Uber settles wrongful death lawsuit in San Francisco

By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Ride service Uber has reached a tentative settlement in a lawsuit brought by the family of a 6-year-old girl who died in a San Francisco car accident, according to court filings. The girl, Sofia Liu, died after she, her younger brother and their mother were hit by a car in a San Francisco cross-walk on New Year's Eve in 2013

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Apple Pay launches in Britain as hold-out Barclays signs up

Apple introduced its mobile payments service to Britain on Tuesday as Barclays confirmed its participation in the U.S. tech giant's move to capitalize on the increasing number of consumers who are comfortable making tap-and-go purchases

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Twitter’s M&A team loses second member: Re/code

(Reuters) – Twitter Inc's Rishi Garg, vice president of corporate development and strategy, has resigned from the company to pursue other projects, technology blog Re/code reported, citing a tweet from Garg. Garg, who led the company's mergers and acquisition team, had joined Twitter in May, 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile. This is the second resignation at Twitter's mergers and acquisition team

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Facebook staff diversity little changed over past year

By Yasmeen Abutaleb SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc released new diversity data Friday that showed the number of women and minorities has remained little changed over the past year. The number of women increased only 1 percentage point, from 31 percent to 32 percent

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Charter lists consumer benefits to win merger approval

(Reuters) – Charter Communications Inc formally argued for regulatory approval for its Time Warner Cable Inc and Bright House Networks deals, saying consumers would benefit as Internet services would become cheaper and faster.

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With CEO shakeup, Twitter under pressure to please advertisers

By Yasmeen Abutaleb SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Twitter Inc's next chief executive officer faces a crucial challenge as the company seeks to appease Wall Street after last week's management shakeup – helping disaffected advertisers connect with users. Twitter's outgoing chief executive, Dick Costolo, resigned abruptly Thursday amid pressure from investors to increase the user base and improve what's known as direct response advertising, the most lucrative type on the microblogging site. Before joining Twitter in 2010, Bain served as president of the Fox Audience Network where he was responsible for monetizing advertising platforms across News Corp's web properties.

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Disney’s powerful marketing force: social media moms

Wendy Wright is a home-schooling mother of two, a prolific blogger and a self-described “Disney Nut.” Her cats are named Mickey and Minnie, and her blog is filled with advice for visiting Disneyland, tips for holding Disney-themed parties and reviews of Disney movies. Wright's enthusiasm for all things Disney eventually drew the attention of the Walt Disney Co , which invited her to join a carefully vetted group of roughly 1,300 Disney Social Media Moms.

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Oculus debuts consumer version of VR headset, partners with Xbox

By Yasmeen Abutaleb SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Oculus, the virtual reality company owned by Facebook Inc, debuted the much anticipated consumer version of its headset on Thursday and announced a partnership with Microsoft Corp's Xbox One gaming console. A prototype of the Oculus Rift has been available to developers since 2013, but Thursday marked the first time anyone had seen the consumer version, which will be available for pre-order later this year and will start shipping in early 2016

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Airbnb faces setback as San Francisco may limit length of stays

San Francisco may become the second California city in a month to limit length of stays arranged by accommodation services like Airbnb, which matches people wishing to rent out all or part of their homes to temporary guests. A city committee late on Monday advanced a proposal that would limit hosts to renting accommodation to no more than 60 days a year, down from 90 currently. Airbnb has grown quickly and is valued at far more than $10 billion, with analysts assuming it can overcome any major regulatory backlash

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