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eBay on Wednesday announced it was leading a $134 million investment in Snapdeal, which claims to be India's largest e-commerce marketplace. eBay's first investment in Snapdeal came in mid-2013, when it poured $50 million into the company. Snapdeal merited additional financing because of its complem...

The Comcast Netflix deal represents a completely new and refreshing direction for the industry. It clears away much confusion and illuminates a clearer path for growth for all companies in the battle. This deal represents a watershed moment for Web content providers. Congratulations to both Comcas...

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reportedly have submitted four proposals to reform the National Security Agency's phone surveillance program. The recommendations come well before the March 28 deadline set by President Obama. Three deal with havi...

Target reported financial results for the quarter during which it suffered a high-profile data breach, revealing how badly the company was stung by the security lapses. In the three months ending Feb. 1, net earnings dropped by 46 percent compared with the year-ago fourth quarter, from $961 million ...

ANALYSIS

The End of 'Good Enough' Computing

During the heyday of the dot-com boom, then-HP CEO Carly Fiorina espoused a notion called "good enough" computing. Despite significant performance differences between x86 servers and Unix and other enterprise-class systems, the dramatically lower cost of x86-based products would cause organizations ...

Dropbox reportedly has secured $350 million in a new round of funding to further its growth. The funding round generated at least $325 million but that figure could swell to as much as $450 million, according to documents filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It appears that $35...

Mt. Gox Comes Tumbling Down

Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, which has been troubled by repeated DDoS attacks, has gone offline, following publication on Scribd of a purported internal memo alleging a multiyear server theft totaling nearly 745,000 Bitcoins. At Tuesday morning's price of $518.84 CoinDesk, that would amount to about $3...

Carl Icahn has ratcheted up his efforts to get eBay to spin off its lucrative PayPal division. The billionaire investor on Monday sent an open letter to other shareholders accusing eBay board members Marc Andreessen and Scott Cook of placing their interests before those of investors. Icahn called ou...

GOVERNMENT IT REPORT

FTC Explores Scope of Federal IoT Regulation

The explosion of the Internet of Things, or IoT, promises great opportunities for improving quality of life -- but also for creating both seen and unforeseen dangers. The IoT generally refers to a network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to sense, communicate and interact with th...

Netflix users who subscribe to Comcast Internet services soon may enjoy much smoother streaming video. The companies have agreed to a "mutually beneficial interconnection agreement" with the goal of giving Comcast's U.S. broadband customers a high-quality experience when using Netflix's streaming vi...

OPINION

Apple Riles Bitcoin Users

Apple earlier this month dropped the Bitcoin app Blockchain from its mobile marketplace without giving any explanation. Bitcoin holders obviously were upset with this development. Blockchain was available for both the iPhone and the iPad. By removing Blockchain, Apple eliminated two major channels f...

Google on Friday announced its purchase of online ad fraud fighter Spider.io. It initially will include Spider's fraud detection technology in its video and display ad products. Over time, Google will incorporate Spider's iFramed ads view technology in its products. Its long-term goal is "to improve...

What's in a name? Microsoft is hoping more traffic to two of its online properties. The company has renamed its cloud storage service because of legal entanglements and the website for free versions of its Office productivity apps because of consumer confusion. The name changes, which took effect ...

Google has revealed plans to expand its Google Fiber Internet service to as many as 34 new cities. Google Fiber offers connection speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps -- around 100 times faster than the average U.S. speeds of 9.8 Mb/sec, according to Akamai -- by providing service through fiber-optic cables i...

Facebook Wins WhatsApp Gold

Facebook on Wednesday announced the acquisition of WhatsApp in a $19 billion deal geared toward increasing its global connectivity. The company paid $4 billion in cash, $12 billion worth of Facebook shares and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock to acquire WhatsApp. Facebook was drawn to th...

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