California man sues Uber claiming it stole ride-sharing idea

A California man has sued Uber Technologies Inc and its Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick, claiming they stole his idea for a cellphone-based car hailing service. Kevin Halpern sued Uber, Kalanick and several early investors in the company in San Francisco Superior Court on Thursday, accusing them of misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract

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U.S. presidential candidate Fiorina spins web around interviewer

Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina apparently has learned something about registering website domain names. Shortly after the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive announced her campaign last week, she found out that a cybersquatter had bought the rights to carlyfiorina.org and was using it to criticize her record. Chuck Todd of NBC News brought up the issue while interviewing Fiorina on “Meet the Press” and showed the website, which features row after row of frowny-face emoticons representing 30,000 people laid off during her Hewlett-Packard tenure from 1999 to 2005

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Music streamer Spotify revenues topped 1 billion euros in 2014

Online music streaming service Spotify's revenues leapt 45 percent to top 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) last year, though its operating loss widened due to product development and expansion costs, its holding company said. The company, founded in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, was reportedly valued at about $8 billion in a recent fundraising. It said the increased loss was due to substantial investments in product development and international expansion, as well as an increase in staffing.

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Exclusive: Microsoft has no plans to pursue Salesforce – sources

Microsoft Corp currently is not weighing an offer for Salesforce.com Inc , two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday, dampening speculation that Microsoft could be drawn into bidding for the cloud software company. Bloomberg News, citing people with knowledge of the matter, reported earlier this week that Microsoft was evaluating a bid for Salesforce after the latter was approached by another unnamed would-be buyer. Microsoft considers Salesforce's current market valuation expensive, one of the people said

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FireEye raises revenue forecast as demand for cybersecurity rises

Cybersecurity company FireEye Inc raised its full-year revenue forecast as governments and businesses increase spending to protect their networks from sophisticated cyber attacks. Shares of FireEye, which also reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue, rose 1.7 percent in extended trading on Thursday.

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IT security firm NCC buys UK rival Accumuli to boost capabilities

(Reuters) – British IT security firm NCC Group said it had agreed to buy rival Accumuli to bolster its capabilities in round-the-clock operational support and incident management, and develop its consulting business. NCC is paying about 55 million pounds ($82 million) for the equity of the AIM-listed group, representing a 19 percent premium on its closing price on Monday, funded by the issue of about 20.4 million new NCC shares and 10 million pounds in cash. Accumuli is growing revenue quickly, expecting to post about 27 million pounds in the year to end-March up from 16.6 million pounds, but made a loss from continuing operations of 500,000 pounds in its first half

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Online video site Vessel bets fans will pay for early access

Online video platform Vessel launched its paid subscription service on Tuesday, offering programming at least three days before other websites in a bid to reshape an industry dominated by free content on Google Inc’s YouTube. Vessel, which costs viewers $3 a month, was founded by former Hulu Chief Executive Jason Kilar and Chief Technology Officer Richard Tom. “There are a lot of consumers who would love to see something early.” More than 130 creators will provide early access to content on Vessel

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Online platform ‘Open Humans’ launches to share DNA, other data

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – People eager to share personal information beyond what’s on their Facebook profile have another outlet: an online platform launching on Tuesday will let them give scientists information about their genomes, gut bacteria and other biological data. The “Open Humans Network” aims to make more health-related data available for scientists to mine for discoveries and also help volunteers make that data more accessible to more researchers. Open Humans is launching when scientists are increasingly concerned that valuable genetic and other data are being kept under wraps.

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FCC sued by broadband companies over net neutrality rules

By Alina Selyukh WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. broadband providers on Monday filed lawsuits against the Federal Communications Commission's recently approved net neutrality rules, launching what is a expected to be a series of legal challenges. Broadband industry trade group USTelecom filed a lawsuit against the FCC in the U.S.

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