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News

• Samsung plots Galaxy S6 price cut, new phones to help business

  Lackluster demand for its flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone and higher marketing costs led Samsung Electronics to another quarter of falling sales and profits in the April to June period.

• Facebook revenue surges 39 per cent but costs also soar

  Facebook has posted strong sales results for the second quarter, showing continued success in its advertising business, though its costs also rose sharply.

• Alibaba eyes cloud computing expansion with $1 billion investment

  Enterprise customers can expect to hear more from e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. The Chinese company is accelerating the global expansion of its cloud computing business, with a US$1 billion investment.

• Ink-shooting game 'Splatoon' helps power Nintendo to profit

  Japanese gaming icon Nintendo posted a profit for the April-June quarter on Wednesday thanks in part to surging sales of a game in which players can squirt ink all over the place and transform into squids.

• Twitter surprises with a sales gain, but user growth lags

  Twitter reported a higher than expected increase in revenue on Tuesday, suggesting progress in the company's efforts to grow its ad sales.

• Facebook prevails in shareholder lawsuit over IPO

  An appeals court has ruled that shareholders cannot sue Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg in a case that accused the company of withholding key financial information from the public until after its IPO.

• Amazon posts a profit as AWS sales nearly double

  Cloud services continue to grow by leaps and bounds for Amazon.com.

• Traction Watch: A look at why 5 tech startups failed

  Let's face it, not every company will succeed. Sometimes there's a fine line between success and failure. Many factors can stop a good idea in its tracks -- sometimes it's just dumb luck. There are countless examples of failed business attempts that you can learn from, but we've picked five notable businesses from Autopsy - Lessons from Failed Startups -- a website that documents the demise of startups and the reasons they fail -- that seemingly had it all but couldn't gain traction with their customers.

• Traction Watch: Chef cooks up recipe for DevOps success

  Seattle-based Chef provides a DevOps automation model that turns infrastructure into code. Chef’s goal is to enable businesses of all types to stay competitive and agile by transitioning them into software-driven companies.

• Cisco quits set-top box market, sells business to Technicolor

  After ten years of making networked set-top boxes, Cisco Systems plans to quit the business, selling its Connected Devices division to French firm Technicolor, the companies said Thursday.

• Qualcomm plans cuts, may spin off assets

  Qualcomm will cut costs by about $1.4 billion per year and study the possible sale of assets as part of a company realignment.

• Biggest tech industry layoffs of 2015, so far

  While the United States unemployment rate has hit a post-recession low, the network and computing industry has not been without significant layoffs so far in 2015.

• CTIA: FCC transparency guidelines 'irrational'

  The wireless industry's chief lobbying group today issued comments on part of the FCC'S Open Internet Order that went into effect last month, saying that provisions requiring better disclosure of network management, performance and pricing figures are unfair and burdensome.

• AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV appears headed for approval with conditions

  AT&T's acquisition of DirecTV appears headed for approval, with Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission circulating to commissioners an order recommending approval, although with some conditions.

• In Q2, Yahoo spent a pretty penny to achieve unusual growth

  Yahoo has reported an uncharacteristic rise in revenue for the second quarter, but it came with a hefty sum spent on boosting its search traffic.