Reuters - Technology Report

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Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Tesla sets massive stock awards for Musk based on boosting market value

BANGALORE/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk could earn as much as $55.8 billion in Tesla Inc stock and own more than a quarter of the electric car company in the next decade if he hits all targets of a bold new pay plan.

Texas Instruments' revenue growth slowdown rattles investors

(Reuters) - Texas Instruments Inc on Tuesday posted the slowest revenue growth in four quarters on softer demand for its chips used in communications equipment, disappointing investors who expected sales for automotive chips to drive strong results.

Facebook buys Boston software company that authenticates IDs

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc is buying a software firm that specializes in authenticating government-issued identification cards, the two companies said on Tuesday, a step that may help the social media company learn more about the people who buy ads on its network.

Apple launches HomePod voice speaker, takes on Google, Amazon

(Reuters) - After missing the critical holiday shopping season, Apple Inc has jumped into the voice speaker wars with the HomePod smart speaker, a device that will use its Siri voice assistant and compete against offerings from Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google.

Baidu seeks new investors for finance unit in up to $2 billion deal: sources

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese search engine Baidu Inc is seeking new investors for its wholly-owned finance unit, in a deal that could fetch up to $2 billion and deepen its push into financial services, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Fintechs impatient as British banks seek extra time to open up

LONDON (Reuters) - Financial technology firms were supposed to start breaking into mainstream banking this month when new rules forced Britain's nine big banks to loosen their grip on the industry.

EU fines Qualcomm $1.2 billion over Apple mobile chip deals

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators hit U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm with a 997 million euro ($1.23 billion) fine on Wednesday for paying Apple to only use Qualcomm chips, rather than those made by rivals such as Intel .

Self-driving car experts offer online degree in 'flying cars'

(Reuters) - Self-driving car pioneer Sebastian Thrun has shifted his gaze to the skies, as his Silicon Valley online school Udacity launches what it calls the first "nanodegree" in flying car engineering.

Car service Addison Lee challenges rivals with global app bookings

LONDON (Reuters) - British premium car service Addison Lee said customers will be able to book journeys using their app in over 100 cities from Wednesday as it invests in $90 million worth of new vehicles in a global expansion drive, rivaling the likes of Uber.

Google, Tencent, Sequoia China join $15 million funding for pharma startup XtalPi

BEIJING (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Sequoia Capital China have joined a $15 million B series funding round for Boston- and Shenzhen-based artificial intelligence (AI) pharmaceutical firm XtalPi Inc.