News highlights for 28 November
BT must legally split from Openreach – Ofcom
Telecoms regulator Ofcom has ordered BT to legally separate from its Openreach division, which runs the UK’s broadband infrastructure. Openreach should become a distinct company within the BT group, the regulator said. BT had not voluntarily addressed competition concerns Ofcom laid out in July, it said. Read more…
Samsung considers split after investor pressure
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Tuesday it will increase dividends and consider splitting itself, as the tech giant faces possibly the biggest structural change in its 47-year history. Read more…
China partly backing US buyout fund, is scrutiny required here?
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Canyon Bridge Capital Partners, a buyout fund that agreed to acquire U.S.-based chip maker Lattice Semiconductor Corp for $1.3 billion earlier this month, is funded partly by cash originating from China’s central government and also has indirect links to its space program, Chinese corporate filings show. Read more…
AT&T gets disruptive with DirecTV offer
NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) – AT&T Inc, the largest U.S. TV provider, unveiled on Monday the pricing and launch date for DirecTV Now, which will stream television programming through the internet to win customers who shun traditional cable and satellite TV subscriptions. Read more…
Pound’s plunge puts small UK tech businesses into foreign firing line
The £24bn purchase of Brit tech success ARM Holdings by Japan giant Softbank this summer was a contentious affair. The new government claimed it demonstrated that post-EU referendum Britain is “open for business”, although it has also voiced concern about British assets falling to overseas buyers with talk of a more focused “industrial strategy”. Read more…
Activist Elliott puts pressure on Cognizant to shake up Board
(Reuters) – Activist investor Elliott Management disclosed a stake of more than 4 percent in Cognizant Technology Solutions and urged the IT services provider in a letter to consider shaking up its board as one of several steps to boost shareholder value. Read more…
German network outage was botched botnet attack
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of Deutsche Telekom customers in Germany were hit on Sunday by network outages and a company executive blamed the disruptions on a failed hacking attempt to hijack consumer router devices for a wider internet attack. Read more…
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