(Reuters) - Fox News apologized on Saturday for a 'severe human error' that resulted in viewers seeing a suspected carjacker fatally shoot himself after a police chase.
The coverage of the Friday incident, which sparked outrage on social media and a quick on-air apology by anchor Shepard Smith, showed a man stumbling from an allegedly stolen car into the desert near Phoenix on Friday.
As a camera in a helicopter provided live coverage, the man stopped a short distance away, pulled the trigger of a gun pointed to the right side of his head and crumpled face-forward into the ground.
'We took every precaution to avoid any such live incident by putting the helicopter pictures on a five-second delay,' said Michael Clemente, Fox's executive vice president for news editorial.
'Unfortunately, this mistake was the result of a severe human error and we apologize for what viewers ultimately saw on the screen,' he said in a statement.
A Phoenix police spokesman confirmed the man, who authorities said fired at officers and a police helicopter at one point during the pursuit, died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Bill Trott)
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Saturday, September 29, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Arizona man kills himself on live television after pursuit
PHOENIX (Reuters) - A suspected carjacker shot himself to death after a police chase in Arizona on Friday in a grim spectacle aired on live television - sparking a quick on-air apology and waves of outrage across social media.
The man was seen on the Fox News Channel stumbling from a dark red vehicle into the desert near Phoenix, stopping a short distance away and then apparently pulling the trigger of a gun pointed to the right side of his head. He then crumpled face-forward into the ground.
Anchor Shepard Smith shouted, 'Get off it!' repeatedly, apparently asking his control room to cut away from the shot. The network quickly cut to a commercial and when Smith returned, he apologized for the incident.
'We really messed up and we're all very sorry,' Smith told viewers. 'That didn't belong on TV. We took every precaution we knew how to take to keep that from being on TV. And I personally apologize to you that happened.'
Social media erupted quickly with reaction to the televised incident, much of it negative.
'Cannot believe FOX let a live suicide air over their network, my heart literally sank watching that.. #appalled,' said a Twitter user who identified herself as Kelcey Brand.
The Columbia Journalism Review asked in a tweet: 'Who's worse? @FoxNews for airing the suicide, or @Buzzfeed for re-posting the video just in case you missed it the first time?'
Andrew Kaczynski, a reporter for BuzzFeed Politics, tweeted back to Columbia Journalism Review: 'I prefer your whiny usually incorrect long form analysis pieces over your instant judgment.'
Phoenix police spokesman Sergeant Tommy Thompson said the man, who was not immediately identified, was being pursued by officers after carjacking a 2008 Dodge Caliber, apparently the vehicle seen in the television broadcast.
Thompson said the man had taken the car at gunpoint from two people in west Phoenix about 11 a.m. local time and was chased by police through city streets and a state highway before ending up on a dirt road.
The man fired at officers and a police helicopter at one point during the pursuit, but there were no other injuries, Thompson said. He said the man died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
'We don't know why he shot himself right now,' Thompson said. 'That's something that we may find out once we find out with some more time. We're not there now.'
(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Mary Slosson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)
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The man was seen on the Fox News Channel stumbling from a dark red vehicle into the desert near Phoenix, stopping a short distance away and then apparently pulling the trigger of a gun pointed to the right side of his head. He then crumpled face-forward into the ground.
Anchor Shepard Smith shouted, 'Get off it!' repeatedly, apparently asking his control room to cut away from the shot. The network quickly cut to a commercial and when Smith returned, he apologized for the incident.
'We really messed up and we're all very sorry,' Smith told viewers. 'That didn't belong on TV. We took every precaution we knew how to take to keep that from being on TV. And I personally apologize to you that happened.'
Social media erupted quickly with reaction to the televised incident, much of it negative.
'Cannot believe FOX let a live suicide air over their network, my heart literally sank watching that.. #appalled,' said a Twitter user who identified herself as Kelcey Brand.
The Columbia Journalism Review asked in a tweet: 'Who's worse? @FoxNews for airing the suicide, or @Buzzfeed for re-posting the video just in case you missed it the first time?'
Andrew Kaczynski, a reporter for BuzzFeed Politics, tweeted back to Columbia Journalism Review: 'I prefer your whiny usually incorrect long form analysis pieces over your instant judgment.'
Phoenix police spokesman Sergeant Tommy Thompson said the man, who was not immediately identified, was being pursued by officers after carjacking a 2008 Dodge Caliber, apparently the vehicle seen in the television broadcast.
Thompson said the man had taken the car at gunpoint from two people in west Phoenix about 11 a.m. local time and was chased by police through city streets and a state highway before ending up on a dirt road.
The man fired at officers and a police helicopter at one point during the pursuit, but there were no other injuries, Thompson said. He said the man died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
'We don't know why he shot himself right now,' Thompson said. 'That's something that we may find out once we find out with some more time. We're not there now.'
(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Mary Slosson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)
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Judge rejects $8.5 million Groupon settlement
(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday rejected a proposed $8.5 million class action settlement with Groupon Inc intended to resolve allegations that the expiration dates on its coupons violated consumer protection laws.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego found fault with a provision in the settlement that would have set aside $75,000 to be divided among two non-profit groups. The judge said neither of the organizations were 'expressly committed to righting the specific wrongs alleged in this case.'
While Sabraw denied other objections to the settlement by members of the class, he said he had to reject the entire settlement because he did not have the authority to strike just the charity provisions.
Representatives for Groupon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
John Stoia, a lawyer at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd representing plaintiffs who bought vouchers on Groupon, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision marked the latest by a court to address so-called cy pres awards in class actions, in which money is dedicated to charity rather than distributed to the plaintiffs themselves. Cy pres comes from a French phrase meaning 'as near as possible.'
The charitable awards have become common when the amount of money recovered is small and the class itself is large, making distribution impractical.
The charities are typically intended to represent the interests of the classes of plaintiffs.
But in several instances, courts have rejected the settlements after finding the money dedicated to the cy pres award should go to the plaintiffs themselves, or are going to inappropriate charities.
Groupon agreed to the settlement in April as the Chicago-based company sought to put behind it lawsuits alleging that its vouchers violated federal and state laws applying to the expiration dates for gift certificates.
Among the laws Groupon allegedly violated was the federal Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which restricts the sale of gift certificates that expire in less than five years. Groupon denied the allegations.
Of the $8.5 million, $75,000 was set to go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology, two organizations concerned with Internet rights.
But Sabraw said neither organization was focused on the core issue of the case -- expiration dates and other restrictions on consumer vouchers or misleading advertising related to vouchers.
'That consumers purchase vouchers on the Internet is not enough,' he said. 'Indeed, it is incidental to the claims at issue in this case.'
Sabraw said he agreed with objectors who argued that the money should instead be distributed to the class itself.
Representatives for the non-profits did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is In re Groupon Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, No. 11-md-02238.
(Editing by Eric Effron and Richard Chang)
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U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego found fault with a provision in the settlement that would have set aside $75,000 to be divided among two non-profit groups. The judge said neither of the organizations were 'expressly committed to righting the specific wrongs alleged in this case.'
While Sabraw denied other objections to the settlement by members of the class, he said he had to reject the entire settlement because he did not have the authority to strike just the charity provisions.
Representatives for Groupon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
John Stoia, a lawyer at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd representing plaintiffs who bought vouchers on Groupon, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The decision marked the latest by a court to address so-called cy pres awards in class actions, in which money is dedicated to charity rather than distributed to the plaintiffs themselves. Cy pres comes from a French phrase meaning 'as near as possible.'
The charitable awards have become common when the amount of money recovered is small and the class itself is large, making distribution impractical.
The charities are typically intended to represent the interests of the classes of plaintiffs.
But in several instances, courts have rejected the settlements after finding the money dedicated to the cy pres award should go to the plaintiffs themselves, or are going to inappropriate charities.
Groupon agreed to the settlement in April as the Chicago-based company sought to put behind it lawsuits alleging that its vouchers violated federal and state laws applying to the expiration dates for gift certificates.
Among the laws Groupon allegedly violated was the federal Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which restricts the sale of gift certificates that expire in less than five years. Groupon denied the allegations.
Of the $8.5 million, $75,000 was set to go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology, two organizations concerned with Internet rights.
But Sabraw said neither organization was focused on the core issue of the case -- expiration dates and other restrictions on consumer vouchers or misleading advertising related to vouchers.
'That consumers purchase vouchers on the Internet is not enough,' he said. 'Indeed, it is incidental to the claims at issue in this case.'
Sabraw said he agreed with objectors who argued that the money should instead be distributed to the class itself.
Representatives for the non-profits did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is In re Groupon Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, No. 11-md-02238.
(Editing by Eric Effron and Richard Chang)
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EU lawmaker calls for tighter data rules after Facebook row
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An EU lawmaker called for tighter control of on-line social networks under a data protection regulation now being debated after some Facebook users said their personal messages appeared on their public profiles.
EU regulators are in the midst of writing new legislation that could give internet users greater control over how their personal data is used by big technology companies. One part of the regulation requires companies to get permission before 'processing' people's personal data, although exactly how and when such consent would be needed is still subject to debate.
On Tuesday the French data protection regulator asked to meet Facebook after thousands of users complained private messages dating back to 2007 were visible on their Facebook timelines - the start page of a person's profile on the website.
Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German Green member of the European Parliament who is in charge of the legislature's work on the draft regulation said the incident shows that users need more control over their data.
'The informed and explicit agreement of all those affected by data processing must be a guiding principle,' Albrecht said in a press statement. 'There will be very few exceptions if any.'
Facebook said it has not done anything wrong and that the messages are in fact called wall posts, one of the website's features for leaving comments which usually appears on a person's profile page.
Before the Facebook timeline was introduced in February, wall posts were visible on user's profile pages but could also be hidden from the public depending on each user's privacy settings.
'A small number of users raised concerns after what they mistakenly believed to be private messages appeared on their Timeline,' the company said in a statement.
Nevertheless EU lawmakers are taking the incident seriously.
'This case shows that some companies simply don't take privacy issues as seriously as their share price,' the Commissioner for Justice behind the regulation, Viviane Reding, said at a meeting with regulators in Dublin on Monday.
The Commission, the European Parliament and the 27 member states have to agree on the regulation before it can become law. The parliament will begin submitting amendments later this year.
Web companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo!, which rely on their user's data to tailor their services to people's interests, have said they are wary of the regulation's principles on seeking users' consent. These companies' business models are also based on selling targeted ads matched to people's profiles.
Some say they worry that asking permission for the use of people's data more than they already do could hamper their services with consent-seeking pop-ups and encourage people to opt-out rather than in.
(Editing by Mike Nesbit)
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EU regulators are in the midst of writing new legislation that could give internet users greater control over how their personal data is used by big technology companies. One part of the regulation requires companies to get permission before 'processing' people's personal data, although exactly how and when such consent would be needed is still subject to debate.
On Tuesday the French data protection regulator asked to meet Facebook after thousands of users complained private messages dating back to 2007 were visible on their Facebook timelines - the start page of a person's profile on the website.
Jan Philipp Albrecht, a German Green member of the European Parliament who is in charge of the legislature's work on the draft regulation said the incident shows that users need more control over their data.
'The informed and explicit agreement of all those affected by data processing must be a guiding principle,' Albrecht said in a press statement. 'There will be very few exceptions if any.'
Facebook said it has not done anything wrong and that the messages are in fact called wall posts, one of the website's features for leaving comments which usually appears on a person's profile page.
Before the Facebook timeline was introduced in February, wall posts were visible on user's profile pages but could also be hidden from the public depending on each user's privacy settings.
'A small number of users raised concerns after what they mistakenly believed to be private messages appeared on their Timeline,' the company said in a statement.
Nevertheless EU lawmakers are taking the incident seriously.
'This case shows that some companies simply don't take privacy issues as seriously as their share price,' the Commissioner for Justice behind the regulation, Viviane Reding, said at a meeting with regulators in Dublin on Monday.
The Commission, the European Parliament and the 27 member states have to agree on the regulation before it can become law. The parliament will begin submitting amendments later this year.
Web companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo!, which rely on their user's data to tailor their services to people's interests, have said they are wary of the regulation's principles on seeking users' consent. These companies' business models are also based on selling targeted ads matched to people's profiles.
Some say they worry that asking permission for the use of people's data more than they already do could hamper their services with consent-seeking pop-ups and encourage people to opt-out rather than in.
(Editing by Mike Nesbit)
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No press complaint over Prince Harry's naked pics
LONDON (Reuters) - The royal family said on Friday it would not lodge a complaint with the country's press watchdog over the publication of photographs showing Prince Harry cavorting naked in a Las Vegas hotel room.
Pictures of the 27-year-old prince, third-in-line to the throne, surfaced in August on a U.S. gossip website and were later published by the best-selling Sun tabloid - the only British title to run the photos.
Harry's office in St. James's Palace said the royals had decided not to pursue a formal complaint given the prince's current deployment in Afghanistan. It said it informed the Press Complaints Commission on Thursday.
By contrast, Harry's brother Prince William and his wife Kate launched a criminal complaint against the photographer who took topless pictures of her while the couple were on vacation in a French villa.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as the royal couple are formally known, were also seeking damages from French gossip magazine Closer, which first published the photos this month.
They have won an injunction banning the magazine from further publication and ordering it to hand the pictures over to the royal couple.
'Prince Harry is currently focused entirely on his deployment in Afghanistan, so to pursue a complaint relating to his private life would not be appropriate at this time and would prove to be a distraction,' a statement from the palace said.
Harry, The Queen's grandson, returned to Afghanistan this month to fly attack helicopters in the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents.
'We remain of the opinion that a hotel room is a private space where its occupants would have a reasonable expectation of privacy,' the palace said.
The naked photos proved an embarrassment for the family after a summer of well-received Diamond Jubilee celebrations to mark Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne and royal appearances at the London Olympics.
(Writing by Alessandra Rizzo, editing by Paul Casciato)
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Pictures of the 27-year-old prince, third-in-line to the throne, surfaced in August on a U.S. gossip website and were later published by the best-selling Sun tabloid - the only British title to run the photos.
Harry's office in St. James's Palace said the royals had decided not to pursue a formal complaint given the prince's current deployment in Afghanistan. It said it informed the Press Complaints Commission on Thursday.
By contrast, Harry's brother Prince William and his wife Kate launched a criminal complaint against the photographer who took topless pictures of her while the couple were on vacation in a French villa.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as the royal couple are formally known, were also seeking damages from French gossip magazine Closer, which first published the photos this month.
They have won an injunction banning the magazine from further publication and ordering it to hand the pictures over to the royal couple.
'Prince Harry is currently focused entirely on his deployment in Afghanistan, so to pursue a complaint relating to his private life would not be appropriate at this time and would prove to be a distraction,' a statement from the palace said.
Harry, The Queen's grandson, returned to Afghanistan this month to fly attack helicopters in the NATO-led war against Taliban insurgents.
'We remain of the opinion that a hotel room is a private space where its occupants would have a reasonable expectation of privacy,' the palace said.
The naked photos proved an embarrassment for the family after a summer of well-received Diamond Jubilee celebrations to mark Elizabeth's 60 years on the throne and royal appearances at the London Olympics.
(Writing by Alessandra Rizzo, editing by Paul Casciato)
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Canada won't say if China involved in hacking incident
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada said it was aware hackers had breached security at a domestic manufacturer of software used by big energy companies, but declined to comment on a report that a Chinese group could be responsible.
Calgary-based Telvent, which is owned by France's Schneider Electric SA, warned customers about the attack, which hit operations in the United States, Canada and Spain, the cyber security news site KrebsOnSecurity.com reported on Wednesday.
'The Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre is aware of this incident and is already working with stakeholders in government and the private sector,' public safety ministry spokesman Jean-Paul Duval said in an e-mail late on Thursday.
KrebsOnSecurity.com cited experts who said digital fingerprints left during the attack pointed to Chinese hackers.
If a Chinese group were involved it could complicate matters for Canada's Conservative government, which is deciding whether to approve a landmark $15.1 billion bid by China's CNOOC Ltd for oil producer Nexen Inc.
Some legislators are wary of the proposed takeover, in part because of what they say are China's unfair business practices.
Duval, citing operational reasons, declined to comment when asked whether Canada thought Chinese hackers were responsible.
'We can tell you that the government of Canada is working to protect Canada's cyber networks, identify vulnerabilities and intrusions, and to defend against malicious cyber activity,' he said.
An organization that regulates U.S. electric utilities is looking into the breach at Telvent, which makes software that energy companies use to manage production and distribution of electricity. Telvent acknowledged a breach had taken place but gave few details.
China is often cited as a suspect in various hacking attacks on companies in the United States and other nations. Beijing dismisses allegations it is involved.
The Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre monitors cyber threats and coordinates the national response to cyber security incidents.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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Calgary-based Telvent, which is owned by France's Schneider Electric SA, warned customers about the attack, which hit operations in the United States, Canada and Spain, the cyber security news site KrebsOnSecurity.com reported on Wednesday.
'The Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre is aware of this incident and is already working with stakeholders in government and the private sector,' public safety ministry spokesman Jean-Paul Duval said in an e-mail late on Thursday.
KrebsOnSecurity.com cited experts who said digital fingerprints left during the attack pointed to Chinese hackers.
If a Chinese group were involved it could complicate matters for Canada's Conservative government, which is deciding whether to approve a landmark $15.1 billion bid by China's CNOOC Ltd for oil producer Nexen Inc.
Some legislators are wary of the proposed takeover, in part because of what they say are China's unfair business practices.
Duval, citing operational reasons, declined to comment when asked whether Canada thought Chinese hackers were responsible.
'We can tell you that the government of Canada is working to protect Canada's cyber networks, identify vulnerabilities and intrusions, and to defend against malicious cyber activity,' he said.
An organization that regulates U.S. electric utilities is looking into the breach at Telvent, which makes software that energy companies use to manage production and distribution of electricity. Telvent acknowledged a breach had taken place but gave few details.
China is often cited as a suspect in various hacking attacks on companies in the United States and other nations. Beijing dismisses allegations it is involved.
The Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre monitors cyber threats and coordinates the national response to cyber security incidents.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Vicki Allen)
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Thursday, September 27, 2012
Mormon website editor's church discipline hearing suspended
SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - The Florida-based editor of a Mormon-themed website facing disciplinary action and possible excommunication over his writings said on Thursday his Orlando-area church leaders had suspended a hearing to decide his fate.
David Twede's posts on MormonThink.com offer his account of the history of the church's political involvement, criticism of fellow Mormon and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and the author's take on Mormon beliefs about the nature of God and temple ceremonies.
Twede, a 47-year-old, fifth-generation Mormon and MormonThink.com's managing editor, has said that church leaders had accused him of apostasy and described his recent posts as anti-Mormon. A disciplinary hearing had been set for Sunday.
But Twede told Reuters by email that he was later informed by a senior church official that the hearing before 15 regional leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been postponed.
'He emailed me and simply said they they couldn't hold the court and would possibly reschedule later, ' Twede said. 'They will let me know.'
Mormon Church disciplinary decision are made at the local level and outcomes can include probation, disfellowship, excommunication or exoneration. Public excommunications are rare. But several high-profile scholars and feminists had their memberships revoked in the 1990s.
Excommunicated persons can still attend church, but cannot receive the sacrament, hold church callings, speak at services or enter Mormon temples.
Twede's possible discipline has drawn national media attention, something that could have prompted the church to back down, said Grant Palmer, a Utah-based author and Mormon historian, who was disciplined by the church in 2004.
ATTENTION ON MORMON FAITH
That's particularly true since Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, whom Twede has criticized, is also Mormon, ramping up the amount of attention placed on Mormon beliefs and practice, Palmer said.
'If I were a betting man, I would say yes, this is probably at work in the David Twede situation,' said Palmer, who resigned from the church two years ago when facing his own excommunication hearing.
In a statement released through the Utah-based church's public relations office, the senior official said the postponement was 'due to a scheduling conflict' and would be rescheduled.
The church has declined to comment specifically on Twede or his blog, saying disciplinary matters were confidential. Church spokesman Michael Purdy said last week it would be 'patently false' to suggest a Mormon would face discipline for having questions about their faith or for expressing political views.
'The church is an advocate of individual choice. It is a core tenet of our faith,' Purdy said. 'Church discipline becomes necessary only in those rare occasions when an individual's actions cannot be ignored while they claim to be in good standing with the church.'
Founded about eight years ago, MormonThink.org aims to explore aspects of Mormon history, belief and culture. Its writers include current and former church members, Twede said.
Palmer said the site's growing influence maybe be an issue, saying that with the interest in Mormonism on the rise, monthly hits grew to a million in July, and have since surged further.
'I guess the leadership doesn't like having any of this out there in public,' Palmer said.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)
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David Twede's posts on MormonThink.com offer his account of the history of the church's political involvement, criticism of fellow Mormon and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and the author's take on Mormon beliefs about the nature of God and temple ceremonies.
Twede, a 47-year-old, fifth-generation Mormon and MormonThink.com's managing editor, has said that church leaders had accused him of apostasy and described his recent posts as anti-Mormon. A disciplinary hearing had been set for Sunday.
But Twede told Reuters by email that he was later informed by a senior church official that the hearing before 15 regional leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been postponed.
'He emailed me and simply said they they couldn't hold the court and would possibly reschedule later, ' Twede said. 'They will let me know.'
Mormon Church disciplinary decision are made at the local level and outcomes can include probation, disfellowship, excommunication or exoneration. Public excommunications are rare. But several high-profile scholars and feminists had their memberships revoked in the 1990s.
Excommunicated persons can still attend church, but cannot receive the sacrament, hold church callings, speak at services or enter Mormon temples.
Twede's possible discipline has drawn national media attention, something that could have prompted the church to back down, said Grant Palmer, a Utah-based author and Mormon historian, who was disciplined by the church in 2004.
ATTENTION ON MORMON FAITH
That's particularly true since Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, whom Twede has criticized, is also Mormon, ramping up the amount of attention placed on Mormon beliefs and practice, Palmer said.
'If I were a betting man, I would say yes, this is probably at work in the David Twede situation,' said Palmer, who resigned from the church two years ago when facing his own excommunication hearing.
In a statement released through the Utah-based church's public relations office, the senior official said the postponement was 'due to a scheduling conflict' and would be rescheduled.
The church has declined to comment specifically on Twede or his blog, saying disciplinary matters were confidential. Church spokesman Michael Purdy said last week it would be 'patently false' to suggest a Mormon would face discipline for having questions about their faith or for expressing political views.
'The church is an advocate of individual choice. It is a core tenet of our faith,' Purdy said. 'Church discipline becomes necessary only in those rare occasions when an individual's actions cannot be ignored while they claim to be in good standing with the church.'
Founded about eight years ago, MormonThink.org aims to explore aspects of Mormon history, belief and culture. Its writers include current and former church members, Twede said.
Palmer said the site's growing influence maybe be an issue, saying that with the interest in Mormonism on the rise, monthly hits grew to a million in July, and have since surged further.
'I guess the leadership doesn't like having any of this out there in public,' Palmer said.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)
This news article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE 201 - where latest news are our top priority.
Amazon offering loans to its online sellers
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is launching a new business offering loans to some of its online sellers, a move that could boost the growth of its Internet marketplace while exposing it to potential credit risks.
The new program is called Amazon Lending and sellers on the company's marketplace have been sent emails offering loans from Amazon Capital Services Inc, a unit of Amazon, according to a merchant who received such an email from the company recently. The merchant did not want to be identified because Amazon has not announced the program publicly.
An Amazon spokesmen declined to comment.
Getting into the lending business is a big step for Amazon that will expose it to more credit risk but may also fuel more sales by merchants on its marketplace. Amazon takes a cut of those sales, so revenue and profits could get a boost.
Some online merchants lack upfront cash to buy all the inventory they would like to sell on Amazon.com, especially heading into the crucial holiday season.
Banks and other sources of loans for merchants pulled back in the wake of the financial crisis, leaving an opening for alternative sources of financing. Factoring, a common source of financing in the retail business that is provided by lenders such as CIT Group and Wells Fargo, can be tough to tap for smaller merchants.
'Some of these businesses are only constrained by cash flow,' said Scot Wingo, chief executive of e-commerce advisory firm ChannelAdvisor. 'These spot loans will help these folks grow by getting them extra cash to buy more product.'
ChannelAdvisor helps online merchants sell on Amazon, eBay and other online marketplaces. Wingo posted a copy of one of the Amazon Lending emails on ChannelAdvisor's blog on Thursday.
Amazon is competing against a start-up called Kabbage, which extends cash advances ranging from $500 to $50,000 to online merchants.
'We're flattered that Amazon is building a business modeled on ours,' said Kabbage co-founder Marc Gorlin. 'It's validating that big companies are getting into the small business financing space.'
Former PayPal President and Yahoo! ex-CEO Scott Thompson joined Kabbage's board on Thursday.
Amazon is lending up to $800,000 to some merchants, Wingo said, adding that this is a pretty aggressive entrance into merchant financing. The company is charging some sellers interest rates of up to 13 percent, but some other merchants are being offered rates as low as 1 percent, he added.
'This is definitely cheaper than credit cards and faster and easier than banks, so may fill a big hole for sellers,' Wingo said.
Amazon is pre-qualifying some sellers based on their performance on the company's online marketplace. The money can be used by sellers to buy more inventory and increase sales on Amazon.com, according to the email.
Sellers can sign up for loans through their existing Amazon merchant accounts and if approved, Amazon said it will send the money to their bank accounts within five business days. Monthly interest payments on the loans will be deducted automatically from merchants' Amazon seller accounts, the email explained.
OZBO
'We would absolutely be interested in borrowing money like this,' said Joshua Wood, vice president of operations at Ozbo, an online merchant that sells on Amazon.com.
'We have a 65,000-square-foot warehouse that we would love to fill with inventory that we would blow through during the holiday season,' he added.
Ozbo is limited in how much inventory it can buy because most of its cash flow is being plowed back into other projects to grow its business, he explained.
Getting a credit line from a bank has been difficult because lenders require a personal guarantee from Ozbo's main investor, Wood said.
A loan from Amazon to buy more inventory would also lower Ozbo's per-item costs to buy the products it sells, he added.
'Everything is driven by volume,' Wood said.
KABBAGE
Kabbage, backed by investors including David Bonderman of TPG Capital, United Parcel Service and BlueRun Ventures, advances money to merchants to pay for a wide range of things, including inventory, supplies and to hire staff.
Amazon's financing must be used for inventory sold on Amazon.com, while Kabbage advances cash to sellers on Amazon.com, eBay, Yahoo!, Etsy and Shopify.
'The main differentiator is that we are platform agnostic,' Gorlin said. 'Our goal is to support merchants wherever they sell.'
Kabbage merchants pay 2 percent to 7 percent for a 30-day advance. For an advance of up to six months, they typically pay 10 percent to 18 percent. That depends on the performance of their business and sellers' credit information, although no one is turned down solely for their credit score, Gorlin explained.
To get an advance from Kabbage, sellers provide the login for their online stores, a login for their bank account and their social security number.
Kabbage checks sellers' creditworthiness with this information, but it also analyzes their sales on online marketplaces, how they interact with customers on Facebook and Twitter and their record of shipping products with UPS.
This process is automated, so sellers can get cash advances in their PayPal accounts or bank accounts quickly - sometimes in as little as seven minutes, Gorlin said.
EBay does not offer a service like this for its sellers. However, Gorlin said eBay is a 'good partner' of Kabbage. EBay may not provide its own advances, because the company may not want to upset its sellers by sometimes turning down their requests for working capital, he added.
Amazon shares closed up 2.8 percent to $256.59 on Thursday.
(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Phil Berlowitz and Leslie Gevirtz)
This article is brought to you by BUY A USED COMPUTER.
The new program is called Amazon Lending and sellers on the company's marketplace have been sent emails offering loans from Amazon Capital Services Inc, a unit of Amazon, according to a merchant who received such an email from the company recently. The merchant did not want to be identified because Amazon has not announced the program publicly.
An Amazon spokesmen declined to comment.
Getting into the lending business is a big step for Amazon that will expose it to more credit risk but may also fuel more sales by merchants on its marketplace. Amazon takes a cut of those sales, so revenue and profits could get a boost.
Some online merchants lack upfront cash to buy all the inventory they would like to sell on Amazon.com, especially heading into the crucial holiday season.
Banks and other sources of loans for merchants pulled back in the wake of the financial crisis, leaving an opening for alternative sources of financing. Factoring, a common source of financing in the retail business that is provided by lenders such as CIT Group and Wells Fargo, can be tough to tap for smaller merchants.
'Some of these businesses are only constrained by cash flow,' said Scot Wingo, chief executive of e-commerce advisory firm ChannelAdvisor. 'These spot loans will help these folks grow by getting them extra cash to buy more product.'
ChannelAdvisor helps online merchants sell on Amazon, eBay and other online marketplaces. Wingo posted a copy of one of the Amazon Lending emails on ChannelAdvisor's blog on Thursday.
Amazon is competing against a start-up called Kabbage, which extends cash advances ranging from $500 to $50,000 to online merchants.
'We're flattered that Amazon is building a business modeled on ours,' said Kabbage co-founder Marc Gorlin. 'It's validating that big companies are getting into the small business financing space.'
Former PayPal President and Yahoo! ex-CEO Scott Thompson joined Kabbage's board on Thursday.
Amazon is lending up to $800,000 to some merchants, Wingo said, adding that this is a pretty aggressive entrance into merchant financing. The company is charging some sellers interest rates of up to 13 percent, but some other merchants are being offered rates as low as 1 percent, he added.
'This is definitely cheaper than credit cards and faster and easier than banks, so may fill a big hole for sellers,' Wingo said.
Amazon is pre-qualifying some sellers based on their performance on the company's online marketplace. The money can be used by sellers to buy more inventory and increase sales on Amazon.com, according to the email.
Sellers can sign up for loans through their existing Amazon merchant accounts and if approved, Amazon said it will send the money to their bank accounts within five business days. Monthly interest payments on the loans will be deducted automatically from merchants' Amazon seller accounts, the email explained.
OZBO
'We would absolutely be interested in borrowing money like this,' said Joshua Wood, vice president of operations at Ozbo, an online merchant that sells on Amazon.com.
'We have a 65,000-square-foot warehouse that we would love to fill with inventory that we would blow through during the holiday season,' he added.
Ozbo is limited in how much inventory it can buy because most of its cash flow is being plowed back into other projects to grow its business, he explained.
Getting a credit line from a bank has been difficult because lenders require a personal guarantee from Ozbo's main investor, Wood said.
A loan from Amazon to buy more inventory would also lower Ozbo's per-item costs to buy the products it sells, he added.
'Everything is driven by volume,' Wood said.
KABBAGE
Kabbage, backed by investors including David Bonderman of TPG Capital, United Parcel Service and BlueRun Ventures, advances money to merchants to pay for a wide range of things, including inventory, supplies and to hire staff.
Amazon's financing must be used for inventory sold on Amazon.com, while Kabbage advances cash to sellers on Amazon.com, eBay, Yahoo!, Etsy and Shopify.
'The main differentiator is that we are platform agnostic,' Gorlin said. 'Our goal is to support merchants wherever they sell.'
Kabbage merchants pay 2 percent to 7 percent for a 30-day advance. For an advance of up to six months, they typically pay 10 percent to 18 percent. That depends on the performance of their business and sellers' credit information, although no one is turned down solely for their credit score, Gorlin explained.
To get an advance from Kabbage, sellers provide the login for their online stores, a login for their bank account and their social security number.
Kabbage checks sellers' creditworthiness with this information, but it also analyzes their sales on online marketplaces, how they interact with customers on Facebook and Twitter and their record of shipping products with UPS.
This process is automated, so sellers can get cash advances in their PayPal accounts or bank accounts quickly - sometimes in as little as seven minutes, Gorlin said.
EBay does not offer a service like this for its sellers. However, Gorlin said eBay is a 'good partner' of Kabbage. EBay may not provide its own advances, because the company may not want to upset its sellers by sometimes turning down their requests for working capital, he added.
Amazon shares closed up 2.8 percent to $256.59 on Thursday.
(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Phil Berlowitz and Leslie Gevirtz)
This article is brought to you by BUY A USED COMPUTER.
Amazon offers loans to its online sellers
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is launching a new business offering loans to some of its online sellers, a move that could boost the growth of its giant Internet marketplace.
The new program is called Amazon Lending and sellers on the company's marketplace have been sent emails offering loans from Amazon Capital Services Inc, a unit of Amazon, according to a merchant who received an email from the company recently. The merchant did not want to be identified because the program has not been announced publicly by Amazon.
An Amazon spokesmen declined to comment.
Getting into the lending business is a big step for Amazon that will expose it to more credit risk but may also fuel more sales by merchants on its marketplace. Amazon takes a cut of those sales, so revenue and profits could get a boost.
Some online merchants lack upfront cash to buy all the inventory they would like to sell on Amazon.com, especially heading into the crucial holiday season.
Banks and other sources of loans for merchants pulled back in the wake of the financial crisis, leaving an opening for alternative sources of financing. Factoring, a common source of financing in the retail business that is provided by lenders such as CIT Group and Wells Fargo, can be tough to tap for smaller merchants.
'Some of these businesses are only constrained by cash flow,' said Scot Wingo, chief executive of e-commerce advisory firm ChannelAdvisor. 'These spot loans will help these folks grow by getting them extra cash to buy more product.'
ChannelAdvisor helps online merchants sell on Amazon.com, eBay and other online marketplaces. Wingo posted a copy of one of the Amazon Lending emails on ChannelAdvisor's blog on Thursday..
Amazon is lending up to $800,000 to some merchants, Wingo said, adding that this is a pretty aggressive entrance into merchant financing. The company is charging some sellers interest rates of up to 13 percent, but some other merchants are being offered rates as low as 1 percent, he added.
'This is definitely cheaper than credit cards and faster and easier than banks, so may fill a big hole for sellers,' Wingo said.
Amazon is pre-qualifying some sellers based on their performance on the company's online marketplace. The money can be used by sellers to buy more inventory and increase sales on Amazon.com, according to the email.
Sellers can sign up for loans through their existing Amazon merchant accounts and if approved, Amazon said it will send the money to their bank accounts within five business days. Monthly interest payments on the loans will be deducted automatically from merchants' Amazon seller accounts, the email explained.
'We would absolutely be interested in borrowing money like this,' said Joshua Wood, vice president of operations at Ozbo, an online merchant that sells on Amazon.com.
'We have a 65,000-square-foot warehouse that we would love to fill with inventory that we would blow through during the holiday season,' he added.
Ozbo is limited in how much inventory it can buy because most of its cash flow is being plowed back into other projects to grow its business, he explained.
Getting a credit line from a bank has been difficult because lenders require a personal guarantee from Ozbo's main investor, Wood said.
A loan from Amazon to buy more inventory would also lower Ozbo's per-item costs to buy the products it sells, he added.
'Everything is driven by volume,' Wood said.
Amazon shares closed up 2.8 percent to $256.59 on Thursday.
(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Phil Berlowitz)
This article is brought to you by CHEAP COMPUTERS.
The new program is called Amazon Lending and sellers on the company's marketplace have been sent emails offering loans from Amazon Capital Services Inc, a unit of Amazon, according to a merchant who received an email from the company recently. The merchant did not want to be identified because the program has not been announced publicly by Amazon.
An Amazon spokesmen declined to comment.
Getting into the lending business is a big step for Amazon that will expose it to more credit risk but may also fuel more sales by merchants on its marketplace. Amazon takes a cut of those sales, so revenue and profits could get a boost.
Some online merchants lack upfront cash to buy all the inventory they would like to sell on Amazon.com, especially heading into the crucial holiday season.
Banks and other sources of loans for merchants pulled back in the wake of the financial crisis, leaving an opening for alternative sources of financing. Factoring, a common source of financing in the retail business that is provided by lenders such as CIT Group and Wells Fargo, can be tough to tap for smaller merchants.
'Some of these businesses are only constrained by cash flow,' said Scot Wingo, chief executive of e-commerce advisory firm ChannelAdvisor. 'These spot loans will help these folks grow by getting them extra cash to buy more product.'
ChannelAdvisor helps online merchants sell on Amazon.com, eBay and other online marketplaces. Wingo posted a copy of one of the Amazon Lending emails on ChannelAdvisor's blog on Thursday..
Amazon is lending up to $800,000 to some merchants, Wingo said, adding that this is a pretty aggressive entrance into merchant financing. The company is charging some sellers interest rates of up to 13 percent, but some other merchants are being offered rates as low as 1 percent, he added.
'This is definitely cheaper than credit cards and faster and easier than banks, so may fill a big hole for sellers,' Wingo said.
Amazon is pre-qualifying some sellers based on their performance on the company's online marketplace. The money can be used by sellers to buy more inventory and increase sales on Amazon.com, according to the email.
Sellers can sign up for loans through their existing Amazon merchant accounts and if approved, Amazon said it will send the money to their bank accounts within five business days. Monthly interest payments on the loans will be deducted automatically from merchants' Amazon seller accounts, the email explained.
'We would absolutely be interested in borrowing money like this,' said Joshua Wood, vice president of operations at Ozbo, an online merchant that sells on Amazon.com.
'We have a 65,000-square-foot warehouse that we would love to fill with inventory that we would blow through during the holiday season,' he added.
Ozbo is limited in how much inventory it can buy because most of its cash flow is being plowed back into other projects to grow its business, he explained.
Getting a credit line from a bank has been difficult because lenders require a personal guarantee from Ozbo's main investor, Wood said.
A loan from Amazon to buy more inventory would also lower Ozbo's per-item costs to buy the products it sells, he added.
'Everything is driven by volume,' Wood said.
Amazon shares closed up 2.8 percent to $256.59 on Thursday.
(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Phil Berlowitz)
This article is brought to you by CHEAP COMPUTERS.
Dish looking for programming for Web TV service: source
(Reuters) - Dish Network Corp has approached media companies, including Viacom Inc, about acquiring content for an Internet-based television service that would play live channels, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Dish and Viacom have been in talks about a deal for about a year after Dish first approached the company about a potential TV service. But while talks are ongoing, the two companies are far from a deal, the source said.
'Dish is approaching all programmers with this and some folks are still hearing them out,' the source added.
Several programmers were not interested in speaking with Dish about an Internet-based service because they pay for expensive rights to broadcast live sports.
'Another reason why other programmers may have definitively turned this down is that they program live sports, so this model is a non-starter for them,' the source said.
Dish already runs an Internet streaming subscription service under its Blockbuster brand. But that service is so far only available to Dish subscribers and it focuses on movies on demand and not live TV.
Dish sister company EchoStar Corp owns Sling Media, a company that makes a device that allows viewers to stream live TV over the Internet tied to a regular TV.
Bloomberg, which was first to report the news on Thursday, said Dish is also speaking to Scripps Networks Interactive Inc, which owns the cable networks 'HGTV' and 'Food Network,' and the Spanish-language network Univision. The Web TV service has been in the works for some time. The Wall Street Journal reported on it last November.
Spokesmen for Viacom, Univision and Scripps declined to comment, while a Dish Network spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
A new service by Dish could shake up the pay TV industry, which relies on programmers striking expensive deals to carry a bundle of networks at a time.
Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen has been one of the most vocal critics of high programming costs and has said that cable and satellite operators should pay less for programs available on Internet services such as Netflix Inc or Apple Inc's iTunes.
The second-largest U.S. satellite TV company has also been exploring ways to diversify. It is awaiting a decision from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission about whether it can use the wireless spectrum it acquired to launch a mobile network.
Viacom was dropped by Dish's main rival, DirecTV, over the summer in a bitter dispute that left more than 20 million people without Viacom channels such as Nickelodeon for more than a week.
Dish shares were 54 cents, or 1.8 percent higher, at $30.95 in late afternoon trading.
(Reporting By Liana B. Baker; Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine)
This article is brought to you by COMPUTERS FOR SALE.
Dish and Viacom have been in talks about a deal for about a year after Dish first approached the company about a potential TV service. But while talks are ongoing, the two companies are far from a deal, the source said.
'Dish is approaching all programmers with this and some folks are still hearing them out,' the source added.
Several programmers were not interested in speaking with Dish about an Internet-based service because they pay for expensive rights to broadcast live sports.
'Another reason why other programmers may have definitively turned this down is that they program live sports, so this model is a non-starter for them,' the source said.
Dish already runs an Internet streaming subscription service under its Blockbuster brand. But that service is so far only available to Dish subscribers and it focuses on movies on demand and not live TV.
Dish sister company EchoStar Corp owns Sling Media, a company that makes a device that allows viewers to stream live TV over the Internet tied to a regular TV.
Bloomberg, which was first to report the news on Thursday, said Dish is also speaking to Scripps Networks Interactive Inc, which owns the cable networks 'HGTV' and 'Food Network,' and the Spanish-language network Univision. The Web TV service has been in the works for some time. The Wall Street Journal reported on it last November.
Spokesmen for Viacom, Univision and Scripps declined to comment, while a Dish Network spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
A new service by Dish could shake up the pay TV industry, which relies on programmers striking expensive deals to carry a bundle of networks at a time.
Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen has been one of the most vocal critics of high programming costs and has said that cable and satellite operators should pay less for programs available on Internet services such as Netflix Inc or Apple Inc's iTunes.
The second-largest U.S. satellite TV company has also been exploring ways to diversify. It is awaiting a decision from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission about whether it can use the wireless spectrum it acquired to launch a mobile network.
Viacom was dropped by Dish's main rival, DirecTV, over the summer in a bitter dispute that left more than 20 million people without Viacom channels such as Nickelodeon for more than a week.
Dish shares were 54 cents, or 1.8 percent higher, at $30.95 in late afternoon trading.
(Reporting By Liana B. Baker; Additional reporting by Lisa Richwine)
This article is brought to you by COMPUTERS FOR SALE.
Amazon offering loans to online sellers
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is launching a new business offering loans to some of its online sellers, a move that could boost the growth of its giant Internet marketplace, Chief Executive Scot Wingo of e-commerce advisory firm ChannelAdvisor said on Thursday.
The new program is called Amazon Lending and sellers on the company's marketplace have been sent emails offering loans from Amazon Capital Services Inc, a unit of Amazon, according to Wingo, who posted a copy of one of the emails on ChannelAdvisor's website.
An Amazon spokesmen declined to comment.
Getting into the lending business is a big step for Amazon that will expose it to more credit risk but may also fuel more sales by merchants on its marketplace. Amazon takes a cut of those sales, so revenue and profits could get a boost.
Some online merchants lack upfront cash to buy all the inventory they would like to sell on Amazon.com, especially heading into the crucial holiday season. Banks and other sources of loans for merchants pulled back in the wake of the financial crisis, leaving an opening for alternative sources of financing, according to Wingo.
'Some of these businesses are only constrained by cash flow,' Wingo said. 'These spot loans will help these folks grow by getting them extra cash to buy more product.'
Amazon is pre-qualifying some sellers based on their performance on the company's online marketplace. The money can be used by sellers to buy more inventory and increase sales on Amazon.com, according to the email.
Sellers can sign up for loans through their existing Amazon merchant accounts and if approved, Amazon said it will send the money to their bank accounts within five business days. Monthly interest payments on the loans will be deducted automatically from merchants' Amazon seller accounts, the email explained.
Amazon shares rose 2.7 percent to $256.44 in afternoon trading.
(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Phil Berlowitz)
This news article is brought to you by GADGETS NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The new program is called Amazon Lending and sellers on the company's marketplace have been sent emails offering loans from Amazon Capital Services Inc, a unit of Amazon, according to Wingo, who posted a copy of one of the emails on ChannelAdvisor's website.
An Amazon spokesmen declined to comment.
Getting into the lending business is a big step for Amazon that will expose it to more credit risk but may also fuel more sales by merchants on its marketplace. Amazon takes a cut of those sales, so revenue and profits could get a boost.
Some online merchants lack upfront cash to buy all the inventory they would like to sell on Amazon.com, especially heading into the crucial holiday season. Banks and other sources of loans for merchants pulled back in the wake of the financial crisis, leaving an opening for alternative sources of financing, according to Wingo.
'Some of these businesses are only constrained by cash flow,' Wingo said. 'These spot loans will help these folks grow by getting them extra cash to buy more product.'
Amazon is pre-qualifying some sellers based on their performance on the company's online marketplace. The money can be used by sellers to buy more inventory and increase sales on Amazon.com, according to the email.
Sellers can sign up for loans through their existing Amazon merchant accounts and if approved, Amazon said it will send the money to their bank accounts within five business days. Monthly interest payments on the loans will be deducted automatically from merchants' Amazon seller accounts, the email explained.
Amazon shares rose 2.7 percent to $256.44 in afternoon trading.
(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Phil Berlowitz)
This news article is brought to you by GADGETS NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Kuwait Internet firm blasts price cuts, infrastructure
DUBAI (Reuters) - Ageing fixed-line infrastructure is to blame for Kuwait's low broadband penetration, and price cuts ordered by the government this week will do little to boost subscription numbers, an executive at a top Internet provider told Reuters.
The Ministry of Communications is the de facto regulator in the absence of an independent watchdog, and also ultimately owns and operates the country's fixed-line infrastructure, with the four major Internet service providers (ISPs) paying the government to use this.
But the largely copper-based network cannot carry sufficient bandwidth to satisfy consumer demand, according to Essa Al-Kooheji, general manager at Qualitynet, which is 44 percent owned by Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) and has an estimated 45 percent market share for fixed Internet.
On Tuesday, the Ministry ordered the ISPs to cut prices by at least 40 percent, slashing the price of an annual subscription for a 1 megabyte per second (mbp) connection to 48 Kuwaiti dinars ($170), while 8 mbps will now cost 200 dinars.
That means Kuwait is considerably cheaper than other Gulf countries; in Bahrain, for example, Batelco charges 120 dinars ($320) annually for a 1 mbp line and 360 dinars for 8 mbps.
But that will do little to improve fixed broadband take-up, said Qualitynet's Kooheji, with Kuwait's penetration of about 5.5 percent half that of the United Arab Emirates.
'We receive lots of calls from customers who want to upgrade and take the maximum speed for the price available, but they cannot do so,' said Kooheji. 'The government should put more effort into improving the telecom infrastructure rather than cutting prices.'
Many businessmen and analysts in Kuwait believe the country's political environment is partly to blame for weak state investment in infrastructure. Friction between the cabinet and parliament over the last several years has prompted frequent changes of government and slowed or blocked the passage of economic development plans.
Kooheji said only about 15 percent of fixed broadband connections in the country used fibre, with the remainder on copper lines.
'The price cuts do not bode well for the sector, because it needs a lot of investment and the government hasn't come up any significant investment plans for next generation technologies like fibre-to-the-home (FTTH),' said Kenechi Okeleke, a senior analyst at Business Monitor in London.
'Other Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have invested in FTTH - Kuwait is behind its peers in terms of broadband services.'
Average connection speeds in Kuwait are 1.82 mbps, Okeleke said, while the UAE's are almost 5 mbps and developed markets 6-9 mbps.
Many Kuwait residents have opted for mobile broadband instead, which is provided by the three mobile operators Zain, Qatar Telecom subsidiary Wataniya and Viva, an affiliate of Saudi Telecom Co.
However, 'although Kuwait's wireless broadband network providers have rolled out advanced technologies, limited investment in fibre-optic backhaul will likely reduce network speeds,' said Okeleke.
Kuwait has about 150,000 fixed-line Internet subscribers and around 557,000 broadband connections in total, serving its 2.8 million residents.
(Editing by Andrew Torchia)
This article is brought to you by BUY A USED COMPUTER.
The Ministry of Communications is the de facto regulator in the absence of an independent watchdog, and also ultimately owns and operates the country's fixed-line infrastructure, with the four major Internet service providers (ISPs) paying the government to use this.
But the largely copper-based network cannot carry sufficient bandwidth to satisfy consumer demand, according to Essa Al-Kooheji, general manager at Qualitynet, which is 44 percent owned by Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) and has an estimated 45 percent market share for fixed Internet.
On Tuesday, the Ministry ordered the ISPs to cut prices by at least 40 percent, slashing the price of an annual subscription for a 1 megabyte per second (mbp) connection to 48 Kuwaiti dinars ($170), while 8 mbps will now cost 200 dinars.
That means Kuwait is considerably cheaper than other Gulf countries; in Bahrain, for example, Batelco charges 120 dinars ($320) annually for a 1 mbp line and 360 dinars for 8 mbps.
But that will do little to improve fixed broadband take-up, said Qualitynet's Kooheji, with Kuwait's penetration of about 5.5 percent half that of the United Arab Emirates.
'We receive lots of calls from customers who want to upgrade and take the maximum speed for the price available, but they cannot do so,' said Kooheji. 'The government should put more effort into improving the telecom infrastructure rather than cutting prices.'
Many businessmen and analysts in Kuwait believe the country's political environment is partly to blame for weak state investment in infrastructure. Friction between the cabinet and parliament over the last several years has prompted frequent changes of government and slowed or blocked the passage of economic development plans.
Kooheji said only about 15 percent of fixed broadband connections in the country used fibre, with the remainder on copper lines.
'The price cuts do not bode well for the sector, because it needs a lot of investment and the government hasn't come up any significant investment plans for next generation technologies like fibre-to-the-home (FTTH),' said Kenechi Okeleke, a senior analyst at Business Monitor in London.
'Other Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have invested in FTTH - Kuwait is behind its peers in terms of broadband services.'
Average connection speeds in Kuwait are 1.82 mbps, Okeleke said, while the UAE's are almost 5 mbps and developed markets 6-9 mbps.
Many Kuwait residents have opted for mobile broadband instead, which is provided by the three mobile operators Zain, Qatar Telecom subsidiary Wataniya and Viva, an affiliate of Saudi Telecom Co.
However, 'although Kuwait's wireless broadband network providers have rolled out advanced technologies, limited investment in fibre-optic backhaul will likely reduce network speeds,' said Okeleke.
Kuwait has about 150,000 fixed-line Internet subscribers and around 557,000 broadband connections in total, serving its 2.8 million residents.
(Editing by Andrew Torchia)
This article is brought to you by BUY A USED COMPUTER.
EU targets 1 trillion euro GDP gain "in the cloud"
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU telecoms regulators will spell out on Thursday how they want to accelerate the use of 'cloud' computing by public bodies and companies, in the hope of boosting the bloc's GDP by nearly 1 trillion euros through the next eight years.
Concerns about privacy and data loss have hampered the take-up in Europe of cloud computing, where customers' data is stored on remote servers that can be accessed from anywhere over the Internet.
The European Commission wants to address such worries by getting experts to clarify tricky legal questions on data protection and to develop a global privacy standard, it says in a draft of the strategy to be announced on Thursday and seen by Reuters.
European customers complain that many cloud contracts do not specify who is liable when data is lost. And a proliferation of different standards for privacy and security can confuse prospective customers, though some companies have begun updating the commonly used global information security standard - ISO 27001 - to the cloud era.
Commission research shows cloud computing can cut companies' costs by up to 20 percent and groups like Amazon.Com Inc, Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Salesforce.com Inc have been developing new products and services to attract business 'in the cloud'.
EU Telecoms Commissioner Neelie Kroes will detail the strategy, which the Commission says could yield 957 billion euros in increased EU GDP in the years through 2020, creating 3.8 million jobs.
Servers in the EU's public sector are up to 90 percent under-used, Commission research shows. Optimizing their use would mean they were being accessed by clients in all time zones, so that when one region goes to sleep another wakes up and the server works around the clock.
But cloud vendors, who are having a hard time selling their services in Europe, say the EU executive may be too optimistic about the rate of takeup and thus the economic benefits.
'It's been really painful to grow in Europe,' Justin Pirie from Mimecast, a British cloud vendor, told Reuters. His company is directing most of its efforts towards the United States after finding prospective clients in the European Union expected them to have servers in their home country.
'For us that's half a million in investments per country,' he said.
NATURAL CAUTION
Some U.S.-based companies report that deals with European customers often hinge on whether they trust the company with their data or not.
'There is a natural caution in Europe compared to some parts of the world and providers need to be clear about their responsible data management practices,' said Microsoft's Mark Lange
Companies with servers in the United States say their customers are afraid their data will be intercepted under U.S. anti-terror law, the Patriot Act, though those concerns might be overdone.
'If interception is so much of a concern they should not only avoid U.S. cloud providers, but also avoid using the UK telephone, the Internet, and the postal system,' said Clive Gringas, from law firm Olswang.
Some European vendors capitalize on these worries by stating their non-compliance with the U.S. Patriot Act in their marketing campaigns.
But Thomas Boue, director of the Business Software Alliance lobby group, worries that such moves fragment a market that is already being chopped up along national lines.
Others see the attractions of being close to their users.
Telecoms firm Colt Group SA, which has 19 data centers in 13 countries, says financial clients like the London Stock Exchange appreciate the proximity of Colt's servers because it enables them to connect to the exchange in 100 microseconds to conduct high-frequency trades.
'The laws of physics tend to come into it,' Steve Hughes, the company's cloud specialist said.
But potential savings on hardware costs offer vendors some hope in less well-off countries, which are lapping up cloud services.
Greece, whose debt-ridden economy is under an EU/IMF rescue program, shows a bigger appetite for cloud services compared with one of its biggest European creditors, Germany.
'Maybe it's just that their hardware is coming up for renewal,' Robert Jenkins, co-founder of Zurich-based hosting firm CloudSigma, said.
(Editing by Rex Merrifield and David Holmes)
This news article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
Concerns about privacy and data loss have hampered the take-up in Europe of cloud computing, where customers' data is stored on remote servers that can be accessed from anywhere over the Internet.
The European Commission wants to address such worries by getting experts to clarify tricky legal questions on data protection and to develop a global privacy standard, it says in a draft of the strategy to be announced on Thursday and seen by Reuters.
European customers complain that many cloud contracts do not specify who is liable when data is lost. And a proliferation of different standards for privacy and security can confuse prospective customers, though some companies have begun updating the commonly used global information security standard - ISO 27001 - to the cloud era.
Commission research shows cloud computing can cut companies' costs by up to 20 percent and groups like Amazon.Com Inc, Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Salesforce.com Inc have been developing new products and services to attract business 'in the cloud'.
EU Telecoms Commissioner Neelie Kroes will detail the strategy, which the Commission says could yield 957 billion euros in increased EU GDP in the years through 2020, creating 3.8 million jobs.
Servers in the EU's public sector are up to 90 percent under-used, Commission research shows. Optimizing their use would mean they were being accessed by clients in all time zones, so that when one region goes to sleep another wakes up and the server works around the clock.
But cloud vendors, who are having a hard time selling their services in Europe, say the EU executive may be too optimistic about the rate of takeup and thus the economic benefits.
'It's been really painful to grow in Europe,' Justin Pirie from Mimecast, a British cloud vendor, told Reuters. His company is directing most of its efforts towards the United States after finding prospective clients in the European Union expected them to have servers in their home country.
'For us that's half a million in investments per country,' he said.
NATURAL CAUTION
Some U.S.-based companies report that deals with European customers often hinge on whether they trust the company with their data or not.
'There is a natural caution in Europe compared to some parts of the world and providers need to be clear about their responsible data management practices,' said Microsoft's Mark Lange
Companies with servers in the United States say their customers are afraid their data will be intercepted under U.S. anti-terror law, the Patriot Act, though those concerns might be overdone.
'If interception is so much of a concern they should not only avoid U.S. cloud providers, but also avoid using the UK telephone, the Internet, and the postal system,' said Clive Gringas, from law firm Olswang.
Some European vendors capitalize on these worries by stating their non-compliance with the U.S. Patriot Act in their marketing campaigns.
But Thomas Boue, director of the Business Software Alliance lobby group, worries that such moves fragment a market that is already being chopped up along national lines.
Others see the attractions of being close to their users.
Telecoms firm Colt Group SA, which has 19 data centers in 13 countries, says financial clients like the London Stock Exchange appreciate the proximity of Colt's servers because it enables them to connect to the exchange in 100 microseconds to conduct high-frequency trades.
'The laws of physics tend to come into it,' Steve Hughes, the company's cloud specialist said.
But potential savings on hardware costs offer vendors some hope in less well-off countries, which are lapping up cloud services.
Greece, whose debt-ridden economy is under an EU/IMF rescue program, shows a bigger appetite for cloud services compared with one of its biggest European creditors, Germany.
'Maybe it's just that their hardware is coming up for renewal,' Robert Jenkins, co-founder of Zurich-based hosting firm CloudSigma, said.
(Editing by Rex Merrifield and David Holmes)
This news article is brought to you by RELATIONSHIPS ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
How "Sleepwalk With Me" used social media, public radio to become an Indie hit
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - So how does a quirky story of an aspiring comedian with a sleepwalking disorder become a breakout indie film?
The answer for 'Sleepwalk With Me' was a smart - and cheap - promotional campaign that relied heavily on social media.
In one YouTube video, Joss Whedon begs moviegoers not to see 'Sleepwalk With Me.' In another, 'Fresh Air's' Terry Gross and 'Sleepwalk''s director, co-writer and star Mike Birbiglia are caught cracking a safe.
Then there were co-writer Ira Glass' 36,000 Twitter followers, Birbiglia's 176,000 followers and the 584,000 Facebook fans of Glass' popular radio show, 'This America Life.' All were peppered with updates on the film and information about how they could pressure art houses to bring the project to their area.
As a result, 'Sleepwalk With Me' is poised to hit $2 million in ticket sales domestically this weekend.
In just over a month of release, it has more than doubled its production budget and will net a profit for its backers. \
What makes that accomplishment all the more surprising is that it hit those impressive numbers without boasting any A-list actors.
'This was really just about necessity,' Birbiglia told TheWrap. 'Frankly, because our movie doesn't have any stars and we don't have a high concept or any of the things that big distributors put a lot of money behind these days, our ad budget was a fraction of what it would be compared to other films. We had no choice but to think of ourselves as the ad budget.'
The 'This American Life' connection didn't hurt.
'I think that the 'This American Life' audience is very media savvy and just a social-media-heavy audience,' said Brian Bedol, CEO of Bedrocket Media Ventures, one of the film's main backers. 'So the whole strategy was to incubate it within the 'This American Life' crowd over the last couple of years, so the seed was planted and could just grow from there.'
In fact, before the film even hit theaters, Birbiglia and Glass were using social media to draw 'This American Life' fans into the production process.
The filmmakers would post information about screenings of the unfinished film on 'This American Life's' Facebook page - without even giving out the name of the project or cast details. The fan base proved so rabid that they filled theaters simply on the promise of a free film.
Birbiglia said that the screenings not only allowed the 'Sleepwalk With Me' team to foster word-of-mouth, it helped the editors know what jokes were landing.
But nothing topped a series of viral videos featuring Gross and Whedon, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' creator and director of 'The Avengers.' Glass tapped his Rolodex to get both celebrities to participate; in the case of Whedon the finished project was shot and sent in without any editorial input from the 'Sleepwalk' team.
The Whedon video, in which the filmmaker urges audiences to boycott the film because it would be opening on nearly the same number of theaters that were playing his superhero film, attracted nearly 200,000 views on YouTube.
The Gross video was an even more delightfully absurdist experience that featured the talk-show host peppering Birbiglia with questions about his life as they rob a bank; an experience that ends in a bloody shoot-out. It garnered over 260,000 views on YouTube.
'There are certain films that just lend themselves to social media marketing,' Ryan Werner, senior vice president of marketing at 'Sleepwalk With Me's' distributor IFC Films, said. 'The Joss Whedon video was just huge, because it created all this buzz. Those online videos allowed us to do something different and not just put clips up, because that's generic and everyone does that.'
Werner describes the entire marketing as collaborative with the IFC team meeting weekly with Birbiglia and Glass to talk strategy and routinely keeping 'This American Life's' social media team in the loop about promotions.
Marketing didn't just involve Facebook messaging and micro-blogging. It also called for Birbiglia and Glass to go on tour.
In the first weekend, the pair did 35 question and answer sessions at New York City's IFC Center, which helped them net $68,801 in sales, a record-breaking per-screen average for a first-time director.
And they didn't just stop at Manhattan's borders. Over the last month, they've been showing up in cities across the country, everywhere from San Francisco, Calif., to Washington, D.C., to introduce the film and rap with audiences.
'It basically came down to us chaperoning the film around the country,' Birbiglia said. 'We joke that we're not allowing it out without adult supervision.'
That's an unbelievable time commitment on the part of any filmmaker, but Bedol said 'Sleepwalk With Me' would never have gotten a distributor had it not been for the pair's willingness to serve as billboards for their project.
'That was a big part of our presentation to distributors -- that these guys were going to work their tails off to make this thing a success,' Bedol said. 'The reason we got involved was we didn't feel Mike and Ira would just make a movie and move onto whatever was next. We knew they looked at it as a multimedia and multi-platform experience.'
Birbiglia admits that the tour has been exhausting, but says that he's proud of the film and eager to employ the same kind of gorilla marketing campaign on his next film.
'Nobody quite understands what gets people to turn off their TVs and go out to movie theaters,' Birbiglia said.
'Everybody is just trying out a lot of different things and there has to be a lot of trial and error and a real sense that there are no bad ideas.'
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
The answer for 'Sleepwalk With Me' was a smart - and cheap - promotional campaign that relied heavily on social media.
In one YouTube video, Joss Whedon begs moviegoers not to see 'Sleepwalk With Me.' In another, 'Fresh Air's' Terry Gross and 'Sleepwalk''s director, co-writer and star Mike Birbiglia are caught cracking a safe.
Then there were co-writer Ira Glass' 36,000 Twitter followers, Birbiglia's 176,000 followers and the 584,000 Facebook fans of Glass' popular radio show, 'This America Life.' All were peppered with updates on the film and information about how they could pressure art houses to bring the project to their area.
As a result, 'Sleepwalk With Me' is poised to hit $2 million in ticket sales domestically this weekend.
In just over a month of release, it has more than doubled its production budget and will net a profit for its backers. \
What makes that accomplishment all the more surprising is that it hit those impressive numbers without boasting any A-list actors.
'This was really just about necessity,' Birbiglia told TheWrap. 'Frankly, because our movie doesn't have any stars and we don't have a high concept or any of the things that big distributors put a lot of money behind these days, our ad budget was a fraction of what it would be compared to other films. We had no choice but to think of ourselves as the ad budget.'
The 'This American Life' connection didn't hurt.
'I think that the 'This American Life' audience is very media savvy and just a social-media-heavy audience,' said Brian Bedol, CEO of Bedrocket Media Ventures, one of the film's main backers. 'So the whole strategy was to incubate it within the 'This American Life' crowd over the last couple of years, so the seed was planted and could just grow from there.'
In fact, before the film even hit theaters, Birbiglia and Glass were using social media to draw 'This American Life' fans into the production process.
The filmmakers would post information about screenings of the unfinished film on 'This American Life's' Facebook page - without even giving out the name of the project or cast details. The fan base proved so rabid that they filled theaters simply on the promise of a free film.
Birbiglia said that the screenings not only allowed the 'Sleepwalk With Me' team to foster word-of-mouth, it helped the editors know what jokes were landing.
But nothing topped a series of viral videos featuring Gross and Whedon, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' creator and director of 'The Avengers.' Glass tapped his Rolodex to get both celebrities to participate; in the case of Whedon the finished project was shot and sent in without any editorial input from the 'Sleepwalk' team.
The Whedon video, in which the filmmaker urges audiences to boycott the film because it would be opening on nearly the same number of theaters that were playing his superhero film, attracted nearly 200,000 views on YouTube.
The Gross video was an even more delightfully absurdist experience that featured the talk-show host peppering Birbiglia with questions about his life as they rob a bank; an experience that ends in a bloody shoot-out. It garnered over 260,000 views on YouTube.
'There are certain films that just lend themselves to social media marketing,' Ryan Werner, senior vice president of marketing at 'Sleepwalk With Me's' distributor IFC Films, said. 'The Joss Whedon video was just huge, because it created all this buzz. Those online videos allowed us to do something different and not just put clips up, because that's generic and everyone does that.'
Werner describes the entire marketing as collaborative with the IFC team meeting weekly with Birbiglia and Glass to talk strategy and routinely keeping 'This American Life's' social media team in the loop about promotions.
Marketing didn't just involve Facebook messaging and micro-blogging. It also called for Birbiglia and Glass to go on tour.
In the first weekend, the pair did 35 question and answer sessions at New York City's IFC Center, which helped them net $68,801 in sales, a record-breaking per-screen average for a first-time director.
And they didn't just stop at Manhattan's borders. Over the last month, they've been showing up in cities across the country, everywhere from San Francisco, Calif., to Washington, D.C., to introduce the film and rap with audiences.
'It basically came down to us chaperoning the film around the country,' Birbiglia said. 'We joke that we're not allowing it out without adult supervision.'
That's an unbelievable time commitment on the part of any filmmaker, but Bedol said 'Sleepwalk With Me' would never have gotten a distributor had it not been for the pair's willingness to serve as billboards for their project.
'That was a big part of our presentation to distributors -- that these guys were going to work their tails off to make this thing a success,' Bedol said. 'The reason we got involved was we didn't feel Mike and Ira would just make a movie and move onto whatever was next. We knew they looked at it as a multimedia and multi-platform experience.'
Birbiglia admits that the tour has been exhausting, but says that he's proud of the film and eager to employ the same kind of gorilla marketing campaign on his next film.
'Nobody quite understands what gets people to turn off their TVs and go out to movie theaters,' Birbiglia said.
'Everybody is just trying out a lot of different things and there has to be a lot of trial and error and a real sense that there are no bad ideas.'
This news article is brought to you by CELEBRITY GOSSIP NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
U.S. Bancorp, PNC latest bank websites to face access issues
(Reuters) - Some U.S. Bancorp and PNC Financial Services customers were having trouble accessing the banks' websites on Wednesday, as U.S. financial institutions appear to be threatened by another round of cyber attacks.
Wells Fargo & Co also faced lingering problems with its website after customers had intermittent access issues on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the bank said.
U.S. Bancorp is experiencing 'unusual and high-traffic volume' on its site that is designed to slow down the system, bank spokesman Tom Joyce said. The problem is similar to what other banks have faced in the past week, he said.
'We are working closely with federal law enforcement officials to address this issue,' he said. Customers data and funds are not at risk, he added.
A PNC spokesman said some if its customers may be experiencing difficulty logging into the bank's website on the first attempt. 'We are aware of the situation and are working to restore full access,' spokesman Fred Solomon said.
The attacks came after a posting on the Internet on Tuesday by an unknown person, calling for cyber attacks this week against Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp and PNC. A similar posting last week warned of attacks against Bank of America Corp and the New York Stock Exchange.
The person who posted the message on a site called pastebin.com said the attacks will continue until the film that had stirred anti-U.S. protests across the Middle East was removed from the Internet.
'Obviously, it looks coordinated,' said Jeff Herdell, founder of a website called Sitedown.co, which has been tracking customer complaints about the banks' websites.
So-called denial-of-service campaigns are among the oldest types of cyber attacks and do not require highly skilled computer programmers or advanced expertise, compared with sophisticated and destructive weapons like Stuxnet, a virus widely believed to have been developed by the United States to damage Iran's nuclear program.
But the attacks can still be disruptive: If a bank's website is repeatedly shut down, the attacks can hurt its reputation, affect customer retention and cause revenue losses as customers cannot open accounts or conduct other business.
The attacks also cost banks because they have to add staff to handle phone calls and pay for additional network bandwidth.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said on Friday that he believes Iran was behind the attacks.
'I think this was done by Iran and the Quds Force, which has its own developing cyber attack capability,' Lieberman said during a taping of C-SPAN's 'Newsmakers' program. The Quds Force is a covert arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Reuters reported on Friday that Iranian hackers have repeatedly attacked Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc over the past year as part of a broad cyber campaign targeting the United States.
The attacks, which began in late 2011 and escalated this year, have primarily been 'denial of service' campaigns that disrupted the banks' websites and corporate networks by overwhelming them with incoming web traffic, said sources.
(Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina; Editing by Bernard Orr)
This news article is brought to you by SAVING MONEY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Wells Fargo & Co also faced lingering problems with its website after customers had intermittent access issues on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the bank said.
U.S. Bancorp is experiencing 'unusual and high-traffic volume' on its site that is designed to slow down the system, bank spokesman Tom Joyce said. The problem is similar to what other banks have faced in the past week, he said.
'We are working closely with federal law enforcement officials to address this issue,' he said. Customers data and funds are not at risk, he added.
A PNC spokesman said some if its customers may be experiencing difficulty logging into the bank's website on the first attempt. 'We are aware of the situation and are working to restore full access,' spokesman Fred Solomon said.
The attacks came after a posting on the Internet on Tuesday by an unknown person, calling for cyber attacks this week against Wells Fargo, U.S. Bancorp and PNC. A similar posting last week warned of attacks against Bank of America Corp and the New York Stock Exchange.
The person who posted the message on a site called pastebin.com said the attacks will continue until the film that had stirred anti-U.S. protests across the Middle East was removed from the Internet.
'Obviously, it looks coordinated,' said Jeff Herdell, founder of a website called Sitedown.co, which has been tracking customer complaints about the banks' websites.
So-called denial-of-service campaigns are among the oldest types of cyber attacks and do not require highly skilled computer programmers or advanced expertise, compared with sophisticated and destructive weapons like Stuxnet, a virus widely believed to have been developed by the United States to damage Iran's nuclear program.
But the attacks can still be disruptive: If a bank's website is repeatedly shut down, the attacks can hurt its reputation, affect customer retention and cause revenue losses as customers cannot open accounts or conduct other business.
The attacks also cost banks because they have to add staff to handle phone calls and pay for additional network bandwidth.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said on Friday that he believes Iran was behind the attacks.
'I think this was done by Iran and the Quds Force, which has its own developing cyber attack capability,' Lieberman said during a taping of C-SPAN's 'Newsmakers' program. The Quds Force is a covert arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Reuters reported on Friday that Iranian hackers have repeatedly attacked Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc over the past year as part of a broad cyber campaign targeting the United States.
The attacks, which began in late 2011 and escalated this year, have primarily been 'denial of service' campaigns that disrupted the banks' websites and corporate networks by overwhelming them with incoming web traffic, said sources.
(Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, North Carolina; Editing by Bernard Orr)
This news article is brought to you by SAVING MONEY BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Middle East telcos mull alliance in Facebook fight
DUBAI (Reuters) - Middle East telecommunications firms are discussing the idea of creating a pan-Arab online platform that would earn them more revenue from their networks by challenging Facebook and other Internet behemoths of the West.
The ambitious project faces technical and financial obstacles and may never be implemented on a large scale. But proponents argue the common language and culture shared by the world's more than 350 million Arabic speakers, plus the webs of affiliated companies which Gulf operators own across the Middle East and North Africa, could make the project viable.
'A single operator, even one in multiple geographies and with tens of millions of subscribers, can't create this platform on its own,' said Osman Sultan, chief executive of du, the second biggest operator in the United Arab Emirates.
'It would be restricted to the customers of this operator and wouldn't have sufficient scale to succeed. But a unified platform spanning the Arab world would,' he told Reuters.
Sultan said he had proposed the idea to all major operators in the Arab world over the past 12 months.
Behind the proposal is a frustration shared by telecommunications firms globally: as they spend heavily to build networks, data traffic on the networks is increasing rapidly, but the firms essentially only make money from charging for access to their networks - a low-margin business.
The lion's share of new revenue from traffic is being taken by so-called 'over-the-top' (OTT) Internet companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter. The telecommunications firms have unsuccessfully pressed them for bigger contributions to the cost of building the networks.
'OTT players...we can't share their gain and they won't share our pain,' said Sultan. 'Network traffic doubles every eight to nine months, but revenue is heading to a plateau, so we need to claim part of the new revenues alongside OTT players.'
VERY DIFFICULT
The proposed Arab online platform would feature social media and online shopping for goods and services, including digital content such as music, video and applications, Sultan said.
He declined to give details, saying parts of the talks were confidential, and most other Arab telecommunications operators contacted by Reuters declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment
But Sheikh Mohamed Al Khalifa, chief executive of Bahrain Telecommunications Co, welcomed the idea.
'Telcos are beginning to look to the deployment of OTT services such as streamed TV and video-on-demand,' he said. 'Such diversification (into) adjacent industries has become necessary. There are gains to be made by collaborating within our industry in the Middle East.'
Sceptics point to the fact that efforts by telecommunications firms elsewhere in the world to set up online ventures have often failed when faced with the technical savvy and marketing muscle of the established Internet giants.
'Fundamentally, it's very difficult to complete against OTT players - operators lack the agility and the core competencies as well as the brand appeal,' said Guillermo Escofet, a senior analyst at Informa Telecom and Media in London.
'They're used to running networks, not being media companies. Also, operators instinctively try to differentiate themselves from each other - it's against their DNA to work together.'
London-listed Vodafone is one of a number of operators that have had difficulty creating Internet services. The Vodafone 360 service, based on customers' phone address books, was launched in Europe in 2009, letting customers import contacts from social networks and use an online application store. In 2011, Vodafone said it was winding down the service.
'Operators have failed miserably every time they have tried to move up the value chain, except for in certain business-to-business services,' said Pedro Oliveira, a partner at global management consultants Oliver Wyman. 'Some have tried to move into content and applications, but the war is lost already.'
The big Western Internet firms are already popular around the Middle East. Facebook, which offers an Arabic interface, had 45.2 million users in the Arab world as of June 30, up more than 50 percent from a year earlier, according to the Arab Social Media Report, produced by the Dubai School of Government.
Despite pockets of innovation in the region, such as video game industries in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and ventures developing applications for smart phones in Egypt, the Middle East has so far not come close to developing online products to rival the top Western Internet companies.
FEASIBLE
However, proponents of the telecommunications firms' online plan argue it is more feasible in the Arab world than elsewhere.
Only about 1 percent of the world's websites are in Arabic, according to a survey by analysts W3techs. Internet penetration lags regions such as Europe, North America and east Asia, with only about 86 million of the estimated 360 million native Arabic speakers online at end-2011, Miniwatts Marketing Group said.
Such figures may mean Western Internet firms are not yet so entrenched in the Middle East that they cannot be challenged. The new online platform would satisfy hunger among the region's young population for more Arabic-language content, said Sultan.
Another factor is the impressive geographical reach of Gulf telecommunications firms; if a few of them can agree on introducing the online platform, they may be able to roll it out quickly across more than a dozen countries.
Combined, Qatar Telecom, Saudi Telecom, Kuwait's Zain and the UAE's Etisalat cover 16 of the 22 Arab League countries. The other six countries are the smallest four in economic terms - Mauritania, Somalia, Djibouti and Comoros - plus war-ravaged Libya and Syria.
The Arab telecommunications operators' extensive distribution networks and point-of-sale advertising could help them win customers from OTT players.
Most Middle Eastern mobile phone subscribers are on pre-paid contracts typically topped up with scratch cards. These are sold everywhere from petrol stations to local stores, so vouchers for the online platform might easily be rolled out alongside them.
'The reach we have to consumers and the knowledge we have of consumer behavior is vast,' Sultan said.
Thomas Kuruvilla, managing director of consultants Arthur D. Little Middle East, said an alliance of regional telecommunications firms could form a community of social networks that was attractive to local populations.
If the firms can cooperate on content and social networks, 'it will surely attract more niche advertisers and hence higher revenue potential,' he said.
However, even if the region's biggest telecommunications firms succeed with the online platform, it will be hard for smaller operators to make much money from it, said Oliveira.
This could consign smaller firms to serving as nothing more than low-margin pipes for the data services of the big ones.
In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait have multiple telecommunications firms providing Internet access, and some of them may be the most vulnerable to becoming 'dumb pipes'. Such companies might cut access fees to their networks in an effort to win market share, Oliveira said.
'If one operator takes this approach, then others in the same market may be forced to follow as they lose revenue and market share and struggle to keep on investing in their network,' he said. 'It's a race to the bottom.'
(Editing by Andrew Torchia)
This article is brought to you by BUY A COMPUTER.
The ambitious project faces technical and financial obstacles and may never be implemented on a large scale. But proponents argue the common language and culture shared by the world's more than 350 million Arabic speakers, plus the webs of affiliated companies which Gulf operators own across the Middle East and North Africa, could make the project viable.
'A single operator, even one in multiple geographies and with tens of millions of subscribers, can't create this platform on its own,' said Osman Sultan, chief executive of du, the second biggest operator in the United Arab Emirates.
'It would be restricted to the customers of this operator and wouldn't have sufficient scale to succeed. But a unified platform spanning the Arab world would,' he told Reuters.
Sultan said he had proposed the idea to all major operators in the Arab world over the past 12 months.
Behind the proposal is a frustration shared by telecommunications firms globally: as they spend heavily to build networks, data traffic on the networks is increasing rapidly, but the firms essentially only make money from charging for access to their networks - a low-margin business.
The lion's share of new revenue from traffic is being taken by so-called 'over-the-top' (OTT) Internet companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter. The telecommunications firms have unsuccessfully pressed them for bigger contributions to the cost of building the networks.
'OTT players...we can't share their gain and they won't share our pain,' said Sultan. 'Network traffic doubles every eight to nine months, but revenue is heading to a plateau, so we need to claim part of the new revenues alongside OTT players.'
VERY DIFFICULT
The proposed Arab online platform would feature social media and online shopping for goods and services, including digital content such as music, video and applications, Sultan said.
He declined to give details, saying parts of the talks were confidential, and most other Arab telecommunications operators contacted by Reuters declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment
But Sheikh Mohamed Al Khalifa, chief executive of Bahrain Telecommunications Co, welcomed the idea.
'Telcos are beginning to look to the deployment of OTT services such as streamed TV and video-on-demand,' he said. 'Such diversification (into) adjacent industries has become necessary. There are gains to be made by collaborating within our industry in the Middle East.'
Sceptics point to the fact that efforts by telecommunications firms elsewhere in the world to set up online ventures have often failed when faced with the technical savvy and marketing muscle of the established Internet giants.
'Fundamentally, it's very difficult to complete against OTT players - operators lack the agility and the core competencies as well as the brand appeal,' said Guillermo Escofet, a senior analyst at Informa Telecom and Media in London.
'They're used to running networks, not being media companies. Also, operators instinctively try to differentiate themselves from each other - it's against their DNA to work together.'
London-listed Vodafone is one of a number of operators that have had difficulty creating Internet services. The Vodafone 360 service, based on customers' phone address books, was launched in Europe in 2009, letting customers import contacts from social networks and use an online application store. In 2011, Vodafone said it was winding down the service.
'Operators have failed miserably every time they have tried to move up the value chain, except for in certain business-to-business services,' said Pedro Oliveira, a partner at global management consultants Oliver Wyman. 'Some have tried to move into content and applications, but the war is lost already.'
The big Western Internet firms are already popular around the Middle East. Facebook, which offers an Arabic interface, had 45.2 million users in the Arab world as of June 30, up more than 50 percent from a year earlier, according to the Arab Social Media Report, produced by the Dubai School of Government.
Despite pockets of innovation in the region, such as video game industries in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and ventures developing applications for smart phones in Egypt, the Middle East has so far not come close to developing online products to rival the top Western Internet companies.
FEASIBLE
However, proponents of the telecommunications firms' online plan argue it is more feasible in the Arab world than elsewhere.
Only about 1 percent of the world's websites are in Arabic, according to a survey by analysts W3techs. Internet penetration lags regions such as Europe, North America and east Asia, with only about 86 million of the estimated 360 million native Arabic speakers online at end-2011, Miniwatts Marketing Group said.
Such figures may mean Western Internet firms are not yet so entrenched in the Middle East that they cannot be challenged. The new online platform would satisfy hunger among the region's young population for more Arabic-language content, said Sultan.
Another factor is the impressive geographical reach of Gulf telecommunications firms; if a few of them can agree on introducing the online platform, they may be able to roll it out quickly across more than a dozen countries.
Combined, Qatar Telecom, Saudi Telecom, Kuwait's Zain and the UAE's Etisalat cover 16 of the 22 Arab League countries. The other six countries are the smallest four in economic terms - Mauritania, Somalia, Djibouti and Comoros - plus war-ravaged Libya and Syria.
The Arab telecommunications operators' extensive distribution networks and point-of-sale advertising could help them win customers from OTT players.
Most Middle Eastern mobile phone subscribers are on pre-paid contracts typically topped up with scratch cards. These are sold everywhere from petrol stations to local stores, so vouchers for the online platform might easily be rolled out alongside them.
'The reach we have to consumers and the knowledge we have of consumer behavior is vast,' Sultan said.
Thomas Kuruvilla, managing director of consultants Arthur D. Little Middle East, said an alliance of regional telecommunications firms could form a community of social networks that was attractive to local populations.
If the firms can cooperate on content and social networks, 'it will surely attract more niche advertisers and hence higher revenue potential,' he said.
However, even if the region's biggest telecommunications firms succeed with the online platform, it will be hard for smaller operators to make much money from it, said Oliveira.
This could consign smaller firms to serving as nothing more than low-margin pipes for the data services of the big ones.
In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait have multiple telecommunications firms providing Internet access, and some of them may be the most vulnerable to becoming 'dumb pipes'. Such companies might cut access fees to their networks in an effort to win market share, Oliveira said.
'If one operator takes this approach, then others in the same market may be forced to follow as they lose revenue and market share and struggle to keep on investing in their network,' he said. 'It's a race to the bottom.'
(Editing by Andrew Torchia)
This article is brought to you by BUY A COMPUTER.
Angry Birds maker hopes Bad Piggies will help it fly again
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Angry Birds-maker Rovio Entertainment will be hoping to prove it's no one-hit wonder when it launches Bad Piggies on Thursday, just as players seem to be tiring of the game they've been addicted to for the past three years.
The new game will feature pigs which strike back at the birds who attacked them with slingshots in Angry Birds.
A hit on app stores would give the Finnish company a boost as it looks to a possible stock market flotation next year. Some analysts put its market value at between $6 billion and $9 billion, nearly on a par with another top Finnish tech name, phone maker Nokia Oyj.
Rovio was founded in 2003 and became a global phenomenon after it launched Angry Birds for Apple Inc's iPhone in late 2009.
The highly-addictive game helped Rovio's sales jump 10-fold to $100 million last year, a fraction of the 38.7 billion euros ($50.2 billion) which Nokia chalked up.
It has remained at the top of gaming charts, with more than a billion downloads, and had 200 million monthly users at the end of 2011. That compares for instance with the 240 million attracted by offerings from U.S-based Zynga Inc, such as the Facebook-based Farmville.
But there are signs Rovio is losing its momentum.
Amazing Alex, the first non-Angry Birds game in more than two years from Rovio, hit No. 1 on download charts in July but has since slumped to outside the top 50, while Angry Birds Space has dropped fast from the top-grossing lists.
'Rovio needs a big hit right now. Over the past two months, Rovio's revenue-generation ability has suddenly slipped badly,' said analyst Tero Kuittinen from Finnish mobile analytics firm Alekstra.
BRAND POWER
In Bad Piggies, instead of shooting with a slingshot, players build vehicles that help the characters get the birds' eggs.
The company said it was hoping the new game would breathe additional life into its brand.
'We see Bad Piggies as a long-term brand-building exercise. In three years from now we want to see Angry Birds and Bad Piggies as strong vibrant brands out there,' Petri Jarvilehto, head of gaming at Rovio, told Reuters in an interview.
Rovio is also expanding into merchandising, modelling its long-term strategy on Walt Disney Co by selling a range of stuffed animals and other toys, as well as branded playground equipment which then bolster branding for its games.
If successful, the company says it could go public as soon as next year, offering a possible payday to its backers. Last year, Rovio raised $42 million from venture capital firms including Accel Partners, which previously backed Facebook and Baidu, and Skype founder Niklas Zennstroem's venture capital firm, Atomico Ventures.
Last year some 30 percent of turnover came from items other than games, but it is the group's on-screen inventiveness which is the crucial factor in its prospects.
'Rovio needs to re-establish its reputation for creating hits with legs (staying power),' Kuittinen said.
'There is no doubt that the pig game will hit number 1 at launch. But it has to stay in top ten for half a year to erase the doubts that the fast fade of Amazing Alex has created.'
(Editing by David Holmes)
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The new game will feature pigs which strike back at the birds who attacked them with slingshots in Angry Birds.
A hit on app stores would give the Finnish company a boost as it looks to a possible stock market flotation next year. Some analysts put its market value at between $6 billion and $9 billion, nearly on a par with another top Finnish tech name, phone maker Nokia Oyj.
Rovio was founded in 2003 and became a global phenomenon after it launched Angry Birds for Apple Inc's iPhone in late 2009.
The highly-addictive game helped Rovio's sales jump 10-fold to $100 million last year, a fraction of the 38.7 billion euros ($50.2 billion) which Nokia chalked up.
It has remained at the top of gaming charts, with more than a billion downloads, and had 200 million monthly users at the end of 2011. That compares for instance with the 240 million attracted by offerings from U.S-based Zynga Inc, such as the Facebook-based Farmville.
But there are signs Rovio is losing its momentum.
Amazing Alex, the first non-Angry Birds game in more than two years from Rovio, hit No. 1 on download charts in July but has since slumped to outside the top 50, while Angry Birds Space has dropped fast from the top-grossing lists.
'Rovio needs a big hit right now. Over the past two months, Rovio's revenue-generation ability has suddenly slipped badly,' said analyst Tero Kuittinen from Finnish mobile analytics firm Alekstra.
BRAND POWER
In Bad Piggies, instead of shooting with a slingshot, players build vehicles that help the characters get the birds' eggs.
The company said it was hoping the new game would breathe additional life into its brand.
'We see Bad Piggies as a long-term brand-building exercise. In three years from now we want to see Angry Birds and Bad Piggies as strong vibrant brands out there,' Petri Jarvilehto, head of gaming at Rovio, told Reuters in an interview.
Rovio is also expanding into merchandising, modelling its long-term strategy on Walt Disney Co by selling a range of stuffed animals and other toys, as well as branded playground equipment which then bolster branding for its games.
If successful, the company says it could go public as soon as next year, offering a possible payday to its backers. Last year, Rovio raised $42 million from venture capital firms including Accel Partners, which previously backed Facebook and Baidu, and Skype founder Niklas Zennstroem's venture capital firm, Atomico Ventures.
Last year some 30 percent of turnover came from items other than games, but it is the group's on-screen inventiveness which is the crucial factor in its prospects.
'Rovio needs to re-establish its reputation for creating hits with legs (staying power),' Kuittinen said.
'There is no doubt that the pig game will hit number 1 at launch. But it has to stay in top ten for half a year to erase the doubts that the fast fade of Amazing Alex has created.'
(Editing by David Holmes)
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Google executive in Brazil faces arrest over elections law
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - An elections court in Brazil has ordered the arrest of Google's most senior executive in the country after the company failed to take down YouTube videos attacking a local mayoral candidate.
Google is appealing the order, which follows a similar decision by another Brazilian election judge. In that case, a judge found another senior executive responsible for violating local election law. That decision was overturned last week.
The legal challenges underline broader questions about Google's responsibility for content uploaded by third parties to its websites, such as an anti-Islam video that sparked a wave of protests and violence in the Muslim world.
A spokesman for the regional elections court in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul state said on Tuesday that a judge had ordered the arrest of Fabio José Silva Coelho, Google's top executive in Brazil, unless the videos attacking a mayoral candidate were removed.
'Google is appealing the decision that ordered the removal of the video on YouTube because, as a platform, Google is not responsible for the content posted to its site,' the company said through a spokesman in Brazil.
The arrest warrants for Google executives follow the filing of criminal charges in March against Chevron Corp and Transocean Ltd and 17 of their employees and executives, in a case that showed the Brazilian justice systems' willingness to target senior executives for alleged misdeeds.
Public prosecutors, who have almost total independence to bring cases in Brazil, are seeking jail terms of up to 31 years in the case, which resulted from a November oil spill. Chevron is the No. 2 U.S. oil company. Transocean is the world's largest offshore oil-drill-rig operator.
'WHAT AN IDIOT'
In Google's case, judges have held executives responsible for resisting the removal of online videos in violation of a stringent 1965 Electoral Code. The law bans campaign ads that 'offend the dignity or decorum' of a candidate.
Earlier this month an electoral court in the state of Paraiba ordered the arrest of another senior Google executive, Edmundo Luiz Pinto Balthazar, after the company refused to take down a YouTube video mocking a mayoral candidate there.
The video clip loaded by the user 'Paraiba Humor' seized on a verbal slip by a candidate in a montage remarking, 'What an idiot -- give him an F!'
Within days another judge overturned the order to arrest Balthazar, writing that 'Google is not the intellectual author of the video, it did not post the file, and for that reason it cannot be punished for its propagation.'
The company also defended users' political rights in a statement at the time.
'Google believes that voters have a right to use the Internet to freely express their opinions about candidates for political office, as a form of full exercise of democracy, especially during electoral campaigns,' the company wrote.
Google faces frequent legal scrutiny over the limits of users' expression in Brazil, where it opened an office in 2005.
Over the years, the company has received repeated requests from Brazilian authorities to reveal the identity of bloggers and users of its social networking site Orkut, whose posts violated local libel and anti-racism laws.
In the second half of last year, Google removed four Orkut profiles after an electoral court order, the company said on a portion of its website called the Transparency Report.
(Additional reporting by Jeb Blount; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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Google is appealing the order, which follows a similar decision by another Brazilian election judge. In that case, a judge found another senior executive responsible for violating local election law. That decision was overturned last week.
The legal challenges underline broader questions about Google's responsibility for content uploaded by third parties to its websites, such as an anti-Islam video that sparked a wave of protests and violence in the Muslim world.
A spokesman for the regional elections court in Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul state said on Tuesday that a judge had ordered the arrest of Fabio José Silva Coelho, Google's top executive in Brazil, unless the videos attacking a mayoral candidate were removed.
'Google is appealing the decision that ordered the removal of the video on YouTube because, as a platform, Google is not responsible for the content posted to its site,' the company said through a spokesman in Brazil.
The arrest warrants for Google executives follow the filing of criminal charges in March against Chevron Corp and Transocean Ltd and 17 of their employees and executives, in a case that showed the Brazilian justice systems' willingness to target senior executives for alleged misdeeds.
Public prosecutors, who have almost total independence to bring cases in Brazil, are seeking jail terms of up to 31 years in the case, which resulted from a November oil spill. Chevron is the No. 2 U.S. oil company. Transocean is the world's largest offshore oil-drill-rig operator.
'WHAT AN IDIOT'
In Google's case, judges have held executives responsible for resisting the removal of online videos in violation of a stringent 1965 Electoral Code. The law bans campaign ads that 'offend the dignity or decorum' of a candidate.
Earlier this month an electoral court in the state of Paraiba ordered the arrest of another senior Google executive, Edmundo Luiz Pinto Balthazar, after the company refused to take down a YouTube video mocking a mayoral candidate there.
The video clip loaded by the user 'Paraiba Humor' seized on a verbal slip by a candidate in a montage remarking, 'What an idiot -- give him an F!'
Within days another judge overturned the order to arrest Balthazar, writing that 'Google is not the intellectual author of the video, it did not post the file, and for that reason it cannot be punished for its propagation.'
The company also defended users' political rights in a statement at the time.
'Google believes that voters have a right to use the Internet to freely express their opinions about candidates for political office, as a form of full exercise of democracy, especially during electoral campaigns,' the company wrote.
Google faces frequent legal scrutiny over the limits of users' expression in Brazil, where it opened an office in 2005.
Over the years, the company has received repeated requests from Brazilian authorities to reveal the identity of bloggers and users of its social networking site Orkut, whose posts violated local libel and anti-racism laws.
In the second half of last year, Google removed four Orkut profiles after an electoral court order, the company said on a portion of its website called the Transparency Report.
(Additional reporting by Jeb Blount; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
This article is brought to you by COMPUTERS FOR SALE.
Brazil judge orders arrest of Google exec over elections law
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A regional elections court in Brazil has ordered the arrest of the head of Google's operations in the country after the company failed to take down YouTube videos attacking a local mayoral candidate.
The ruling, which Google is appealing, marks the second time in two weeks that Brazilian judges have ordered the apprehension of executives at the search engine giant for not cooperating with local election laws.
The legal challenges highlight broader questions about Google's responsibility for content that third parties upload to its websites, such as an anti-Islam video that sparked a wave of protests and violence in the Muslim world.
A spokesman for the regional elections court in Mato Grosso do Sul said on Tuesday that a judge had ordered the arrest of Fabio José Silva Coelho, Google's top executive in Brazil, unless the videos attacking a local mayoral candidate were removed.
'Google is appealing the decision that ordered the removal of the video on YouTube because, as a platform, Google is not responsible for the content posted to its site,' the company said through a spokesman in Brazil.
Earlier this month an electoral court in the state of Paraiba ordered the arrest of another senior Google executive, Edmundo Luiz Pinto Balthazar, after the company refused to take down a YouTube video mocking a mayoral candidate there.
Days later another judge overturned the ruling.
At the time, the company also defended in a statement its users' rights of expression.
'Google believes that voters have a right to use the Internet to freely express their opinions about candidates for political office, as a form of full exercise of democracy, especially during electoral campaigns,' the company wrote.
(Reporting by Brad Haynes; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
This article is brought to you by AFFORDABLE COMPUTERS.
The ruling, which Google is appealing, marks the second time in two weeks that Brazilian judges have ordered the apprehension of executives at the search engine giant for not cooperating with local election laws.
The legal challenges highlight broader questions about Google's responsibility for content that third parties upload to its websites, such as an anti-Islam video that sparked a wave of protests and violence in the Muslim world.
A spokesman for the regional elections court in Mato Grosso do Sul said on Tuesday that a judge had ordered the arrest of Fabio José Silva Coelho, Google's top executive in Brazil, unless the videos attacking a local mayoral candidate were removed.
'Google is appealing the decision that ordered the removal of the video on YouTube because, as a platform, Google is not responsible for the content posted to its site,' the company said through a spokesman in Brazil.
Earlier this month an electoral court in the state of Paraiba ordered the arrest of another senior Google executive, Edmundo Luiz Pinto Balthazar, after the company refused to take down a YouTube video mocking a mayoral candidate there.
Days later another judge overturned the ruling.
At the time, the company also defended in a statement its users' rights of expression.
'Google believes that voters have a right to use the Internet to freely express their opinions about candidates for political office, as a form of full exercise of democracy, especially during electoral campaigns,' the company wrote.
(Reporting by Brad Haynes; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
This article is brought to you by AFFORDABLE COMPUTERS.
NY Times to sell interest in Indeed, record $100 million gain
(Reuters) - The New York Times Co will sell its remaining interest in online jobs search website Indeed.com, which is being acquired by Japan's executive search firm Recruit Co Ltd for an undisclosed amount.
New York Times, which publishes its namesake newspaper and the Boston Globe, said it expects to record an after-tax gain of about $100 million in the fourth quarter.
(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)
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New York Times, which publishes its namesake newspaper and the Boston Globe, said it expects to record an after-tax gain of about $100 million in the fourth quarter.
(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)
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French government asks Facebook to explain data glitch
PARIS (Reuters) - The French government has summoned Facebook Inc managers to appear before the country's data watchdog to explain how some of its users came to believe their privacy had been infringed on the social network, it said in a statement early on Tuesday.
Two ministers said they had intervened after seeing reports that private messages between Facebook users in France had appeared on their 'Timelines', which can reach a wide Internet audience.
Metro newspaper reported that a 'non-systemic' problem at Facebook had caused certain personal messages, some several years old, to be displayed on the Timelines which serve as a profile page with details selected by the user.
Facebook France denied any breakdown in its security systems and said that while some old data had appeared where it should not have, none of it originated from private messages.
'A minority of users were worried after seeing messages they thought to be private appearing on their Timelines,' a spokesman for Facebook France said.
'Facebook engineers examined the situation and confirmed that the messages in question were old postings, which had previously been visible on the users' profiles,' he added.
Announcing the appearance of Facebook bosses in front of the CNIL data privacy agency later on Tuesday, Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg and Small Businesses Minister Fleur Pellerin called for 'clear and transparent explanations' and said the episode demonstrated the need for better data protection.
(Reporting by Pierre Serisier and Tim Hepher; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
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Two ministers said they had intervened after seeing reports that private messages between Facebook users in France had appeared on their 'Timelines', which can reach a wide Internet audience.
Metro newspaper reported that a 'non-systemic' problem at Facebook had caused certain personal messages, some several years old, to be displayed on the Timelines which serve as a profile page with details selected by the user.
Facebook France denied any breakdown in its security systems and said that while some old data had appeared where it should not have, none of it originated from private messages.
'A minority of users were worried after seeing messages they thought to be private appearing on their Timelines,' a spokesman for Facebook France said.
'Facebook engineers examined the situation and confirmed that the messages in question were old postings, which had previously been visible on the users' profiles,' he added.
Announcing the appearance of Facebook bosses in front of the CNIL data privacy agency later on Tuesday, Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg and Small Businesses Minister Fleur Pellerin called for 'clear and transparent explanations' and said the episode demonstrated the need for better data protection.
(Reporting by Pierre Serisier and Tim Hepher; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
This news article is brought to you by TECHNOLOGY NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Monday, September 24, 2012
YouTube-funded show makes first leap to network TV
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. TV network ABC will in October start broadcasting a cooking show that began as part of YouTube's 'Original Channels' initiative, the first such deal to take a YouTube-funded program to national TV.
For Google-owned YouTube, the deal is a milestone in its effort to rebrand itself as a place to watch high-quality video, able to compete with traditional TV for advertising dollars as well as audiences.
The deal comes nearly a year after YouTube launched a $100 million campaign to shed its image as a repository for blurry, home-made cat videos, by paying producers to make slick, professional programs like 'Recipe Rehab', the show that will make the jump to TV.
Although episodes will be re-shot for the 22-minute TV format, the show is being helmed by the same executive producer as the Web version, and two of its star chefs from YouTube will migrate to the small screen.
'Recipe Rehab is the latest example of how creators are now harnessing the combined attributes of TV and the web to build scaled, engaged audiences,' said Alex Carloss, YouTube's global head of original programming.
Recipe Rehab, which teaches viewers familiar recipes, will be broadcast on Saturday mornings on 200 ABC-affiliate stations across the United States, and also continue as a standard YouTube channel.
The show was the brainchild of Mark Koops, a veteran TV producer who created shows including 'The Biggest Loser' on NBC, and Fox's 'Masterchef', starring celebrity cook Gordon Ramsay.
'Digital has shown its capacity as a proving ground,' Koops said. 'Now everyone is working out how to monetize the content.'
Last year Koops' digital production outfit, Trium Entertainment, teamed up with Everyday Health Inc, a New York-based multimedia company, and jointly pitched YouTube for a chunk of the Original Channels funding.
YouTube ultimately funded roughly 100 channels, including Everyday Health and many others that boasted tie-ins with stars like actors Ashton Kutcher and Amy Poehler, and former basketball star Shaquille O'Neal.
In May, YouTube threw a glamorous party in an attempt to woo advertisers, and present its channels as serious media brands. At the time, it said it would invest another $200 million to market its new channels.
'It's a sign of the emerging times,' Koops said. 'Television is no longer just the television.'
(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
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For Google-owned YouTube, the deal is a milestone in its effort to rebrand itself as a place to watch high-quality video, able to compete with traditional TV for advertising dollars as well as audiences.
The deal comes nearly a year after YouTube launched a $100 million campaign to shed its image as a repository for blurry, home-made cat videos, by paying producers to make slick, professional programs like 'Recipe Rehab', the show that will make the jump to TV.
Although episodes will be re-shot for the 22-minute TV format, the show is being helmed by the same executive producer as the Web version, and two of its star chefs from YouTube will migrate to the small screen.
'Recipe Rehab is the latest example of how creators are now harnessing the combined attributes of TV and the web to build scaled, engaged audiences,' said Alex Carloss, YouTube's global head of original programming.
Recipe Rehab, which teaches viewers familiar recipes, will be broadcast on Saturday mornings on 200 ABC-affiliate stations across the United States, and also continue as a standard YouTube channel.
The show was the brainchild of Mark Koops, a veteran TV producer who created shows including 'The Biggest Loser' on NBC, and Fox's 'Masterchef', starring celebrity cook Gordon Ramsay.
'Digital has shown its capacity as a proving ground,' Koops said. 'Now everyone is working out how to monetize the content.'
Last year Koops' digital production outfit, Trium Entertainment, teamed up with Everyday Health Inc, a New York-based multimedia company, and jointly pitched YouTube for a chunk of the Original Channels funding.
YouTube ultimately funded roughly 100 channels, including Everyday Health and many others that boasted tie-ins with stars like actors Ashton Kutcher and Amy Poehler, and former basketball star Shaquille O'Neal.
In May, YouTube threw a glamorous party in an attempt to woo advertisers, and present its channels as serious media brands. At the time, it said it would invest another $200 million to market its new channels.
'It's a sign of the emerging times,' Koops said. 'Television is no longer just the television.'
(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
This article is brought to you by BUY COMPUTERS.
Salesforce launches new social media software
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc unveiled on Wednesday a new software suite that reflects the company's aggressive push into fields like marketing and human resources as it battles heightened competition from rivals.
CEO and founder Marc Benioff announced the new products at the company's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, promising to bring about a 'social revolution' to how large companies use software to manage their business.
One of Salesforce's new offerings, dubbed Marketing Cloud, helps businesses keep track of Facebook and Twitter chatter about their brand, and also manages social media posts and calculates the reach of that content.
Marketing Cloud - a product of Salesforce's closely watched, $689 million acquisition of Buddy Media in June - represents Salesforce's newest attempt to bring consumer social media features into business and industrial settings.
'Are you and your company going through a social revolution? We see your customers and your employees and your partners are all connected,' Benioff told the audience at Dreamforce, one of the largest conferences on the tech calendar with more than 90,000 registered attendees this year.
Salesforce's new product line is a departure for a company founded in 1999 to provide online software that managed the sales process. Under Benioff, the company has grown rapidly and, at $157.98 a share, trades at one of the highest price-to-earnings multiples among tech stocks.
But in recent years Salesforce has broached new markets like social media marketing in order to sustain growth amid fierce competition from some of the biggest names in enterprise computing, like SAP and Oracle.
On Wednesday Salesforce also announced Work.com, a human resources management software offering as well as Chatterbox, a new file-sharing tool that will pit Salesforce against the likes of Google Drive, and storage startups Box.net and Dropbox.
DEAL ACTIVITY
Salesforce last month posted a 34 percent jump in quarterly revenue but cut its earnings forecast as analysts warned that a price war with rivals like Oracle, which has also made splashy social media-related acquisitions, could eat into Salesforce's margins.
The competitors are scrapping for slices of a large and growing pie: Software-as-a-service industry has grown to $14.4 billion worldwide in 2012, according to a Gartner report this week. The infrastructure-as-a-service market, which includes the hotly growing cloud storage sector, grew 45 percent in the last year alone, Gartner said.
Even as consumer social media appeared tarnished by Facebook's sputtering initial public offering, social media analytics and marketing companies that cater to businesses have found themselves involved in some of the hottest tech deal activity in recent months.
Before Salesforce swooped on Buddy Media, Oracle bought social media marketing company Vitrue for $300 million. In August, Google announced it would buy Buddy Media competitor Wildfire for $350 million. Microsoft Inc paid $1.2 billion in July to buy social networking company Yammer Inc.
'There's been close to a couple billion dollars being spent in this space by the top software companies in the world, but I don't think we're done yet,' said Ragy Thomas, CEO of Sprinklr, a social media management company.
(The story corrects name of Sprinklr in last paragraph.)
(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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CEO and founder Marc Benioff announced the new products at the company's Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, promising to bring about a 'social revolution' to how large companies use software to manage their business.
One of Salesforce's new offerings, dubbed Marketing Cloud, helps businesses keep track of Facebook and Twitter chatter about their brand, and also manages social media posts and calculates the reach of that content.
Marketing Cloud - a product of Salesforce's closely watched, $689 million acquisition of Buddy Media in June - represents Salesforce's newest attempt to bring consumer social media features into business and industrial settings.
'Are you and your company going through a social revolution? We see your customers and your employees and your partners are all connected,' Benioff told the audience at Dreamforce, one of the largest conferences on the tech calendar with more than 90,000 registered attendees this year.
Salesforce's new product line is a departure for a company founded in 1999 to provide online software that managed the sales process. Under Benioff, the company has grown rapidly and, at $157.98 a share, trades at one of the highest price-to-earnings multiples among tech stocks.
But in recent years Salesforce has broached new markets like social media marketing in order to sustain growth amid fierce competition from some of the biggest names in enterprise computing, like SAP and Oracle.
On Wednesday Salesforce also announced Work.com, a human resources management software offering as well as Chatterbox, a new file-sharing tool that will pit Salesforce against the likes of Google Drive, and storage startups Box.net and Dropbox.
DEAL ACTIVITY
Salesforce last month posted a 34 percent jump in quarterly revenue but cut its earnings forecast as analysts warned that a price war with rivals like Oracle, which has also made splashy social media-related acquisitions, could eat into Salesforce's margins.
The competitors are scrapping for slices of a large and growing pie: Software-as-a-service industry has grown to $14.4 billion worldwide in 2012, according to a Gartner report this week. The infrastructure-as-a-service market, which includes the hotly growing cloud storage sector, grew 45 percent in the last year alone, Gartner said.
Even as consumer social media appeared tarnished by Facebook's sputtering initial public offering, social media analytics and marketing companies that cater to businesses have found themselves involved in some of the hottest tech deal activity in recent months.
Before Salesforce swooped on Buddy Media, Oracle bought social media marketing company Vitrue for $300 million. In August, Google announced it would buy Buddy Media competitor Wildfire for $350 million. Microsoft Inc paid $1.2 billion in July to buy social networking company Yammer Inc.
'There's been close to a couple billion dollars being spent in this space by the top software companies in the world, but I don't think we're done yet,' said Ragy Thomas, CEO of Sprinklr, a social media management company.
(The story corrects name of Sprinklr in last paragraph.)
(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
This article is brought to you by CHEAP COMPUTERS.
Facebook shares drop after Barron's snub
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook shares dropped on Monday after financial weekly Barron's questioned the social networking company's value and priced its stock at just $15.
Facebook's shares slid 10 percent to $20.64 in mid-day trade on Nasdaq, about 46 percent off of its $38 IPO price in May. The decline shed most of its gains from the previous week, when shares were boosted by news that the company was testing a new mobile advertising network.
'Is the stock a buy? The short answer is 'No,'' Andrew Bary wrote in the latest edition of Barron's over the weekend. 'The stock trades at high multiples of both sales and earnings, even as uncertainty about the outlook for its business grows.'
At $15, Facebook would still be richly valued at 24 times its projected 2013 profit. That's compared to established tech giants Apple and Google, which both now trade for about 16 times their 2012 earnings, Barron's argued.
Aside from the No. 1 social network's struggle to adapt to the rise of mobile devices, Barron's also highlighted Facebook's stock compensation costs, which have ballooned as the company fights to hold onto its employees by dangling more shares.
Barron's estimated that Facebook's restricted-stock issues were 'so large last year that it may have exceeded its cash compensation costs.'
'CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to have a cavalier attitude' about stock compensation, Barron's wrote, because of the company's policy of granting more shares to employees to make up for its declining stock price.
(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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Facebook's shares slid 10 percent to $20.64 in mid-day trade on Nasdaq, about 46 percent off of its $38 IPO price in May. The decline shed most of its gains from the previous week, when shares were boosted by news that the company was testing a new mobile advertising network.
'Is the stock a buy? The short answer is 'No,'' Andrew Bary wrote in the latest edition of Barron's over the weekend. 'The stock trades at high multiples of both sales and earnings, even as uncertainty about the outlook for its business grows.'
At $15, Facebook would still be richly valued at 24 times its projected 2013 profit. That's compared to established tech giants Apple and Google, which both now trade for about 16 times their 2012 earnings, Barron's argued.
Aside from the No. 1 social network's struggle to adapt to the rise of mobile devices, Barron's also highlighted Facebook's stock compensation costs, which have ballooned as the company fights to hold onto its employees by dangling more shares.
Barron's estimated that Facebook's restricted-stock issues were 'so large last year that it may have exceeded its cash compensation costs.'
'CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to have a cavalier attitude' about stock compensation, Barron's wrote, because of the company's policy of granting more shares to employees to make up for its declining stock price.
(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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Sunday, September 23, 2012
NZ launches inquiry into spying in Megaupload case
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key has launched a inquiry into 'unlawful' spying by government agents leading to the arrest of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, who is fighting extradition to the United States where he faces charges of internet piracy and breaking copyright laws.
The probe may deal another blow to the U.S. case after a New Zealand court ruled in June that search warrants used in the raid on Dotcom's home earlier this year, requested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, were illegal.
Key has asked the government's Intelligence and Security division to investigate 'circumstances of unlawful interception of communications of certain individuals by the Government Communications Security Bureau', his office said in a statement on Monday.
Key's spokesman would not comment on whether the 'certain individuals' referred to Dotcom, his three colleagues also arrested and facing U.S. charges, or all of them.
'The Bureau had acquired communications in some instances without statutory authority,' Key's statement said.
New Zealand authorities arrested Dotcom and his colleagues at his rented country estate near Auckland in January, confiscating computers and hard drives, works of art, and cars.
The FBI accuses the flamboyant Dotcom, a 38-year-old German national also known as Kim Schmitz, of leading a group that netted $175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, films and other copyrighted content without authorization.
'I welcome the inquiry by (Key) into unlawful acts by the GCSB,' Dotcom said on his Twitter account.
Dotcom maintains that the Megaupload site was no more than an online storage facility, and has accused Hollywood of lobbying the U.S. government to vilify him.
The raid and evidence seizure has already been ruled illegal and a court has ruled that Dotcom should be allowed to see the evidence on which the extradition hearing will be based.
U.S. authorities have appealed against that ruling, and a decision is pending.
(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
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The probe may deal another blow to the U.S. case after a New Zealand court ruled in June that search warrants used in the raid on Dotcom's home earlier this year, requested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, were illegal.
Key has asked the government's Intelligence and Security division to investigate 'circumstances of unlawful interception of communications of certain individuals by the Government Communications Security Bureau', his office said in a statement on Monday.
Key's spokesman would not comment on whether the 'certain individuals' referred to Dotcom, his three colleagues also arrested and facing U.S. charges, or all of them.
'The Bureau had acquired communications in some instances without statutory authority,' Key's statement said.
New Zealand authorities arrested Dotcom and his colleagues at his rented country estate near Auckland in January, confiscating computers and hard drives, works of art, and cars.
The FBI accuses the flamboyant Dotcom, a 38-year-old German national also known as Kim Schmitz, of leading a group that netted $175 million since 2005 by copying and distributing music, films and other copyrighted content without authorization.
'I welcome the inquiry by (Key) into unlawful acts by the GCSB,' Dotcom said on his Twitter account.
Dotcom maintains that the Megaupload site was no more than an online storage facility, and has accused Hollywood of lobbying the U.S. government to vilify him.
The raid and evidence seizure has already been ruled illegal and a court has ruled that Dotcom should be allowed to see the evidence on which the extradition hearing will be based.
U.S. authorities have appealed against that ruling, and a decision is pending.
(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)
This news article is brought to you by GAMING NEWS - where latest news are our top priority.
Deutsche Telekom presses charges against hackers
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Telekom has filed a criminal complaint against hackers who tried to shut down system computers earlier this month, the company said, confirming a magazine report.
Der Spiegel earlier said that from September 3 to 6 unidentified hackers attacked systems that match IP addresses with domain names to cut down on the volume of spam mail.
'The attack was successfully fended off, there was no impact on our customers at any time,' a spokesman for the German telecommunications group told Reuters.
He said the type of attack is not unusual but has so far hardly been used against Deutsche Telekom.
(Reporting by Stephanie Huber; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by David Cowell)
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Der Spiegel earlier said that from September 3 to 6 unidentified hackers attacked systems that match IP addresses with domain names to cut down on the volume of spam mail.
'The attack was successfully fended off, there was no impact on our customers at any time,' a spokesman for the German telecommunications group told Reuters.
He said the type of attack is not unusual but has so far hardly been used against Deutsche Telekom.
(Reporting by Stephanie Huber; Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by David Cowell)
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Saturday, September 22, 2012
Mormon with outspoken blog posts on church says may face excommunication
SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - A Florida-based Mormon blogger has said he is facing discipline and possible excommunication by church officials over posts they perceive to be anti-Mormon.
David Twede's posts offer his account of the history of the church's political involvement, criticism of fellow Mormon and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and the author's take on Mormon beliefs about the nature of God and temple ceremonies.
Twede, a 47-year-old fifth-generation Mormon and the managing editor of MormonThink.com, told Reuters on Saturday he was confronted over his posts and advised of the possible discipline at a meeting with local church leaders this week.
In a blog post on September 17, Twede described his meeting with church officials the day before. 'Most of my family is true-believing Mormon, and they will be hurt by my probable excommunication for apostasy,' he wrote.
The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints declined to comment specifically on Twede or his blog, saying that disciplinary matters were confidential.
But in a statement, church spokesman Michael Purdy said it would be 'patently false' to suggest a Mormon would face discipline for having questions about their faith or for expressing political views.
'The church is an advocate of individual choice. It is a core tenet of our faith.' Purdy said. 'Church discipline becomes necessary only in those rare occasions when an individual's actions cannot be ignored while they claim to be in good standing with the church.'
Public excommunications are rare in the Mormon religion. But several high-profile scholars and feminists had their memberships revoked in the 1990s.
Church leaders set a September 30 disciplinary meeting to address Twede's case, he said. Twede posted to his blog a letter he said is from a Mormon Church official and that says Twede is 'reported to have been in apostasy.'
Twede said church officials did not specify which articles they did not like, but told him being the website's managing editor was 'antithetical to the church.'
He said he has asked church officials to reconsider holding the disciplinary meeting.
In a letter posted on his blog, Twede wrote that he understands that 'some of what I wrote in my blog may have treated the church unfairly.'
Mormon Church disciplinary decision are made at the local level and the outcomes can include probation, disfellowship, excommunication or exoneration.
Excommunicated persons can still attend church, but cannot receive the sacrament, hold church callings, speak at services or enter Mormon temples.
(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Mohammad Zargham)
This news article is brought to you by DATING AND RELATIONSHIP ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
David Twede's posts offer his account of the history of the church's political involvement, criticism of fellow Mormon and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and the author's take on Mormon beliefs about the nature of God and temple ceremonies.
Twede, a 47-year-old fifth-generation Mormon and the managing editor of MormonThink.com, told Reuters on Saturday he was confronted over his posts and advised of the possible discipline at a meeting with local church leaders this week.
In a blog post on September 17, Twede described his meeting with church officials the day before. 'Most of my family is true-believing Mormon, and they will be hurt by my probable excommunication for apostasy,' he wrote.
The Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints declined to comment specifically on Twede or his blog, saying that disciplinary matters were confidential.
But in a statement, church spokesman Michael Purdy said it would be 'patently false' to suggest a Mormon would face discipline for having questions about their faith or for expressing political views.
'The church is an advocate of individual choice. It is a core tenet of our faith.' Purdy said. 'Church discipline becomes necessary only in those rare occasions when an individual's actions cannot be ignored while they claim to be in good standing with the church.'
Public excommunications are rare in the Mormon religion. But several high-profile scholars and feminists had their memberships revoked in the 1990s.
Church leaders set a September 30 disciplinary meeting to address Twede's case, he said. Twede posted to his blog a letter he said is from a Mormon Church official and that says Twede is 'reported to have been in apostasy.'
Twede said church officials did not specify which articles they did not like, but told him being the website's managing editor was 'antithetical to the church.'
He said he has asked church officials to reconsider holding the disciplinary meeting.
In a letter posted on his blog, Twede wrote that he understands that 'some of what I wrote in my blog may have treated the church unfairly.'
Mormon Church disciplinary decision are made at the local level and the outcomes can include probation, disfellowship, excommunication or exoneration.
Excommunicated persons can still attend church, but cannot receive the sacrament, hold church callings, speak at services or enter Mormon temples.
(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Mohammad Zargham)
This news article is brought to you by DATING AND RELATIONSHIP ADVICE - where latest news are our top priority.
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