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Flipkart Said to Revise Snapdeal Buyout Offer to Up to $950 Million

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Flipkart Said to Revise Snapdeal Buyout Offer to Up to $950 Million

E-commerce player Flipkart has sweetened its buyout offer for smaller rival Snapdeal to between $900 million (roughly Rs. 5,791 crores) and $950 million (roughly Rs. 6,113 crores), two people familiar with the negotiations said, adding that the new proposal is being evaluated by Snapdeal’s board.

Reuters previously reported that Snapdeal had earlier this month rejected Flipkart’s initial bid of between $800 million (roughly Rs. 5,148 crores) and $850 million (roughly Rs. 5,469 crores) as its board was unsatisfied with the offer and the payment terms.

Flipkart’s revised offer was made for Snapdeal’s marketplace and its e-commerce solutions provider Unicommerce but does not include its logistics arm Vulcan Express and digital payments unit FreeCharge, which may be sold separately, said the sources, who did not want to be named as the discussions are not public.

One of the sources said Flipkart may hold back about $150 million of the deal price for 12-24 months after the consummation of a deal.

Infibeam, a listed e-commerce player, has also made an offer for Snapdeal, the sources said, adding that the Snapdeal board is likely to consider the proposal. Details of the Infibeam offer were not immediately available.

Flipkart, Snapdeal and its main backers were not immediately reachable for comment. Infibeam was not immediately available for comment, but has said media reports linking it with Snapdeal are speculative.

Japan’s SoftBank Group, Snapdeal’s biggest shareholder, is keen to fold the firm into Flipkart and back the biggest home-grown e-commerce provider as it battles Amazon.com for a bigger share of India’s booming online retail market.

But Snapdeal’s founders would also like the Infibeam proposal to be evaluated before any final decision, one of the sources said. Snapdeal is expected to make a decision on the two offers in a week or 10 days, the second source said.

Axis Bank, India’s third-biggest private sector lender, top digital payments firm Paytm and a few others are in talks to acquire FreeCharge, one of the sources said.

Axis Bank did not respond to requests for comment while Paytm was not immediately available for comment.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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Gadgets News

Nokia 8 Price Leaked; Launch Date Said Tipped to Be Just 2 Weeks Away

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Nokia 8 Price Leaked; Launch Date Said Tipped to Be Just 2 Weeks Away

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Nokia 8 is now tipped to launch this month only
  • Initially, it may come in 4GB RAM/64GB storage variant
  • Nokia 8 is also tipped to be available in four colours at launch

Nokia 8, and not Nokia 9, is expected to be the true Nokia Android flagship if reports are to be believed, and it seems the device’s launch is not too far away. Now, a fresh leak hints that the Nokia 8, which has been leaked multiple times over the past few weeks, will be launched as soon as July 31. Along with this, the Nokia 8 price, colour options, and some specification details have also been leaked, giving us comprehensive details about the upcoming flagship. With this launch, the HMD Global-owned brand will be able to compete better with the likes of Apple and Samsung, though the competition will only get tougher as Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and iPhone 8 hit the market in the next few months.

Nokia 8 price, launch date, specifications

The latest information comes from German site WinFuture, and claims that the Nokia 8 will be priced at EUR 589 (roughly Rs. 43,400). This is still not as expensive as the Apple and Samsung flagships, but does fall comfortably in the premium price bracket. It is also lower than the earlier tipped price of EUR 749 (roughly Rs. 55,300), while the India price was tipped to be at Rs. 44,999. Also, the report claims that the smartphone will be launched this month itself – on July 31. That’s just two weeks from now, and if this information is true, all information about pricing, specs, and availability in different regions will be out soon.

The report states that Nokia 8 will launch with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage initially, though the rumoured 6GB RAM and 8GB RAM variant may see the light of the day a little bit later. Lastly, at launch, the Nokia 8 will be available in four colour options – Blue, Steel, Gold/Blue, and Gold/Copper. These colour options might be named a bit more creatively on launch day.

Past leaks suggest that the Nokia 8 will sport a bezel-less design, a USB Type-C port and dual speakers at the bottom edge of the smartphone. At the back, it will sport a thin vertical camera strip, or a dual camera setup. The smartphone is also tipped to sport an iris scanner, be IP68 water resistant, support dual-SIM slots, and a fingerprint scanner as well.

The smartphone is expected to feature a 5.3-inch QHD display, will be powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC, will sport a 13-megapixel dual camera setup at the back and a 13-megapixel front camera as well. The dimensions are expected to be at 151.55×73.7mm.

[“Source-gadgets”]

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Internet

Symantec Said to Be Considering Sale of Its Web Certificates Business

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Symantec Said to Be Considering Sale of Its Web Certificates Business

Cyber-security firm Symantec is considering selling its website certification business, in a deal that could fetch more than $1 billion (roughly Rs. 6,457 crores) and extricate it from a feud with Alphabet Inc’s Google, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Google said in March that it was investigating Symantec’s failure to properly validate its certificates, which confirm that websites can be trusted. Symantec has called Google’s claims “exaggerated and misleading.”

Symantec is in talks with a small number of companies and private equity firms about the potential sale, three sources said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. There is no certainty that a deal will occur, the sources added.

Symantec declined to comment. A representative for Google did not respond to a request for comment.

Symantec acquired most of its Web certification business in 2010, when it paid $1.28 billion to buy Verisign’s security business. The unit has about $400 million in revenue, according to one of the sources.

Symantec said in June it was reviewing a proposal by Google and other Internet companies to help fix issues with its security certificates. It said it is speaking to its partners about how to minimise disruptions to customers while also “reassuring trust in Symantec certificates.”

Chief Executive Officer Greg Clark has been transforming Mountain View, California-based Symantec by jettisoning slow-growth units and spending billions of dollars on acquisitions. It has been moving away from services that are more commoditised, selling its data storage business Veritas in January 2016 to private equity firm Carlyle Group for $7.4 billion.

Symantec completed its $2.3 billion acquisition of LifeLock in February, a move that will bolster its consumer security business. That followed the purchase of Blue Coat for $4.65 billion in August 2016, which expanded its product line for large corporations.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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Tech Update

Uber Said to Be Considering Placing CEO Travis Kalanick on Temporary Leave

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Uber Said to Be Considering Placing CEO Travis Kalanick on Temporary Leave

The board of Uber was meeting Sunday to consider placing the CEO of the ride-hailing company on leave, according The New York Times and other news outlets.

The Times reported that three people with knowledge of the matter have confirmed that Uber’s board was meeting to consider recommendations from a law firm hired to review Uber’s corporate culture and that the board may decide to put CEO Travis Kalanick on temporary leave.

The newspaper said its sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for Uber.

Uber has been rocked by accusations that its management has fostered a workplace environment where harassment, discrimination and bullying are left unchecked.

Uber spokesman Matt Kallman said that he wasn’t sure the company would make a statement after the meeting.

Reuters and the tech blog Recode reported the board meeting earlier. The Wall Street Journal also was citing unnamed sources about the meeting.

Uber has hired the law firm of former Attorney General Eric Holder to review policies and recommend changes. A report by his firm, Covington & Burling, was expected to be made public soon.

Uber announced last week that it fired 20 employees for harassment problems.

Under CEO Kalanick, Uber has shaken up the taxi industry in hundreds of cities and turned the San Francisco-based company into the world’s most valuable startup. Uber’s valuation has climbed to nearly $70 billion.

But Kalanick has acknowledged his management style needs improvement. The 40-year-old CEO said earlier this year that he needed to “fundamentally change and grow up.”
In February, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler wrote on a blog that she had been propositioned by her boss in a series of messages on her first day of work and that superiors ignored her complaints. Uber set up a hotline for complaints after that and hired the law firm of Perkins Coie to investigate.

That firm checked into 215 complaints, with 57 still under investigation.

Uber has been plagued by more than sexual harassment complaints in recent months. It has been threatened by boycotts, sued and subject to a federal investigation that it used a fake version of its app to thwart authorities looking into whether it is breaking local laws.

Kalanick lost his temper earlier this year in an argument with an Uber driver who was complaining about pay, and Kalanick’s profanity-laced comments were caught on video.

In a March conference call with reporters after that incident, board member Arianna Huffington expressed confidence that Kalanick would evolve into a better leader. But Huffington, a founder of Huffington Post, suggested time might be running out.

He’s a “scrappy entrepreneur,” she said during the call, but one who needed to bring “changes in himself and in the way he leads.”

The board meeting comes fresh on personal tragedy in Kalanick’s life. His mother was killed in late May after the boat she and her husband were riding in hit a rock. Kalanick’s father suffered moderate injuries.

The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that Chief Business Officer Emil Michael is planning to resign as soon as Monday.

The company has faced high turnover in its top ranks. In March, Uber’s president, Jeff Jones, resigned after less than a year on the job. He said his “beliefs and approach to leadership” were “inconsistent” with those of the company.

In addition to firing 20 employees, Uber said Tuesday that it was hiring an Apple marketing executive, Bozoma Saint John, to help improve its tarnished brand. Saint John most recently was head of global consumer marketing for Apple Music and iTunes.

 

 

 

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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Internet

Verizon Said to Be Near Revised Deal to Buy Yahoo After Price Cut

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Verizon Said to Be Near Revised Deal to Buy Yahoo After Price Cut

Verizon Communications Inc is close to a revised deal to buy Yahoo Inc’s core Internet business for $250 million to $350 million (roughly Rs. 1,673 crores to Rs. 2,343 crores) less than the original agreed price of $4.83 billion (roughly Rs. 32,338 crores), according to a source briefed on the matter.

Since last year, Verizon had been trying to persuade Yahoo to amend the terms of the acquisition agreement to reflect the economic damage from two cyber-attacks. A source told Reuters that the deal, which could come as soon as this week, will entail Verizon and Yahoo sharing the liability from potential lawsuits related to the data breaches.

Another person familiar with the situation said the price cut was likely to be around $250 million, a figure that Bloomberg reported earlier on Wednesday.

A representative from Verizon declined to comment. Yahoo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Maybe this isn’t quite as much of a discount as initially thought, but it’s at least something,” said Dave Heger, senior equity analyst at Edward Jones.

Verizon hopes to combine Yahoo’s search, email and messenger assets, as well as advertising technology tools, with its AOL unit, which Verizon bought in 2015 for $4.4 billion. Verizon has been looking to mobile video and advertising for new sources of revenue outside an oversaturated wireless market.

But Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo has been under scrutiny by federal investigators and lawmakers since disclosing the largest known data breach in history in December, months after disclosing a separate hack.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a probe into whether Yahoo should have disclosed the breaches, which occurred in 2013 and 2014, sooner, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal last month.

On Wednesday, Yahoo sent a warning to users whose accounts may have been accessed by intruders between 2015 and 2016, as part of a data security issue related to the breach it disclosed in December. A person familiar with the matter said notifications have gone out to a mostly final list of users.

Yahoo shares rose 1.5 percent to $45.69 in afternoon trading. Verizon shares fell 0.7 percent to $47.93.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

‘Passive Wi-Fi’ System Said to Use 10,000 Times Less Power Than Traditional Wi-Fi

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

'Passive Wi-Fi' System Said to Use 10,000 Times Less Power Than Traditional Wi-Fi

The University of Washington may have just solved Wi-Fi power consumption problems once and for all. A group from the the University’s engineering department have created a Wi-Fi system that, according to them, uses 10,000 times less power than traditional Wi-Fi. “Passive Wi-Fi” as the team calls it, is compatible with current smartphones and routers.

According to a video describing Passive Wi-Fi, traditional Wi-Fi radios consume a lot of power mainly because of the analogue radio frequency (RF). In order to reduce power consumption of Wi-Fi radios in smartphones and digital devices, the Passive Wi-Fi only uses the digital baseband while the analogue RF band is delegated to a single plugged-in device.

Essentially, Passive Wi-Fi helps remove the power hungry analogue RF from the picture, which will make you smartphone last a whole lot longer.

The plugged-in device is used to send the wave RF signal to the Passive Wi-Fi device which then generates Wi-Fi packets and sends it to existing devices including smartphones.

The team has managed to achieve download speeds of up to 11Mbps which falls in line with most LTE download speeds. However, the team is now working on increasing the throughput.

The team say that this new technology will allow for new kinds of communications that was not possible before due to the power requirements of current Wi-Fi systems.

“We wanted to see if we could achieve Wi-Fi transmissions using almost no power at all. That’s basically what Passive Wi-Fi delivers. We can get Wi-Fi for 10,000 times less power than the best thing that’s out there.”- Shyam Gollakota, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, University of Washington.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

Dailymotion Said to Suffer Massive Data Breach With Over 85 Million Accounts Compromised

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Dailymotion Said to Suffer Massive Data Breach With Over 85 Million Accounts Compromised

One of the popular video streaming websites, Dailymotion has been hit a cyber-attack that is said to have led to a massive data breach of more than 85 million user accounts. The data breach occurred on October 20, according to data breach monitoring company LeakedSource. After its report, Dailymotion on Tuesday came into action to issue an advisory to its users to change their passwords, in addition to denying any compromise of user data.

Dailymotion, owned by the media group Vivendi, took this event to its blog, where it has said that the hack is limited and there has been no data breach. “It has come to our attention that a potential security risk, coming from outside Dailymotion may have compromised the passwords for a certain number of accounts. The hack appears to be limited, and no personal data has been comprised.” the blog post said. The data breach is said to have supposedly stolen 85.2 million usernames and email addresses, along with 18 million scrambled passwords on October 20, LeakedSource said, BBC reports.

However, just to mark its users safe, Dailymotion has advised them to change their passwords to something that is not obvious and as easy as ‘password1234’ or some other letter-number combination that can be hacked with some guesswork. For its partners, Dailymotion has laid down a recommendation to use its refresh-token method to authenticate their apps and services.

If you use Dailymotion, you should change your password by following these simple steps:
Go to Dailymotion website either on the Web or mobile
Log into your account, as you normally do
You’d see the Settings option in the drop-down menu on the top right corner, click or hover on it
Now, select the Account Settings
Replace the old password with a new and stronger password, and you’re set
With this latest cyber-attack, the number of Internet security rupture has risen to an alarming number. LinkedIn, TalkTalk, Indian payment card system are some of the recent examples of cyber-attacks.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

Tesco Bank Cyber-Attack Said to Involve ‘Guessing Attack’ That Can Work Out Visa Card Details

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Tesco Bank Cyber-Attack Said to Involve 'Guessing Attack' That Can Work Out Visa Card Details

It can take hackers just six seconds, a laptop and an internet connection to hack any Visa credit or debit card, researchers claim.

The research paper (via The Guardian), published in the journal “IEEE Security and Privacy”, said that the “distributed guessing attack” circumvents all the security features put in place to protect online payments from fraud.

Neither the network nor the banks are able to detect attackers making multiple, invalid attempts to get payment card data, researchers claim.

The current online payment system does not detect multiple invalid payment requests from different websites.

This allows unlimited guesses on each card data field, using up to the allowed number of attempts – typically 10 or 20 guesses – on each website, explained Mohammed Ali, a PhD student in Newcastle University.

“Different websites ask for different variations in the card data fields to validate an online purchase… This means it’s quite easy to build up the information and piece it together like a jigsaw,” Ali added.
The combination of these two factors – unlimited guesses and variation in the payment data fields – makes it easy for attackers to hack all the card details.

Each generated card field can be used in succession to generate the next field and so on.

“If the hits are spread across enough websites then a positive response to each question can be received within two seconds – just like any online payment,” Ali warned.

The researchers explained that even starting with no details at all other than the first six digits – which tell you the bank and card type – a hacker can obtain essential pieces of information.

These are – card number, expiry date and security code – to make an online purchase within as little as six seconds.

Researchers believe this ‘guessing attack’ method could have been used in the recent Tesco cyber-attack where the hackers defrauded customers of GBP 2.5 million.

The risk is higher at this time of the year as many people are making online purchases ahead of Christmas.

However, researchers found that unlike Visa cards, MasterCard’s centralised network was able to detect the guessing attack after less than 10 attempts – even when those payments were distributed across multiple networks.

The researchers suggested that to minimise the chances of hacking, card-holders should use just one card for online payments and keep the spending limit on that account as low as possible.

“If it’s a bank card then keep ready funds to a minimum and transfer over money as you need it,” said Martin Emms, co-author of the research.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

Sirius Said to Have Made Fresh Approach to Pandora for a Takeover

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Sirius Said to Have Made Fresh Approach to Pandora for a Takeover

 

Satellite radio company Sirius XM Holdings Inc’s Chairman Greg Maffei recently made a fresh approach to internet radio provider Pandora Media Inc and expressed interest about a potential takeover, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Sirius XM did not offer a specific price and Pandora has yet to respond to the overture, the source added.

Representatives and Sirius XM declined to comment.

Bloomberg first reported the new approach on Friday. The report noted that earlier this year, Sirius offered about $15 per share to buy Pandora.

Earlier on Friday, CNBC reported that Pandora is now open to selling itself and willing to engage with Sirius XM.

However, a separate source close to the matter told Reuters that Pandora is currently making no renewed effort to sell itself.Pandora faces stiff competition from services such as Sweden’s Spotify, Apple Inc’s Apple Music, Google’s Play Music and Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Music Unlimited, which dominate the on-demand music service market.

An acquisition by Sirius XM would help give Pandora a bigger foothold in cars and also allow Sirius XM to expand its Internet and mobile presence.

Pandora, which has a model more like an Internet radio station that plays songs matching a genre without allowing users to make selections, is set to unveil an on-demand music streaming service in December, as it looks to move beyond its roots.

The company said in October that it has seen a decline in its active users of the service.

Pandora has been urged to explore a sale by Corvex Management LP, a hedge fund run by Keith Meister, a protégé of activist investor Carl Icahn, after it disclosed a 9.9 percent stake in Pandora in May.

The company earlier offered itself to potential buyers including Apple and Amazon.com, the Wall Street Journal had reported in July.

 [Source:- gadgets.ndtv]
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Internet

Wal-Mart Said to Be in Talks to Invest Up to $1 Billion in Flipkart

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Wal-Mart Said to Be in Talks to Invest Up to $1 Billion in Flipkart

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in advanced discussions to invest as much as $1 billion into India’s Flipkart Online Services Pvt, as the two companies battle Amazon in e-commerce, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, would take a minority stake in Flipkart under the proposed agreement, the person said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. Final terms of the deal have not been worked out and negotiations are still underway, the person said. Flipkart’s most recent valuation was about $16 billion (roughly Rs. 1,06,356 crores), according to research firm CB Insights.

Flipkart is the largest online retailer in India, but its lead has been under assault as Amazon steps up investments in the country. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said in June he plans to spend another $3 billion in India to gain customers in the fast-growing market. A deal with Wal-Mart would give Flipkart additional capital to fight back and more expertise in battling the e-commerce pioneer. “If the deal goes through, the competitive intensity between Flipkart and Amazon will shoot up,” said Gautam Chhaochharia, the Mumbai-based head of India research at UBS AG.

The deal has potential benefits for Wal-Mart too. Beyond any eventual financial return on its investment, Wal-Mart would gain exposure to India’s expanding e-commerce market and have the opportunity to challenge Amazon on more equal footing than the US.

A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said she could not immediately provide comment. A Flipkart spokesman said, “It is our policy not to comment on rumors or speculations.”

India is the next big potential retail prize after the US and China, where foreign players have made little progress against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. India’s online market will expand at an average of 45 percent annually in the next four years and reach $28 billion by 2020, according to estimates from Kotak Institutional Equities.

Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart had earlier established a retail joint venture in India with Bharti Group, which runs the country’s largest telecommunications operator Bharti Airtel. But the business failed to take off and Wal-Mart eventually sold its stake to its partner. If a Flipkart deal materializes, Wal-Mart would be able to support its new ally with money and its decades of retail experience.

“With its main competitor Amazon getting very aggressive, Flipkart needs a solid partner to bolster its operations with not just capital but also branding, logistics, sourcing and other retail experience, they won’t be able to pull it off with small partners,” said Devangshu Dutta, chief executive officer of the Gurgaon-based retail consultancy Third Eyesight.

Amazon has been gaining group with major investments in infrastructure and partnership. The company has committed a total of $5 billion to the India market, including the latest pledge from Bezos. “They know how to work against competitor Wal-Mart, they will know what to expect,” Chhaochharia said.

Wal-Mart has been renewing its efforts to battle Amazon online. In August, Wal-Mart agreed to buyJet.com Inc. for about $3.3 billion and put founder Marc Lore in charge of the combined company’s online operations.

A Wal-Mart-Flipkart tie up may prompt moves from other competitors in the India market. Alibaba has been funding Snapdeal.com, the third-largest competitor in Indian e-commerce, and has long considered the country a prime expansion opportunity as it seeks to generate half its revenue from outside China. But if Amazon and Wal-Mart both stepping up their investments, Alibaba may have to consider doing the same, either with Snapdeal or on its own.

In Alibaba’s most recent post-earnings conference call, Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai told analysts that India was a prized market where his company has investment in Snapdeal as well as an online payments service and mobile browser. “We’re very well strategically positioned in these emerging markets, and that’s the start of our international activity,” he said at the time.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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