Tech

HONG KONG - Crypto broker Voyager Digital has issued a notice of default to hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC)for its failure to make required payments on a loan of 15,250 BTC and $350 million USDC, Voyager said in a Monday statement. The broker said it intended to pursue recovery from 3AC and is in discussions with its legal advisors concerning the legal remedies available. (Reporting by Alun John in Hong Kong and Elizabeth Howcroft in London, Editing by Louise Heavens)...

- Special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp disclosed on Monday each director on its board had been issued subpoenas seeking more information on its deal with former U.S. President Donald Trump's social media firm. Earlier this month, the company reported that the U.S Securities and Exchange Commision and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority probing the deal had also sought more information. (Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)...

By Josh Ye HONG KONG - The chief executive officer and co-founder of Shanghai-based Chinese gaming firm XD Inc plans to leave China next year, according to an internal notice seen by , citing family reasons and rising gaming opportunities overseas. Huang Yimeng, 40, who was ranked last year by Forbes to be worth $1.2 billion, said he was making preparations to move abroad "after the next summer break", without disclosing the destination. His announcement, which XD confirmed and said primarily stemmed from family reasons, comes however as a bruising crackdown by Beijing on the gaming industry prompts many local firms to look abroad and China's zero-COVID policy, which gave rise to a two-month-long lockdown in Shanghai, drives an emigration wave. XD, which Huang co-founded in 2009, made a name for itself in China as a publisher of small independent games and was among the first companies to receive an license earlier this yea...

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS - Google was hit with an antitrust complaint on Monday after a Danish online job-search rival took its grievance to EU regulators, alleging the Alphabet unit had unfairly favoured its own job search service. The complaint could accelerate EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager's scrutiny of the service, Google for Jobs, three years after it first came under her microscope. Since then the EU has taken no specific action relating to the online job-search sector. The European Commission and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent out of office hours. Google, which has been fined more than 8 billion euros ($8.4 billion) by Vestager in recent years for various anti-competitive practices, has previously said it made changes in Europe after complaints from online job-search rivals. Launched in Europe in 2018, Google for Jobs triggered criticism from 23 online job-searc...

- Shares of Tencent Holdings Ltd gave up morning gains to fall as much as 2.5% to HK$374.60 in the early afternoon, after Prosus and Napsers said they would gradually sell shares. Dutch technology investment company Prosus and its controlling shareholder Naspers of South Africa said on Monday they intend to sell down their enormous stake in Chinese software giant Tencent to fund a share purchase programme. (Reporting by Donny Kwok; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)...

AMSTERDAM - Dutch technology investment company Prosus and its controlling shareholder Naspers of South Africa said on Monday they intend to sell down their enormous stake in Chinese software giant Tencent to fund a share purchase program. Prosus holds a 28.9% take in Tencent worth more than $100 billion. The companies indicated they might sell Tencent shares amounting to 3-5% of Tencent's daily average trading volume. Prosus and Naspers are set to announce full year earnings later on Monday. (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Kim Coghill)...

- Chinese software giant Tencent Holdings said on Monday it noted an announcement from two of its shareholders, South Africa's Naspers Ltd and Prosus, that they would start a long-term, open-ended share repurchase programme. The programme would be funded by on-market sales of Tencent's shares held by the two companies, Tencent said. (Reporting by Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)...

By Byron Kaye SYDNEY - A major consumer group has referred three of Australia's biggest retail chains to the privacy regulator, saying they use "unreasonably intrusive" facial recognition technology on customers and recommending enforcement action. CHOICE, in a complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) published on Monday, said use of the technology at JB Hi-Fi Ltd's appliances chain The Good Guys as well as hardware chain Bunnings and the Australian arm of big-box retailer Kmart - both owned by Wesfarmers Ltd - was unwarranted and in violation of privacy law. The OAIC, JB Hi-Fi and Wesfarmers were not available for comment. The retailers previously told local media they used the technology for security purposes. CHOICE routinely contributes to government inquiries involving consumer issues and its website says it was instrumental in many regulatory changes such as bans on risky financial prod...

- Australian online auto classifieds firm Carsales.com Ltd said on Monday it acquired the remaining 51% stake in U.S.-based Trader Interactive for $809 million, a year after buying 49% in the Virginia-based online advertising company. Carsales.com in May 2021 had paid $624 million for the stake it already owned in Trader Interactive. Monday's deal announcement now values Trader Interactive at an enterprise value of $1.90 billion. (https://bit.ly/3yotPlu) Melbourne-based Carsales.com also said on Monday it will fund the buyout through an equity raising of A$1.21 billion ($839.14 million) at A$17.75 per new share — a 14.5% discount to its last closing price. "The acquisition is expected to generate attractive financial returns for shareholders with low double-digit EPS accretion in year one," Carsales CEO Cameron McIntyre said. Along with the deal announcement, Carsales.com also said performance in the first five months of...

- Australia's Link Administration said on Monday Canadian cloud-based software company Dye & Durham Ltd lowered its takeover offer by nearly a quarter to A$2.21 billion ($1.54 billion) citing low market value of the share registry firm. Dye & Durham (D&D) has now offered Link A$4.30 in cash for each share, a 16.5% premium to the stock's last close on Friday but about 25% lower than its previous proposal of A$5.50 apiece made in December. Link shares have tanked 23% since D&D made its first offer on Dec. 22, losing about A$680 million in market value since then, while shares of PEXA Group Ltd have lost about 19%. The new proposal comes days after Australia's competition regulator raised concerns about D&D's takeover offer, which would give the Canadian firm access to Link's prized 42.8% stake in electronic conveyancing group PEXA. The regulator fears the acquisition of PEXA stake would impact rivals' ability to compete....

NEW DELHI - India will introduce a safety rating system for passenger cars - a measure it hopes will encourage manufacturers to provide advanced safety features and will boost the "export worthiness" of vehicles produced in the country. The road transport ministry said in a statement it will assign a rating of one to five stars for cars, based on tests assessing adult and child occupant protection as well as safety assist technologies. The new system is slated to come into effect in April 2023. India, which has some of the world's deadliest roads, has also proposed mandating that all passenger cars have six air bags, despite resistance from some carmakers which say it will increase the cost of vehicles. Current rules call for two airbags - one for the driver and one for the front passenger. India is the world's fifth-largest car market, with annual sales of around 3 million units a year. Maruti Suzuki, majority owned by Japa...

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON - A group of six Republican senators https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-colleagues-demand-action-from-biden-administration-against-tiktok on Friday asked U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about an ongoing Biden administration national security review of social media platform TikTok. The U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, in 2020 ordered Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that U.S. user data could be passed on to China's communist government. Last week, TikTok said it has completed migrating information on its U.S. users to servers at Oracle Corp, as it seeks to address U.S. concerns over data integrity. Senators Tom Cotton, Ben Sasse, Mike Braun, Marco Rubio, Todd Young and Roger Wicker asked Yellen numerous questio...

By Stephen Nellis - Apple Inc will not challenge the results of a vote by workers at its Towson, Maryland, store to unionize and intends to participate in the bargaining process in good faith, a person familiar with the company's plans told on Friday. Nearly two-thirds of the employees at the store voted to join a union last week, making it the first Apple store in the United States to vote to organize. The employees voted to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). The IAM did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple is one of several major American companies whose workforces have moved to unionize, with workers at some Starbucks Corp and Amazon Inc locations also voting to unionize in recent months. Apple employees at a store in Georgia earlier this year had plans to vote on unionization but canceled the vote, with union officers later filing a complaint...

By Jeffrey Dastin PALO ALTO, Calif. - The technology industry is bracing for the uncomfortable possibility of having to hand over pregnancy-related data to law enforcement, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on Friday to overturn the Roe v. Wade precedent that for decades guaranteed a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. As state laws limiting abortion kick in after the ruling, technology trade representatives told they fear police will obtain warrants for customers' search history, geolocation and other information indicating plans to terminate a pregnancy. Prosecutors could access the same via a subpoena, too. The concern reflects how the data collection practices of companies like Alphabet Inc's Google, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon.com Inc have the potential to incriminate abortion-seekers for state laws that many in Silicon Valley oppose. "It is very likely that there’s going to be...

By Hannah Lang - Cryptocurrency exchange FTX is in talks to acquire a stake in crypto lender BlockFi, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The companies had previously announced on Tuesday that BlockFi had signed a term sheet with FTX for a $250 million revolving credit facility, which will give BlockFi crucial access to capital amid a rout in the digital currency market. No equity agreement has yet been reached, and discussions are ongoing, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a statement, a BlockFi spokesperson said the company "does not comment on market rumors." "We are still negotiating the terms of the deal and cannot share more information at this time. We anticipate sharing more on the terms of the deal with the public at a later date," the BlockFi spokesperson said. A spokesperson for FTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment....

NEW YORK - A New York state regulator on Friday fined Carnival Corp $5 million over "significant" cybersecurity violations, as the cruise line operator suffered at least four cybersecurity events that exposed a substantial amount of sensitive, personal data belonging to its customers. New York's Department of Financial Services said Carnival violated a state regulation requiring greater oversight, reporting and training to prevent data breaches, including ransomware attacks, and as a result filed improper compliance certifications from 2018 to 2020. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)...

By Elizabeth Howcroft and Tom Wilson LONDON - U.S. crypto firm Harmony said on Friday that thieves stole around $100 million worth of digital coins from one of its key products, the latest in a string of cyber heists on a sector long targeted by hackers. Harmony develops blockchains for so-called decentralised finance - peer-to-peer sites that offer loans and other services without the traditional gatekeepers such as banks - and non-fungible tokens. The California-based company said the heist hit its Horizon "bridge", a tool for transferring crypto between different blockchains - the underlying software used by digital tokens such as bitcoin and ether. Thefts have long plagued companies in the crypto sector, with blockchain bridges increasingly targeted. Over $1 billion has been stolen from bridges so far in 2022, according to London-based blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. Harmony tweeted that it was "workin...

By Josh Ye HONG KONG -China's internet security authority has launched an investigation into the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), about a month after the market regulator targeted the online academic database with an antitrust probe. China Cyberspace Administration said on its website the probe was aimed at "preempting security risks of national data, protecting national security and safeguarding public interest" and said it had summoned CNKI management for a meeting. A second investigation centred on CNKI in just over a month makes the database one of the highest-profile targets by regulators this year while Beijing starts to wind down its sweeping regulatory crackdown on most other internet platforms. On May 13, China's market regulator, the State Administration for Market Regulation launched an antitrust investigation into CNKI. CNKI came under scrutiny in April after local media reported China’s...

By Aditi Shah NEW DELHI - Toyota Motor Corp and Suzuki Motor Corp said on Friday they will begin production in August of their first hybrid vehicle in India, as part of a partnership formed by the two Japanese carmakers in 2017. The hybrid sport utility vehicle (SUV), developed by Suzuki, will be manufactured at Toyota's local plant in southern India. The SUV will be sold in India and exported to markets including Africa, the companies said in a statement. The powertrains of the SUV will be equipped with mild hybrid developed by Suzuki and strong hybrid developed by Toyota. (Reporting by Aditi Shah; editing by Uttaresh.V)...

TOKYO - Softbank Group Corp's founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son on Friday reiterated that the Japanese conglomerate was most likely to list chip designer Arm on Nasdaq while stressing no final decision has been made. (Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Tom Hogue)...