Business, Financial & Legal - Page 238

All the latest Business, Financial & Legal news as it relates to tech, gaming, and science - Page 238.

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Kim Dotcom wants to encrypt half of the Internet, would like to keep it away from government surveillance

Anthony Garreffa | Jan 24, 2013 10:30 PM CST

During an Interview with RT, Kim Dotcom talks of his problems over the past year or so, where the US government accuse the MegaUpload founder of being a 'mafia organization' and set up their Internet business, to be an organized crime network.

The US government had to say this, as it was the only way to try and extradite Dotcom to the US, as there are different extradition laws in New Zealand. These charges had to be thrown on top, or else the US government wouldn't have a leg to stand on. The goal was to take MegaUpload down, with Dotcom saying "it was their mission".

Dotcom talks about Aaron Swartz, the co-founder of Reddit, with RT asking what it's going to take for people to stand up and take action. Dotcom says the US government was exposed in this case, as they went in with all guns blazing, spying on citizens, illegal search warrants, and more. Dotcom says it was an urgent mission, they just wanted to take him down.

Continue reading: Kim Dotcom wants to encrypt half of the Internet, would like to keep it away from government surveillance (full post)

Intel receives permission to build a new $4 billion fab plant in Ireland

Anthony Garreffa | Jan 24, 2013 8:33 PM CST

Intel are set to build a new processor fabrication plant in Ireland, after they received permission from the Irish planning agency An Bord Pleanala. The Ireland fab plant will cost the chipmaker $4 billion, but the plant will be pumping out 14nm processors.

The only roadblock now is Intel management's final decision before construction plans begin. The Ireland fab plant will be a redevelopment of an existing facility in Country Kildare, and has been in the planning stages from as early as 2011. When construction is finished, which will take two years, it will give Intel 245,000 square meters to play with their next-generation 14nm-based processors.

The construction will employ close to 3,500 construction workers, and once the plant is complete, the plant itself will employ 800 full-time staff for chip production.

Continue reading: Intel receives permission to build a new $4 billion fab plant in Ireland (full post)

AMD CEO says they'll return to profitability in the second half of this year

Anthony Garreffa | Jan 24, 2013 4:30 AM CST

AMD aren't doing so well right now, especially when compared to Intel or Apple's latest financial results, but according to reports, CEO Rory Read has outlined the company's three-phase restructuring goal.

Those restructuring goal will see AMD return to profitability by the second half of this year. Read has said that the return to profitability will take more than one quarter, and will involve a total restructuring of how the company runs its business. The chipmaker will also deliver a new set of powerful products this year, as well as begin the transitioning of the company in order to take advantage of high-growth opportunities in other markets where their IP could provide others will a competitive advantage.

These markets include things like servers, custom silicon, the embedded space and ultra-low-power products such as gaming consoles. Considering AMD have reportedly won contracts to have their products in every single next-gen gaming console, this is a huge, huge uptick for AMD. AMD hopes to collect 20% of their revenue from these 'alternative' markets by the end of the year.

Continue reading: AMD CEO says they'll return to profitability in the second half of this year (full post)

Google releases latest Transparency Report, shows US government leader in requesting data

Trace Hagan | Jan 23, 2013 8:02 PM CST

Google's semi-annual Transparency Report has been updated today and the new data shows that requests for data from the search giant continue to increase. The US government leads the way in requesting data from Google. In fact, the amount of data requests as increased by more than 70 percent since 2009.

For the period from July to December, Google received 21,389 requests for information about 33,634 users. The United States government led the charge with over 8,000 requests for information that encompassed almost 15,000 user accounts. 88 percent of these requests had at least some data produced.

India was the next highest on the list, but only requested about 25 percent of what the US did. They made 2,400 requests about roughly 4,000 users. France, Germany, UK, and Brazil round out the list of governments who put in more than 1,000 user data requests.

Continue reading: Google releases latest Transparency Report, shows US government leader in requesting data (full post)

Apple, Google, and others agreed not to poach during mid-2000s

Trace Hagan | Jan 23, 2013 7:02 PM CST

Some bad news, at least for the companies involved, has come out thanks to a court case brought against Apple and Google by five workers. The case alleges that they are due lost wages as the companies involved tried keeping wages down by agreeing to not poach employees from each other.

Apparently, this non-poaching agreement extends beyond Google and Apple to the likes of Intel, Adobe, Pixar, and others. Judge Koh, made famous by the on-going Apple vs Samsung battle, is overseeing this court battle. This could end up being very bad for the companies involved, with the plaintiffs arguing that the damages could reach hundreds of millions of dollars.

For instance, an e-mail sent to Eric Schmidt by Steve Jobs: "Eric, I am told that Googles new cell phone software group is relentlessly recruiting in our iPod group. If this is indeed true, can you put a stop to it? Thanks, Steve." Another e-mail, this one sent by Paul Otellini of Intel, reads, "we have nothing signed. We have a handshake 'no-recruit' between eric and myself. I would not like this broadly known."

Continue reading: Apple, Google, and others agreed not to poach during mid-2000s (full post)

THQ being broken apart and games sold to different studios

Trace Hagan | Jan 23, 2013 6:02 PM CST

Gaming studio THQ announced in open court today that the company is being broken apart and its major gaming titles will be getting sold off to other studios. While the bankruptcy hearing hasn't officially been accepted by the judge, the ruling seems like it should be accepted, if the judge's comments are anything to go off of.

"I wasn't sure it was going to work, but I'm glad it did" Judge Marry F. Walrath said. The proposed sales are as follows:

Not all of THQ's assets have been sold yet, but THQ is continuing to look for buyers. If approved, the sales should close this week. Farrell and Rubin expect that most employees will be employed by the new owners, but wouldn't go as far as to promise anything. The full letter sent out to employees by Brian Farrell, Chief Executive Officer of THQ, and Jason Rubin, President of THQ, can be read below:

Continue reading: THQ being broken apart and games sold to different studios (full post)

RumorTT: Microsoft to invest billions into Dell buyout

Anthony Garreffa | Jan 23, 2013 1:08 AM CST

Well, this was a little unexpected, but could also turn out quite amazing for Microsoft. The latest talk is that the Redmond-based software giant is in discussions with Silver Lake Partners and Dell's CEO to invest between $1 billion and $3 billion in a leveraged buyout of Dell.

The news comes from "sources close to the matter" talking with CNBC. The rumor does make sense as Microsoft is slowly transitioning toward a hardware company after being a full-on software company for all these years. This move could see Microsoft directly compete with Apple in both hardware and software, without having to build it from the ground up, they'd have a huge start acquiring Dell.

Talks between Silver Lake Partners and the special committee for Dell's shareholders are set to continue, and we should hear of a deal being reached by the end of the week.

Continue reading: RumorTT: Microsoft to invest billions into Dell buyout (full post)

Verizon activated 9.8 million smartphones during Q4, most were LTE-capable

Anthony Garreffa | Jan 22, 2013 11:33 PM CST

Q4 is usually good for most companies, as the holidays are an extremely busy time of the year for most businesses. Verizon have had a stellar Q4, where they've announced they activated 9.8 million smartphones during the quarter.

Better yet, out of those 9.8 million, 7.3 million of them were LTE-capable. Breaking the numbers down once more, we find that 6.2 million activations were iPhone's and around half of them were LTE-capable meaning they were the latest iPhone 5.

In the same three-month period, Verizon added 2.2 million more subscribers, 144,000 new FiOS Internet subscribers and 134,000 FiOS video subscribers. Revenues were hitting $30 billion for the quarter, which is up 5.7% from twelve months ago and $115.8 billion for the entire fiscal year. Verizon were able to achieve a total return of 13.2% to shareholders last year.

Continue reading: Verizon activated 9.8 million smartphones during Q4, most were LTE-capable (full post)

Atari files for bankruptcy in US, selling off logo, assets

Trace Hagan | Jan 21, 2013 7:07 PM CST

Atari, a pioneer in the video game industry, has filed bankruptcy in the US. Unfortunately, it seems that the parent company, Atari SA, is debt-laden and this move is a way to free the company from the parent. By doing this, Atari is looking to continue as a company, just on its own.

Atari is selling off assets in the next three to four months, including its iconic logo. The company that emerges from the other side of bankruptcy is slated to be a company focused on the digital and mobile platforms. Atari has already been gearing up towards Android and iOS development since 2010.

Atari has reportedly received a debtor-in-possession investment of $5.25 million so that the company is capable of continuing to operate during the bankruptcy process. The plan is to seek a private buyer after the bankruptcy process, though that could be hard if they have sold off their iconic franchises and logo.

Continue reading: Atari files for bankruptcy in US, selling off logo, assets (full post)

Google-commissioned survey shows that US P2P users buy 30 % more music, another study showing P2P users not bad

Trace Hagan | Jan 21, 2013 4:31 PM CST

As much as the RIAA and MPAA would like to convince lawmakers and citizens that pirates and people who illegally download movies and music are harming the industry, study after study suggest quite the opposite. Take, for example, a study commissioned by Google, which shows that US P2P users buy 30 percent more music.

Google commissioned Columbia University's American Assembly research center to survey Americans on file sharing and copyright enforcement. In the survey, data suggests that Americans are generally against the use of bandwidth throttling and disconnection as punishment for illegal downloading.

The most important piece of information to come from the study is the finding that US P2P users tend to buy 30 percent more music than their non-sharing brethren. More studies are needed, however, but this study can join the pile of others that show file-sharing doesn't harm sales.

Continue reading: Google-commissioned survey shows that US P2P users buy 30 % more music, another study showing P2P users not bad (full post)

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