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Rhode Island on track to make payment on 38 Studios bonds
(Reuters) - Rhode Island remains on track to make a $2.5 million interest payment next year on bonds that were used to finance the facilities of 38 Studios, a now-bankrupt videogame company founded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. The state's House Finance Committee approved a budget late Tuesday night that included making an interest payment next May on $75 million of taxable bonds that the state sold in 2010 to make a loan to the company and lure it to Rhode Island. The company's loan payments were originally supposed to secure the bonds. ...
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Acer sees tablet, notebook PC shipments to be flat in second quarter
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Acer Inc, the world's No.4 PC vendor, said on Wednesday that it expects notebook and tablet PC shipment to be flat in the second quarter from the first quarter, versus an prediction of 0-5 percent growth made in April. Acer Chairman J.T. Wang made the comment to reporters at the firm's annual shareholder meeting. ...
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We All Need to Help NASA Find Killer Asteroids
Welcome to the NASA Grand Challenge, where everyone from government agencies to citizen scientists will compete to figure out the best way to detect and study earth-threatening asteroids. This is a real thing that is happening, and it's all complimentary to the agency's initiative to lasso an asteroid for further study.
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Award-winning journalist Michael Hastings dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Award-winning journalist and war correspondent Michael Hastings, whose unflinching reporting ended the career of a top American army general, died early Tuesday in a car accident in Los Angeles, his employer and family said.
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AT&T looks to keep users powered up with solar charging stations
AT&T has come up with a very clever way to keep New Yorkers’ mobile devices powered up throughout the day. The New York Times reports that AT&T is building 25 solar-powered charging stations throughout New York City that will give wireless users the ability to recharge their phones in places where they can’t typically find electrical outlets. AT&T plans to deploy the stations in public outdoor spaces such as parks and beaches as part of a pilot project between the carrier and the city. Marissa Shorenstein, the president of AT&T’s New York division, tells the Times that her company views the initiative “as a commitment to being a part of the New York community as a corporate citizen but also as
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Cape Wind gets $200M investment from Danish fund
BOSTON (AP) — The Cape Wind offshore wind project has secured a $200 million investment from a Danish pension fund in what the wind farm's president said Tuesday is a milestone for the long-delayed project.
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HTC reaffirms pledge to bring Android 4.2 to HTC One
HTC One users shouldn’t have to go without the latest version of Android for too much longer. Engadget reports that HTC is still planning to upgrade its flagship smartphone to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean at some point, although the site says that “users may need to wait a little longer before it becomes available” for download. The HTC One originally shipped with Android 4.1.2 when it launched this past spring, although HTC vowed that users would be able to upgrade to version 4.2.2 at an undetermined time. Given how quiet HTC has been about the upgrade lately, it’s good to hear that the company still plans on making it happen if we don’t have any idea of when it might
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Dish abandons Sprint bid for now to focus on Clearwire
By Sinead Carew NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dish Network Corp said it would not make a new offer to buy No. 3 U.S. wireless provider Sprint Nextel in time for a Tuesday deadline and would instead focus on its tender offer for Clearwire Corp. The decision may be good news for Japan's SoftBank Corp, which is also trying to buy Sprint. A purchase by SoftBank could provide Sprint with access to more capital that it could use to beef up its network and compete better. ...
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Adobe expects third-quarter Creative Cloud subscriber adds to exceed second-quarter
By Sruthi Ramakrishnan (Reuters) - Adobe Systems Inc, known for its Photoshop and Acrobat software, reported a higher-than-expected adjusted second-quarter profit and said demand rose for Creative Cloud, the subscription-based version of its flagship software package. The company said it expects the number of paid subscribers for Creative Cloud in the current quarter to top the 221,000 subscribers who signed up in the second quarter, increasing the total to 700,000. The company added 153,000 subscribers in the first quarter. ...
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Kodak prepares $406 million offering as it eyes bankruptcy exit
(Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co on Tuesday said it will seek court approval for a $406 million rights offering that could give creditors a big equity stake in the company after it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Kodak said creditors agreed to backstop an offering that would let the Rochester, New York-based company issue 34 million common shares at $11.94 each, equal to about 85 percent of the equity of a reorganized company. ...
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BlackBerry 10 sales said to be slow in the U.S., strong elsewhere
It seems like we hear more reports about BlackBerry’s revival every week, although those of us who live in the United States may not see it much in our everyday lives. It turns out there’s a good reason for this: Sales of new BlackBerry 10 devices have reportedly been middling in the U.S. while having much stronger showings in other countries. Barron’s points us to a new research note from RBC Capital analyst Mark Sue, who says that BlackBerry 10 demand “appears to be mixed by region” with “Canada, the U.K. and the Middle East… seeing the strongest BB10 sell-through.” In the U.S., however, Sue says that “BlackBerry has a diminished consumer presence” and is “seeing slower sell-through.” Adoption of
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Nvidia to license graphics technology: CEO
By Noel Randewich SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said he will license graphics technology to other companies, a new model for the chipmaker that could lead to new business with Apple, Samsung and other mobile device makers. Huang told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday that licensing graphics cores and visual patents would help Nvidia take greater advantage of the booming market for smartphones and tablets and tap markets it could not reach through selling its own chips. ...
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FCC nominee Wheeler says will promote competition
By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tom Wheeler, President Barack Obama's pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, on Tuesday pledged to champion competition in the telecommunications industry and said an upcoming auction of airwaves is the biggest challenge facing the regulator. Acknowledging his past as a lobbyist, Wheeler told lawmakers at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on his nomination that at the FCC, he would advocate for the consumers' interest first: "My client will be the American public. ...
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Vodafone raises Kabel Deutschland offer after rival bid: report
(Reuters) - Britain's Vodafone Group Plc has raised its preliminary offer to buy Germany's largest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland Holding AG, a day after U.S. media group Liberty Global Plc made a rival bid, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the bid. Bloomberg reported that Vodafone told Kabel Deutschland this week that it would be willing to pay 85 euros a share compared with its initial offer of 80 euros to 82 euros for the German company. Vodafone is said to be studying Kabel Duetschland's books before making an official offer, Bloomberg said. ...
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DreamWorks says TV revenue to hit $200M by 2015
LOS ANGELES (AP) — DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., the studio behind "Shrek" and "Kung Fu Panda," said Tuesday that a new deal to provide original TV shows to Netflix will help it double the revenue it gets from TV shows to $200 million by 2015.
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Icahn changes tack, seeks $16B Dell stock buyback
NEW YORK (AP) — Activist investor Carl Icahn on Tuesday proposed a $16 billion share buyback in his latest effort to thwart Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell's effort to take the struggling computer maker private.
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Microsoft slashes Surface tablet prices for schools
In what appears to be a desperate attempt to clear out inventory buildup, Microsoft will offer its Surface RT tablet to educational institutions at shockingly deep discounts. The tablet is available to schools and universities from now until August 31st starting at $199 for the 32GB model. The touch keyboard cover will add $50 to the price, while the type keyboard cover brings the total up to $289. The Surface RT comes bundled with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT, which includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote, and the tablet runs the Windows RT operating system, of course. Critics have blamed the watered-down Windows RT operating system, the tablet’s limited storage and high price for the Surface’s lackluster sales performance,
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Exclusive: SunGard explores $2 billion data unit sale - sources
By Greg Roumeliotis and Soyoung Kim NEW YORK (Reuters) - SunGard Data Systems Inc, the computer software maker that was taken private in 2005 for $11.4 billion, is exploring a sale of its data managing operations that could fetch up to $2 billion, several people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The business for sale, which offers data center space and technology infrastructure to clients looking to safeguard their data, has earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of around $200 million, the people said. ...
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Microsoft says it freed millions of computers from criminal botnet
By Jim Finkle BOSTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said that an assault it led earlier this month on one of the world's biggest cyber crime rings has freed at least 2 million PCs infected with a virus believed to have been used to steal more than $500 million from bank accounts worldwide. "We definitely have liberated at least 2 million PCs globally. That is a conservative estimate," Richard Domingues Boscovich, assistant general counsel with Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit, said in an interview on Tuesday. ...
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Icahn seeks Dell share buyback, buys Southeastern stock
(Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn promised Dell Inc shareholders that the company would buy back up to $16 billion of stock if they join his campaign to stop the computer maker from going private. Time is running out for Icahn. Next month, the company's shareholders will vote on whether to accept a $24.4 billion bid from the company's founder, Michael Dell, and private equity firm Silver Lake, and so far shareholders' reaction to two of Icahn's proposals has been mixed. Icahn has said repeatedly that Michael Dell's bid undervalues the company. ...
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