Obama appeals to Silicon Valley for help with online anti-extremist campaign

By Roberta Rampton and Dustin Volz WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Sunday called on Silicon Valley to help address the threat of militant groups using social media and electronic communications to plan and promote violence, setting up renewed debate over personal privacy online. “I will urge high-tech and law enforcement leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice,” Obama said in a televised Oval Office speech

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Exclusive: Silicon Valley IPO market boom winding down

Last year, many tech IPOs enjoyed soaring valuations in their Wall Street debut, raining cash on the companies and their investors and boosting concerns about another Silicon Valley bubble. Now, the party is winding down, according to data analyzed by Reuters: Five of the 12 U.S.-based tech companies that went public this year, or 42 percent, priced their shares at a valuation below or nearly the same as their private market value, compared to 24 percent of the 29 that went public in 2014. “People are no longer out of their minds with valuations and expectations,” said Adam Marcus, managing partner at OpenView Venture Partners in Boston

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Square could take hit on IPO with Jack Dorsey leading Twitter

By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The much anticipated initial public offering from Silicon Valley payments company Square could take a price hit if its chief executive, Jack Dorsey, takes a second and possibly more demanding job: running Twitter. “Management and management focus are the single most determining factor of the success or lack thereof of a company pursuing an IPO,” said Lise Buyer, an IPO consultant with Class V Group in Silicon Valley who also helped guide Google Inc's IPO

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India’s Modi set to woo tech companies in Silicon Valley

By Yasmeen Abutaleb SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has documented his push to bring U.S. investments and jobs back to India on his Facebook and Twitter pages since landing in the United States this week, posting photos with the likes of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and group shots with Fortune 500 CEOs.

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BlackBerry devices future rides on fortunes of new Android phone: CEO

By Euan Rocha WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) – BlackBerry Ltd’s decision to roll out a smartphone powered by Google’s Android platform was hotly debated internally but the gamble is necessary to test whether the company’s handset business is viable, Chief Executive John Chen said on Friday. Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry confirmed it planned to introduce an Android smartphone later this year, even as it also reported weaker-than-expected quarterly results.

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Modi trip gives Facebook, Google chance to press on Indian expansion

By Yasmeen Abutaleb SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip this weekend to Silicon Valley gives Facebook and Google the chance to press him on issues that have bedeviled them in that country, a market they see as vital to their aggressive global expansion. For Facebook and Google, India is a crucial market. With 1.3 billion people, it is the world's second most-populous country – and they are blocked from China, the most populous, making success in India even more critical for their global growth.

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Pandora says has paid $500 million in artist royalties in past year

(Reuters) – Internet radio service Pandora Media Inc said it paid nearly $500 million in artist royalties over the past 12 months, bringing the total to more than $1.5 billion in about 10 years. “It took us nearly nine years to generate the first billion dollars in royalties, and just over a year to increase that total by 50 percent,” Chief Executive Brian McAndrews said in a statement on Wednesday. Pandora gets revenue from advertising and paid subscriptions

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India learns to ‘fail fast’ as tech start-up culture takes root

By Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Clara Ferreira-Marques BENGALURU, India (Reuters) – After ping pong tables, motivational posters and casual dress codes, India's tech start-ups are following Silicon Valley's lead and embracing the “fail fast” culture credited with fuelling creativity and success in the United States.

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Facebook’s Seattle site leader leaves company

By Bill Rigby SEATTLE (Reuters) – The leader of Facebook Inc's fast-growing Seattle office left the company last month, a spokeswoman for the online social network told Reuters on Wednesday, a crucial personnel change at Facebook's largest engineering office outside of its Silicon Valley headquarters. Engineering manager Paul Carduner, who took over leadership of the Seattle office about six months ago, was in charge of more than 600 people.

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