THE BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY
Mandiant, a US securities company specialized in identifying sophisticated cyber attacks on both corporate and government entities, has tracked members of some of the most notorious Chinese hacking groups to the doorsteps of the Chinese military, making it increasingly difficult for the Chinese government to deny it does not engage in hacking … [Read more...]
Step aside USA. China has become the world’s largest smartphone market, surpassing the US for the first time for actively used smartphones and tablets, according to recent data released by Flurry, the mobile analytics firm. Flurry tracked more than 2.4 billion application sessions across more than 275,000 applications around the world. The … [Read more...]
A German court ruled in favor of Facebook’s real names policy, stating that because the social network is headquartered in Ireland, it does not need to comply with an earlier German agency demand for the company to allow pseudonyms, the AP reported. Last December, the Unabhaengiges Landeszentrum fuer Datenschutz maintained that as German law … [Read more...]
Third time’s a charm? A group of lawmakers led by Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have launched Startup Act 3.0, a bill that would make it possible for foreign entrepreneurs who employ at least five full time, non-family members to stay in the US for at least three years, as well as have a potential path to permanent citizenship. Before anybody … [Read more...]
Nothing suggests a comeback like raising a billion fund on the same day your former company is being investigated for fraud. Mike Lynch, the former CEO of Autonomy, has raised $1 billion to establish the Invoke Capital fund, where he plans to support small R&D technology companies, the Telegraph reported. He’s secured financial investment … [Read more...]
Baidu, the Chinese search giant, has signed an exclusive deal with France Telecom and its subsidiary Orange to co-brand and pre-load its Baidu mobile browser on Android smartphones in Africa and the Middle East. It is the first time Baidu has signed such an agreement with a global provider and extends the company to 19 countries in a move that … [Read more...]
Facebook rolled out its Graph Search, a functional search tool that provides results based on social connections. It's a big step for Facebook that evolves its social function to provide relevant knowledge based on relationships. Search for “friends of friends who are single women,” and you completely revamp the nature of dating. Search for … [Read more...]
Acquisitions for gaming companies broke a new record last year, raking in $4 billion, an 18 percent increase from the $3.4 billion earned in 2011, according to recent research from Digi-Capital, the global investment bank. Gaming investments, however, had a difficult year, tumbling 57 percent to $853 million. Transactional volume dropped 27 … [Read more...]
While making his second trip to China as Apple's CEO, Tim Cook told China's state-run Xinhua news agency that China will one day become the company's largest customer. Currently, China ranks as Apple's biggest market. "China is currently our second largest market. I believe it will become our first. I believe strongly that it will," Cook told … [Read more...]
Though there was an increase in number of Israeli startups that managed to raise money last year, there was less money raised. Last year, 575 Israeli high tech companies raised $1.92 billion from the investment community, a 10 percent decrease over 2011 when 545 raised $2.14 billion, according to a recent report from the IVC Research Center. VC … [Read more...]