Reuters News

(Reuters) – U.S. companies will spend nearly $200 billion this year on targeted media such as direct mail, text messages or product placement in video games to concentrate on narrow, valuable groups of consumers, a new study shows. Investment group Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), which conducts the annual study, forecasts that spending on so-called targeted […]

(Reuters) – Warburg Pincus is considering the sale of Mach, its Luxembourg-based business that provides roaming and billing services to mobile phone companies, four people familiar with the matter said. The buyout firm has hired Barclays Capital to review options for Mach, which could fetch around $750 million if sold and includes Telefonica, Microsoft and […]

(Reuters) – Two leading lawmakers on privacy — a Republican and Democrat — have asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into MSN.com and Hulu.com’s installation of cookies onto users’ computers that cannot be deleted. In a letter dated on Monday, Representatives Joe Barton and Ed Markey asked FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz what plans the […]

(Reuters) – Shares of Research In Motion jumped more than 6 percent on Tuesday on market speculation that activist investor Carl Icahn had taken a stake in the struggling BlackBerry maker. Traders “are saying Icahn has taken a stake, but nothing is confirmed,” BGC Partners tech analyst Colin Gillis told Reuters, as the shares rose […]

SHANGHAI, Sept 27 (Reuters) – The private equity unit of Citic Securities, China’s biggest listed brokerage, has launched its third private equity fund, aiming to raise 12 billion yuan ($1.9 billion), two people with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters. Citic Private Equity Funds Management Co (Citic PE) also aims to raise 5 billion […]

(Reuters) – Online video rental company Netflix Inc said it won pay TV rights to Dreamworks Animation movies starting in 2013, the first time a major Hollywood studio has chosen an Internet streaming player over a traditional cable channel. News of the deal drove Netflix’s stock up nearly 7 percent to a high of $137.88 […]

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc, which revolutionized reading with its Kindle e-reader, is expected to unveil a tablet computer this week that analysts say will seriously challenge Apple’s market dominating iPad. Amazon on Friday invited media to a press conference to be held in New York on Wednesday, declining to provide further details. But analysts were […]

(Reuters) – When somebody who has been played by Justin Timberlake in a Hollywood movie decides to throw a party, the expectations are pretty high. And Sean Parker, the man behind free music-sharing service Napster and an early Facebook advisor, clearly likes to give people what they want. Parker, who is an investor in the […]

(Reuters) – Facebook unveiled new features that center on the way users listen to music and watch TV as it attempts to make media an integral part of its service. The features, which also include ways for users to spiff up profiles in a magazine, photo-heavy style, were introduced on Thursday during Facebook’s annual f8 […]

(Reuters) – Bill Nguyen is getting what many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs can only dream of: a second shot. In a cut-throat industry littered with the carcasses of half-formed ideas, failed start-ups and collapsed venture firms, the one-time hotshot is unveiling the second incarnation of his Color social-pictures service on Thursday. But this time, it’s video. […]