US in criminal probe of China's Huawei: report

WASHINGTON, United States — US authorities are in the "advanced" stages of a criminal probe that could result in an indictment of Chinese technology giant Huawei, a report said Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, said the Justice Department is looking into allegations of theft of trade secrets from Huawei's US business partners, including a T-Mobile robotic device used to test smartphones.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the report and Huawei did not respond to a request for comment.


The move would further escalate tensions between the US and China after the arrest last year in Canada of Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who is the daughter of the company founder.

The case of Meng, under house arrest awaiting proceedings, has inflamed US-China and Canada-China relations.

Ottawa has said 13 Canadians have since been detained by Beijing, including one sentenced to death on drug trafficking charges.

Huawei, the second-largest global smartphone maker and biggest producer of telecommunications equipment, has for years been under scrutiny in the US over purported links to the Chinese government.

Huawei's reclusive founder Ren Zhengfei, in a rare media interview Tuesday, forcefully denied accusations that his firm engaged in espionage on behalf of the Chinese government.

The tensions come amid a backdrop of President Donald Trump's efforts to get more manufacturing on US soil and slap hefty tariffs on Chinese goods for what he claims are unfair trade practices by Beijing.

In a related move, lawmakers introduced a bill to ban the export of American parts and components to Chinese telecom companies that are in violation of US export control or sanctions laws -- with Huawei and fellow Chinese firm ZTE the likely targets.

"Huawei is effectively an intelligence-gathering arm of the Chinese Communist Party whose founder and CEO was an engineer for the People's Liberation Army," said Republican Senator Tom Cotton, one of the bill's sponsors.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said in the same statement: "Huawei and ZTE are two sides of the same coin. Both companies have repeatedly violated US laws, represent a significant risk to American national security interests and need to be held accountable."

Last year, Trump reached a deal with ZTE that eases tough financial penalties on the firm for helping Iran and North Korea evade American sanctions.

Trump said his decision in May to spare ZTE came following an appeal by Chinese President Xi Jinping to help save Chinese jobs.

source: philstar.com

Google relaxes rules on free news stories, plans subscription tools

SAN FRANCISCO — Google announced on Sunday that subscription news websites would no longer have to provide users three free articles per day or face less prominence in search results, relaxing its rules following complaints from media giants like News Corp that their sales were suffering.

For the last decade, Google’s “first click free” policy helped ensure that non-subscribers wouldn’t be stifled by paywalls when they clicked on news articles from searches.

Google, the largest component of Alphabet Inc, had contended that free samples would lead to increased subscriptions.

But apart from a few publications, online subscriptions haven’t taken off as intended, and media companies such as Wall Street Journal parent News Corp. increasingly complained that freeloading users were cutting into sales.

This year, the Wall Street Journal stopped abiding by Google’s policy, corresponding to a drop in search rankings but an increase in subscriptions.

“Over the last year, we got clear indications that, yes, it was going to be important for publishers to grow subscription revenues,” said Richard Gingras, Google’s vice president for news.

He said the number of news outlets with paywalls had reached a critical mass in the last year, to the point that it made sense for Google to start developing tools for them.

Google is now counting on the relaxed rules and subscription software that is under development to stop the Wall Street Journal and other publishers from holding back valuable content.

From hereon, publishers will be able to choose how many, if any, free articles they want to offer to Google searchers.

Google also plans to launch free software in the coming months for publishers that enables users to pay for content with credit card information that they’ve previously supplied to the search giant.

The goal is to facilitate fast purchases that could take as little as a single click, Gingras said. Customers’ names and emails would be shared with the publishers.

A separate tool would give publishers data on how to maximize sign ups with personalized offers. Gingras said Google hasn’t determined whether it may charge a fee to recoup costs of that program.

“Google search is valuable because there’s a rich ecosystem out there,” Gingras said. “To the extent the web is healthy, that’s very good for our core business. Our objective is not for this to be a new line of business.”

Facebook, Alphabet’s top rival in online advertising, is working on similar subscriber registration tools. Apple released support for subscriptions within its News app last year.

source: interaksyon.com

US Navy to relieve 7th Fleet chief after series of collisions involving warships

WASHINGTON/TOKYO – The US Navy will relieve Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin after a series of collisions involving its warships in Asia, a US official told Reuters, as the search goes on for 10 sailors missing since the latest mishap.

“An expedited change in leadership was needed,” the official said in Washington on Tuesday of the decision to relieve Aucoin of his command.

The Navy declined to comment on any plans to relieve Aucoin, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The official told Reuters that Admiral Scott Swift, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, would relieve Aucoin, a three-star admiral, when the two meet in Japan.

It was not clear when the formal announcement would be made. The Seventh Fleet is headquartered in Japan.

Aucoin was due to step down next month, with Phillip Sawyer, deputy commander of the Pacific Fleet and a submariner by trade, slated to succeed him. Aucoin came up through the Navy’s air wing as an F-14 navigator.

The move to replace Aucoin comes days after the collision between a guided-missile destroyer and a merchant vessel east of Singapore and Malaysia before dawn on Monday, the fourth major incident in the U.S. Pacific Fleet this year.

An international search-and-rescue operation involving aircraft, divers and vessels from the United States, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia is looking for the 10 U.S. sailors missing since the accident.

On Tuesday, U.S. Navy and Marine Divers found human remains inside sealed sections of the damaged hull of the USS John S McCain, which is moored at Singapore’s Changi Naval Base. The Navy has not yet announced the identities of the bodies discovered.

The U.S. Navy is also working to identify a body found by the Malaysian navy about eight nautical miles northwest of the collision site.

The latest collision has already prompted a fleet-wide investigation and plans for temporary halts in U.S. Navy operations.

The USS John S. McCain’s sister ship, the USS Fitzgerald, almost sank off the coast of Japan after colliding with a Philippine container ship on June 17. The bodies of seven U.S. sailors were found in a flooded berthing area after that collision.

The USS John S. McCain and the tanker Alnic MC collided on Monday while the U.S. ship was approaching Singapore on a routine port call. The impact tore a hole in the warship’s port side at the waterline, flooding compartments that included a crew sleeping area.

source: interaksyon.com

Tweeting accountant in spotlight over Oscar best picture blunder

LOS ANGELES | An accountant for the Academy Awards was at the center of a probe on Monday over how a meticulous procedure for announcing the Oscar best picture went disastrously awry, handing victory to “La La Land” before declaring “Moonlight” the real winner.

In a gaffe on Sunday that stunned the Dolby Theatre crowd in Hollywood and a television audience worldwide, presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were handed the wrong envelope for the movie industry’s top award.

The Wall Street Journal and celebrity website TMZ.com reported on Monday that one of the PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants responsible for handing out the sealed envelopes on Sunday had posted a backstage photo of actress Emma Stone on Twitter minutes before the mix-up.

The photo, from the Twitter account of Brian Cullinan, was later deleted but was still viewable on Monday on a cached archive of the page.

PricewaterhouseCoopers U.S. chairman Tim Ryan told USA Today on Monday that Cullinan was the person who handed the envelope to Beatty.

PwC did not respond to requests for comment on Cullinan’s tweet, nor his role in the envelope fiasco. Cullinan could not immediately be reached for comment.

The mistake was not rectified until the “La La Land” cast and producers were on stage giving their acceptance speeches. It was left to the musical’s producer, Jordan Horowitz, to put things right.

“Guys, guys, I’m sorry. No. There’s a mistake,” Horowitz said. “‘Moonlight,’ you guys won best picture. This is not a joke.”

It took PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has been overseeing Academy Awards balloting for 83 years, three hours to issue a statement confirming that Beatty and Dunaway “had mistakenly been given the wrong category envelope.”

“We are currently investigating how this could have happened, and deeply regret that this occurred,” the accountants said in a statement on Monday. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Oscars, has made no comment.

An embarrassed Beatty carried the envelope in his hand to the glitzy Governor’s Ball after the show, with the writing clearly saying “actress in a leading role.” “La La Land” star Stone had been awarded that Oscar moments before.

Brand management experts said it could take years for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to recover.

“This is not advanced math. PwC had to get the right name in the right envelope and get it to the right person,” said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University, calling the blunder a “bit of a branding tragedy.”

DOUBLE PRECAUTIONS

Under a tried and tested PwC procedure, just two accountants know the names of the 24 winners after their names are placed in two sets of sealed envelopes. The two accountants also memorize the winning names.

Tradition has it that the envelopes are taken separately in two briefcases to the Academy Awards venue. The two accountants — in this case Cullinan and Martha Ruiz — are driven there separately in case an accident or traffic should befall them.

The pair then stand off stage at opposite sides and hand envelopes to the respective presenters as each category is announced.

Last week, Cullinan told the Huffington Post that the procedure for dealing with the hand-off of an incorrect envelope, other than signaling to a stage manager, was unclear.

“It’s so unlikely,” Cullinan told the Huffington Post.

Anthony Sabino, a law professor at St John’s University in New York, said that although precious minutes passed, the error was corrected quickly.

“It’s not as if we woke up this morning, or if it had been uncovered after the telecast was over. That would have really have been a black eye,” Sabino said.

Sabino said that compared to accounting fraud at other companies in the past, “this incident diminished vastly to a vanishing point.”

The “Moonlight” filmmakers were gracious about the error.

Director Barry Jenkins told reporters back stage that he was given no immediate explanation for the mix-up but that “it made a very special feeling even more special, but not in the way I expected.”

“Please write this down: The folks from ‘La La Land’ were so gracious,” Jenkins added.

source: interaksyon.com

Yahoo extends deadline for opening bids: report

SAN FRANCISCO, California – Yahoo has given prospective buyers an added week to make preliminary bids for the company’s core assets, tech news website Re/Code reported on Friday.

The struggling Internet pioneer has been briefing prospective buyers, according to US media reports that indicated the list of suitors included telecommunications titan Verizon, Google-parent Alphabet, and Time Inc.

The deadline for initial offers was reportedly extended from Monday to April 18, a day before California-based Yahoo releases earnings figures for the first three months of this year.

Re/Code attributed the information to unnamed sources close to the situation and “blabby bankers they talk to.”

Yahoo declined to comment on the report.

In letters to potential suitors, the troubled Internet company asked them what assets they were interested in, how they would finance such acquisitions and what terms would have to be met on their end, the Wall Street Journal reported last month, quoting people familiar with the matter.

The paper said some buyers might be interested in Yahoo’s core web business or parts of it, while others might bid for stakes in Alibaba or Yahoo Japan.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who took over in 2012 with the mission of boosting growth, is in an increasingly difficult position.

Although Yahoo is one of the best-known names on the Internet and is used by around one billion people, it has fallen behind Google in Internet searches and has been steadily losing ground in online advertising.

Ironically, Mayer joined Yahoo as chief executive from Google a result of a proxy war launched by an activist investor group.

While Mayer has injected some energy and glamor into the company, Yahoo’s finances have failed to improve and its core operations are valued in the market as worthless, with the company’s valuation propped up by its stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan.

In February, Yahoo said it was cutting 15 percent of its workforce and narrowing its focus as it explores “strategic alternatives.”

The California company reported a loss of $4.43 billion in the final three months of last year, due mostly to lowering the value of its US, Canada, Europe, Latin America and Tumblr units.

source: interaksyon.com

Google developing virtual reality headset — WSJ

Google is developing a virtual reality headset that works without a smartphone or computer, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The headset will include a screen, high-powered processors and outward-facing cameras, the Journal reported, citing one person.

Alphabet Inc’s Google currently sells a virtual reality device made of cardboard into which users slide in their mobile phones.

Since the launch in 2014, Google has shipped five million Google Cardboards.


The company declined to comment on the Journal report.

source: interaksyon.com

Android co-founder Andy Rubin to leave Google

Google Inc said on Thursday that Andy Rubin, co-founder of its Android mobile business and head of its nascent robotics effort is leaving the company.

Rubin will start a company to support startups interested in building technology-hardware products, Google said in an emailed response for comment on a Wall Street Journal report about his move.

James Kuffner, a research scientist at Google and a member of the robotics group, will replace Rubin, the company added.

Last year, Google’s browser and applications chief Sundar Pichai replaced Rubin as head of the Android division, bringing the firm’s mobile software, applications and Chrome browser under one roof.

Rubin built Android into a free, open-source software platform now used by most of the world’s largest handset manufacturers, from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to HTC Corp.

source: interaksyon.com

Oil prices rise in Asian trade amid falling US inventories

SINGAPORE - Oil prices edged higher in thin Asian trade Monday as investors focused on a fall in US crude inventories, indicating robust demand in the world's top consumer.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery, was up two cents at $100.34 in afternoon trade while Brent North Sea crude for February gained 19 cents to $112.37.

The US Department of Energy on Friday reported that crude inventories for the week to December 20 fell by 4.7 million barrels, more than the 2.2 million expected by analysts in a Wall Street Journal survey.

The decline was the fourth consecutive drop after a 10-week run of rises that added 35 million barrels to total stockpiles.

Desmond Chua, market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said the falling inventories in the world's biggest economy underscored "stronger demand as the global outlook brightens".

The upbeat stockpiles report released on Friday, delayed due to the Christmas holidays, is supporting WTI prices above the "psychologically important" $100 mark, Chua said.

The report came amid other signs the US economy is picking up. Data released last week showed new home sales, durable goods orders and jobless claims also bested expectations.

Investors meanwhile continue to monitor developments in South Sudan, where violence in a key oil-producing region has dented crude output and led to numerous oilfield staff evacuations.

More than 1,000 people have died since fighting between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar broke out on December 15.

The United Nations said in a statement that the number of people who have taken refuge in its bases around the country has grown to 75,000.

Analysts say the fledgling producer usually exports about 220,000 barrels of crude oil a day to Japan, Malaysia and China.

source: interaksyon.com

US to levy $35 million fine on Infosys for 'fraudulently' seeking visas for workers

WASHINGTON--The US government plans to punish Indian outsourcing giant Infosys with the largest immigration fine ever for seeking visas fraudulently for workers at big clients in America, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Infosys is accused of putting workers on visitor visas, which are much easier and cheaper to obtain than the correct work visas. The fine is expected to be about $35 million, the paper said, quoting people close to the matter.

A probe by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department concluded that Infosys used easy-to-get B1 visas, which are meant for short business visits, to bring an unknown number of its workers to the United States for long-term stays, the sources were quoted as saying.

The fine will be announced Wednesday, the Journal said.

Infosys would not confirm details of the fine to AFP, but said in a statement earlier this month that it had reserved $35 million, including legal costs, based on talks with the US government over the probe, which was announced in 2011.

An Infosys spokeswoman said on Tuesday that they were "in the process of completing a civil resolution with the (US) government regarding its investigation of visa issues and I-9 documentation errors". She said the resolution had not been finalised.

With the alleged practice, Infosys could undercut competitors in bids for programming, accounting and other work performed for clients, the Journal said.

Infosys is known as an outsourcing company that does India-based computing and other technology services for Western clients, who have included Goldman Sachs Group, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.

But it also features thousands of US-based employees who develop and install software for accounting, logistics and supply-chain management in the retailing, finance and manufacturing sectors, the Journal said.

source: interaksyon.com

Online sellers tailor prices to geography

U.S. online retailers use their computing power to tailor prices to where their customers are located, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The newspaper said it found Staples.com charged $15.79 for a stapler that another customer just few miles away got for $14.29. The Journal said it found Staples appeared to factor in a customer's distance from a rival brick-and-mortar store, such as OfficeMax or Office Depot, when quoting a price.

"How can they get away with that?" asked Trude Frizzell, the Bergheim, Texas, customer who got the lower price.

"I think it's very discriminatory," said Kim Wamble, the customer in nearby Boerne, Texas, who was made to pay the higher amount.

The Journal said its investigation found areas that tended to have discounted prices had a higher average income than places that tended to get higher prices.

Staples told the newspaper its online and in-store prices vary by geography based on "a variety of factors," including "costs of doing business."

The Journal said companies such as Discover Financial Services, Rosetta Stone Inc. and Home Depot gather information about visitors to their websites and use it to develop different pitches to different people -- with prices, products and advertising shaped for specific geographic areas.

Companies that do it say online price differences are no different than those for bricks-and-mortar stores.

source: upi.com

GE close to $4B deal to buy Avio

General Electric is close to signing a deal to buy Avio SpA, an Italian aerospace firm, for about $4 billion, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

The deal, which is expected to be announced Thursday, is not finalized. As such, there is a chance it will not go through.

One outstanding issue yet to be resolved is how to carve Avio's space business out of the acquisition. Avio, 81 percent of which is owned by the private equity firm Cinven, makes both commercial and military jet engines and propulsion systems for satellites. But GE is not seeking to buy the space operations end of Avio's business, the Journal said.

GE is already responsible for about two-thirds of Avio's contracts, which explains why GE is interested in the purchase.

GE is expecting a large increase in jet engine orders in the next five years and is working to ensure it has an uninterrupted supply chain.

Avio employs 5,200 workers and last year had sales of $2.6 billion, a 16 percent increase over 2010.

source: upi.com

Facebook ‘founders’ invest in social network company: report

NEW YORK — The Winklevoss twins, best known for their legal battle against Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook Inc, have invested in SumZero, a social network company aimed at professional investors, The Wall Street Journal said on Sunday.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have put $1 million into SumZero, which was founded by fellow Harvard University alumni Divya Narendra and Aalap Mahadevia in 2008, the article said. Narendra was an ally to the Winklevoss twins during their lawsuit against Facebook, which won the brothers a cash and stock settlement valued at $65 million at a time when the company was valued at $15 billion.

Facebook’s market cap is currently valued at $47 billion.

In June 2011, the twins decided not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a ruling upholding their $65 million settlement.

The 2008 accord was intended to resolve a feud over whether Zuckerberg stole the idea for what became the world’s most popular social networking website from the Winklevosses, who like him, had attended Harvard. Their battle was dramatized in the 2010 film “The Social Network.”

After agreeing to the cash-and-stock accord, the Winklevosses sought to undo it, saying it was fraudulent because Facebook hid information from them and that they deserved more money.

In February, the brothers formed Winklevoss Capital as a vehicle to invest their personal wealth. Their first investment in June was SumZero, which brings together investors to share trading ideas and research, the WSJ reported.

SumZero.com has 7,500 members and has parallels with the first versions of Facebook, including exclusivity.

The site also allows investors to become members only if they work on the “buy side.” SumZero defines that group as investment professionals at hedge funds, mutual funds and private-equity firms. Analysts from the “sell side” such as Wall Street banks are not allowed, the report said.

source: interaksyon.com

Report: Facebook may file for IPO next week

The social-networking behemoth is planning as early as next week to file for an initial public offering worth up to $100 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources.

Morgan Stanley is expected to be lead underwriter with Goldman Sachs also likely to play a major role, the sources said. USA TODAY could not independently corroborate the story. The timing of such a filing could put Facebook on track to start trading stock as early as this spring.

The six-year-old Facebook is expected to raise $10 billion, with a valuation of between $75 billion and $100 billion, although such information would not be in the initial registration document. By either measure, it would make Facebook among the largest IPOs ever. (Visa set a record in 2008, when it raised $17.9 billion.)

"It makes Facebook the largest Internet IPO ever," says Kathleen Smith, a principal at IPO investment advisory firm Renaissance Capital.

Facebook declined to comment. "We're not going to participate in IPO-related speculation," Facebook spokesman Larry Yu said Friday.

Article Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-01-27/facebook-ipo-could-come-next-week/52823968/1