Apollo to pay more on Presidio amid reputational, credit questions

By Lisa Lee, Mike Stone and Mariana Santibanez NEW YORK (Reuters) – (This story filed on January 22, 2015 has been refiled to clarify proposed creditor terms of the Caesars bankruptcy and related quotation) The term debt financing backing Apollo Global Management LLC's [APOLO.UL] buyout of information technology services provider Presidio Inc is facing pushback from loan investors wary of an unpopular sponsor, the deal's high leverage and issues related to the credit itself. To entice investors wary of Presidio's lack of hard assets, high leverage and business model, lead arranger Credit Suisse this week made some adjustments to the credit, sources said

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Davos bosses fret over threats to Internet free trade

The issue is a hot topic at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, and the forum is seeking to provide a platform for debate over ways to maintain an open, cross-border Web in the face of pressures for national regulation. Quite frankly, there is a temptation,” said Vittorio Colao, chief executive of mobile telecoms group Vodafone, who pointed to different regulatory regimes as an impediment to network traffic. A 2014 report by the Boston Consulting Group estimated the Internet economy will be worth $4.2 trillion in the major Group of 20 (G20) economies by 2016 and, if it were a country, it would rank among the top five in the world, ahead of Germany

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In China, VPN internet access tools suffer further disruptions

Internet services that allow people to freely access blocked websites and apps from within China have seen more severe disruptions this week, said three providers, moves that Chinese state media said were justified. The services affected include popular Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers Astrill, StrongVPN and Golden Frog, which are engaged in a technological arms race to one-up China’s highly sophisticated Great Firewall internet censorship system.

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Saudis on Twitter deny rumors King Abdullah dead

A Saudi journalist and a member of the royal family denied rumors on Thursday that King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, in hospital since December suffering from pneumonia, had died, according to messages on social media. King Abdullah, who took power in 2005 after the death of his half-brother King Fahd, is thought to be 91, although official accounts are unclear. “All that is being reported about King Abdullah's death is far from the truth,” Ibrahem al-Rawsa, identified as a journalist at state-run Saudi Press Agency, wrote on his Twitter account

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Google, Viacom win dismissal of children’s web privacy lawsuit

The lawsuit claimed that Viacom secretly kept track of children under the age of 13 who streamed videos and played video games on its Nick.com website, and shared what it learned with Google. It said both companies then without permission put text files known as “cookies” into the children's computers, letting them gather additional information that advertisers could use. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of young children who registered to use Nick.com.

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EBay to cut jobs, sell enterprise unit ahead of PayPal split

By Deepa Seetharaman SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – EBay Inc plans to cut its workforce by 7 percent, or 2,400 jobs, in the current quarter and is exploring a sale or public offering of its enterprise unit as the e-commerce company prepares to split from its payments division, PayPal, this year. The jobs will be cut across the marketplace, payments and enterprise divisions, eBay said on Wednesday in its fourth-quarter earnings report.

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Republicans face uphill battle on net neutrality bill

By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Democrats on the Senate and House commerce committees on Wednesday signaled no interest in rushing to adopt “net neutrality” legislation before the Federal Communications Commission sets new Internet traffic rules next month.

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