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Aereo’s CEO Chet Kanojia has the TV Industry Scared To Death

March 13, 2014June 20, 2014 Staff Writer

CBS Threatens To Cut Off Broadcast Signal If Aereo Wins Aereo, a company that lets you stream live network TV (NBC, ABC, Fox, PBS, etc.) to your computer, smartphone or tablet, is gearing up for a big Supreme Court battle this spring with those networks that could dismantle the startup. The networks claim Aereo violates copyright by allowing customers to record TV shows in a virtual DVR that lets you stream shows later to your device. Aereo charges $8 per month to use the service and it’s available in a handful…

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Facebook’s shot at WhatsApp data gets both companies an FTC complaint

March 7, 2014 Staff Writer

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Facebook’s $16 billion acquisition of WhatsApp based on privacy concerns, according to a document released Thursday. EPIC and CDD’s problems with the acquisition center around the fact that WhatsApp staked its reputation on—that it’s a company keeping a reasonable distance from its customers’ data. Now that it will fall under the aegis of Facebook, its users stand to lose those privacy guarantees, even though WhatsApp told its users nothing…

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Microsoft Targets Cheaper Phones for Global Internet Growth

February 27, 2014 Staff Writer

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), under new Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, will accelerate a push into mobile software, joining forces with hardware manufacturers and Qualcomm (QCOM) Inc. to develop cheaper phones for emerging markets. Microsoft said yesterday it’s working with Qualcomm on a low-cost phone design that developers and handset makers can use to build their own devices, and added partners including Lenovo Group Ltd. to make Windows smartphones. Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), whose mobile-phone business will become part of Microsoft, unveiled lower-priced handsets at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today.…

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Facebook to Pay $19 Billion for WhatsApp

February 20, 2014 Staff Writer

Messaging Startup to Operate Independently, Retain Brand, Facebook’s $19 billion purchase of the WhatsApp mobile messaging service ranks as the largest-ever purchase of a company backed by venture capital. Facebook Inc. FB +1.13% agreed to buy messaging company WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock, a blockbuster transaction that dwarfs the already sky-high prices that other startups have been able to recently command. The 55-employee company, which acts as a kind of replacement for text messaging, has seen its use more than double in the past nine months to…

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Japan e-commerce giant to buy Viber for $900-M

February 14, 2014March 3, 2016 Staff Writer

TOKYO – Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc, controlled by billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, will buy call and messaging app provider Viber Media Inc for $900 million in a deal that would more than double the number of users in its digital empire. Rakuten offers services from financing to shopping to online video on its e-commerce platform, the largest in Japan. But in the face of a shrinking population and weak consumer spending at home, Mikitani is trying to re-invent Rakuten as a one-stop-site for a global audience. Privately held Viber, run…

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Comcast buys rival Time Warner Cable for $45bn

February 13, 2014March 3, 2016 Staff Writer

Comcast has confirmed a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable for about $45bn (£27bn), creating a company that could control three-quarters of the US cable industry. Comcast will pay about $159 per share for its rival in an all-stock deal. The deal comes after Time Warner Cable rejected a $60bn bid from Charter Communications last month, calling their offer “grossly inadequate”. However, any merger is likely to face tight scrutiny from US regulators. Time Warner Cable has been the subject of an eight-month takeover battle by smaller cable operator Charter…

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Satya Nadella Is Officially Microsoft’s New CEO

February 4, 2014March 3, 2016 Staff Writer

Microsoft has made official what we all pretty much expected: Its new CEO, replacing Steve Ballmer, is Satya Nadella. Nadella has spent 22 years at Microsoft, and was previously Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Cloud and Enterprise. Nadella also takes a position on Microsoft’s Board of Directors. Nadella is credited with being a key leader in moving the company towards cloud services, around products including Bing, Xbox and Microsoft Office. His time at MS oversaw a period of huge growth for Microsoft Business Services, too, growing that segment of the…

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What Africa’s Billionaire Aliko Dangote told the World Economic Forum in Davos

January 30, 2014June 2, 2016 Staff Writer

Africa has many entrepreneurial people with the capacity to be successful in business, but access to financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) remains a major challenge. So said Nigerian-born Aliko Dangote, believed to be the continent’s richest man, today during a session titled ‘Africa’s Next Billion’, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He explained that while Africa offers a large enough market for SMEs, borrowing costs are generally too high. “If you are going to borrow money at 20% and above, it might be very, very tough…

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Businesses’ biggest barrier to implementing their big data strategy is identifying what data to collect

January 29, 2014 Staff Writer

KPMG Report: Going beyond the data: achieving insights from data and analytics Long before the term big data first appeared in 1997, organizations were already struggling to make sense of all of the information piling up in their databases and warehouses. But over the past five years, the focus on big data has started to shift: today the issue is no longer about owning the most data but rather about how to gain the most insight from that data and – in turn – how to convert those insights into…

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