to being radicalized because they are marginalized," Biden said. "Societies have to provide an affirmative alternative for immigrant communities, a sense of opportunity, a sense of belonging that discredits the terrorist’s appeal to fear, isolation, hatred, resentment," he said.The White House believes Europe is especially vulnerable to such attacks because immigrants are often less integrated into societies there."I’m not suggesting ... that I think America has all the answers here. We just have a lot more experience," Biden said.President Barack Obama will address the summit on Wednesday and Thursday.

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Authorities closing in on hackers who stole JPMorgan data: NYT Federal authorities investigating the data breach at JPMorgan Chase & Co are confident that a criminal case will be filed against the hackers in the coming months, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the investigation.JPMorgan said last October that names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of about 83 million customers were exposed in a hacking attack, making it one of the biggest data breaches in history. Law enforcement officials believe that several of the suspects are "gettable," meaning that they live in a country with which the United States has an extradition treaty, the newspaper reported. (nyti.ms/1Ckt7T8)The case is advancing quickly partly because the attack was not as sophisticated as initially believed, and law enforcement authorities were able to identify at least some suspects early on, the Times reported.The investigation is being handled at the highest levels of law enforcement, with the FBI in New York assigning several senior agents to the matter along with a top prosecutor with the computer crimes division at Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office, the newspaper said.JPMorgan officials declined to comment.The FBI and Bharara's office were not immediately available for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

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Adobe adds fewer-than-expected Creative Cloud subscribers, shares fall Photoshop maker Adobe Systems Inc reported a lower-than-expected rise in subscriptions for its Creative Cloud software suite and forecast a second-quarter profit that missed the average analyst estimate.The company's shares fell nearly 4 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday.Adobe said it added about 517,000 Creative Cloud subscriptions in the first quarter, compared with the 573,000 net additions that analysts were expecting, according to research firm StreetAccount.The Creative Cloud offering includes Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash software.The company forecast an adjusted profit of 41-47 cents per share for the second quarter, below the average analyst estimate of 48 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.Adobe's revenue forecast of $1.13 billion-$1.18 billion was also largely below the average analyst estimate of $1.18 billion. "If you go back and look at the last several quarters, they have given conservative revenue and earnings guidance ... and ... tend to end up beating what that lower bar is," FBR Capital Markets analyst Samad Samana said.Adobe is switching from traditional box licenses to web-based subscriptions for its Creative Cloud software bundle to help attract more predictable recurring revenue. Online subscriptions let customers access the latest software versions for a monthly payment.Earlier on Tuesday, Adobe unveiled the Document Cloud, which includes Acrobat DC, a new subscription service for PDF editing software Acrobat.Acrobat DC allows users to create, edit and track PDF documents online across multiple devices. It also includes an e-signing tool and lets users convert paper documents into digital files that can be edited.The Document Cloud will be available within 30 days, Adobe said. It will be offered to Creative Cloud subscribers as part of their existing plan. The company will also offer a perpetual license for Acrobat DC.Adobe's net income rose to $84.9 million, or 17 cents per share, in the first quarter ended Feb. 27, from $47 million, or 9 cents per share, a year earlier.Excluding items, the company earned 44 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 39 cents.Revenue rose 11 percent to $1.11 billion, above analysts' average estimate of $1.09 billion.Up to Tuesday's close, the company's shares had risen about 17 percent in the last 12 months.

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Apple in talks to launch online TV service: WSJ Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) much-hinted-at TV service may soon become a reality as the iPhone maker is in talks with programmers to offer a slimmed-down bundle of TV networks this fall, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.The service would have about 25 channels, anchored by broadcasters such as ABC, CBS and Fox, and be available across all devices powered by Apple's iOS operating system, including iPhones, iPads and Apple TV set-top boxes, the newspaper said.Apple has been talking to Walt Disney Co (DIS.N), CBS Corp (CBS.N), and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (FOXA.O) and other media companies to offer a "skinny" bundle with well-known channels like CBS, ESPN and FX, leaving out the many smaller networks in the standard cable TV package, the Journal said.Apple, which is aiming to price the new service at about $30 to $40 a month, plans to announce the service in June and launch it in September, the newspaper said. (on.wsj.com/1GOgcrv)Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said the company does not comment on rumor and speculation. Fox and CBS declined to comment.Several media companies are considering joining streaming-only services, or launching their own like HBO and CBS, to attract young people who do not subscribe to traditional pay TV packages. But programmers also fear the packages could become so popular that they undercut current, more profitable deals with cable companies.In January, Dish Network Corp (DISH.O) unveiled its long-anticipated video streaming service, named Sling TV, targeted at younger consumers who shun pricey cable and satellite subscriptions.Dish's $20 a month service, the first from a distributor, will be available through Internet-connected devices such as Amazon Fire TV, Roku and Google Nexus Player for TVs, tablets, computers and smartphones and will include TV programming from ABC, ESPN and Maker Studios, Time Warner's (TWX.N) TNT, CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, and Food Network, HGTV and Travel Channel.Others like Sony (6758.T) are also rolling out competing services.Apple is not in talks with NBCUniversal, owner of the NBC broadcast network and cable channels like USA and Bravo, because of a falling-out between Apple and NBCUniversal parent company Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O), the Journal said.Apple and Comcast were in early-stage discussions last year to offer a streaming-television service that would allow Apple set-top boxes to bypass congestion on the web.

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Oracle sales flat, lifts dividend; shares rise Oracle Corp posted flat third-quarter revenue and slightly lower profit as the U.S. dollar strengthened, but the business software maker on Tuesday raised its quarterly dividend 25 percent to 15 cents a share.Shares of Oracle, often a barometer for the technology sector, initially fell but quickly rose 3.3 percent in after-hours trading to $43.20.The database company reported sales of $9.3 billion, the same as the quarter a year ago. Oracle said revenue for the fiscal third quarter would have risen 6 percent without the impact of unfavorable currency rates. Wall Street had expected $9.46 billion, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. "Although currency headwinds are massive for Oracle and its tech brethren, the company showed progress on the cloud front, which is key for tech investors moving forward," said Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets.Oracle said its cloud-computing software and platform service revenue rose 30 percent to $372 million, an area keenly watched by investors as Oracle tries to migrate its business toward a remote, Internet-enabled model."Oracle came in pretty much in line in cloud; it may be a sigh of relief that things weren't as bad as we thought," said Daniel Morgan, an analyst at Synovus Trust Co, referring to other tech companies that have had trouble moving to the cloud. "Oracle's plan is still intact."Oracle's net profit fell slightly to $2.49 billion from $2.56 billion in the year-ago quarter. Profit per share was unchanged at 56 cents, compared with analysts' average estimate of 55 cents.

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Kleiner partner Mary Meeker says firm didn't discriminate Legendary tech analyst Mary Meeker testified she had never encountered discrimination against women as a senior partner at venture firm Kleiner, Perkins Caufield and Byers, as a trial that sparked a wide discussion about gender in Silicon Valley entered its fourth week.Kleiner called Meeker to the stand on Monday in San Francisco Superior Court in response to allegations by Ellen Pao, a former partner who says she suffered discrimination at the firm, and retaliation after she complained. Meeker first became famous as Queen of the Net in the late 1990s, after a report she wrote for Morgan Stanley predicted the power and shape of the then still exotic World Wide Web. She joined Kleiner in 2010 and helps lead the venture capital firm's digital growth funds.Meeker said she had never been excluded from Kleiner events, activities or opportunities at the firm because of her gender."I think Kleiner Perkins is the best place to be a woman in the business," she said.Kleiner is best known for backing Amazon.com Inc, Google Inc, and other well-known technology companies.Pao has acknowledged a brief affair she had with a colleague, and says he then began keeping her out of important meetings after she broke off their personal relationship. That colleague, Ajit Nbazre, was the subject of a later complaint from Trae Vassallo, another female Kleiner partner at the time. Vassallo testified that Nazre showed up at her hotel room door in 2011, wearing a bathrobe and holding a glass of wine.After Vassallo raised her concerns with senior partners, Kleiner eventually hired an investigator and Nazre left the firm. On the stand, Meeker said what transpired between Nazre and Vassallo was "not a great situation."She also said she could not remember if she took part in the decision to terminate Pao in 2012. Meeker described Pao as "certainly more passive" than a male colleague who was promoted, "but I think very thoughtful." The case is Pao v. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers LLC, CGC-12-520719, in California Superior Court, in the County of San Francisco.

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Thirty percent of U.S. adults try to shield cyber info: poll Thirty percent of adults in the United States have taken steps to hide their information from government surveillance programs monitoring phone and electronic communications, a Pew Research Center survey said on Monday.About a quarter, or 22 percent, said they had changed use of various technology platforms “a great deal” or “somewhat” since Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, disclosed the surveillance programs in mid-2013, the Pew survey showed."We find that a portion of the population is adjusting some activity at least in some simple ways like changing their privacy settings and being a bit more discreet in the things they say and search for,” said Lee Rainie, director of Internet, science, and technology research at the Pew Research Center.Eighty-seven percent of Americans have heard at least something about the monitoring programs, the survey showed.Among that group, 17 percent said they had changed privacy settings on social media to shield information from the government.Fifteen percent have avoided certain software applications, and 15 percent have used social media less often.Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed said it was unacceptable for the government to monitor the communications of U.S. citizens.But about four in five it was acceptable to monitor communications of suspected terrorists. Sixty percent said it was OK to monitor the communications of U.S. and foreign leaders.Overall, 52 percent of Americans described themselves as “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about the government monitoring programs. Nearly half said they were “not very concerned” or “not at all concerned.”Rainey was to release the findings in a presentation at the South By Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas.The Pew survey comprised 475 adults and was carried out between Nov. 26, 2014, and Jan. 3. The sampling error is 5.6 percentage points.

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Ford turns back to Microsoft to build connected-car services Ford Motor Co is turning to one of its early technology partners, Microsoft Corp, to help expand the automaker's connected car services.Among the features that Ford plans to offer later this year through its new Service Delivery Network is the ability to automatically update its new Sync 3 infotainment system wirelessly. The service will run on Microsoft's cloud-based Azure platform.Ford's cloud-based service will enable the company to gather more data about how owners use their vehicles, according to Don Butler, executive director of connected vehicle and services.That data, Butler said, "will increase our ability to understand the user experience inside the vehicle . . . with the informed permission of customers."Butler said the vehicle data that Ford acquires wirelessly through the cloud could be used to remotely diagnose mechanical problems or alert owners and dealers on scheduled maintenance. It could also provide insurers with information about vehicle usage and owners' driving habits.Ford two years ago shifted from Microsoft to BlackBerry Ltd's QNX to help it develop the software for Sync 3, after earlier versions of Sync and MyFord Touch, jointly developed with Microsoft, were troubled by technical glitches and widespread consumer complaints. The Sync 3 system, unveiled last December, will begin appearing this fall on some 2016 Ford models.Ford's cloud network also will enable the company to integrate a broader array of mobile services both inside and away from the vehicle, Butler said.Where manufacturers in the past received much of their revenue from the sale or lease of vehicles, a rapidly evolving business model that encompasses such services as car sharing and pay-per-use rentals has expanded the definition of mobility, Butler said."There will be revenues associated with that," he said, adding that third-party developers "may come up with new ways to leverage the data and create new opportunities to deliver services" to vehicle users.Butler declined to say whether Ford is developing a concierge/communication service similar to General Motors Co's OnStar. But he said Ford's new partnership with Microsoft "positions us to be able to deliver a broad set of connectivity-related services."Ford is not the first automaker to use the Azure platform. Four years ago, Microsoft and Toyota Motor Corp announced a cloud-services partnership around Azure. And in 2013, a similar deal was struck with Qoros, a unit of China's Chery Automobile Co [CHERY.UL].

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Facebook clarifies rules on banned content Facebook Inc clarified its rules banning certain content from its social network, as the Internet company strives to curb controversial posts such as support for violent militant groups and nudity without damaging its status as a global hub for users to share information.The 1.39 billion-member social network updated its “community standards” late Sunday, providing specific examples of content prohibited under its general rules against direct threats, hate speech and criminal activity. While Facebook has long forbidden groups it deems to be terrorist organizations from posting content on its service, the company specified that it will remove content that expresses support for such groups or praises their leaders. Facebook also made clear that images “shared in revenge or without permission,” often referred to as “revenge porn,” are forbidden. But photos of women breastfeeding, post-mastectomy scarring and images of paintings and sculptures with nude figures are permissible. The clarification comes as social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter Inc grapple with self-regulating technology that is as easily used for harassment and online bullying as it is for sharing sports videos and news articles. “Having a voice is not some absolute state. It’s not the case that you either have a voice or you don’t,” Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook page on Sunday. Zuckerberg said Facebook was not actually changing any of its policies or standards, but merely providing more guidance.“People rightfully want to know what content we will take down, what controversial content we'll leave up, and why,” Zuckerberg wrote. Images of graphic violence and nudity have long been problematic for Facebook. In 2013, Facebook said it would use a broader set of criteria to determine when gory videos are permitted on the site after a video of a masked man beheading a woman in Mexico prompted an outcry. The company has also been criticized for allowing pages that glorify violence against women.Militant groups such as Islamic State have increasingly used social media to spread their message. Facebook also said on Sunday that it recorded a slight increase in government requests for account data in the second half of 2014. Requests for account data increased to 35,051 in the second half of 2014 from 34,946 in the first half, with requests from countries such as India rising and those from others, including the United States and Germany, falling. (govtrequests.facebook.com)

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British cyber-security firm Darktrace secures $18 million funding Darktrace, a British cyber-security firm backed by former Autonomy boss Mike Lynch, said on Wednesday it had raised $18 million from venture capitalists to expand in Asia Pacific.Investors Talis Capital and Hoxton Ventures joined Lynch's Invoke Capital in a funding round that values the company at $80 million, it said.Darktrace uses advanced machine learning and mathematics developed at the University of Cambridge to identify abnormalities in a company's IT network that might be an attack. Chief Executive Nicole Eagan said Darktrace's software was being used by 75 companies barely a year since it was adopted by its first customer. "Our headcount has tripled over the past year and expansion into Asia is a natural next step," she said. Lynch established Invoke Capital after he left Hewlett-Packard Co in 2012 in an acrimonious split over the $11 billion acquisition of Autonomy by the U.S. company less than a year earlier.

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Uber CFO Brent Callinicos steps down Uber Technologies Inc's Chief Financial Officer Brent Callinicos is stepping down, the online taxi service's CEO said in an email to investors.The company has not named a replacement to Callinicos, but Gautam Gupta, "Brent's right hand on Strategic Finance" will be the acting head of the finance division, Chief Executive Travis Kalanick said in the email seen by Reuters.Callinicos, a former Google Inc (GOOGL.O) executive, will be an advisor to Uber."Brent has done a wonderful job here at Uber but has decided that it is time for his next journey, one where his wife and daughter take the front seat," Kalanick wrote in the email.Callinicos, who joined Uber in 2013, served as treasurer and chief accountant at Google.

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Hillary Clinton's emails: her reaction to Benghazi attacks Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails show her concern about the fallout from the 2012 U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya, but the emails Congress has do not suggest that she told American forces responding to the attack to stand down or that she participated in a cover-up about the Obama administration's response, the New York Times reports. The paper did not review the approximately 300 emails Clinton turned over to the special House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks, but some of the emails were described to them by four senior government officials.The emails show Clinton was following the aftermath of the attacks on the U.S. After an intense hearing before House Republicans a month after the attack, she emailed an aide to ask, "Did we survive the day?" Clinton has also come under fire for failing to appear on the Sunday talk shows following the event. Critics have suggested that National Security Adviser Susan Rice became the face of the administration response in order to allow Clinton to dodge the fallout, although Rice has said that she appeared on the shows because Clinton was tired. The officials who have seen the emails told the Times that the messages do not settle the question of why Clinton did not appear. The emails initially reveal that Clinton's team was pleased that Rice described the attacks as having begun spontaneously before evolving. Two weeks later, however, foreign policy adviser, Jake Sullivan sent Clinton an email that appeared to reassure her she had not used similar language, which was landing Rice in hot water. "You never said 'spontaneous' or characterized their motivations," Mr. Sullivan wrote. The Times also writes that Clinton's senior staff appeared to contact her using their personal email accounts. This is at odds with the former secretary's insistence that all of her emails to the State Department were captured for archival purposes by virtue of the fact that they were sent to state.gov email addresses.At a press conference earlier this month in which she addressed the email scandal, Clinton said the "vast majority" of her work email went to State Department employees and were therefore captured immediately for archival purposes. Other emails described to the Times appear to be more mundane, such as requests for aides to print articles on paper or scheduling issues.

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Texas governor plans to double state's spending on border security Texas Governor Greg Abbott pledged to double the state's spending on securing the border with Mexico, saying on Tuesday the federal government has not done enough to halt illegal immigration.Abbott, a Republican and former state attorney general who became governor in January, has tried to position Texas as a top challenger of President Barack Obama's immigration policies. Texas spearheaded the lawsuit that led a federal judge there on Monday to block Obama's order shielding millions of illegal immigrants from deportation.In his "State of the State" speech, Abbott praised the judge's decision to temporarily block President Barack Obama's orders to shield millions of people who are in the United States illegally. Before becoming governor, Abbott led the fight against the plan when he was attorney general of Texas."In Texas, we will not sit idly by while the president ignores the law and fails to secure the border," he said, adding he plans to "more than doubles current spending on border security." Abbott did not give a figure on what the spending would be but said the money would include hiring more than 500 new state troopers.Abbott has asked the federal government to pick up the bill for the state's spending. Texas lawmakers estimate the state has spent at least $500 million to meet immigration challenges.The state is spending an estimated $12 million a month to deploy Texas National Guard Troops on the border. U.S. Democrats and the Mexican government criticized Texas' deployment as being more political than practical.Democrats have cited data showing the flow of immigrants was slowing before the National Guard deployment started last year and that more U.S. Border Patrol agents have been assigned to the border.Abbott, who as attorney general defended $5.4 billion in education cuts that often led to larger class sizes, said he wants to improve the education system. He did not provide specifics on how much he will spend on the state's schools that rank among the worst in the United States in several categories.Abbott also said he wants to cut property taxes, reduce the bureaucracy and require most state agencies to decrease their general revenue spending by 3 percent."To protect taxpayers from government growing too big, we need a constitutional amendment that limits the growth of the state budget to population growth plus inflation," he said.

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Swedish crowdfunding platform launches bitcoin pilot Swedish crowdfunding platform FundedByMe is launching a bitcoin pilot project, allowing investors to use the virtual currency to buy stakes in a bitcoin trading company.FundedByMe said the project would be the first of its kind to be hosted by a major crowdfunding platform. It will see the trading company, Safello, accept the digital currency from investors during its 45-day campaign that starts on Wednesday. Crowdfunding allows individuals and small businesses, often start-ups, to raise money from pools of investors who can buy equity in a company or put money into peer-to-peer lending schemes.Virtual currencies, of which bitcoin is the most famous, have been dubbed the "Wild West" of finance by regulators since they are not backed by a central bank or government like conventional money. They are prone to wild swings in value and can be a target for hackers. Bitcoin, which is generated by computers and started circulating in 2009, lost as much as 80 percent against the U.S. dollar in a single day last year.

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Investors cheer Nintendo move to smartphones Shares in Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co on Wednesday notched their biggest daily gain since listing as investors cheered the decision by the creators of Super Mario to venture into smartphones in a bid to retain users. The stock ended limit-up, or 21 percent, at 17,080 yen ($141), a day after Nintendo said it would develop mobile gaming apps with online gaming firm DeNA Co.It was the stock's biggest daily gain since Nintendo became public in 1983, adding some $4 billion to the company's market capitalization. Nintendo is now worth $24 billion. "Finally, Nintendo has turned a corner and embraced a huge strategic shift," said Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal, who raised his recommendation on the stock to "buy" from "hold" and its price target to 30,000 yen from 12,400 yen. Investors have long called on Nintendo, makers of the Wii U and the portable 3DS, to shift its focus to mobile devices after losing customers to both smartphone gaming app makers and console rivals like PlayStation maker Sony Corp and Xbox maker Microsoft Corp. The company had so far resisted these calls, pinning hopes on hit games such as "Mario Kart 8". But in January, it halved its operating earnings target for the current fiscal year to 20 billion yen ($169 million), citing weak 3DS sales. The move into smartphone apps could further dent console sales, some analysts said, despite assurances by President Satoru Iwata that Nintendo was committed to making gaming machines.Nintendo, however, may be shifting away from hardware, with Iwata saying it was developing a new gaming platform, the NX, as well as an online membership service to be launched this year."Nintendo is not in a position to simply drop its legacy console businesses given the investments made in software," said CLSA analyst Jay Defibaugh. "But the writing is on the wall."Defibaugh forecast Nintendo to exit the console business in three to five years.Before the tie-up with DeNA, Nintendo's shares had fallen over 30 percent in the past four years, lagging a more than doubling in Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index.DeNA shares, heavily shorted prior to the announcement, also rose on Wednesday limit-up to 1,707 yen. The company, which mainly develops games played on browsers, had also lost market share in the past two years as users moved to mobile apps.($1 = 121.2900 yen)

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State Department upgrades network security against cyber attacks The State Department on Friday said it was upgrading the security of its unclassified computer network to defend against cyber attacks, leaving some employees unable to send outside emails or access the internet.Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the agency, which in November said it had suffered a cyber attack, was improving "the security of its main unclassified network during a short, planned outage of some Internet-linked systems."The agency carried out an upgrade in November that also left workers unable to send outside emails or to get to the internet.In a brief statement, Psaki said the department continued to monitor "activity of concern" on its unclassified network but did not address whether there had been a recent, new attack that prompted the latest security upgrade."There has been no compromise of any of the Department's classified systems, nor of our core financial, consular, and human resource systems," Psaki said in the statement.Other State Department employees said they were unable to send emails outside the agency, although internal emails continue to flow, and that they could not get access to the Internet from their desktop computers.

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Canada IPO market trades commodities for tech as valuations climb Technology companies look set to supplant energy and mining firms as the driver of Canadian initial public offerings this year as global optimism about tech startups boosts valuations and spurs early investors to cash out.The anticipated surge in capital-raising by tech companies would provide a much-needed boost to the commodity-heavy Canadian equity market, which has been hit hard by plunging oil and metal prices.Soaring venture-capital investment and healthy technology spending are seen as fueling the revival of Canadian tech IPOs."In the next 12 to 24 months, you’re going to finally see the most significant volume of Canadian tech IPOs you’ve seen in the past decade, if not ever," said John Ruffolo, chief executive of OMERS Ventures, one of Canada’s top venture capital players.PointClickCare, whose software supports the senior care market, and ecommerce software maker Shopify could go public as early as the spring, possibly with valuations over $1 billion, said three sources familiar with the matter who declined to be named because details are not yet public.Property information provider Real Matters and online lender Mogo are also preparing for IPOs this year, they said, adding that HootSuite and Desire2Learn have deferred such plans to next year.HootSuite, seen by many as the most valuable of these startups, runs a popular social media management tool. Chief Executive Ryan Holmes declined to comment on IPO timing, but said HootSuite is "building the foundations and best practices of a public company, and has a lot of interest in an offering".Shopify, Mogo and BuildDirect declined to comment. PointClickCare, Desire2Learn and Real Matters did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Entrepreneur Roger Hardy said recently he plans to take his online shoe retailer, Shoes.com Technologies, public in 2015.BuildDirect, Vision Critical, Wattpad, Chango, Shop.ca and Verafin are other startups that have raised significant funding and are being watched closely by investors.The Canadian technology sector had just three initial public offerings in 2014 worth C$193 million ($152.24 million), compared with 12 worth C$1.4 billion in 2006, according to Thomson Reuters data.Strong demand for recent U.S. tech IPOs, including that of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, is likely to boost the Canadian sector, said Dean Braunsteiner, national IPO services leader at PwC.Recent Canadian successes are also a driving force. Since going public last year, shares of software-maker Kinaxis have gained 90 percent."The fact that many public technology companies are trading at attractive valuations is another positive factor for private tech firms, as they are able to go public at more appealing valuations," said Mike Lauzon, managing director of technology, media and telecommunications investment banking at CIBC.Lauzon noted ready access to private capital has given startups more flexibility on IPO timing.Canadian venture capital investments are at their highest level since 2002, according to Thomson Reuters data. Some fund managers caution that high valuations for startups may limit the upside for IPO investors.“There’s ample reason for investors to be nervous,” said John Stephenson, president of Stephenson & Co Capital Management. “You’ve got a market overall that’s richly valued, you’ve got a sector that’s richly valued, and you’ve got declining prospects for economic growth.”The boom has also revived memories of dot.com era, when investors paid huge valuations for technology companies that later crashed. But bankers say current IPO candidates are often already profitable."They are clean, much more advanced, have greater scale and have larger market opportunities ahead of them," said David Wismer, managing director at BMO Capital Markets.($1=$1.27 Canadian)

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United Technologies CEO sees $1 billion in acquisitions in 2015 United Technologies Corp's (UTX.N) chief executive officer said on Thursday that the company will spend $1 billion on acquisitions this year, "maybe a little bit more," even as he eyes bigger targets.United Technologies CEO Greg Hayes, speaking at investor day in New York where he detailed a potential split off of its Sikorsky helicopter unit, said that the acquisition climate was difficult due to high pricing.He reiterated his earlier stance that he was interested in large deals, but he cautioned that "mega deals" were "really, really hard" to execute."We're going to look for the bigger deals, and $5 billion is a pretty big deal," Hayes told an audience of analysts and investors.Hayes said the company, which also sells jet engines, elevators and climate control systems, expects $45 billion in free cash flow between now and the end of the decade.Wall Street had been highly anticipating the meeting, which was Hayes' first overview of the company since he became CEO in November. Hayes previously served as the company's finance chief.The U.S. conglomerate on Wednesday announced it would review alternatives for Sikorsky, including a potential spinoff.Shares were up 1.9 percent at $120.58 in mid-afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

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German retailer REWE steels for Amazon move into food Germany's second-biggest supermarket group REWE is investing heavily in grocery ecommerce even though it does not expect to turn a profit soon, as it braces for Amazon to expand its food delivery service."We know that we will still not work profitably for several years, but it is not blowing money," REWE Chief Executive Alain Caparros told Reuters in an interview."The customer is changing. They want to have it easy and we have to prepare ourselves for that. The online customer is our opportunity to become the number one in Germany. The train is leaving the station and I want to be on it."REWE, a cooperative that runs 15,000 stores in 12 countries in Europe, is Germany's second-biggest supermarket group behind privately-owned Edeka and ahead of Metro and the Schwarz Group that owns the Lidl discount chain.While online sales of books, electronics and clothes are booming in Germany, grocery ecommerce has been slow to take off as the country has a high density of food stores and the dominant discounters Aldi and Lidl have little incentive to push loss-making deliveries given their already thin margins.However, big players such as REWE and Metro are now expanding delivery services, and start-ups funded by the likes of ecommerce group Rocket Internet are also proliferating.A survey by management consulting firm A.T. Kearney showed that 38 percent of Germans had tried online food retailing in 2014, up from 27 percent in 2013 and just 18 percent in 2011. A.T. Kearney expects ecommerce will account for 3 percent of Germany's grocery market by 2020 -- or some 5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) -- up from just 1 percent now. Online already accounts for 5 percent of the grocery market in Britain, which has been a global trailblazer in food ecommerce.A.T. Kearney partner Mirko Warschun expects established retailers to capture much of this growth even if they have been slow to innovate in Germany in recent years."In food retail, the question of volume and scale advantage and negotiating power in category management and buying are decisive," he said. "It will tend to be the traditional players who will want to tap the market for themselves."REWE's Caparros said Amazon -- which already delivers groceries in a handful of U.S. cities -- had already secured logistics sites in Germany to expand its "Fresh" service to its second-biggest market after the United States."When they come, they will come with a big bang," he said.Amazon has said it plans to keep expanding in Germany, including eventually delivering fresh groceries, without giving a timetable.Caparros said REWE now delivered groceries in 56 German cities and towns and was continuing to expand.REWE, which also runs the Penny discount chain and Toom DIY stores, saw sales grow 2.9 percent to 51 billion euros in 2013. It reports 2014 results on March 31.($1 = 0.9414 euros)

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EU ministers to give more power to pan-European data protection body European Union ministers agreed on Friday to give more powers to a pan-European body of regulators to enforce a new data protection law, upsetting businesses who hoped more power would be devolved to individual national regulators.Under a "one-stop-shop" mechanism initially proposed under the new EU data protection law, a business operating across the 28-nation bloc would only have had to deal with the data protection authority of the member country where it is headquartered or has its main European base - even if a data protection issue arose which affected citizens in another member country.But under pressure from countries that do not want their national regulators to lose all jurisdiction over big technology companies such as Apple and Facebook, which have declared Ireland to be their European bases, EU ministers agreed to give any "concerned" authority the power to object to any particular ruling.That would result in the case being referred to a still to be created board of all 28 EU regulators which could then take binding decisions."The proposed mechanism will be more cumbersome than the existing procedures, resulting in unnecessary administrative burdens, including delayed decisions for citizens," said the Industry Coalition for Data Protection, which includes major technology companies such as Apple, Google and IBM.EU diplomats had already agreed on Feb. 25 to scrap a proposal that at least a third of concerned authorities had to object to a decision before a case could be referred to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB)."The revised approach seems to open the door to more conservative voices amongst the data protection authorities having an even greater say," said Paula Barrett, a partner at law firm Eversheds.Countries such as Ireland, Britain and the Netherlands opposed scrapping the numerical threshold, arguing that it would lead to a flood of cases being referred to the board and that it went counter to the original proposal's aim of making it easier for businesses to operate across the bloc."It (numerical threshold) would have greatly reduced the risk of capricious referrals," said the Irish justice minister.In the past Ireland has been accused of going soft on multinationals when it comes to privacy laws to remain an attractive business location, something it has denied.Friday's agreement could still be changed when ministers in June review the whole new proposed data protection law - the General Data Protection Regulation.In addition, a review clause could be inserted to determine the effectiveness of the "one stop shop" mechanism, as requested by Ireland.

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Global fans demand BBC reinstate 'Top Gear' host Clarkson Nearly 450,000 fans from around the world have backed a petition calling for British presenter Jeremy Clarkson to be reinstated to his job hosting the "Top Gear" motoring show after the BBC suspended him following a "fracas" with a producer.Clarkson, renowned for his outspoken remarks and acerbic attitude towards "political correctness", was suspended by the BBC on Tuesday, with media reporting that he had thrown a punch at a producer following a row about food. "I'm off the to the job center," the 54-year-old presenter told reporters on Wednesday before getting into a car outside his home in west London.Clarkson, a friend of Prime Minister David Cameron, was already on a final warning over accusations last year that he had used racist language while filming the show, the latest in a long line of incidents which had courted criticism.BIT OF A DUST-UP"He's been involved in a bit of a dust-up but I don't think it's that serious," co-presenter James May told BBC TV."Top Gear", aired in more than 200 countries and estimated to have a global audience of some 350 million, has become one of the BBC's most successful and lucrative programs.In an official statement, the BBC said the show would not be aired this Sunday and the corporation's news website said it was unlikely the other two remaining episodes would be transmitted.The Guardian newspaper said that could leave the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, facing a multi-million pound bill from foreign broadcasters for failing to deliver the episodes on time.Meanwhile an online petition demanding the BBC reinstate Clarkson had attracted 442,610 supporters from all around the globe by Wednesday afternoon."The BBC will become irrelevant very quickly in the USA without Top Gear; be careful," wrote one signatory Fred Bertsch from Denver, Colorado."Jeremy Clarkson ist Top Gear!!!!" said Austrian Karl-Johann Reitmaier.Clarkson became the popular face of Top Gear by mixing a passion for cars with blunt banter and swagger that has offended groups ranging from mental health charities and cyclists to Mexico's London ambassador.The presenter and his employers have been forced to apologize on a number of occasions. He wrote in his Sun newspaper column in May that he had been told by the BBC that if he made "one more offensive remark, anywhere at any time, I will be sacked".

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France's low-cost telco Iliad aims to raise operating profit by 10 percent French telecoms group Iliad pledged to raise operating profit by 10 percent this year after it reached a 15 percent market share in mobile three years after shaking up the market with low-cost, no-contract plans.Founded and majority-owned by billionaire Xavier Niel, Iliad sparked a price war in mobile in 2012, forcing larger rivals Orange, Numericable-SFR and Bouygues Telecom to cut costs to cope.Iliad, which markets its services under the brand name Free, expects to keep its network investments stable this year even as it races to complete a national mobile network and wean itself off a roaming agreement with Orange by end 2018.Last year it put up 1,900 mobile antennas and aims for at least 1,500 this year, while also converting many of them to faster mobile broadband technology known as 4G."We will show that we know how to turn these investments into profits," said Chief Financial Officer Thomas Reynaud.While expanding into mobile, Iliad has had to contend with sharper competition in its core broadband market, which remains its cash cow, generating 736.7 million euros in free cash flow last year, up almost 16 percent. Number three mobile operator Bouygues Telecom, which was hardest hit by Iliad's entry to the mobile market, has been aggressively expanding into broadband with cheaper bundles aimed at Iliad's budget-conscious customers. It recruited 415,000 new fixed customers last year, more than rivals, and compared with 228,000 for Iliad. Reynaud said it was too early to know whether Iliad could take back the crown from Bouygues this year. But on Tuesday Free launched a new set-top box featuring Google's Android TV software and super high definition images known as 4K pitched at the entry-level subscriber. For 2014, the group posted sales up 11.2 percent to 4.17 billion euros ($4.39 billion), and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) up 6.6 percent to 1.28 billion euro. Both were in line with forecasts. Net income rose 4.9 percent to 278.4 million euro, lower than analysts' expectations for 308.65 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Iliad shares have risen 10 percent this year to close at 218.35 euros on Wednesday, giving the group a market value of 12.76 billion euros.($1 = 0.9492 euros)

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Sony plans U.S. launch of video-streaming service this year: WSJ Sony Corp is planning the U.S. rollout of its long-anticipated video-streaming product later this year, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House said in an interview with the Journal that PlayStation Vue will launch within two weeks in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. [on.wsj.com/1C6IqQS]The video-streaming service will let consumers bypass traditional cable and satellite subscriptions to watch TV shows and movies. Time Warner Inc said earlier this week that its HBO broadband product will be available on Apple TV in April. Dish Network Corp rolled out its streaming video service, SlingTV, earlier this year.Sony secured rights of channels from several media companies including Viacom Inc, Comcast's NBC Universal Inc, CBS Broadcasting Inc and Twenty-First Century Fox Film Corporation, the report said.

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Factbox: Jeb Bush seeks tips from wide cast of foreign policy experts Republican Jeb Bush is looking for national security advice from a large cast of experts whose views range from pragmatic to hawkish as he seeks the party's 2016 presidential nomination, according to a list given to Reuters by an aide.Many of the advisers are former members of the administration headed by his brother George W. Bush, who was president from 2001-2009, but Jeb Bush, a front-runner in the race, is stressing that he is "my own man."Here is the list of diplomatic and national security veterans Bush says he will consult:JAMES BAKER - Former secretary of state under George H.W. Bush, and chief of staff to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.Currently a partner at the law firm Baker Botts. MICHAEL CHERTOFF - Secretary of homeland security under George W. Bush. Cofounded the risk management and consulting firm the Chertoff Group.LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART - Former longtime Republican representative from Florida who served on the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee. He is currently head of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute.PAULA DOBRIANSKY - Former State Department official and special envoy to Northern Ireland. Now at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.PORTER GOSS - Former Republican representative from Florida and head of the Central Intelligence Agency under George W. Bush.STEPHEN HADLEY - National security adviser to George W. Bush. Now partner in the consulting firm Rice, Hadley and Gates with two other former Bush administration officials, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.JOHN HANNAH - Adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, including on national security issues. Now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.MICHAEL HAYDEN - Ex-director of the National Security Agency and CIA head under George W. Bush. Now a principal at the Chertoff Group on cybersecurity and other intelligence issues.KENNETH JUSTER - Former official at the departments of state and commerce. Now a partner at the investment firm Warburg Pincus.MICHAEL MUKASEY - Attorney general under George W. Bush. Now a partner at the law firm Debevoise and Plimpton.ROBERT NATTER - U.S. Navy admiral who was commander of U.S. Atlantic Fleet/Fleet Forces Command. Currently president of RJ Natter and Associates, a consulting group.JOHN NEGROPONTE - First U.S. director of national intelligence under George W. Bush, whom he also served as ambassador to the United Nations and ambassador to Iraq in 2004/5. Now with consulting firm McClarty Associates.ROGER NORIEGA - Former State Department official and ambassador to the Organization of American States. Visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute think tank.MEGHAN O'SULLIVAN - Adviser to George W. Bush on Iraq and Afghanistan; also advised 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Now at Harvard University's school of government.PIERRE-RICHARD PROSPER - Former assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting drug cartels; named by George W. Bush as U.S. ambassador at large for war crimes. Now a partner at law firm Arent Fox.OTTO REICH - U.S. ambassador to Venezuela under Ronald Reagan and special envoy under George W. Bush. Currently head of consulting firm Otto Reich Associates.TOM RIDGE - Former U.S. representative, Pennsylvania governor and first secretary of homeland security after the department's creation under George W. Bush. GEORGE SHULTZ - Secretary of state under Ronald Reagan; also former treasury secretary and director of the Office of Management and Budget. Now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.KRISTEN SILVERBERG - Former State Department and White House official, and U.S. ambassador to the European Union under George W. Bush. Now on the advisory board to America Abroad Media.PAUL WOLFOWITZ - Deputy secretary of defense under George W. Bush, who later nominated him to lead the World Bank. Now a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.ROBERT ZOELLICK - U.S. Trade Representative and president of the World Bank under George W. Bush. Now a senior fellow at Harvard University's government school.

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Indian firms could get boost from Google, Alibaba Two Indian firms could get a boost from tech majors in what might turn out to be the first direct investment in the country by Google Inc and Alibaba.Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is in talks with Indian online marketplace Snapdeal over a potential cash investment, a person familiar with the negotiations said.The source, who declined to be named because talks are not public, said on Wednesday that negotiations were "ongoing". Alibaba is "looking, but there's still no deal", the source added.Alibaba could not be reached immediately for comment, and a Snapdeal representative declined to comment. Alibaba and Snapdeal have spoken in the past, a second person familiar with the matter confirmed. Investor interest was "high", the source said, without giving any detail on any current negotiations.Media reports have said Snapdeal is seeking $1 billion in its latest funding round to fuel growth as it competes with bigger rivals Flipkart.com and Amazon.com.In October last year, Snapdeal secured a $627 million investment from Japan's Softbank, itself an early backer of Alibaba. Alibaba, which has been eyeing the Indian market for months, has yet to invest directly in the e-commerce space. SoftBank also has an investment in mobile advertising venture InMobi, which is in talks for a Google buyout, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.Discussions between Google and InMobi, who have not made their negotiations public, are in early stages. The source, who asked not to be named, said Google had not yet detailed its terms and conditions for the deal.InMobi helps companies target the users of phones and mobile devices in their advertising.Google and InMobi were negotiating issues that included how many unique users InMobi has, a key to its value, the source said."They are ironing out issues on what InMobi's parameters are, and whether it matches Google's," the source said, adding that InMobi would likely be valued at around $1 billion.InMobi and Google both declined to comment.Google Capital, the group's investment arm, has set up shop in India's Silicon Valley, but the parent company has yet to invest directly in the country's Internet and e-commerce sector."Advertising is a big revenue generator for Google. As people move from browser or desktop searches, mobile advertising is becoming more important," Neil Shah, an analyst at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, said.

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Intel cuts revenue forecast as desktop demand weakens Intel Corp (INTC.O) slashed nearly $1 billion from its first-quarter revenue forecast as small businesses put off upgrading their personal computers, sending the chipmaker's shares down more than 5 percent.Fewer companies than Intel had expected replaced desktop PCs running on outdated Microsoft operating systems, leading to weak demand for its chips. Intel also cited "challenging" macroeconomic and currency conditions, particularly in Europe."The macro environment is not robust enough for people to upgrade their PCs the way they normally would," Topeka Capital Markets analyst Suji De Silva said.Intel said on Thursday that it expected first-quarter revenue of $12.8 billion, plus or minus $300 million - about 7 percent lower than its earlier forecast of $13.7 billion, plus or minus $500 million.Though dominant in the market for chips used in PCs, Intel has been slower than rivals such as Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) to adjust in recent years to the growing popularity of smartphones.When Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) wound down support for its Windows XP operating system last April, Intel had expected a bounce in demand from small- and medium-sized businesses. But this has not happened. Businesses and consumers are taking an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude to their old PCs, Summit Research analyst Srini Sundararajan said.According to BlueFin Research Partners, 75 million-76 million PCs will be shipped worldwide in the first quarter, a decline of 8-9 percent from the preceding quarter.Intel, whose historic "Wintel" alliance with Microsoft once delivered breathtakingly high profit margins, has been trying to offset the impact of slower PC upgrades by making chips for devices such as "2-in-1s", which function as both laptop and tablet.Intel said the mid-point of its gross margin range would remain at 60 percent, plus or minus a couple of percentage points.Intel's shares were down 4.8 percent at $30.76 in late afternoon trading on the Nasdaq. Microsoft's shares were down 2.4 percent at $41.Shares of ASML Holding NV (ASML.O), the world's largest maker of semiconductor production equipment, were down 2 percent at $104.40.(Story refiled to correct paragraph 5 to say "smartphones", not "laptops and tablets")

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Latest Rakuten-led funding values Lyft at $2.5 billion Ride-sharing service Lyft said it raised an additional $530 million in a funding round led by Japanese online retailer Rakuten Inc, giving the Uber rival a valuation of $2.5 billion and adding momentum to its expansion plans.The valuation, however, pales by comparison to one of around $40 billion for app-based taxi service Uber.Rakuten said it is investing $300 million for an 11.9 percent stake in San Francisco-based Lyft - its first investment in a ride-hailing firm. Fortress Investment Group will also be a new investor.Lyft and Uber, which allow consumers to order rides from their smartphones, have disrupted traditional taxi and limousine services. Uber in particular has expanded rapidly both within and outside the United States.But they face a number of legal challenges and on Wednesday both companies failed to persuade U.S. judges to rule that their drivers are independent contractors instead of employees, in cases that have wide implications for Silicon Valley "sharing economy" firms.Asian e-commerce and Internet giants have been particularly active of late in investing in taxi-hailing app firms as well as other well known U.S. tech start-ups.Japan's SoftBank Corp this year invested 70 billion yen ($580 million) in Travice Inc, the operator of Chinese taxi hailing app Kuaidi Dache. It also poured almost $500 million last year into Southeast Asia's GrabTaxi and Indian app Ola, owned by ANI Technologies.China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is investing $200 million in photo-messaging app Snapchat, a source familiar with the deal said, striking its latest Silicon Valley deal as it builds up mobile services.Rakuten, controlled by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, is also an active investor in start-ups and bought messaging app provider Viber Media Inc for $900 million last year.($1 = 121.0600 yen)

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Samsung Electronics says to start won-yuan direct trade on March 16 South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Thursday it will start buying or selling the Chinese yuan for the won from the Seoul market on March 16. The company would use the Korean yuan-won market, which launched in December, to settle direct transactions between its headquarters and Chinese subsidiaries, a spokeswoman said. She declined to comment on details, including how big such transactions could be. Samsung's entry could give a major lift to the fledgling yuan-won market. China seeks to boost international use of the yuan while South Korea wants to be among the global hubs for yuan-related businesses.

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Alibaba hiring in Amazon, Microsoft backyard as U.S. cloud unit expands China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the world's largest e-commerce firm, has begun hunting staff in Seattle, home turf of Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, focusing on savvy cloud computing hires as it ramps up U.S. operations.Three positions were open to people in Seattle, two of which also allow applications for Alibaba's Silicon Valley offices, according to advertisements on LinkedIn Corp'sN> business networking site in the past week.Several recruiters in the region said they had registered the firm's hiring drive, suggesting Alibaba is eyeing staff at rival Amazon as well as Microsoft and Facebook Inc.According to LinkedIn's data, Alibaba has already hired staff away from Microsoft and Amazon. LinkedIn data list Microsoft as the top company from which former employees have joined Alibaba, not specifying the location of the hires, with 20 recruits for unspecified posts at the Chinese company having previously worked at the software giant.With the job openings Alibaba joins the increasingly fierce fight for cloud computing talent in Silicon Valley and Seattle, where it opened a research and development center in what is Microsoft and Amazon's backyard late last year.The Chinese company's arrival on the tech job market is - for now - unlikely to pose a concern to major industry incumbents, who in past years have resorted to increasingly imaginative tactics to recruit scant human resources.Alibaba's moves in the region are at an early stage, and the amount of hiring still comparatively low, said recruiters. The company has fewer than 300 employees in the United States.But Alibaba is looking at Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook in the Seattle area for new blood, particularly developers, said Jerry Taylor, president of Executive Recruiters Inc in Bellevue, Washington."I'm sure they're going to be web-based as well as mobile-type folks," he said. "They're trying to get a footprint in the United States. What better place to go than their direct competitor in Amazon?"An Alibaba spokesman declined to give details of recruitment.Alibaba's talent hunt coincides with a broader push in the United States this year to win over U.S. business, offering American retailers new ways to sell to China's vast and growing middle class. On March 4 it launched a cloud computing hub in Silicon Valley, its first outside of China.Alibaba has hired at least 10 software engineers or computing experts from either Microsoft or Amazon since July 2014, all but one based in the greater Seattle area, according to their LinkedIn profiles.Li Xiaolong, one of the 10 and a senior staff engineer at Alibaba, openly advertises for like-minded talent on his profile: "We are actively hiring talents in machine learning, data mining and distributed computing, as well as hardcore software engineers to improve the world's biggest e-commerce platform. The location can be Seattle, Silicon Valley, Beijing or Hangzhou."Alibaba declined to make its hires available for comment.

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Alibaba ploughs $200 million into Snapchat in latest startup deal: source Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) is investing $200 million in photo-messaging app Snapchat, a source familiar with the deal said, striking its latest Silicon Valley deal as the Chinese ecommerce company builds up mobile services.The investment values the company at around $15 billion, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the situation as saying. This places the four-year-old company into the top ranks of privately held startups.Snapchat's latest valuation is a massive increase for a company that Facebook offered to buy in late 2013 for $3 billion.Los Angeles-based Snapchat, which allows its more than 100 million users to send messages that disappear in seconds, had sought capital to extend its core service. In January, it began carrying videos and articles from mainstream media outlets such as CNN and ESPN, bringing Snapchat into closer competition with Facebook Inc (FB.O) and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) . It is unclear what value the startup would bring to Alibaba, which handles more online commerce than Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and eBay Inc (EBAY.O) combined. The Chinese company, which has been coping with a steady increase in shopping via smartphones and tablets, has made it a priority to develop mobile services.Alibaba's investment spree comes also as the company plans a major move to win U.S. business this year, by offering American retailers new ways to sell to China's vast and growing middle class. .Led by Michael Zeisser, cable magnate John Malone's former dealmaker, the Chinese company has steadily expanded its portfolio of American investments over the past year or two. It has invested in a raft of U.S. startups including rides-on-demand service Lyft and messaging app Tango.Silicon Valley insiders who have held discussions with Alibaba say its U.S. deals are central to its strategy of becoming the world's dominant e-tailer. Snapchat would rank amongst its largest investments in the country so far.A month ago, Bloomberg reported that Snapchat is looking to raise as much as $500 million in a new funding round that would value the Los Angeles-based company at up to $19 billion. The Alibaba investment would not be part of that previously reported round, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.Snapchat did not respond to requests for comment.

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Hi-tech paint gives urinating revelers a soaking People living in Hamburg's St. Pauli's nightclub district are used to hordes of drunken tourists, crime and prostitution but many are fed up with late-night revelers who urinate on public and private buildings.A local interest group has now applied a special water-repellent paint, also used in shipbuilding, on two especially frequented buildings in the renowned nightclub district near the port to deter 'Wildpinkler', as Germans call them.Ultra-Ever Dry super-hydrophobic was developed by auto-makers Nissan. Its oleophobic nano-coating is water repellant, meaning that those revelers who urinate against it will end up soaking themselves."Wild peeing has been a problem here for a long time. But in recent years, it got worse," Julia Staron, who organized the group, told Reuters."Next week, we are also planning to paint the problem area around 'Zur Ritze' (nightclub) and put up the signs. But owners obviously have to approach us because we can't just run around painting someone else's building," said Staron.In a video posted on YouTube that drew 181,000 viewers on its first day alone, Staron is shown putting up signs in German and English that say: "Hier nicht pinkeln! Wir pinkeln zurueck" (Do not pee here! We pee back!).The special hydrophobic paint is, however, expensive.Staron said it costs about 500 euros (530 USD) to paint a six-square meter area (65 sq. feet), but that it was worth the effort and was already having a positive effect on newly protected walls.

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Apple says iTunes, App Stores down for all users Some of Apple Inc's services such as App Store, iTunes Store, Mac App Store and iBooks Store remained disrupted for nearly 11 hours on Wednesday, a glitch the iPhone maker attributed to an internal Domain Name System (DNS) error.Many customers took to Twitter, using hashtags such as #itunesdown and #appstoresdown, to express their frustration after the outage began a little before 5:00 a.m. ET."We're working to make all of the services available to customers as soon as possible and we thank everyone for their patience," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said.The company's shares fell as much as 2 percent to $122.11 on Wednesday. A similar outage had occurred in early September, according to appleinsider.com.Apple said its iCloud Mail and iCloud Account & Sign In were also affected until about 9 a.m. ET The Apple Store website was shut briefly on Monday, ahead of the company's highly anticipated unveiling of the Apple Watch."Service outages happen from time to time and we view this as a very minor event," FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives told Reuters.

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'Formula E' electric car race creates a quiet buzz in Miami The streets snaking through downtown Miami's high rises will be buzzing this Saturday as commuters make way for dart-shaped racing cars zooming by at breakneck speeds - and little noise.The race drivers will be competing in the first Formula E race in the United States since the all-electric series was launched in Beijing in September 2014.Halfway through its inaugural season, Formula E has offered the same, albeit quieter, thrills as the popular Formula One events, with low-slung, opened-wheeled cars capable of speeds up to 136 miles per hour (220 kilometers per hour).The Beijing race ended with a spectacular crash that sent one of the $500,000 Renault SA cars flying.Danger and adrenaline are not all that you find on the track, however."It's really something to see how racing has evolved to fully electric motors. It could revolutionize racing and transportation in general," said Daniel Fernandez, 17, who bought tickets with several high school friends to attend the race, which is expected to attract more than 50,000 spectators.The series was launched by Jean Todt, a French racing icon and former Ferrari chief executive who heads of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) that oversees Formula One.It is backed by environmentalist and actor Leonardo DiCaprio and entrepreneur Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group sponsors a two-car team.FIA, which has partnered with Spanish private equity fund Amura Capital, Qualcomm Inc and cable billionaire John Malone’s Liberty Global Plc, has attracted sponsors such as tire maker Michelin and courier service DHL hoping the series will help the development of mainstream electric cars."The technology improves unbelievably once these large companies start investing in research," said Pier Luigi Ferrari, the managing director of DHL motorsports.The public has shown an interest and Elon Musk’s electric car firm Tesla Motors Inc has already built up a following, although its stock has fallen lately as it missed sales targets.Developing a so-called green racing series has meant overhauling how the races are run. Car batteries cannot be charged mid-race, forcing drivers at some point to rush into a second, fully charged car.The cars give off a high-pitched whistling sound, a bit like a dentist's drill. Drivers also must carefully manage their power, a challenge for race cars with a limited battery life."We have a target (power) consumption per lap and we need to respect that like the Bible," said Jaime Alguersuari, a 24-year-old Spanish driver with Virgin. "You want to win, but if you burn up all your energy you won’t finish."

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Rocket Internet-backed Helpling expands in Asia, Mideast Helpling, an online marketplace for hiring home cleaners backed by Germany's Rocket Internet, is expanding beyond its base in Europe to set up new operations in the Middle East and Asia, aided by the acquisition of a rival Singapore start-up.Berlin-based Helpling said it was acquiring Singapore-based Spickify for an undisclosed sum. Hoe Yeen Teck, Spickify's co-founder and chief executive, will be Singapore country manager of the company, which will operate under the Helpling brand.Besides Singapore, Helpling is also expanding into the United Arab Emirates. It already operates in Germany and six other European markets, plus Australia, Brazil and Canada -- a total of a dozen countries, supplying cleaners in 200 cities.The company announced a $16.8 million financing round in December to fund international expansion. Helpling is one of several start-ups looking to open up the often opaque market for household cleaning services. It offers comparable services to U.S.-based Homejoy, backed by Google Ventures, and other memorably named firms such as TaskRabbit, Handybook, Direct Cleaner, Hassle and Mopp. Helpling is fond of saying its main rival is the black market that dominates domestic cleaning services in most countries, as well as job placement agencies and classified advertising listings. Booking local cleaners via Helpling's vetted online directory can take less than a minute, a service designed for young professionals living on mobile phones who are increasingly comfortable with researching and buying services via the Web.

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Obama picks State's Psaki to lead White House communications President Barack Obama has picked U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki to take over as White House communications director, bringing someone with whom he has a long history back into his inner circle as other long-time aides depart."Jen worked on both my campaigns, she's served in the White House and she's traveled the world as an advisor to Secretary (John) Kerry," Obama said in a statement."I fully trust Jen - and I am thrilled she's agreed to come back to the White House," he said. Psaki will start in her new position on April 1 and replace Communications Director Jen Palmieri, officials said. Palmieri is expected to join former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's expected presidential campaign.Psaki served as Obama's traveling press secretary during his 2008 presidential campaign and handled the economic portfolio as a deputy White House spokeswoman in the early years of his administration. She later served as a deputy communications director before leaving the administration for a brief stint in the private sector. After reprising her role as traveling spokeswoman for Obama's 2012 presidential campaign, this time riding on Air Force One, she became Kerry's spokeswoman at the State Department. She was considered twice for the White House press secretary job, losing out to Jay Carney and Josh Earnest.Psaki has a good rapport with the president and the press.Her campaign roots will bring a jolt of Chicago history to the White House just as one of the last members of Obama's original campaign team, senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, leaves the White House. Other original inner circle members David Axelrod, David Plouffe, and Robert Gibbs left the White House some time ago for the private sector."Given Psaki’s long history with the president dating back to 2007, she was the obvious and first choice for this role," a White House official said. "She has a deep understanding of the president’s record, his story and the reasons he ran for the presidency in the first place."Psaki's challenge will be to keep the White House relevant in the national political conversation as the 2016 presidential campaign heats up and dominates U.S. news.

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Exclusive: IBM looking at adopting bitcoin technology for major currencies International Business Machines Corp is considering adopting the underlying technology behind bitcoin, known as the "blockchain," to create a digital cash and payment system for major currencies, according to a person familiar with the matter.The objective is to allow people to transfer cash or make payments instantaneously using this technology without a bank or clearing party involved, saving on transaction costs, the person said. The transactions would be in an open ledger of a specific country's currency such as the dollar or euro, said the source, who declined to be identified because of a lack of authorization to discuss the project in public.The blockchain - a ledger, or list, of all of a digital currency's transactions - is viewed as bitcoin's main technological innovation, allowing users to make payments anonymously, instantly, and without government regulation. Rather than stored on a separate server and controlled by an individual, company, or bank, the ledger is open and accessible to all participants in the bitcoin network. The proposed digital currency system would work in a similar way."When somebody wants to transact in the system, instead of you trying to acquire a bitcoin, you simply say, here are some U.S. dollars," the source said. "It's sort of a bitcoin but without the bitcoin."IBM is one of a number of tech companies looking to expand the use of the blockchain technology beyond bitcoin, the digital currency launched six years ago that has spurred a following among investors and tech enthusiasts.The company has been in informal discussions about a blockchain-tied cash system with a number of central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, the source said. If central banks approve the concept, IBM will build the secure and scalable infrastructure for the project.IBM media relations office did not respond to Reuters emails about this story and the Fed declined to comment. However, there are signs that central banks are already thinking about the innovations that could arise through digital currency systems. The Bank of England, in a report in September 2014, described the blockchain's open ledger as a "significant innovation" that could transform the financial system more generally. Instead of having ledgers maintained by banks that act as a record of an individual's transactions, this kind of open ledger would be viewable by everyone using the system, and would use an agreed-upon process for entering transactions into the system.The project is still in the early stages and constantly evolving, the source said. It is also unclear how concerns about money-laundering and criminal activities that have hamstrung bitcoin. Unlike bitcoin, where the network is decentralized and there is no overseer, the proposed digital currency system would be controlled by central banks, the source said. "These coins will be part of the money supply," the source said. "It's the same money, just not a dollar bill with a serial number on it, but a token that sits on this blockchain."According to the plans, the digital currency could be linked to a person's bank account, possibly using a wallet software that would integrate that account with the proposed digital currency ledger. "We are at a tipping point right now. It's making a lot more sense for some type of digital cash in the system, that not only saves our government money, but also is a lot more convenient and secure for individuals to use," the source said.

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Exclusive: Uber in deal with China's BYD to test electric cars Uber Inc said on Friday it struck a deal with Chinese automaker BYD Co Ltd to test a fleet of electric cars for its drivers.The test program, which kicked off a few weeks ago in Chicago and could eventually expand to other cities, is the Silicon Valley startup's first attempt to focus on an electric vehicle, said Uber spokeswoman Lauren Altmin."We've seen interest in the program already from current and potential Chicago partners (drivers)," Altmin said.Uber, which allows users to summon rides on their smartphones, originally started with a luxury town-car service but in many cities has added UberX, a low frills service with nonprofessional drivers using personal cars. The BYD offering is aimed at those drivers.The electric car is part of Uber's program to help drivers buy or lease new or used cars. The BYD e6 vehicles are available through Green Wheels USA, a Chicago car dealership that focuses on electric and hybrid cars and also builds EV charging stations.About 25 BYD vehicles are currently being used by Uber drivers in Chicago, and the hope is to bring that number to a couple of hundred by the end of the year, according to Doug Snower, Green Wheels' president.Uber began talking to BYD and Green Wheels late last year, Altmin said.For BYD the deal with Uber could be a step toward the long-held goal of selling its cars to U.S. consumers. The company, whose name stands for "build your dream", is a major automaker in China, but its e6 vehicle has thus far only been used in pilot programs in the United States.Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Tesla Motors Inc are better known in the United States for their electric cars, the Leaf and the Model S. Uber would not comment on why it had picked a company with a relatively unknown brand. The e6 is larger than many other electric cars, however, and is being used in London by chauffer service Thriev. BYD gained Warren Buffett's backing in 2009 and announced plans to sell its e6 electric car in the United States the following year. Since then, BYD's U.S. business has focused mainly on electric buses for public transportation. BYD publicized the program on its Facebook page but declined to comment on the deal with Uber. The Facebook post, which has a picture of the vehicle, says the e6 has a 186 mile range on a single charge. It also says financing is available from BYD-approved lenders.Green Wheels is offering several options to drivers interested in the e6. The most popular program, Snower said, allows an Uber driver to pay $200 a week to use an e6 for his or her driving shift. The vehicle is then returned to a Green Wheels lot, where it is charged until it is used again.Drivers can also enter into a more traditional lease or a lease-to-own program, Snower said.

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Woman in Silicon Valley bias suit faces tough jury questions A former Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner who has sued the venture firm for gender discrimination faced tough questions on Friday from jurors about her communication skills, a decision to have an affair with a fellow partner, and other issues.Ellen Pao was quizzed by jurors on some of the central issues in the trial which has helped sparked a broad discussion about gender in Silicon Valley after four days of questions from lawyers.Pao has testified that a lawsuit was her only way to help women advance at the venture capital firm.Kleiner, meanwhile, attempted to portray her as a divisive figure at the firm whose lawsuit had a primarily financial motivation. Kleiner has displayed several emails from Pao to her partners, including one where she told them they shouldn't act like "an asshole" in meetings with tech entrepreneurs. "Do you think your manner of communicating was professional?" asked one juror."I would say 99.999 percent of the time I was very professional," Pao said, adding that she perhaps should have used the word "jerk" in that note. Kleiner is best known for backing Amazon.com Inc, Google Inc, and other well-known technology companies.Pao has acknowledged a brief affair she had with a colleague, and says he then began keeping her out of important meetings after she broke off their personal relationship.One juror asked if it was "professional to enter into affair with married partner?""Going back I would not have done it again, but I didn't think it was inappropriate at the time," Pao said, adding that the man told her he was separated.At least 37 states, including California, permit jurors to pose their own questions in civil cases once the lawyers are done, according to the American Judicature Society. Many states leave it up to the trial judge to decide whether to do so. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn asked jurors to submit questions to him in writing. After conferring with the attorneys, Kahn read them to Pao from the bench.Another juror asked why Pao remained at Kleiner for several months in 2012 after she filed her lawsuit."I'm an optimist," Pao said. "I was always hopeful that at some point John [Doerr] would step in and manage the culture," said Pao, referring to Kleiner senior partner John Doerr.Pao said she hoped Doerr would "clean it up."

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Google to open first UK 'garage' to fix small firms' web problems Google on Friday launched its first "digital garage", a multi-million pound project it said would help 200,000 small British businesses harness the Internet to grow.    The U.S. company, which has been under fire in Europe for its dominance in search and other digital services, said last month it would train 1 million Europeans in Internet skills by 2016, including building an online hub to support small enterprises.    Its first "garage" - a drop-in center that will advise on building a mobile website, developing e-commerce and optimizing internet search rankings - will open in the northern English city of Leeds on March 30 for six months, before moving to the next of five British cities in total.      Eileen Naughton, Google's managing director of UK and Ireland, said less than 30 percent of small businesses had an effective online presence, and Google wanted to "jump start" the other 70 percent.    "We understand (small businesses) don't have the benefit of large IT tech infrastructure and development, and they need our assistance in this area disproportionately more than a large business would," she said in an interview.    "We've never set up an outpost in a city - in a garage - as we have here in Leeds, and offered these services openly. For us, it's an exciting experiment."Â

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In smartwatch war, Swatch goes for cheap, quick and China The world's largest watchmaker unveiled its riposte to Apple Inc's smartwatch on Thursday, announcing a plan to put cheap programmable chips in watches that will let wearers from China to Chicago make payments with a swipe of the wrist.Swatch Group will start offering watches with near field communication (NFC) chips within two months, chief executive Nick Hayek said at a news conference on the company's annual results which were released last month.Apple's move into watches would open up a market where Swatch was already well positioned to compete, he said.The Swiss company's strategy appears to revolve around including individual tech features in different models rather than going head to head with Apple, the world's most valuable firm, to create all-in-one smartwatches combining many functions."We are the world champions of integrating smart functions into a watch," Hayek said. "We don't want to produce a mini mobile phone on your wrist. Others can do that."At 1600 GMT, Swatch shares were up 2.7 percent at 432.1 Swiss francs. Apple's watch will go on sale in nine countries starting in April, priced from $349 for the smaller model and $549 for the standard version, although a high-end "Edition" watch will sell for at least $10,000."It's a fantastic opportunity for us. It is opening the market. Especially in the U.S., many people are not wearing watches any more. Somebody is opening this up. Let Apple do the work. It's fine. It’s good. I congratulate them."Both firms' strategies could co-exist and succeed, Hayek said, before adding a dig at the bigger rival: "Upgrading software every year, that's not our business." For its near-field chips, which will cost around 2 francs ($2) per watch, Swatch has teamed up with China UnionPay, the Chinese credit card association, as well as a Swiss bank and a major credit card company. The credit card company, described as an Olympics sponsor, is likely to be Visa, a long-time backer of the event. Visa was not immediately available to comment. Swatch is also launching a range of sports-themed "Swatch Touch" smartwatches which will be able to "buddy up" with a smartphone via a Bluetooth connection.The first model will retail at 135 francs, about twice the cost of a regular Swatch watch with an NFC chip.

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China's SAIC Motor, Alibaba to invest $160 million in Internet-connected cars Chinese auto maker SAIC Motor Corp Ltd said on Thursday it would join forces with e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to invest 1 billion yuan ($160 million) in a fund to develop Internet-connected cars.The pair will establish a joint venture and aim to launch their first car in 2016, SAIC said in a statement. The 50-50 JV will be opened to other investors in future, according to a spokeswoman for the automaker.SAIC shares rose 9.8 percent to a more than two-month high on news of the partnership, before shedding some of the gains to close up 4.8 percent.Chinese internet companies and auto makers have been quick to team up to start developing partly self-driving and Internet-connected cars, following a path already trodden by U.S. tech giants Google Inc and Apple Inc.Internet giant Baidu Inc, which leads China's search market and competes with Alibaba in some areas, is developing cars that are shifting parts of driving towards automation, working with companies like Germany's BMW AG.In an emailed statement, Alibaba said its partnership with SAIC would include developing new technologies and services using cloud computing.($1 = 6.2621 Chinese yuan renminbi)

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Senate committee advances 'threat-sharing' cybersecurity bill The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted 14-1 on Thursday to approve a bill intended to enhance information sharing between private companies and intelligence agencies about cybersecurity threats.The panel's approval cleared the way for a vote in the full Senate on the measure, which would extend some legal liability protection to companies to make it easier for them to share data with the government to help prevent and respond to cyberattacks.Some privacy advocates opposed the bill, worrying that it would do too little to prevent more data collection by the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies. Such surveillance has come under scrutiny since 2013 disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.Privacy concerns were cited by the only member of the committee who voted against the bill, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. "It's a surveillance bill by another name," Wyden said in a statement.The measure was partly inspired by recent cyberattacks on major corporations, including Sony. Several major firms, including Microsoft Corp, Lockheed Martin and Morgan Stanley, had pushed for a threat-sharing bill, according to media reports.Given its strong support in the committee, the measure is given a good chance of passing when it comes up for a vote in the full Senate, most likely in the coming months.But it also must win passage in the House of Representatives to be sent for President Barack Obama to sign into law.Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he was optimistic the panel would have its own bill in the coming weeks.

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Intel cuts revenue forecast as desktop demand weakens Intel Corp (INTC.O) slashed nearly $1 billion from its first-quarter revenue forecast as small businesses put off upgrading their personal computers, sending the chipmaker's shares down more than 5 percent.Fewer companies than Intel had expected replaced desktop PCs running on outdated Microsoft operating systems, leading to weak demand for its chips. Intel also cited "challenging" macroeconomic and currency conditions, particularly in Europe."The macro environment is not robust enough for people to upgrade their PCs the way they normally would," Topeka Capital Markets analyst Suji De Silva said.Intel said on Thursday that it expected first-quarter revenue of $12.8 billion, plus or minus $300 million - about 7 percent lower than its earlier forecast of $13.7 billion, plus or minus $500 million.Though dominant in the market for chips used in PCs, Intel has been slower than rivals such as Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) to adjust in recent years to the growing popularity of smartphones.When Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) wound down support for its Windows XP operating system last April, Intel had expected a bounce in demand from small- and medium-sized businesses. But this has not happened. Businesses and consumers are taking an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude to their old PCs, Summit Research analyst Srini Sundararajan said.According to BlueFin Research Partners, 75 million-76 million PCs will be shipped worldwide in the first quarter, a decline of 8-9 percent from the preceding quarter.Intel, whose historic "Wintel" alliance with Microsoft once delivered breathtakingly high profit margins, has been trying to offset the impact of slower PC upgrades by making chips for devices such as "2-in-1s", which function as both laptop and tablet.Intel said the mid-point of its gross margin range would remain at 60 percent, plus or minus a couple of percentage points.Intel's shares were down 4.8 percent at $30.76 in late afternoon trading on the Nasdaq. Microsoft's shares were down 2.4 percent at $41.Shares of ASML Holding NV (ASML.O), the world's largest maker of semiconductor production equipment, were down 2 percent at $104.40.(Story refiled to correct paragraph 5 to say "smartphones", not "laptops and tablets")

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Exclusive: Apple Watch not on shopping list for 69 percent of Americans: Reuters poll Apple Inc's new smartwatch may be a tough sell, with 69 percent of Americans indicating they are not interested in buying the gadget, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.However, the survey also showed limited awareness of the watch. The poll was taken after Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook rolled out the product on Monday, and only about half of respondents said they had heard news of the timepiece in the last few days.Also, in an encouraging sign for Apple, roughly 13 percent of survey respondents who did not own an iPhone said that they would consider buying one in order to buy an Apple Watch, which needs an iPhone to work fully.Apple overcame skepticism about the iPad and iPod when they first debuted, but the survey suggests that the world's largest technology company has work to do to make the watch ubiquitous.The new watch, a test of Cook's leadership, is the company's first new product in five years, and it hits stores on April 24.It allows users to check email, listen to music and make phone calls from their wrist. Apple will sell various versions, from a $349 'sport' edition to a $17,000 18-karat gold timepiece.Ipsos surveyed 1,245 Americans online between March 9 and March 13. The data was weighted to reflect the U.S. population and has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. For poll details see: polling.reuters.com/#!response/TM499Y15/type/smallest/dates/20150309-20150313.Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the poll.More than half of respondents, 52 percent, agreed with the statement that smartwatches are a “passing fad.” One-quarter of respondents said they were interested in purchasing the Apple Watch, but 69 percent said they had no desire, and 6 percent said they were unsure. Initial demand for the watch is expected to come primarily from existing iPhone users, but its wider success is seen depending on whether developers create enticing apps tailored to the device, so-called killer apps. Apple is among several large tech companies looking to jumpstart a new market for “wearable” electronic devices. Samsung Electronics, Sony Corp and LG Electronics have all released their own smartwatches, many of them powered by software developed by Internet company Google Inc. See graphic: link.reuters.com/gak82w.But consumers have yet to cotton to the notion of wearable devices. Google recently halted sales to consumers of Glass, a $1,500 screen attached to glasses which were routinely mocked for their awkward appearance. Roughly 4.6 million smartwatches were sold globally in 2014, according to research firm Strategy Analytics, a fraction of the more than 1 billion smartphones sold worldwide. Many in the tech industry hope that Apple, famous for its marketing savvy and loyal fans, will have the power to transform the smartwatches into a product that appeals to the general public. Some 46 percent of respondents said that the Apple Watch had a “cool factor.” But only 29 percent said they were more interested in purchasing an Apple Watch than another brand of smartwatch.Analysts expect that Apple will sell between 10 million and 32 million watches in 2015.

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Woman in Silicon Valley bias suit faces tough jury questions A former Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner who has sued the venture firm for gender discrimination faced tough questions on Friday from jurors about her communication skills, a decision to have an affair with a fellow partner, and other issues.Ellen Pao was quizzed by jurors on some of the central issues in the trial which has helped sparked a broad discussion about gender in Silicon Valley after four days of questions from lawyers.Pao has testified that a lawsuit was her only way to help women advance at the venture capital firm.Kleiner, meanwhile, attempted to portray her as a divisive figure at the firm whose lawsuit had a primarily financial motivation. Kleiner has displayed several emails from Pao to her partners, including one where she told them they shouldn't act like "an asshole" in meetings with tech entrepreneurs. "Do you think your manner of communicating was professional?" asked one juror."I would say 99.999 percent of the time I was very professional," Pao said, adding that she perhaps should have used the word "jerk" in that note. Kleiner is best known for backing Amazon.com Inc, Google Inc, and other well-known technology companies.Pao has acknowledged a brief affair she had with a colleague, and says he then began keeping her out of important meetings after she broke off their personal relationship.One juror asked if it was "professional to enter into affair with married partner?""Going back I would not have done it again, but I didn't think it was inappropriate at the time," Pao said, adding that the man told her he was separated.At least 37 states, including California, permit jurors to pose their own questions in civil cases once the lawyers are done, according to the American Judicature Society. Many states leave it up to the trial judge to decide whether to do so. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn asked jurors to submit questions to him in writing. After conferring with the attorneys, Kahn read them to Pao from the bench.Another juror asked why Pao remained at Kleiner for several months in 2012 after she filed her lawsuit."I'm an optimist," Pao said. "I was always hopeful that at some point John [Doerr] would step in and manage the culture," said Pao, referring to Kleiner senior partner John Doerr.Pao said she hoped Doerr would "clean it up."

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Bush risks 'own man' image with familiar foreign policy team Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush has drawn heavily from the administrations of his brother and father in picking his nascent team of foreign policy advisers, a choice that may undercut his assertion that he is his "own man" on international affairs.Former officials and scholars caution that the list of 21 advisers announced ahead of Bush's first big foreign policy speech on Wednesday was preliminary and would not necessarily form the core of a third Bush presidency. It is also common for leading Republican and Democrat presidential candidates to lean heavily on experienced hands from former administrations - in this case a mix of party hawks and pragmatists.But by including 19 advisers who served under President George W. Bush, or his father, President George H.W. Bush, Jeb risks criticism during the 2016 campaign that he will represent a continuation of his family's legacy on foreign policy. Among his advisers is Paul Wolfowitz, a former deputy U.S. defense secretary who was a lead architect of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and once famously asserted that Iraq would be able to finance its own post-war reconstruction.And he included John Hannah, a top aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley. But he also picked James A. Baker III, Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush who co-chaired a blue-ribbon panel that in 2006 called the situation in Iraq "grave and deteriorating" and recommended a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops. (Factbox on the advisers:)Republicans said that showed how Jeb was taking a broad approach, casting a wide net across party views as he presents himself as tougher on foreign threats than President Barack Obama ahead of party primaries that start early next year."He's taking a big tent approach," said Peter Feaver, a Duke University political science professor who served in the younger Bush's White House. Jeb Bush could have declared "if you worked for my brother, you won't work for me. That would have been a dumb choice," Feaver said. "It reinforces a cartoon critique that the Bush administration was a foreign policy disaster."Democrats characterized Bush's foreign policy plans as mirroring that of George W. Bush, who launched the war in Iraq that became deeply unpopular. The Democratic National Committee said in a statement that Bush was relying on advisers who "were the architects of George W. Bush’s cowboy foreign policy agenda that damaged the country’s reputation abroad." Democrats accuse George W. Bush of giving rise to the current turmoil in the region with the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that were never found. The Bush administration said the war was justified by the available intelligence and the security threat that Iraq posed.Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, faces a unique foreign policy challenge among Republican candidates. He needs to quickly build up foreign policy credibility and show how he would be more assertive abroad, while avoiding getting entangled in the presidential legacies of his father and brother. His speech on Wednesday offered a vision of a more robust U.S. foreign policy as he insisted: "I'm my own man." But he stopped short of offering specifics on how to do it. EARLY DAYSOne of his advisers, Otto Reich, a former assistant secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, stressed the nascent nature of Bush's national security team, saying the group had not met to plan strategy. "It's very early," he said. Bush "just reached out to a few people that he's known for a while."Also present in the team are two former CIA directors: Porter Goss and Michael Hayden. Hayden, a retired general and former National Security Agency director, has vigorously defended torture-like interrogation techniques used on detainees after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.This suggests Jeb Bush is "not someone who's going to try to uncover problems and abuses of the CIA, or limit its power really," said James Mann, author of books on both the Obama and George W. Bush foreign policy teams.Jeb Bush's advisers include two former officials focused on Latin America, Reich and Roger Noriega, who are on record strongly opposing Obama's diplomatic opening to Cuba. Bush himself harshly criticized the policy on Wednesday.Feaver stressed that any presidential candidate compiles three lists of national security advisors: one of veteran officials who can provide "wise counsel," a second larger "army" of individuals who act as proxies and prepare decision papers on specific issues, and an inner circle of decision-makers."What was released today was that first list, not the other two lists," he said.

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Alibaba ploughs $200 million into Snapchat in latest startup deal: source Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) is investing $200 million in photo-messaging app Snapchat, a source familiar with the deal said, striking its latest Silicon Valley deal as the Chinese ecommerce company builds up mobile services.The investment values the Los Angeles-based company at around $15 billion, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the situation. This places the four-year-old company into the top ranks of privately held startups.With Snapchat blocked in China it is unclear what immediate value the startup would bring to Alibaba, which handles more online commerce than Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and eBay Inc (EBAY.O) combined.Alibaba, which has seen a steady increase in shopping via smartphones and tablets, has made it a priority to develop mobile services. But its attempt to create a popular messaging app has not had much success, coming up against arch-rival Tencent Holdings Ltd's (0700.HK) ubiquitous WeChat service.Tencent, China's biggest social networking and entertainment company, also invested in Snapchat in 2013, TechCrunch reported at the time."We know that Tencent powered ahead of Alibaba in mobile with WeChat, so Snapchat as the 'it' company for youth social networks in the West has an obvious appeal," said Duncan Clark, managing director of Beijing-based tech consultancy BDA.China's large internet firms are making these investments partly as a defensive move against each other, with potential for financial returns and partnering in China if regulations permit, said Clark."It's better from their perspective from earning virtually nothing on their cash in the bank. These are small bets for them," said Clark.Snapchat's latest valuation, if accurate, would be a massive increase for a company that Facebook Inc (FB.O) offered to buy in late 2013 for $3 billion.Snapchat, which allows its more than 100 million users to send messages that disappear in seconds, had sought capital to extend its core service. In January, it began carrying videos and articles from mainstream media outlets such as CNN and ESPN, bringing Snapchat into closer competition with Facebook and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N).A potential allure for Alibaba could be Snapchat's use as a payment service, as the Chinese company looks to connect consumers and merchants in China and the United States. This includes smoothing the way for cross-border payments.In November, Snapchat launched a service to let users send money to each other, in a partnership with online payments company Square.Snapchat did not respond to requests for comment.

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U.S. judge rejects Uber request that drivers deemed contractors A U.S. judge on Wednesday denied ride-hailing app Uber's request that its drivers be deemed independent contractors rather than employees.The ruling, from U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco, comes in a case brought on behalf of Uber drivers who contend they are employees and entitled to reimbursement for expenses including gas and vehicle maintenance.

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Delphi plans coast-to-coast demo of its self-driving car Delphi Automotive PLC aims to demonstrate its growing prowess in self-driving cars with what it bills as the "longest automated drive ever attempted in North America" - a 3,500-mile coast-to-coast excursion in a specially rigged Audi SQ5 that will mostly drive itself.Delphi, one of the largest suppliers of automotive electronics and safety systems, is using the long journey in the Audi crossover to acquire real-world data from a sophisticated array of cameras, radar and lidar -- a laser mapping technology -- as well as wireless connected-vehicle technology.Delphi also wants to test and demonstrate its active safety systems, which are being developed with such suppliers as Mobileye NV, an Israeli maker of computer vision and collision avoidance systems, and software provider Ottomatika, a spinout from Carnegie Mellon University's self-driving car program.Delphi's demonstration underscores growing interest and investments by automakers and suppliers in self-driving cars, some of which could be production-ready by 2020. The Delphi drive will kick off March 22 near San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, with plans to wind up in New York City just before the annual auto show opens there on April 3.Jeff Owens, Delphi's chief technology officer, sees the automated driver assistance systems in the Audi as building blocks on the road to fully self-driving cars in the next decade.Although automakers and suppliers will have such capability within the next five years, Owens said, "our view is that the driver is going to be in the seat for a long time" in case of emergency situations that self-driving systems may not be equipped or programmed to handle.During the coast-to-coast journey in the Audi, at least two Delphi engineers will be aboard, including one behind the wheel.Delphi, a former General Motors Co unit domiciled in the UK, will test such functions as traffic jam assist, automated highway pilot with lane change and automated parking and valet. All of those systems are expected to be introduced in production cars over the next two to three years.Fully automated systems that may be phased in after 2020 could add about $5,000 to the cost of a car, estimates Glen De Vos, vice president of advanced and product engineering for Delphi's electronics and safety division.Delphi is providing some of the components and technology, including vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity, for GM's Super Cruise automated driving system, which will debut in 2016 on the new Cadillac CT6 sedan.

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U.S. telecoms firm IDT establishes direct connection with Cuba Direct telephone connections between the United States and Cuba have been established under the first commercial accord realized since the December rapprochement between the two longtime adversaries, Cuba's national telecom provider said on Wednesday.The U.S.-based IDT Corp reached an agreement with Cuba's Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA) to provide direct international long distance telephony.This marks the first finalized agreement between companies from the two countries since the joint Dec. 17 announcement by U.S. President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro that they would restore diplomatic relations. "The re-establishment of direct communications between the United States and Cuba will help offer greater ease and quality of communications between the people of both nations," ETECSA said in a statement.Even after the United States imposed an economic embargo on Cuba in the 1960s, phone communication between the two countries was still possible, with calls passing through third countries.IDT announced on Feb. 20 the agreement was filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was subject to FCC review.The deal happened after Obama used executive authority to ease some of the travel and trade restrictions on Cuba. He has also asked the Congress to lift the embargo completely. Such legislation was introduced in the Senate but has been opposed by the Republican leadership.

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Facebook to face U.S. class action over children's online purchases A federal judge said Facebook Inc must face a nationwide class-action lawsuit seeking to force the social media company to provide refunds when children spend their parents' money on its website without permission.U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, California on Tuesday said a class of plaintiffs estimated in the hundreds of thousands may press their claim that Facebook should change how it handles online transactions by minors.The judge also said the plaintiffs could not pursue refunds as a group under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, because any refunds would vary from case to case, but could still seek individual refunds. She set an Oct. 19 trial date.Facebook said it believes the lawsuit lacks merit, and said it will defend itself vigorously.The April 2012 lawsuit said Facebook let children use their parents' credit and debit cards to buy the virtual currency Facebook Credits, and violated California law by refusing refunds under its "all sales are final" policy when the parents complained.In opposing class certification, Facebook said the plaintiffs' claims were too disparate, and an injunction would not address them.But Freeman said state law protects parents and their children when those children "occasionally use their lack of judgment" and buy things they should not."Though some minors undoubtedly may wish to continue making purchases through credit or debit cards they do not have permission to use, such a desire cannot prevent the named plaintiffs from bringing suit to demand that Facebook's policies comply with the law," she wrote.Facebook Credits were discontinued in 2013 and replaced with Facebook Payments.The lawsuit was brought by two children and their parents.One child said his mother let him spend $20 on her credit card toward the game "Ninja Saga," but was later charged several hundred dollars for purchases he thought he made with "virtual, in-game currency." The other said he took a debit card from his parents without permission and spent $1,059.People who sign up for Facebook must be at least 13 years old, according to the Menlo Park, California-based company."We're very pleased with the decision," J.R. Parker, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a phone interview. "The difference between Facebook and other businesses is that the company is on actual notice of a user's age, but treats children the same as adult users when it comes to taking their money."The case is I.B. et al v. Facebook Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 12-01894.

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Mexico sees tender for $10 billion mobile network by early October Mexico hopes to launch the tender for a $10 billion national mobile broadband network by early October, the country's transport and communications ministry (SCT) said on Wednesday. Creation of the network was written into Mexico's constitution as part of a telecoms sector overhaul finalized last year that aims to boost competition and investment in a sector dominated by billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil.The project, which he government estimates will cost $10 billion over 10 years, will give Slim's mobile competitors better coverage without relying on America Movil's network or bearing the cost of building their own.The winning bidder will create a company that will build and run the network and have a license to use 90 MHz of the 700 MHz spectrum band. That is considered valuable for its ability to penetrate walls and cover large areas with smaller amounts of infrastructure.Some telecom operators are wary of the plan, saying the private sector would use the spectrum more efficiently and that the project could deter investment.The SCT on Wednesday published a request for expressions of interest from companies that want to be involved. It included a tentative timeline which would see the initial project terms released in June, and the full tender launched at the end of September or early October.Last year, the SCT received an unsolicited bid for the network from a group of ex-telecom executives, lawyers and bankers supported by equipment makers Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, which it did not accept.China Telecommunications Corporation, the parent of China's third-largest carrier, is studying a possible investment in Mexico, a company spokesman said in January, a day after Reuters reported that the subsidiary is preparing a possible bid for the network.

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DreamWorks, AwesomenessTV to make original shows for Verizon Verizon Communications Inc will offer more than 200 hours a year of original online programing from DreamWorks Animation and its AwesomenessTV unit in a bid to reach families and younger viewers who increasingly watch video on mobile devices, the companies said on Wednesday.The programing will be available only in the United States, under terms of the multiyear deal. Financial details were not disclosed.Verizon has said it will launch an online video service this year but has not provided many details on programing.The new DreamWorks Animation channel will feature family-oriented live action and animated short-form content from the company known for "Shrek" and "Kung Fu Panda." An AwesomenessTV channel, aimed at teens and younger adults known as millennials, will include scripted and unscripted series. AwesomenessTV networks are among the most popular on Google Inc's YouTube, with more than 7 billion views."Our audience is largely consuming our content on mobile. It's growing rapidly by the day," Brian Robbins, CEO and co-founder of AwesomenessTV, said in an interview. "We think there is way more room to grow."

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Charter Comms in talks to buy Bright House Networks: source Charter Communications is in talks to buy privately held cable company Bright House Networks LLC, according to a source familiar with the matter. Bright House, controlled by the Newhouse family, is worth more than $10 billion, the source said. It has about 2.5 million cable subscribers with its biggest market in Florida, where it has a strong presence in Tampa and Orlando. Charter shares soared $12.89 or 7 percent to $195.39 per share on the news, which was first reported by Bloomberg. A spokesman for Charter declined to comment, while Bright House acknowledged the speculation in a statement on Thursday. "While we have had conversations with many parties about this transaction, we do not have an agreement with anyone regarding future plans for Bright House," a company spokeswoman said in the statement. Bright House has an operating agreement in place with Time Warner Cable Inc that allows it to share technology and programming rates with the larger cable operator. That agreement came into question when Comcast Corp made an offer to buy Time Warner Cable last year. The company has brought on a financial adviser to help it explore its options, according to sources familiar with the matter. Charter, along with its largest shareholder, Liberty Media Corporation, has been public about its desire to consolidate the industry. It made a bid for Time Warner Cable last year before Comcast swooped in. That deal is still awaiting approval by regulators. The talks between Charter and Bright House could still fall apart and may not result in a deal, the source added.

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Kleiner questions whether ex-partner Pao acted for money Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers tried to demonstrate on Wednesday that a former partner suing the venture capital firm for gender discrimination was motivated by money, as its lawyer cross-examined her for a second day.Ellen Pao has testified that she filed her 2012 lawsuit because she "wanted to change Kleiner Perkins." Pao's lawsuit helped spark a broad and ongoing conversation about gender issues in Silicon Valley.In San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday, Kleiner lawyer Lynne Hermle asked Pao why she hired an employment attorney and demanded a 10-figure severance payment before she wrote a memo to colleagues about problems women faced at the firm in 2012. "I wanted somebody to help me get Kleiner Perkins to change," Pao said."You thought a lawyer would help negotiate changes at Kleiner Perkins?" Hermle said.Into the third week of this case, Kleiner's cross examination of Pao marks the first time that she has been on the defensive about her 7-year tenure at the firm, best known for backing Amazon, Google, and other well-known technology companies.Hermle also tried on Wednesday to undercut claims by Pao that she flagged "loosey-goosey" personnel policies at the venture firm as early as 2007, but was ignored. Hermle displayed several emails written by Pao to senior partners, including senior partner John Doerr, about a brief affair she had with a colleague. Pao has claimed she faced retaliation for breaking off the affair, first from the colleague and eventually from other senior Kleiner executives."I'm sorry to have brought stress into your life with the issues I raised," Pao wrote in the email.Hermle asked if Pao had mentioned anything about HR policies in her correspondence. "No," Pao answered.Hermle also tried to portray Pao as a divisive figure at Kleiner, questioning her about tension in her dealings with former Kleiner partner Trae Vassallo, the first witness in the case.Vassallo was previously called by Pao's attorneys to testify about unwanted advances Vassallo suffered from the same male colleague Pao had the affair with. Vassallo also described additional slights at the hands of male senior partners. During cross examination on Wednesday, however, Hermle questioned Pao, who acknowledged she had heard that she had made Vassallo cry in the office after accusing her of being untrustworthy.

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Uber sued over driver data breach, adding to legal woes Uber Technologies Inc has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit over a recently disclosed data breach involving the personal information of about 50,000 drivers, the latest in a series of legal woes to hit the Internet car service.The suit, filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco by Sasha Antman, an Uber driver in Portland, Oregon, says the company did not do enough to prevent the 2014 breach and waited too long -- about five months -- to disclose it. Antman says Uber violated a California law requiring companies to safeguard employee's personal information.Last month, Uber said it had discovered in September that an unknown person had gained access to a database containing the names and driver's license numbers of thousands of drivers. The suit, which seeks more than $5 million in damages, says Antman and other drivers "now face years of constant surveillance of their financial and personal records...and loss of rights." A spokeswoman for San Francisco-based Uber did not immediately return a request for comment on Friday. When the company announced the breach, it said there had been no reports of drivers' information being misused.While Uber has been growing in popularity and is now among the most valuable U.S. startups, it is also facing mounting legal challenges from drivers, passengers and the government. Uber drivers in Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C. and other cities have been arrested for assaulting passengers, prompting multiple lawsuits from victims. Uber is also facing claims by drivers who say they were illegally classified as independent contractors. A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday rejected the company’s bid to dismiss one of the suits, saying it should be decided by a jury. A ruling against Uber could force it to pay Social Security and workers' compensation and reimburse drivers for gas and auto insurance, dramatically altering its business model.Prosecutors in California, meanwhile, filed suit last year accusing Uber of misleading passengers by charging a "safe rides fee" to fund industry-leading background checks, while the company did little to screen applicants. Uber has been fighting most of the claims, saying it has a rigorous background check process and that drivers are not employees of the company because they choose when to work. The case is Antman v. Uber Technologies Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 15-1175.

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U.S. approves export of new Raytheon sensor for Patriot missiles The U.S. government has approved Raytheon Co to export a new Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) sensor based on gallium nitride semiconductor technology to countries that have Patriot missile defense systems, the company said Thursday.Raytheon has invested more than $150 million over the past 15 years in gallium nitride, or GaN, and it is part of a new Air and Missile Defense Radar that Raytheon is building for the U.S. Navy, as well as several Air Force programs.The export release of the new GaN-based AESA radar could boost Raytheon's prospects in a big Polish missile defense competition since it would give the system the ability to see a 360-degree view of potential threats.Tim Glaeser, vice president at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, said the new GaN-based sensor was "gamechanging" because it would help improve the reliability of the radar and lower its operating and maintenance costs. Raytheon is bidding against a French competitor in Poland.Glaeser said a decision by Poland or another foreign country to buy the new GaN-based AESA radar would help ensure that the U.S. Army could upgrade to the new capability in 2017.U.S. Army officials have said they plan to operate the Patriot system through 2048, but there is no funding in the Army budget for Patriot upgrades until 2017.Over $100 million in research and development investments, and a big order by the United Arab Emirates helped kick off the previous modernization of the Patriot weapons system.Glaeser said Raytheon had demonstrated the new GaN-based sensors at its test facility in New Hampshire in December for a U.S. government group and a high-level German delegation. The testing showed the sensors could help the Patriot system track ballistic missiles and other targets outside its current range.He said Germany is expected to make a decision in the late spring or early summer. Poland is also expected to make a decision about a new missile defense system this year."We've been able to demonstrate a solution that's low-cost, low-risk and very, very effective," Glaeser said, noting the new sensor could be added onto existing Patriot fire units without having to bring the fire units back to the company's facilities.He said the new technology would be available to each of the 13 countries already operating the Patriot system and other countries like Turkey that are looking at possible orders.

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China puts tech bill that concerns West on hold: U.S. official China has put a hold on a draft counter-terrorism law that would require technology firms to hand over sensitive information to government officials, a senior U.S. official said in a good sign for Western businesses who saw the rule as a major impediment to working in the world's second largest economy.President Barack Obama said in an interview with Reuters on March 2 that he had raised concerns about the law directly with Chinese President Xi Jinping."They have decided to suspend the third reading of that particular law, which has sort of put that on hiatus for the moment," White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Michael Daniel said on Thursday, according to a webcast of a discussion at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. "We did see that as something that was bad not just for U.S. business but for the global economy as a whole, and it was something we felt was very important to communicate very clearly to them," Daniel said. It was not clear whether the bill would proceed or not. China Central Television reported on March 9 that Wang Aili, a senior official with the Chinese National People's Congress Standing Committee's legislative affairs commission, said the bill was not on the schedule for the NPC's annual session, which began last week. A third reading and vote would be scheduled in "due time," he said. The law would require technology firms to hand over encryption keys, the passcodes that help protect data, and install security "backdoors" in their systems to give Chinese authorities surveillance access.One industry source, who requested anonymity, said the move gave companies "some breathing room, but not complete relief" because the bill could be picked up again at any point as only the standing committee — not the full parliament – was needed to pass a law. But another was optimistic that was the end of the matter."The Chinese are not ready to kick out all foreign companies, and because they weren’t ready to take that step, they backed off," said a U.S. technology industry expert, who asked not to be identified to avoid complicating his employer's dealings in China."You can bet that the next steps will be something that tightens up somewhere but doesn’t cause this level of pain." The initial draft, published by the NPC late last year, requires companies to also keep servers and user data within China, supply law enforcement authorities with communications records and censor terrorism-related Internet content.Last month, a parliamentary body read a second draft of the law, which would go beyond a set of financial industry regulations pushing Chinese banks to purchase from domestic technology vendors. The rules would affect major U.S. companies, including Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc. Although the law would apply to both domestic and foreign companies, officials in Washington and Western business lobbies complained that the combination of that law, the banking rules and anti-trust investigations amounted to unfair regulatory pressure targeting foreign companies.The tensions come at a sensitive time because in early 2015 the United States and China are due to exchange offers detailing which industries would remain off-limits under a Bilateral Investment Treaty.A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative said the Chinese offer was expected "relatively soon," although no firm date had been set.

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Snapchat COO Emily White resigns Snapchat Chief Operating Officer Emily White has left the company just days after the photo-messaging service secured $200 million in funding from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd at a reported valuation of $15 billion.White has been at the startup just over a year. Her departure follows co-founder and Chief Executive Evan Spiegel's decision in recent weeks to take a more hands-on and operational role, tech blog Re/code cited sources as saying.Snapchat confirmed White's departure on Friday, but did not say why left.White, a well-regarded industry figure who joined Snapchat from Facebook Inc's Instagram in 2014, and Spiegel had discussed her oversight of the four-year-old startup's main operations, including sales and human resources.She becomes the third senior executive to depart the Los Angeles-based startup in the past two months, according to Re/code, which first reported her exit. The other two were sales chief Mike Randall and human resources overseer Sara Sperling.Snapchat, which allows its more than 100 million users to send messages that disappear in seconds, is considered one of Silicon Valley's most highly valued startups.It has sought capital to extend its core service. In January, it began carrying videos and articles from mainstream media outlets such as CNN and ESPN, bringing Snapchat into closer competition with Facebook and Twitter Inc.

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Apple's iTunes, App Stores back online after unusually long outage Apple Inc's iTunes and App Store came back online on Wednesday afternoon after an unusually long service disruption that the company blamed on an internal technical error.The rare 12-hour outage began a little before 5:00 am ET, after which users took to Twitter to vent their frustration at being unable to access the popular mobile apps store and online content service, using hashtags such as #itunesdown and #appstoresdown.Apple updated its status page at 5:04 pm ET to show that the disrupted services, including the Mac App Store and iBooks, were now functioning normally. The company attributed the outage to an internal Domain Name System error.The App Store and iTunes are a source of pride for the world's largest tech company and form the centerpiece of its mobile user experience.It's also a rich source of revenue for the Cupertino, California company, which takes a cut of app downloads and paid content, including music and videos.Revenue from services, which encompasses everything from iTunes and the App Store to licensing, amounted to almost $4.8 billion in its fiscal first quarter, or more than 6 percent of overall sales.Shares of Apple, which apologized to users publicly, closed 1.8 percent lower at $122.24 on Wednesday.The outage came just days after Apple's highly anticipated unveiling of the Apple Watch, its entry into the fast-expanding wearable devices sphere. The Apple Store website was shut briefly on Monday, a customary practice ahead of a major event.A similar outage occurred in early September, according to appleinsider.com.Apple said its iCloud Mail and iCloud Account & Sign In were also affected until about 9 a.m. ET "Service outages happen from time to time and we view this as a very minor event," FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives told Reuters.

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Senate committee advances 'threat-sharing' cybersecurity bill The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee voted 14-1 on Thursday to approve a bill intended to enhance information sharing between private companies and intelligence agencies about cybersecurity threats.The panel's approval cleared the way for a vote in the full Senate on the measure, which would extend some legal liability protection to companies to make it easier for them to share data with the government to help prevent and respond to cyberattacks.Some privacy advocates opposed the bill, worrying that it would do too little to prevent more data collection by the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence agencies. Such surveillance has come under scrutiny since 2013 disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.Privacy concerns were cited by the only member of the committee who voted against the bill, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. "It's a surveillance bill by another name," Wyden said in a statement.The measure was partly inspired by recent cyberattacks on major corporations, including Sony. Several major firms, including Microsoft Corp, Lockheed Martin and Morgan Stanley, had pushed for a threat-sharing bill, according to media reports.Given its strong support in the committee, the measure is given a good chance of passing when it comes up for a vote in the full Senate, most likely in the coming months.But it also must win passage in the House of Representatives to be sent for President Barack Obama to sign into law.Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he was optimistic the panel would have its own bill in the coming weeks.

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Rivals call for BT break-up in review of UK telecoms sector Broadband providers Sky and TalkTalk have called on Britain's telecoms regulator to break up BT, the market leader whose network they rely on, in the biggest review of the sector for a decade.BT's rivals have stepped up their charge against the country's dominant fixed-line group ever since it announced its planned acquisition of EE, Britain's biggest mobile operator, at the end of last year. Regulator Ofcom said on Thursday it would examine a range of issues including whether there was enough competition in a market that has seen rapid change in recent years.Its first major review of the market, which concluded in 2005, resulted in BT opening its network to competitors on equal terms to offer phone and broadband services to consumers. Ten years on, its rivals want Ofcom to go further by forcing BT to spin off its infrastructure business Openreach."There is no case for structural separation, with the UK leading the EU's five biggest economies for superfast broadband," BT said in response. "The current Openreach model has served the UK very well resulting in high levels of investment, intense retail competition, very high levels of coverage and take up and low prices."Sky said the structural separation of Britain's only nationwide broadband infrastructure would create a sustainable industry that would encourage investment, widen access and deliver lower prices for customers."Ofcom must now take the opportunity to address Openreach’s conflict of interest as a subsidiary of BT or risk extending the problems that are affecting the industry and its customers today," Sky Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch said.TalkTalk said it was increasingly clear the current market structure was not fit for purpose, and BT's proposed acquisition of EE would only make a bad situation worse."It will further starve Openreach of the focus and capital it needs and will extend BT's dominance of the market," TalkTalk Chief Executive Dido Harding said. "The larger group will have nearly 40 percent of the entire consumer telecoms market and nearly 70 percent of the wholesale market."

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Snapdeal drums up custom in Slumdog's Dharavi For viewers of Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire", Mumbai's vast Dharavi slum is a byword for poverty, but to online retailer Snapdeal.com it is a battleground for new customers and, it hopes, a source of better margins.The company's aspirations are backed up by serious investment from the likes of Japan's Softbank Corp, which ploughed $627 million into Snapdeal last October, and could soon get a boost from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, which is in talks for another cash investment, a source told Reuters on Wednesday.Snapdeal trails Flipkart in India's $12 billion online shopping market, with Amazon.com Inc's India unit close behind in third place, as measured by gross merchandise volume. The three are already fighting over India's 300 million-strong urban middle class, who have come to expect price wars and great deals on everything from mattresses to motors, but as competition intensifies, Snapdeal has begun chasing a different demographic.It tied up with remittance provider FINO PayTech in November to set up online shopping services in semi-urban, rural and low-income residential areas across India.In Dharavi, India's largest slum and home to as many as a million people packed into a dense collection of shacks, Snapdeal's storefront is in an 8 foot by 10 foot concrete room it shares with FINO.On most days it draws only a couple of visitors, a FINO worker said, while the store next door selling subsidized cooking gas did a brisker trade.Among slum dwellers, who can place orders on shared computers, popular items include low-end mobile phones and accessories, dishes and shoes.Because residents have no official address, Snapdeal delivers to the Dharavi center, where buyers pick up their orders and typically pay cash on delivery, said FINO vice president Ashish Ahuja.BEYOND THE MEGACITIESSnapdeal is planning to set up such outlets across 65 cities and over 70,000 rural areas by the end of this year as it tries to steal a march on rivals with this poor but vast market segment. Research firm Etailing India estimates the online market will be worth $100 billion by 2021, with 60 percent of that business coming from India's small towns and cities."The metro cities are not the majority sales contributors for us anymore; it is the non-metro cities that bring more sales," said Sandeep Komaravelly, senior vice president of marketing at Snapdeal.Komaravelly said partnerships like the one in Dharavi contributed only a tiny share of current revenue, but the company was drawn to the untapped potential.Amazon India and Flipkart are also looking beyond the big cities of Delhi and Mumbai for the next round of growth.Amazon's India head, Amit Agarwal, said the company was expanding its next-day and two-day delivery services to hundreds of new neighborhoods, and tying up with corner stores and kiosks to act as pick-up points.Flipkart, which has expanded delivery to remote areas and partnered with the Indian postal system for reach in remote towns and cities, was not available to comment.The company, backed by Accel Partners and Tiger Global, is valued at $11 billion currently, according to investors. Snapdeal is looking for a valuation of around $7 billion.Conversations with investors are increasingly revolving around how to increase margins, which would eventually mean e-commerce sellers would have to do away with the deep discounts that have fueled their growth, private equity sources said."There is enough money now, but it will soon dry up," said an executive at a private equity firm that has invested in Indian e-commerce companies."There is definitely investor pressure to increase margins. The sentiment is that if the tide turns, will the companies be able to sustain themselves?"

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Politics intrude as cybersecurity firms hunt foreign spies The $71 billion cybersecurity industry is fragmenting along geopolitical lines as firms chase after government contracts, share information with spy agencies, and market themselves as protectors against attacks by other nations.Moscow-based cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has become a leading authority on American computer espionage campaigns, but sources within the company say it has hesitated at least twice before exposing hacking activities attributed to mother Russia.Meanwhile, U.S. cybersecurity firms CrowdStrike Inc and FireEye Inc (FEYE.O) have won fame by uncovering sophisticated spying by Russia and China - but have yet to point a finger at any American espionage.The balkanization of the security industry reflects broader rifts in the technology markets that have been exacerbated by disclosures about government-sponsored cyberattacks and surveillance programs, especially those leaked by former U.S. intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden. "Some companies think we should be stopping all hackers. Others think we should stop only the other guy's hackers - they think we can win the war," said Dan Kaminsky, chief scientist at security firm White Ops Inc, putting himself in the former camp.Kaspersky Lab has faced questions about its connections to Russian intelligence before: Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky had attended a KGB school, Chief Operating Officer Andrey Tikhonov was a lieutenant colonel in the military, and Chief Legal Officer Igor Chekunov had served in the KGB's border service.Eugene Kaspersky said the firm has never been asked by a government agency to back away from investigating a cyberattack, and said that its international team of researchers would not be swayed by any one country's national interests.Still, several current and former Kaspersky Lab employees said the firm has dithered over whether to publish research on at least two Russian hacking strikes.Last year, Kaspersky Lab officials privately gave some paying customers a report about a sophisticated computer spying campaign that it had uncovered. But the company did not publish the report more widely until five months after British defense contractor BAE Systems Plc (BAES.L) exposed the campaign, linking it to another suspected Russian government operation and noting that most infected computers were found were in Ukraine."We were late," Eugene Kaspersky said about the report, but he denied that political considerations were at play. "It is not possible to be the champion in every game."In 2013, Kaspersky Lab researchers uncovered another spying operation, dubbed Red October, that was written by Russian-speaking programmers and targeted governmental and diplomatic organizations in Europe, Central Asia and North America.It was only after a heated internal debate that the firm decided to publish a report on that operation, which it believed to be the work of the Russian military's GRU foreign intelligence branch, according to several current and former Kaspersky Lab employees who did not want to be identified.WHERE TO DO BUSINESS Kaspersky Lab has been the first to expose a series of major U.S. cyberattacks, including, most recently, the tools that may have been used to spread the Stuxnet worm that sabotaged Iran's nuclear program.Like its U.S. competitors Symantec Corp (SYMC.O) and Intel Corp (INTC.O), Kaspersky Lab drops hints about who it thinks are behind the attacks but does not publicly name the country.Kaspersky's success in uncovering U.S. campaigns is in part because its anti-virus software and security products are sold in countries of high interest to American spies, such as Iran and Russia. Much of its research is based on data from customer computers that use Kaspersky software.CrowdStrike, a privately held cybersecurity firm based in Irvine, California, will not sell its services in either Russia or China because it does not want to face pressure to suppress information about the activities of those governments. That also means the firm is less likely to stumble across the United States' most ambitious intelligence-gathering efforts."We're selective about our customers," said CrowdStrike Co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch. "You can't play both sides."CrowdStrike's customers include major global banks and tech companies.FireEye avoids selling its services in China and Afghanistan, but does have clients in Russia. Last year, it acquired computer forensics firm Mandiant Corp, founded by a former U.S. Air Force officer, Kevin Mandia.As many of Mandiant's first large customers were U.S. Defense Department suppliers, it came across spying campaigns launched by Chinese hackers. That started a cycle in which Mandiant was hired by other companies worried about China, enhancing the firm's knowledge and reputation in dealing with that type of threat.If companies specialize too much in one region, however, they could miss attacks elsewhere, security experts said. As governments spend more to protect their networks from hackers, they draw closer to the cybersecurity companies. Senior U.S. intelligence officials, notably from the National Security Agency, have also joined private security companies after leaving their posts, drawn by surging demand for cyber expertise.Greater information sharing, as proposed by a bill backed by U.S. President Barack Obama, would push the public and private sectors still closer."I would not be surprised if the NSA went to Symantec and McAfee and asked them not to detect something," said cryptography expert Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer at Resilient Systems Inc, a security firm. Spokespeople for Symantec and Intel, which bought McAfee in 2011, said that has not happened. To be sure, Symantec has played a critical role, along with Kaspersky Lab, in exposing the U.S.-led Stuxnet, and it has backed up other Kaspersky findings since then."We are being completely agnostic to who the malware author may be," said Symantec Principal Security Response Manager Vikram Thakur. Asked if Mandiant would ever expose a U.S. spying program, the firm's technical director, Ryan Kazanciyan, said: "I honestly don't know." Vitor De Souza, spokesman for parent company FireEye said: "We would do a report on a U.S. group if they broke the law."The ties between governments and homegrown security firms could yet break apart, especially if intelligence agencies start corrupting anti-virus software to spy on target machines."Security products might become one of the main vectors of getting access," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at Finland's F-Secure Oyj (FSC1V.HE). White Ops' Kaminsky, whose company identifies networks of compromised computers being used for fraud, said some security companies' own attitudes could end up making things worse faster."The global economy depends on a secure Internet, and that means no back doors for anybody," he said. "Nobody wants to live in a war zone."

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Hackers trigger panic, missteps when advisers fail to plan Financial advisory firms are so busy trying to prevent computer hacking that they sometimes neglect an equally vital issue: what to do when hackers succeed.    The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Wall Street's self-funded watchdog, in a February report faulted some firms for having shoddy security policies, including their responses after cyber attacks.    In one case, a firm ignored or missed computer-generated alerts warning of a successful cyber attack. The management woke up only when the hackers attempted to extort money, according to the report.A firm's response to a breach is as important as trying to prevent one, compliance experts say. Their warnings come as FINRA and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission make computer-security preparedness a priority for their examiners to review when they visit firms this year.    Firms must have emergency response plans in place for cyber attacks, just as they would for other business disruptions, such as a fire, compliance experts say. While the largest brokerages typically have manpower to respond to crises, smaller firms often rely on outside professionals.Wade Chessman, president of Chessman Wealth Strategies Inc in Dallas, subscribes to a service that monitors his systems for viruses. A local company also services his computers.They would be his first lines of defense to hacking, a response that would likely mirror that of other small firms. "I'd probably scream like a little girl and call them," Chessman said.A general plan and swift action may appease regulators, but technology experts suggest fine-tuning.Small advisory firms that rely on large companies, such as Charles Schwab Corp, to hold clients' assets, should not assume they are immune to hackers. These advisers have other data on their networks that hackers want, such as clients’ personal information and emails, said Raj Bakhru, a partner at ACA Aponix, a cyber security firm.      Another common mistake by cyber attack victims is to shut down the computer and reformat the hard drive to wipe out viruses. But that destroys vital information that cyber forensic analysts need to determine whether hackers made off with client data, Bakhru said.    Instead, advisers should first call a forensics firm. Advisers with a thorough response plan retain those companies in advance, said Brian Lozada, information security director for Abacus Group LLC, a technology firm supporting hedge and private equity funds.    A lawyer who can navigate state and federal laws on when a firm must notify clients of a breach is also critical. Running afoul of these laws can trigger civil and even criminal penalties. In New York, for example, consequences could include a $150,000 fine, said Michael Yaeger, a New York lawyer who advises firms on cyber security issues.    The burgeoning cyber industry even offers cyber insurance, which can help firms offset the tab for those services and also defray expenses for notifying clients and providing credit-monitoring services. Some policies even cover the cost of one very specific expertise required by firms after hackers have made off with a motherlode of client data: a public relations consultant.

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Europe aviation safety agency sets out drone proposals Three categories of civil drone should be created to regulate unmanned aerial vehicles now used in everything from filming to farming and parcel deliveries, Europe's aviation safety body has proposed.The proposals would allow the new industry to grow whilst at the same time protecting people and goods, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said on Thursday.Drones in Europe are currently subject to a patchwork of regulations in each country and the European Commission wants a basic regulatory framework put in place by the end of this year.In France, where flights over Paris without authorization from aviation authorities are illegal, drones flying over major sites such as the Eiffel Tower and the U.S. Embassy caused alarm earlier this month.In Germany, drones must weigh no more than 25 kg while in Britain, drones of above 20 kg are subject to the same regulations as manned aircraft.In the United States, the FAA bans most commercial drone flights, though companies can currently apply for exemptions while new rules are finalised.Under the rules suggested by Cologne-based EASA, the lowest risk category would cover low-energy aircraft, including model planes, and would not require any license. Such drones must be flown within the line of sight, away from areas such as airports and nature reserves and up to an altitude of 150 meters.Flights above crowds would not be allowed in order to minimise the risk to people, EASA said.As soon as operations pose more risks to people or the drone needs to share airspace with other vehicles, a risk assessment must be carried out and then an authorization awarded.The highest category would be akin to current regulation for commercial manned aircraft, with multiple certifications required for operation, it said."These rules will ensure a safe and fertile environment for this much promising industry to grow," EASA Executive Director Patrick Ky said in a statement.However the agency said the privacy risks posed by drones would need to be addressed at national level, for example by installing SIM cards."They raise concerns if citizens feel that drones intrude in their private lives; if they illegally gather data; or if drones become flying nuisances," EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc said at a conference on drones last week.The Commission is expected to present a draft law for the lowest-risk category by December 2015, so that businesses could operate drones across the EU by next year.

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