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Reuters reported exclusively that Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Chinese state-backed firms are weighing bids for a stake in Unisplendour Corp, a cloud computing infrastructure firm, that could fetch as much as $7.7 billion. People familiar with the matter said chip conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup, which is saddled with some $31 billion in debt, is looking to divest its 46.45% stake in Shenzhen-listed Unisplendour as more of its bond payments are coming due. 

The post Reuters exclusively reports Alibaba, others explore stake in cloud computing firm appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters broke the news that stock-trading app Robinhood Markets Inc is giving its billionaire founders four more years to hit share price targets that trigger stock awards worth $1.4 billion. The change could cost Robinhood almost $570 million in accounting expenses over time, according to a regulatory filing and a compensation expert. 

The post Reuters reveals Robinhood gives founders second chance at $1.4 billion windfall appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters was first to report that digital payments processor Stripe Inc, the most valuable U.S. technology startup, has taken its first major step toward a stock market debut by hiring a law firm to help with preparations. The 11-year-old company, which was valued by investors at $95 billion in a fundraising round in March, has sat out this year’s red-hot market for initial public offerings (IPOs), using private tender offers to allow some of its existing investors and employees to cash out their holdings.  

The post Reuters ahead with Stripe IPO news appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters was also first with news that Noom Inc, the operator of the popular U.S. weight loss app, has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc to lead its preparations for an IPO. The New York-based company, which has seen the popularity of its fitness platform soar during the COVID-19 pandemic, aims to more than double its valuation from its May private fundraising round when investors led by buyout firm Silver Lake valued it at $3.7 billion.

The post Reuters ahead with Noom IPO news appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters exclusively reported that the company’s chairman and a Chinese state investor plan to take China’s answer to Twitter private. Those gains shrunk to just over 6% after the opening bell. A deal could value Weibo at more than $20 billion, facilitate shareholder Alibaba’s exit and see Weibo eventually relist in China to capitalize on higher valuations.

The post Reuters exclusively reports Weibo chairman, state firm plan to take China’s Twitter private appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters has been leading the way in coverage of India’s fast-evolving regulatory landscape over the course of the last six months, capped last week by the country unveiling its new so-called “consumer protection” rules, which are set to have far-reaching implications for Amazon and Walmart’s ambitions within India.

Going beyond just e-commerce regulation, Reuters coverage has set itself apart from the competition and put into stark relief the growing acrimony between India and big U.S. tech giants that long viewed it as their biggest overseas growth market.

Reuters reporting has spanned the full gamut - from exclusives to analytical pieces, reaction stories, focuses, explainers and a deeply reported special report that has made waves. Take a look at coverage highlights from this year.

COVERAGE HIGHLIGHTS

The post Special Edition: Reuters delivers comprehensive coverage on India’s shifting regulatory landscape appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters exclusively reported that a human rights group which had attracted millions of views on YouTube to testimonies from people who say their families have disappeared in China’s Xinjiang region is moving its videos to little-known service Odysee after some were taken down by the Google-owned streaming giant. Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights’ channel has published nearly 11,000 videos on YouTube totaling over 120 million views since 2017, thousands of which feature people speaking to camera about relatives they say have disappeared without a trace in China’s Xinjiang region, where UN experts and rights groups estimate over a million people have been detained in recent years. The channel was blocked on June 15.

Following inquiries from Reuters as to why the channel was removed, YouTube restored it, explaining that it had received multiple so-called ‘strikes’ for videos which contained people holding up ID cards to prove they were related to the missing, violating a YouTube policy which prohibits personally identifiable information from appearing in its content. They reinstated the channel on June 18 but asked Atajurt to blur the IDs.

The post YouTube restores channel after Reuters inquiry into removal of Xinjiang videos appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters exclusively reported that EU antitrust regulators will open a formal investigation by the end of the year into Google’s digital advertising business, in what could be the biggest regulatory threat to the business that generated $147 billion in revenue last year. An EU probe could result in an order to Alphabet unit Google to change potential anti-competitive practices on top of fines that could reach 10% of its global revenue. Google’s decade-long battle with the EU competition enforcer has already seen it slapped with more than $9 billion in total fines.

The post Reuters reveals Google’s adtech business set to face formal EU probe by year-end appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters provided insight into how Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google in recent years committed a combined $600 million to support news outlets globally, many of them local or regional enterprises foundering in a digital age. But the funding – set to last three years – does not nearly compensate for the tens of billions of dollars publishers lost as the tech companies gobbled up the digital advertising market, according to media analysts and news business executives. 

The post Reuters provides insight into how Google, Facebook pledged millions for local news appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Paytm, Infosys and MakeMyTrip are among companies seeking approval in India to provide online COVID-19 vaccine bookings as the country tries to make it easier for its huge population to book shots, Reuters revealed. The government relaxed rules last month to potentially allow third-party apps to offer vaccine bookings and has taken back control of procurement from states following delays and shortages. It also faced initial problems with its own vaccine booking platform. 

The post Reuters reveals tech firms, others offer help in India’s vaccine booking appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters exclusively reported that SoftBank Group Corp is in talks to invest in Dubai “cloud kitchen” Kitopi’s latest funding round through its second technology fund. Cloud kitchens are facilities built to prepare food specifically for delivery and they have benefited from the shift to online services during the coronavirus crisis. These “dark”, “cloud” or “ghost” kitchens have no physical presence as a restaurant, and offer delivery-only services from a centralized location through a mobile app. Allied Market Research in India has estimated that the global cloud kitchen industry could be worth about $71 billion by 2027 compared with $43 billion in 2019.

The post Reuters exclusively reports SoftBank tech fund in talks to invest in Dubai cloud kitchen Kitopi appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters exclusively reported that China is pressing the country’s largest online audio platform Ximalaya to drop plans to list in the United States and go for Hong Kong instead, as authorities are seeking to further tighten their grip over private media and internet businesses. Shanghai-based Ximalaya, which filed publicly for the U.S. IPO, has started pre-marketing the float since early May and looked to raise about $500 million.

The post Reuters exclusively reports China presses Ximalaya to drop U.S. for Hong Kong as listing venue appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters was first to report that the founder of Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Ren Zhengfei has called on the company’s staff to “dare to lead the world” in software as the company seeks growth beyond the hardware operations that U.S. sanctions have crippled. The internal memo from Ren Zhengfei, seen by Reuters, is the clearest evidence yet of the company’s direction as it responds to the immense pressure sanctions have placed on the handset business that was at its core. 

The post Reuters first to report Huawei founder urges shift to software to counter U.S. sanctions appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters revealed that Facebook, Alphabet unit Google and other tech giants will have to pledge to do more to curb the monetization of false information through advertisement placements, according to a European Commission document. The EU also wants smaller social media or search services, private messaging services, ad exchanges, ad-tech providers, communication agencies and e-payment services, e-commerce platforms and crowdfunding/donation systems to commit to do the same. The proposal is one of several that aim to address shortcomings in the voluntary code of practice on disinformation introduced in 2018 and to which Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Mozilla and TikTok have signed up.

The post Reuters reveals EU wants firm pledges from tech giants in fake news fight appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters was first to report Zhang Yiming, the co-founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, told employees of the Chinese technology giant in an internal memo that he was stepping down as chief executive, to be succeeded by co-founder Rubo Liang. The move represents the biggest corporate shake-up since the 2012 launch of ByteDance, which became a social media force in China and turned TikTok, a short-video app popular with teenagers, into a global sensation. 

The post Reuters first to report ByteDance founder to handover CEO reins appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters reported exclusively that production of the Apple iPhone 12 at a Foxconn factory in India has slumped by more than 50% because workers infected with COVID-19 have had to leave their posts. The Foxconn facility in the southern state of Tamil Nadu produces iPhones specifically for India, the world’s No.2 smartphone market. More than 100 Foxconn employees in the state have tested positive for COVID-19 and the company has enforced a no-entry ban at its factory in the capital of Chennai until late May, one source told Reuters. 

The post Reuters exclusively reports Foxconn’s iPhone output in India hit by COVID appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters reported exclusively that India has held up approvals for import of wifi modules from China for months, driving companies such as U.S. computer makers Dell and HP and China’s Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Lenovo to delay product launches in a key growth market. Two industry sources familiar with lobbying efforts by firms seeking clearance told Reuters the Communications Ministry’s Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) Wing has withheld approval since at least November. 

The post Reuters exclusively reports India holds up approvals for China-made wireless devices appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters exclusively reported how deployments of facial recognition from Israeli start-up Any Vision show how the surveillance software has gained adoption across the United States even as regulatory and ethical debates about it rage. The technology finds certain faces in photos or videos, with banks representing one sector that has taken interest in systems from Any Vision or its many competitors to improve security and service. Organizations in other industries are chasing similar goals. The Los Angeles hospital Cedars-Sinai and oil giant BP Plc are among several previously unreported users of Any Vision.

The post Reuters exclusively reports why a U.S. hospital and oil company turned to facial recognition appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters revealed that Italy aims to spend almost 7 billion euros ($8.33 billion) in European recovery funds on ultra-fast networks, up 60% from a previous goal, as ministers lay out alternatives to a long-delayed single national broadband plan. The government of Mario Draghi, which took office in February, is revising a national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) that would entitle it to some 206 billion euros by 2026 from an EU program to help nations hardest hit by the novel coronavirus.

The post Reuters reveals Italy to spend 60% more of EU funds on better broadband appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters exclusively reported that India is offering more than $1 billion in cash to each semiconductor company that sets up manufacturing units in the country as it seeks to build on its smartphone assembly industry and strengthen its electronics supply chain. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ drive has helped to turn India into the world’s second-biggest mobile manufacturer after China. New Delhi believes it is time for chip companies to set up in the country.

The post Reuters exclusively reports India is offering a billion for every chipmaker who ‘makes in India’ appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters exclusively reported that U.S. semi-conductor maker Analog Devices Inc (ADI) is set to gain unconditional European Union antitrust approval for its proposed $21 billion takeover of Maxim Integrated Products. The deal, ADI’s biggest, will boost its market share in automotive and 5G chipmaking and enable it to better compete with larger firms including Texas Instruments.

The post Reuters reveals Analog Devices’ $21 billion Maxim buy set for EU approval; market reacts appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters broke the news that Google’s plan to block a popular web tracking tool called “cookies” is a source of concern for U.S. Justice Department investigators who have been asking advertising industry executives whether the move by the search giant will hobble its smaller rivals. The questions from Justice Department investigators have touched on how Chrome policies, including those related to cookies, affect the ad and news industries, Reuters sources said. 

The post Reuters reveals Google’s privacy push draws U.S. antitrust scrutiny appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters was first to report that database software firm Couchbase Inc has registered for a stock market debut that could come in the first half of this year and value it at as much as $3 billion. The company has achieved more than $100 million in annual revenue. Reuters has learned that the initial public offering (IPO) filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is confidential and has not yet been made public. 

The post Reuters first to report Database company Couchbase files for IPO appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters examined how dominant Chinese drone giant DJI Technology Co Ltd’s North American operations have been hit by internal ructions in recent weeks and months, with a raft of staff cuts and departures. The loss of key managers, some of who have joined rivals, has compounded problems caused by U.S. government restrictions on Chinese companies, and raised the once-remote prospect of DJI’s dominance being eroded.

The post Reuters examines how Chinese giant DJI hit by U.S. tensions, staff defections appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Reuters broke the news that U.S. grocery delivery app Instacart is considering going public through a direct listing, concerned that it could leave money on the table through a traditional initial public offering (IPO). Investment bankers working on Instacart’s listing have estimated that it could be valued by the stock market at more than $50 billion. The move would make Instacart the latest company to snub an IPO, for decades the primary path to a stock market debut, because it risks pricing its offering too low compared to where its shares end up trading. 

The post Reuters reveals Instacart mulls direct listing in snub to IPOs appeared first on Reuters News Agency.