SEE ALSO: Report: Deutsche Telekom Considers Host Europe Group Acquisition

A purchase of Host Europe would bolster an increasingly important business of web hosting and cloud computing at United Internet, as more consumers store data online and companies hook factories to the web. United Internet is open to buying international web-hosting companies with a focus on its existing markets, Chief Executive Officer Ralph Dommermuth said in an interview last month.

United Internet declined to comment. Cinven had no immediate comment.

Deutsche Telekom AG, which owns the Strato AG web-hosting business, is also considering a bid for HEG, a person familiar with the situation said last week.

United Internet rose 1.3 percent to 39.15 euros at 14:47 p.m. Frankfurt. Drillisch AG fell as much as 6.4 percent in Frankfurt after the news, which quelled speculation that United Internet may raise its stake in the wireless operator, according to Jochen Reichert, an analyst at Warburg Research.

“A potential bid for HEG would not leave room for a takeover of Drillisch at the same time,” Reichert said Thursday.

In past years United Internet has acquired web-hosting companies including Arsys Internet and United-Domains AG. It has been weighing an initial public offering of its business applications division, which competes with domain registration services and web-hosters including GoDaddy Inc.

Cinven, a private equity firm based in Guernsey, Channel Islands, bought Host Europe from Montagu Private Equity LLP for 438 million pounds ($651 million) in 2013, expanded the business with acquisitions including of German hosting company Intergenia Holding GmbH last year.

The transaction value of Host Europe is 584 million pounds including “aggregate buy and build” values, according to Cinven’s website.

Source: TheWHIR

SEE ALSO: Ecommerce as an Opportunity for Service Providers

Ongair employees hacked together a system of wire-transfer services and web payments tools from PayPal Holdings Inc. to facilitate transactions from around the globe. But Kimenye said he was spending way too much time studying the complexities of foreign-exchange currency markets: “I was becoming a forex guru.” He considered switching to Stripe Inc., but the San Francisco startup, which makes payments tools that are popular with coders in the Valley, doesn’t service Kenya.

So Stripe helped him incorporate in the U.S. through a new program called Atlas. “When we automatically took money for the first time from a credit card, everyone in the office was like, ‘Wow,’” Kimenye said. “We felt it had leveled the playing field for us with other companies in the Valley or in Europe. It was no longer holding us back.”

Stripe has been slowly rolling out Atlas over the last three months, pitching it as a startup in a box. For a $500 fee, an aspiring entrepreneur can get the paperwork needed to incorporate in Delaware, a business account with Silicon Valley Bank, connections to American law and consulting firms, and a Stripe account to accept payments online. So far, Stripe has welcomed 440 startups from 91 countries into Atlas. Stripe said it has received applications from entrepreneurs in just about every country in the world but declined to disclose the number of applicants.

READ MORE: Apple Pay Introduces Long-Awaited Option for Websites

Atlas provides a way for Stripe to make customers come to its home country, instead of having to go to them. Stripe works only with businesses based in 25 countries, mostly developed economies, because establishing operations in a new place can involve coordination with local banks, custom technical work, and language localization. Atlas helps Stripe reach developing markets without having to go through the costly process of opening in each one. While Atlas startups aren’t required to use Stripe to process payments, most likely will. Stripe, a venture-backed startup valued at $5 billion, will take a cut of each transaction—which could grow to become a big revenue stream if the companies take off.

Patrick Collison, chief executive officer and co-founder of Stripe, said Atlas can help his company gain the loyalty of a growing set of global entrepreneurs. Their governments should like Atlas, too, he said. The program serves as an alternative to sucking entrepreneurial talent away from emerging markets. “When you discover it’s extremely difficult to start a business or gain access to Stripe in your home country, for many people the easiest response to that is to leave and move to where it is,” Collison said. Stripe said most Atlas participants plan to stay in their home countries.

Stripe surveyed Atlas companies and found that 42 percent were incorporating as a business for the first time, while 20 percent had previously tried unsuccessfully to incorporate in the U.S. They said Atlas simplifies a complicated procedure that otherwise would involve flying to the U.S. to meet with banks and lawyers.

As the wait list for Atlas grows, Stripe declined to say when it plans to open the floodgates. The company said it’s still refining the application process. Stripe underestimated how many questions startups would have when signing up. Several applicants found a phone number listed in some of Stripe’s automated e-mails, which belonged to a leader on the Atlas project, and sent him a barrage of messages through WhatsApp: Do we need a U.S. business address? How many shares should we issue through our new company? What do the different roles on a board of directors do?

To address common issues, Stripe added suggestions inside the sign-up form and to an ever-growing list of frequently asked questions. The goal is to help a startup fill out the form and submit electronically signed documents over the course of a few days. Eventually, any company should be able to join Atlas as long as it doesn’t violate Stripe’s rules prohibiting activities such as drug paraphernalia, gambling, pornography, and pyramid schemes. “There are enough gatekeepers and sources of requisite permission in the world,” Collison said. “We don’t want to introduce more.”

Atlas startups are also hoping their presence in the U.S. will help them attract venture capital. Most said they plan to seek funding in the next year, according to Stripe’s study. Paulo Tenorio, who started Brazilian marketing company Trakto, is hoping Atlas will make his startup more desirable to American venture capitalists after getting turned away in the past. “I’m going to say, ‘I have the legal presence you need here. I can be here in a day. I can spend months here,’” Tenorio said. “I’m going to try it out.”

Source: TheWHIR

The FCC on July 14 will consider steps to identify and open up “vast amounts of spectrum” for so-called 5G wireless systems that are 10 to 100 times faster than current mobile networks, Wheeler said in a speech in Washington. 5G stands for fifth generation; today’s smartphone technology is considered 4G.

“The FCC will have the opportunity to take an historic step to open up yet another frontier that promises to propel our nation — and the world — forward,” Wheeler said. He sketched a vision that included pill bottles, devices to water plants, and uses yet to be imagined.

The FCC deserves credit for acting quickly, said Meredith Attwell Baker, president of CTIA, a trade group with members including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. “All five FCC commissioners and Congress — on a bipartisan basis — support this expedited process,” Baker said in a blog post.

Source: TheWHIR

READ MORE: U.S. Closely Eyeing China’s Corporate Hacking Vow, Official Says

“It’s not based on an existing architecture. They built it themselves,” said Jack Dongarra, a professor at the University of Tennessee and creator of the measurement method used by TOP500. “This is a system that has Chinese processors.”

The new machine shows China’s determination to build its domestic chip industry and replace its dependence on imports that cost as much as oil. The world’s most populous country may also try to lessen its reliance on U.S. companies for defense technology and security infrastructure. Supercomputers aren’t major consumers of chips. But being at the heart of the world’s most powerful machines helps processor makers persuade the broader market to consider their technology.

“This is the first time that the Chinese have more systems than the U.S., so that, I think, is a striking accomplishment,” said Dongarra. The Chinese had no machines in the 2001 list, he noted. In the latest, China has 167 entries compared with 165 for the U.S.

Previous supercomputer winners have had processors built on U.S. technology from Intel Corp. — the world’s largest chipmaker — International Business Machines Corp. or a derivative of Sun Microsystems designs.

SEE ALSO: Intel: World Will Switch to “Scale” Data Centers by 2025

The top position was previously occupied by Tianhe-2, built on Intel chips by China’s National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou. That system is now second, according to TOP500.

Sunway TaihuLight’s victory is a particular challenge to Intel’s dominance in computer servers, where it currently controls about 96 percent of the market. It announced a joint venture with a Chinese organization to domesticate some of its technology earlier this year.

Supercomputers are multiple server computers linked together in a way that allows them to process huge data sets and run the most complex calculations. While they’re hugely expensive and relatively rare, they showcase new technologies that often make their way into corporate data centers.

An Intel spokesman declined to comment on the new rankings.

Other chipmakers such as Qualcomm Inc. are working with Chinese organizations to build processors in the country. Technology provider ARM Holdings Plc, whose products are at the heart of most smartphones, is also trying to grab a slice of the Chinese market.

Source: TheWHIR

RELATED: LinkedIn Deal Means More Microsoft in Digital Realty Data Centers

“We’ve done that kind of analysis in the past and it’s something we’re generally paying a lot of attention to,” she said in an interview in Copenhagen Friday.

The Dane, who took office at the end of 2014, has signaled a willingness to delve more into how merging companies leverage the treasure trove of data at their disposal. Data was one of the key considerations in the review of Facebook Inc.’s takeover of messaging service WhatsApp Inc., even though her predecessor in the end concluded there were no data-usage concerns.

No Problems Yet

Vestager warned earlier this year that even though the regulator hasn’t found a data competition problem yet, “this doesn’t mean we never will.”

James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co., said that from a data standpoint, the WhatsApp purchase “warranted greater scrutiny” than the LinkedIn deal.

“LinkedIn has roughly 100 million members in Europe, compared to about 350 million Facebook users in Europe,” he said. “The trajectory of growth of WhatsApp was significantly different to that of LinkedIn.”

Microsoft will acquire LinkedIn for about $26.2 billion, one of the largest technology-industry deals on record, as the maker of Windows and Office software attempts to put itself at the center of people’s business lives. The deal is a way for Microsoft, which largely missed out on the consumer web boom dominated by the likes of Google and Facebook, to sprint ahead in social tools — in this case, for professionals.

READ MORE: Microsoft to Acquire LinkedIn: What You Need to Know

When it announced the deal, Microsoft outlined a vision in which a person’s LinkedIn profile resides at the middle of other pieces of their work life, connecting with Windows, Outlook, Skype, Office productivity tools like Excel and PowerPoint, and other Microsoft products.

Microsoft said on June 13 its bid for LinkedIn will require regulatory approval in the EU, U.S., Canada and Brazil and that it’s confident of closing the transaction before the end of the year. The company’s press office had no further comment Friday.

LinkedIn’s analytics will help power data tools for Microsoft’s Dynamics, which competes with Salesforce.com Inc. in helping companies manage relationships with their customers.

Salesforce.com was a rival potential bidder for LinkedIn in the process leading up to the acquisition by Microsoft, according to people familiar with the matter.

Source: TheWHIR

The Big Picture

Oracle has been trying to shift more sales to cloud-based products increasingly demanded by corporate customers. The new cloud services made up about 8 percent of the company’s total sales during the quarter.

The Detail

Core cloud revenue is projected to increase 75 percent to 80 percent in the current quarter, Oracle Co-Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz said in a statement. Oracle has a “fighting chance” to be first cloud company to reach $10 billion in core cloud revenue, Chairman Larry Ellison said. Adjusted earnings in the current quarter are forecast at 56 cents to 60 cents a share. Revenue projected to increase 2 percent to 5 percent. All company forecasts are in constant currency. Currency headwinds weighed on results; revenue would have been unchanged with constant currency in fiscal fourth quarter. Net income rose 2 percent to $2.8 billion in the quarter from the year-ago period. New software license revenue in the quarter was $2.8 billion, down 12 percent.

Street Takeaways

“The company’s made a lot of progress in the last two years, and it’s starting to bear fruit. But the cloud still represents less than 10 percent of this company. So, there’s a lot of heavy lifting to go,” said Bill Kreher, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. “All the metrics seem fairly better than we had expected across the board. I think this is one of the cleanest quarters they’ve put up in a long time,” said Joel Fishbein, an analyst at BTIG.

Source: TheWHIR

That verification is an advantage in fighting fraud online and may help Apple gain traction with e-commerce retailers. Target Corp., United Airlines, Lululemon Athletica Inc. and Etsy Inc. are among businesses that have signed up. The feature will help speed up and simplify the checkout process by making it unnecessary for customers to type in credit-card numbers. That may help reduce the number who abandon their shopping carts before paying, Ajay Kapur, chief executive officer of Moovweb, which adapts websites for mobile devices.

“Apple Pay for the web is probably the biggest thing in e-commerce technology that I can remember, since e-commerce itself,” Kapur said in an interview ahead of the announcement. “With a thumbprint, it will be as seamless as buying on Amazon.” His company is investing $10 million in building Apple Pay into its online software, he said.

Safari Only

The feature is only available through Apple’s Safari browser, and not on Google’s Chrome, the world’s most-popular browser, which has more than a billion mobile users.

“Apple Pay in browser limited to Safari is going to be a tough one to swallow for many,” said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, wrote on Twitter.

Still, the move online is a blow to companies like PayPal, which offers shoppers one-click payment, said Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics LLC. PayPal also lets users of certain devices log into their accounts with a fingerprint reader.

“For PayPal, it’s pretty much a direct attack on their core business,” Entner said in an interview. “If Apple figures out a more convenient way of going through the authentication process, customers that have Apple Pay may pick that and not use PayPal.”

PayPal, a payment option on Apple.com, has much larger scale in the payments market, said PayPal spokesman Anuj Nayar. The company has 14 million active merchant accounts, and 170 million active consumer accounts, he said. “PayPal is much more than a button on a website,” he said. “What we are building is truly an operating system for digital commerce.”

Source: TheWHIR

“We wanted to take this thing that was complex and hard and make it obtainable and put it in the reach of those for whom making a website is mind-blowing,” said Nir Zohar, president and chief operating officer of 10-year-old Wix.

Empowered Designers

The web design service market, which companies like Wix are disrupting, was worth about $24 billion in September 2015 and is expected to grow to $29 billion by 2020, according to IBISWorld. Companies offering online website development applications for the computer-challenged could slow growth for professional designers, as an increasing number of small businesses develop and maintain their own websites, the report said.

Wix’s new artificial intelligence tool will “empower” designers rather than displace them, by allowing them to focus on more innovative or complex tasks, Chief Executive Officer Avishai Abrahami told reporters and employees at Wix’s New York offices Tuesday.

Wix ADI, the acronym standing for artificial design intelligence, is the newest technology leap by the Tel Aviv-based company, whose free tools have helped 86 million people create websites. It’s a product that could help lift Wix ahead of competitors like Squarespace, Weebly, WordPress.org and Shopify Inc. if demand for automation goes the way the company anticipates.

Removes Friction

Wix ADI not only trawls the web to find personalized information, it also mines its database of 86 million users to produce content for its automatically-generated website templates.

“This should help accelerate growth to the extent it removes friction from the transaction,” Kerry Rice, an analyst with Needham & Co. in San Francisco, said by phone. “Continuing to make it easy, make it more accessible, and obviously they’ve got a lot of insight from their 80 million plus registered users — that’s something that no one else has.”

Wix anticipates Wix ADI will supplant Booking.com as the go-to system for small hotels and family bed and breakfasts, eliminating the fee payable to the Priceline Group’s service in the same way Wix Restaurants, released in March, seeks to remove the reliance of cafes and eateries on commission-based marketplaces.

The ultimate goal is to boost the ranks of the current 2 million subscribers who pay monthly between $4 for a basic domain to $16 for e-commerce.

Wix reported a first quarter revenue jump of about 40 percent last month and increased its financial outlook for the year, prompting Oppenheimer & Co.’s senior analyst Jason Helfstein to raise his price target to $32 from $25. In his note, Helfstein named Wix as saying “the clear leader” in web presence and services for small and midsize businesses, attributing its success to the focus on software development and new products.

Wix shares rose 1.7 percent to $27.50 in New York. They have rallied 67 percent since the company went public in November 2013.

Source: TheWHIR

Charter has said it intends to phase out the Time Warner Cable brand, which has earned low marks from customers for years. Schneiderman has been investigating promises by Time Warner Cable and other broadband providers of blazing-fast speeds that allow quick downloads of movies, music and television shows.

After asking New York customers to use open-source tools to test their Internet speeds as part of the probe, “the results we received from Time Warner Cable customers were abysmal,” said Tim Wu, senior enforcement counsel and special adviser to Schneiderman, in the letter. The company failed “to achieve the speeds its customers were promised” and “generally performed worse in this regard than other New York broadband providers.”

Wu, an influential law professor who advocates for freedom of access to Internet content and coined the phrase “net neutrality,” joined Schneiderman’s office last year. He helps advise the attorney general on enforcement efforts for new technologies.

Source: TheWHIR

READ MORE: UK’s Revised Snooper’s Charter Widens Scope of Police Surveillance

Many of the surveillance techniques — such as scooping up the metadata of communications and using malware to gain access to the computers and mobile phones of terrorism suspects — have already been in use by U.K. spy agencies and the law now gives them explicit authority.

The legislation was sharply criticized by global technology companies when it was first proposed last year. Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook warned of “dire consequences” if the bill passed with language weakening encryption. And Facebook Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp., Twitter Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. said the law would undermine customers’ faith in their products and brands. Meanwhile, Vodafone Group Plc, the U.K. mobile company, said it was worried about the cost of modifying its systems to comply with the new law and that allowing the government to hack into its network might compromise its stability and integrity.

The version of the bill passed Tuesday makes clear that companies aren’t required to build backdoors to their encryption and will only be required to remove such code in response to a government request if doing so is technically feasible and not unduly expensive.

SEE ALSO: Under Snooper’s Charter, UK Government Gets First Look at Tech Products, Features

When Apple was battling with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation over breaking the encryption on the iPhone of the attacker in a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, the company said it would require a dedicated team of engineers working for at least a month to figure out how to crack it or modify the lock screen to allow unlimited attempts to open the device. If this U.K. bill becomes law, it would be up to a British judge to decide if that kind of effort met the “technical feasibility and reasonable cost” test.

The bill also makes clear that the government will likely reimburse communications companies, including mobile operators, for the cost of complying with the new legal obligations, such as the requirement to retain records of all the websites its customers visit for at least a year.

Civil rights and privacy advocates have also opposed the bill and the revisions the government made in the final version hasn’t mollified them. “Minor botox has not fixed this bill,” Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the civil rights group Liberty, said when the final version was introduced in March.

The House of Lords will now consider the proposed law, known as the Investigatory Powers Bill. The legislation, which some critics have branded a snooper’s charter, will also be analyzed by a panel of legal experts chaired by David Anderson QC, the U.K.’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation. Anderson will issue a report on the bill — including an opinion on whether the bulk surveillance powers the government is asking for are justified — in time for the Lords final vote on the bill sometime in the fall. If it passes, the law will go into effect in January 2017.

Source: TheWHIR