By Sinead Carew Wed Nov 7, 2012 6:09pm EST (Reuters) - AT&T Inc will boost capital spending by about 16 percent to $22 billion a year for the next three years to upgrade its wireless and wireline networks, the company said on Wednesday. Its shares fell more than 3 percent after the news.Rival Verizon Communications Inc is ahead in high-speed mobile se...

By Tim Kelly TOKYO | Wed Nov 7, 2012 4:24pm EST TOKYO (Reuters) - In a presentation beamed to Panasonic Corp offices around the world last week, company president Kazuhiro Tsuga stunned middle managers with the blunt message that their bonuses would be cut by more than a third. A couple of hours later, he warned investors in Tokyo that Panasonic ...

SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Nov 7, 2012 12:18pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Apple Inc slid almost 4 percent on Wednesday to a five-month low, outpacing the U.S. stock market's post-U.S. election losses, and slipping into bearish territory. Stock in the world's most valuable technology company has dropped more than 20 percent from a record high in Sep...

The Superintendency of Telecommunications has revised its decision to make the return frequencies conditional for cable companies merging with the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. The purchase of the cable company Cable Vision by the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) had been conditional by the Superintendency of Telecommunications (SUTEL) on the waiver of airwaves segment...

Wed Nov 7, 2012 7:49am EST (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp agreed to buy from United States Cellular Corp its businesses in Chicago, St. Louis, Central Illinois and three other Midwest markets for $480 million in cash and the assumption of some liabilities. Sprint is acquiring personal communications service (PCS)spectrum, commonly used in mobile voice and data se...

TAIPEI | Wed Nov 7, 2012 6:25am EST TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group said on Wednesday the company's flagship Hon Hai unit is finding it difficult to cope with the massive demand for Apple Inc's iPhones. "It's not easy to make the iPhones. We are falling short of meeting the huge demand," Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou told reporters afte...

STOCKHOLM | Wed Nov 7, 2012 4:44am EST STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Ericsson (ERICb.ST) is to cut 1,550 staff in Sweden as the world's biggest maker of mobile phone networks aims to drive down costs in an industry facing a global slowdown. Competition has pushed down telecom gear prices while global economic weakness has led to slower spending by operators, pre...

STOCKHOLM | Wed Nov 7, 2012 4:22am EST STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Telecoms gear maker Ericsson repeated on Wednesday it expected total restructuring charges of around 4 billion crowns ($597.21 million) in 2012 after it announced sweeping job cuts in Sweden. A spokeswoman for the company declined to give financial detail of a new cost-saving package, but repea...

By Sam Youngman WASHINGTON | Wed Nov 7, 2012 3:16am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called it - in less than 140 characters. Around 11:15 pm EST, just as the networks were beginning to call the race in his favor, Obama took to Twitter to proclaim himself the winner over Republican candidate Mitt Romney."This happened because of ...

By Tim Kelly and Melanie Lee TOKYO/SHANGHAI | Wed Nov 7, 2012 2:02am EST TOKYO/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 has received a certification of quality from a Chinese safety standards body, sparking speculation that China will end a decade-old ban on home game consoles. China has banned video game consoles since 2000, citing a need ...

By Malathi Nayak SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:33pm EST SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - "Master Chief" springs back into action on Tuesday with the release of Microsoft Corp's Halo 4, the latest installment of the Xbox blockbuster that will compete with Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty franchise for holiday-season bragging rights. Microsoft hopes...

By Dan Levine and Alexei Oreskovic Mon Nov 5, 2012 7:14pm EST (Reuters) - An Apple lawsuit against Google's Motorola Mobility unit over alleged patent abuse was thrown out on Monday just hours before trial, a setback for the iPhone maker in its efforts to gain leverage in the smartphone patent wars. The two rivals were set to square off in a Madison, Wisc...

By Dhanya Skariachan NEW YORK | Mon Nov 5, 2012 6:16pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - Staples Inc, the largest U.S. office supply retailer, has agreed to install "Amazon Lockers" in its U.S. stores, a Staples spokeswoman said on Monday. The Amazon lockers at Staples will allow online shoppers to have packages sent to the office supply chain's stores. A...

By Poornima Gupta Mon Nov 5, 2012 5:42pm EST (Reuters) - The U.S. cable industry, hoping to revive innovation and beat back the emergence of online video, is turning for ideas to Silicon Valley. Leading players from Time Warner Cable to Comcast Corp will next year set up a showpiece research center in the heart of a region that has spawned recent momentou...

By Tova Cohen TEL AVIV | Mon Nov 5, 2012 12:46pm EST TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Microsoft expects its newly launched Windows Phone to become a strong challenger in the smartphone market, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Monday. Google's Android and Apple's iPhone devices dominate the smartphone market. However, Microsoft unveiled its Windows 8 pro...

By Poornima Gupta and Sinead Carew SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK | Mon Nov 5, 2012 12:24pm EST SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc sold 3 million of its new iPads in the first three days the tablet computers were available, driving optimism for a strong holiday quarter despite intensifying competition. Sales of the 7.9-inch iPad mini and fourth...

By Claire Davenport BRUSSELS | Mon Nov 5, 2012 8:18am EST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission is to release a swathe of radio spectrum to give mobile and internet companies more space for rolling out faster fourth-generation (4G) wireless services. Monday's announcement means an extra 120 MHz of spectrum will be available for 4G from 201...

TEL AVIV | Mon Nov 5, 2012 6:15am EST TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Windows Phone 8 being launched with its partners would create a strong third player in the smartphone market and sell quickly. "With the work we have done with Nokia, HTC, Samsung and others ... there is now an opportunity to create really a stron...

By Natasha Baker TORONTO | Mon Nov 5, 2012 5:00am EST TORONTO (Reuters) - William Shakespeare's plays are getting a 21st century-style makeover in the form of new apps for tablets and smart phones nearly 500 years after the Bard took pen to parchment. Plays such as "Romeo and Juliet" and "Macbeth" spring to life in iPad apps released by Cambridge...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 2, 2012 7:43pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and two other executives at the social networking company sold millions of dollars worth of stock this week as restrictions on insider trading expired. Sandberg netted about $7.44 million by selling roughly...

By Liana B. Baker and Noel Randewich NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 2, 2012 6:18pm EDT NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's iPad mini hit stores around the world on Friday, attracting sparser crowds than previous Apple launches, but the kickoff still drew hundreds of New Yorkers only days after one of the biggest storms to hit the Uni...

By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 2, 2012 6:15pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter CEO Dick Costolo lobbied against exiling Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey in a 2008 power struggle, according to an early investor who shed new light on the management turmoil that for years roiled one of Silicon Valley's drama-ridden companies. Chris Sacca, ...

By Alexei Oreskovic SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 2, 2012 4:14pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Three out of every four smartphones sold in the third quarter featured Google Inc's Android mobile operating system, as the gap between Google and Apple Inc-based phones widened further, according to a new research report. Shipments of Android-based smartphon...

By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 2, 2012 2:35pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter users flocked to the micro-messaging network this week as Hurricane Sandy swept through the eastern U.S. seaboard, sending more than 20 million tweets about the storm between Saturday and Thursday, the company said. This far exceeds the 13.7 million tweets ...

By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Nov 2, 2012 1:07am EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Two weeks before trial in a high-stakes lawsuit pitting Google's Motorola Mobility unit against Microsoft, Google made what has become a common request for a tech company fighting for billions of dollars: a public court proceeding conducted largely in secret. Googl...

TOKYO | Thu Nov 1, 2012 9:58pm EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares of Japan's Sharp Corp fell 3 percent on Friday, a day after the TV maker almost doubled its full-year net loss forecast to $5.6 billion and warned that it might not be able to survive on its own. Rival Sony Corp rose 3.5 percent, however, after posting a small operating profit in the July-Septem...

By Thuy Ong SYDNEY | Thu Nov 1, 2012 8:40pm EDT SYDNEY (Reuters) - Apple fans lined up in Sydney, Australia, to get their hands on the iPad mini on Friday, but the device, priced above rival gadgets from Google and Amazon.com, attracted smaller crowds than at the company's previous global rollouts. About 50 people waited for the Apple store to op...

By Alexei Oreskovic Thu Nov 1, 2012 8:22pm EDT (Reuters) - Professional social network LinkedIn Corp topped Wall Street's third-quarter profit and revenue targets, as advertising rates increased and sales from its hiring services nearly doubled. Shares of LinkedIn gained nearly 8 percent to $115.15 in after-hours trading on Thursday, as the company extend...

WASHINGTON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 7:04pm EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Federal Trade Commission staff report has recommended that the government sue Google for violating U.S. antitrust law because it asked courts to stop the sale of some products that infringe its essential patents, a source told Reuters Thursday. The five-member commission is inclined to vote...

By Bill Rigby SEATTLE | Thu Nov 1, 2012 5:38pm EDT SEATTLE (Reuters) - Days after launching Windows 8, Microsoft Corp is mounting a strong campaign to win over the software developers it needs to kick-start its new operating system. A lack of apps is Microsoft's Achilles heel as it attempts to catch Apple Inc and Google Inc in the rush toward mob...

By Stephen Eisenhammer LONDON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:41pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Apple must re-write a statement posted on its website acknowledging that Samsung did not infringe on its registered designs for tablet computers, and place it more prominently on its homepage, a court in the UK ruled on Thursday. The statement was deemed to be "non-comp...

LONDON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 2:10pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - Crash Mr. Toad's motor car into a hedge, make those dastardly weasels dance and drive Mole from his hole with a new interactive iPad app based on classic children's novel "The Wind in the Willows". The app breathes digital life into Kenneth Grahame's tale ...

By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:00pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's iPad mini uses a display from South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, one of Apple's major suppliers and also its fiercest rival in the global mobile-device market that the two companies dominate. Analysts say the Silicon Valley-based iPhone maker...

By Ludwig Burger FRANKFURT | Thu Nov 1, 2012 11:15am EDT FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Software engineers are moving to the fore in the war on cancer, designing programmes that sift genetic sequencing data at lightning speed and minimal cost to identify patterns in tumors that could lead to the next medical breakthrough. Their analysis aims to pinpoint t...

By Tim Kelly TOKYO | Thu Nov 1, 2012 5:41am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Struggling Japanese TV maker Sharp Corp warned it might not be able to survive on its own, as it almost doubled its full-year net loss forecast to $5.6 billion, and said it was considering alliances with other companies. In a statement, the company said it booked massive second-qua...

TOKYO | Thu Nov 1, 2012 5:04am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sharp Corp, the struggling maker of Aquos TVs, increased its full-year operating loss forecast to 155 billion yen ($1.94 billion) from a previous 100 billion yen loss forecast. At a net level, it almost doubled its full-year loss forecast to 450 billion yen. Sharp said, however, it expects to p...

TOKYO | Thu Nov 1, 2012 3:25am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp booked a small operating profit in the second quarter, after a loss a year ago, helped by the sale of a chemicals business that offset weak demand for its TVs and other devices, and it kept its full-year profit guidance. July-September operating profit of 30.3 billion yen ($379 millio...

SAN FRANCISCO/TOKYO | Thu Nov 1, 2012 3:05am EDT SAN FRANCISCO/TOKYO (Reuters) - Micron Technology's plan to acquire Japanese memory chipmaker Elpida took a big step toward completion after a Tokyo court approved the agreement and dismissed a rival proposal promoted by a group of bondholders. A district court in Tokyo said on Wednesday it was referring b...

By Naomi Tajitsu WELLINGTON | Thu Nov 1, 2012 1:33am EDT WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Like a good Hollywood sequel, Megaupload is back. Kim Dotcom, the founder of the shuttered file-sharing site that housed everything from family photos to blockbuster films, on Thursday announced a new online storage service called Mega that will give users direct cont...

By Poornima Gupta SAN FRANCISCO | Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:18pm EDT SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook's new go-to management team of mostly familiar faces failed to drum up much excitement on Wall Street, driving its shares to a three-month low on Wednesday. The world's most valuable technology company, which had faced quest...