Wednesday, July 31, 2019

The “world’s largest internet restaurant company” quietly raised $125 million this month

In May, venture capitalist Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital warned in a Financial Times column that Amazon’s recent $575 million investment in the London-based delivery service Deliveroo could prove ominous for local restaurants. Wrote Moritz: “Amazon is now one step away from becoming a multi-brand restaurant company — and that could mean doomsday for many dining haunts.”

Moritz was right to attract more attention to the deal. Deliveroo has begun operating shared kitchens from which it will not simply transport food to customers but eventually prepare it, too. His warning may even have played a role in the recent decision of Britain’s competition regulator to halt work on Amazon’s investment so it can first investigate whether the deal poses competitive concerns.

Moritz knows the playbook because of Sequoia’s early investment in Rebel Foods, formerly known as Faasos, a once-small Pune, India-based company that now prepares a variety of foods in its cloud kitchens. As he says in the same column, Faasos largely pioneered the trend. Still, the growth of the nine-year-old company is a bit breathtaking.

According to Bloomberg, Rebel — which this month raised $125 million in fresh capital from the Indonesian delivery service Go-jek, Coatue Management, and Goldman Sachs — now operates 235 kitchens across 20 Indian cities. And it’s processing two million orders a month. (It calls itself the “world’s largest internet restaurant company.”)

While it began life as a chain of kebab restaurants, that original concept, Faasos, is now just one of eight other brands that Rebel operates, including a tea brand called Kettle & Kegs; a Chinese concept called Mandarin Oak; a pizza brand called Oven Story; and a brand called Behrouz through which Rebel makes and sells slow-cooked biryani rice dishes.

Rebel Foods isn’t the only fast-moving operator using cloud kitchens to offer every kind of cuisine imaginable under one roof. Competitors of the company — which tells Bloomberg it is now valued at $525 million — include UberEats and the food delivery company Zomato, which itself has plans to open more than 100 cloud kitchens by the end of this year.

Zomato says it isn’t getting into the food preparation business — yet — but rather renting out facilities, kitchen equipment, and software to restaurants.

Still, it’s little wonder that Rebel is racing headlong into new markets as fast as it can. According to Bloomberg, the company is currently planning to build 100 cloud kitchens in Indonesia over the next 18 months with Go-Jek’s help. It also expects to open 20 cloud kitchen facilities in the United Arab Emirates by December.

Rebel was founded by Jaydeep Barman, a native of Mumbai with an MBA from INSEAD who spent nearly four years with McKinsey before joining forces with business school classmate Kallol Banerjee to launch Faasos.

Despite raising money early on from Sequoia, the company was once at risk of going out of business, in part owing to high rents and employee turnover. As Moritz tells the story, things turned around dramatically when the duo closed their restaurants and opened their first centralized kitchen.

That decision would prove pivotal. Not did Rebel survive, but today, the company tells Bloomberg, the entire operation runs the equivalent of 1,600 restaurants.

Revolut launches stock trading in limited release

Fintech startup Revolut is launching its stock trading feature today. It’s a Robinhood-like feature that lets you buy and sell shares without any commission. For now, the feature is limited to some Revolut customers with a Metal card.

While Robinhood has completely changed the stock trading retail market in the U.S., buying shares hasn’t changed much in Europe. Revolut wants to make it easier to invest on the stock market.

After topping up your Revolut account, you can buy and hold shares directly from the Revolut app. For now, the feature is limited to 300 U.S.-listed stocks on NASDAQ and NYSE. The company says that it plans to expand to U.K. and European stocks as well as Exchange Traded Funds.

There’s no minimum limit on transactions, which means that you can buy fractional shares for $1 for instance. You can see real-time prices in the Revolut app.

When it comes to fees, Revolut doesn’t charge any fee indeed, but with some caveats. The feature is currently limited to Revolut Metal customers for now. It currently costs £12.99 per month or €13.99 per month to become a Metal customer.

As long as you make less than 100 trades per month, you don’t pay anything other than your monthly subscription. Any trade above that limit costs £1 per trade and an annual custody fee of 0.01%.

Eventually, Revolut will roll out stock trading to other subscription tiers. Revolut Premium will get 8 commission-free trades per month and basic Revolut users will get 3 commission-free trades per month.

Behind the scene, Revolut has partnered with DriveWealth for this feature. This is a nice addition for existing Revolut users. You don’t have to open a separate account with another company and Metal customers in particular get a lot of free trades.

Calling all hardware startups! Apply to Hardware Battlefield @ TC Shenzhen

Got hardware? Well then, listen up, because our search continues for boundary-pushing, early-stage hardware startups to join us in Shenzhen, China for an epic opportunity; launch your startup on a global stage and compete in Hardware Battlefield at TC Shenzhen on November 11-12.

Apply here to compete in TC Hardware Battlefield 2019. Why? It’s your chance to demo your product to the top investors and technologists in the world. Hardware Battlefield, cousin to Startup Battlefield, focuses exclusively on innovative hardware because, let’s face it, it’s the backbone of technology. From enterprise solutions to agtech advancements, medical devices to consumer product goods — hardware startups are in the international spotlight.

If you make the cut, you’ll compete against 15 of the world’s most innovative hardware makers for bragging rights, plenty of investor love, media exposure and $25,000 in equity-free cash. Just participating in a Battlefield can change the whole trajectory of your business in the best way possible.

We chose to bring our fifth Hardware Battlefield to Shenzhen because of its outstanding track record of supporting hardware startups. The city achieves this through a combination of accelerators, rapid prototyping and world-class manufacturing. What’s more, TC Hardware Battlefield 2019 takes place as part of the larger TechCrunch Shenzhen that runs November 9-12.

Creativity and innovation no know boundaries, and that’s why we’re opening this competition to any early-stage hardware startup from any country. While we’ve seen amazing hardware in previous Battlefields — like robotic armsfood testing devicesmalaria diagnostic tools, smart socks for diabetics and e-motorcycles, we can’t wait to see the next generation of hardware, so bring it on!

Meet the minimum requirements listed below, and we’ll consider your startup:

Here’s how Hardware Battlefield works. TechCrunch editors vet every qualified application and pick 15 startups to compete. Those startups receive six rigorous weeks of free coaching. Forget stage fright. You’ll be prepped and ready to step into the spotlight.

Teams have six minutes to pitch and demo their products, which is immediately followed by an in-depth Q&A with the judges. If you make it to the final round, you’ll repeat the process in front of a new set of judges.

The judges will name one outstanding startup the Hardware Battlefield champion. Hoist the Battlefield Cup, claim those bragging rights and the $25,000. This nerve-wracking thrill-ride takes place in front of a live audience, and we capture the entire event on video and post it to our global audience on TechCrunch.

Hardware Battlefield at TC Shenzhen takes place on November 11-12. Don’t hide your hardware or miss your chance to show us — and the entire tech world — your startup magic. Apply to compete in TC Hardware Battlefield 2019, and join us in Shenzhen!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Hardware Battlefield at TC Shenzhen? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

Facebook May Launch a Video Chat Device for Televisions This Year

Facebook is launching its own TV streaming service this fall and has reportedly approached Netflix, Disney, Hulu, HBO and other media companies for a new TV chat device for making video calls from... https://ift.tt/2KfMRjD

NTPC Recruitment 2019 – Apply Online for 79 Trainee Posts

NTPC Limited recruits 79 ITI, Diploma, Asst & Lab Asst Trainee Posts. Candidates with ITI, Diploma, Graduation can apply online on or before 01-08-2019 to 31-08-2019.

CGPEB 2019 – Asst Teacher Science (Lab) Model Key Released

Chhattisgarh Professional Examination Board (CGPEB) has released Model Key for the post of Asst Teacher Science (Lab).

Consumer forum asks Snapdeal to pay Rs 1 lakh to buyer sent soaps in place of iPhone

Almost two years after an engineer received soaps instead of an iPhone 7 Plus from e-commerce platform Snapdeal, a consumer forum has ordered that he be paid Rs 1 lakh as compensation for the wrong delivery. https://ift.tt/2YAp1Ei

Did fake views make Badshah's 'Paagal' most-viewed video on YouTube?

The incident has led to scrutiny of what many in the music industry say is a common practice—buying tens of millions of views https://ift.tt/2YCTphv https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

FIS closes $43 billion Worldpay acquisition

The combined entity will have over $12 billion in pro forma revenue and more than 55,000 employees https://ift.tt/2YyHepQ https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

8 reasons Apple CEO Tim Cook is ‘very Happy’ with India

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Warning, Android users may be blackmailed by this ‘sex simulator’ app

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Samsung Galaxy A80 With Rotating Camera Goes on Sale in India

Samsung Galaxy A80 is currently up for purchase via Amazon India, Flipkart, and the Samsung India website. https://ift.tt/31961yu

ETtech Top 5: Amazon eyes Reliance Retail stake, growth of bike sharing apps & more

A closer look at today's biggest tech and startup news and why they matter. https://ift.tt/2YjqFia https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Analysis: in Q2 2019, global smartphone shipments declined 1% YoY, making it the 7th consecutive quarter of declining shipments; Samsung shipments grew 7.1% YoY (Varun Mishra/Counterpoint Research)

Varun Mishra / Counterpoint Research:
Analysis: in Q2 2019, global smartphone shipments declined 1% YoY, making it the 7th consecutive quarter of declining shipments; Samsung shipments grew 7.1% YoY  —  Overall smartphone shipment declined 1% in Q2 2019, making it the seventh consecutive quarter of declining shipments.



Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 Set to Launch in India Today: All You Need to Know

Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 was globally unveiled back in May, and is due to launch in India today. https://ift.tt/2ywfUK0

After 6 months of fact-checking for Facebook, Full Fact published 96 fact-checks, was paid ~$171k, wants Facebook to share more data with fact-checkers (Laura Hazard Owen/Nieman Lab)

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
After 6 months of fact-checking for Facebook, Full Fact published 96 fact-checks, was paid ~$171k, wants Facebook to share more data with fact-checkers  —  In December 2016, Facebook enlisted a handful of U.S.-based news organizations (ABC News, Snopes, PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and the AP) …



Lyft has made its 1,000 e-bikes in San Francisco "unavailable to riders" following two reports of bikes catching fire (Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez/The San ...)

Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez / The San Francisco Examiner:
Lyft has made its 1,000 e-bikes in San Francisco “unavailable to riders” following two reports of bikes catching fire  —  The flames appear to have originated from the battery  —  The battery of an electric Lyft bicycle appeared to catch fire Wednesday in the Lower Haight.



I once thought of taking my life: Vaitheeswaran

A group of drunk people stood outside. They abused him, his wife and son. Threatened them. Made a big ruckus. Several neighbours heard the commotion and came out. https://ift.tt/2ZjtpbU https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

'Food has no religion': Zomato calls out customer for religious discrimination

A customer, whose Twitter handle goes by the name 'Amit Shukla', cancelled an order and because his order was being delivered by a non-Hindu rider. https://ift.tt/2GF3S5w https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

RuPay clocks 1 billion transactions, pips debit cards in usage

RuPay is being increasingly preferred, albeit on a low base, and industry execs say this could be because more people are using cards for payment in smaller cities and towns. https://ift.tt/32VOZW6 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Amazon may shop for stake in Reliance Retail

Talks began after Reliance's negotiations with China's Alibaba Group to sell a stake in the retail entity fell through due to differences over valuation. https://ift.tt/2KiLyjH https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Google to let G Suite admins select users for the Advanced Protection Program, designed to prevent cyberattacks against high-profile users, in the coming days (Liam Tung/ZDNet)

Liam Tung / ZDNet:
Google to let G Suite admins select users for the Advanced Protection Program, designed to prevent cyberattacks against high-profile users, in the coming days  —  You might never need to change your password again if you're part of the G Suite Advanced Protection Program.



Cisco pays $8.3m after whistleblower discloses security flaws in video surveillance system

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Tuesday, July 30, 2019

APSC CCE Result 2019 – Additional Result Released

Assam Public Service Commission (Assam PSC) released Revised Mains Exam Admit Card for CCE (Mains) Exam.

Redmi K20 Pro, Redmi K20 Sale Today at 12 Noon via Flipkart, Mi.com

Redmi K20 Pro and Redmi K20 will be available for purchase through the latest sale round with a starting price of Rs. 21,999. https://ift.tt/2K6gG7h

Samsung Profit Slumps on Chip Market, Slow Flagship Smartphone Sales

Samsung has enjoyed record profits in recent years despite a series of setbacks but is now struggling with chip prices falling as global supply increases. https://ift.tt/2YGumOF

Apple Services, Wearables Offset iPhone Weakness Last Quarter

The strategy of diversifying proved especially useful in China, the world's largest smartphone market. https://ift.tt/2OuiqM1

Apple beats estimates, even as iPhone sales drop

Apple's services, wearables shore up results as iPhone drops below half of sales https://ift.tt/2GCRYt7

US files ~$100M lawsuit against BTC-e crypto exchange and a co-owner for alleged crimes including conspiracy, money laundering, and unlawful money transactions (Daniel Kuhn/CoinDesk)

Daniel Kuhn / CoinDesk:
US files ~$100M lawsuit against BTC-e crypto exchange and a co-owner for alleged crimes including conspiracy, money laundering, and unlawful money transactions  —  According to a court document filed on July 25 in the Northern District of California, BTC-e and its executive Alexander Vinnik …



The iPhone is no longer the 'king' for Apple: 10 reasons why

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ETtech Top 5: Taxing Big Tech, Uber layoffs, VG Siddhartha's tech bets & more

A closer look at today's biggest tech and startup news and why they matter. https://ift.tt/2YfOXcR https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

View: Abolishing MDR charges is not a great idea

To do away with MDR altogether is to cut the purse-strings which fund both existing activities and the impetus for future innovation. https://ift.tt/2yodmhl https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Online travel portals to book government trips soon

The department of commerce is in talks with such third party travel aggregators for steep discounts and reimbursements for cancelled tickets to get them on board. https://ift.tt/2MtsB0y https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Apple's services, wearables shore up results as iPhone drops below half of sales

Moribund global mobile phone sales have led Apple to focus on accessories like the Apple Watch and growth in music, apps, gaming, video and a credit card coming in August https://ift.tt/2KfIdCc https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Jio to raise $1 billion via offshore loans to buy telecom gear

Plans to start range of financial services, unveil home broadband pricing. https://ift.tt/335wBKL https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Samsung posts Q2 operating profit of ~$5.6B, down 56% YoY, on revenue of ~$47.4B, down 4% YoY, after profits from its chip and mobile businesses declined YoY (Cho Mu-Hyun/ZDNet)

Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet:
Samsung posts Q2 operating profit of ~$5.6B, down 56% YoY, on revenue of ~$47.4B, down 4% YoY, after profits from its chip and mobile businesses declined YoY  —  Samsung expects “persistent uncertainties” in the memory business for the remainder of the year but will pursue an aggressive investment plan in the second half.



Realme X to Go on Sale in India Today via Flipkart and Realme.com

Realme X price in India starts at Rs. 16,999, and it will go on sale at 12pm (noon) in India today. https://ift.tt/2KkyydI

Redmi 7A to Go on Sale in India via Flipkart, Mi.com Today

Redmi 7A will go on sale at 12pm (noon) IST on Flipkart and Mi.com today, and both the sites have listed a host of sale offers as well. https://ift.tt/2Yz9ys7

After Yatra, Ebix sets sights on debt-hit IT firm Trimax

The US software company’s latest offer to buy an Indian business comes less than a fortnight after it agreed to acquire travel portal Yatra Online in an all stock deal. https://ift.tt/2YrYInR https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Analysts flag data privacy concerns Over FaceApp

Analysts warn of potential risks to user privacy and national security since personal data of millions of people could be vulnerable to threats of misuse later on. https://ift.tt/2SVJ5j9 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Waze now lets Carpool drivers invite up to four other riders to join a carpool; previously, riders beyond the first had to initiate requests to join a carpool (Paul Sawers/VentureBeat)

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Waze now lets Carpool drivers invite up to four other riders to join a carpool; previously, riders beyond the first had to initiate requests to join a carpool  —  Waze, the community navigation app owned by Google, now allows Carpool users to invite multiple people to join a ride.



Drone crash near kids leads Swiss Post and Matternet to suspend autonomous deliveries

A serious crash by a delivery drone in Switzerland have grounded the fleet and put a partnership on ice. Within a stone’s throw of a school, the incident raised grim possibilities for the possibilities of catastrophic failure of payload-bearing autonomous aerial vehicles.

The drones were operated by Matternet as part of a partnership with the Swiss Post (i.e. the postal service), which was using the craft to dispatch lab samples from one medical center for priority cases. As far as potential applications of drone delivery, it’s a home run — but twice now the craft have crashed, first with a soft landing and the second time a very hard one.

The first incident, in January, was the result of a GPS hardware error; the drone entered a planned failback state and deployed its emergency parachute, falling slowly to the ground. Measures were taken to improve the GPS systems.

The second failure in May, however, led to the drone attempting to deploy its parachute again, only to sever the line somehow and plummet to earth, crashing into the ground some 150 feet from a bunch of kindergartners. No one was hit but this narrowly avoided being a worst-case scenario for the service: not just a craft failing, but the emergency systems failing as well, and over not just a populated area but immediately over a bunch of children. The incident was documented last month but not widely reported.

Falling from a few hundred feet, the 12-kilogram (about 26 pounds) drone and payload could easily have seriously injured or even killed someone — this is why there are very strict regulations about flying over populated areas and crowds.

Obviously they grounded the fleet following this incident and will not spin up again until Matternet addresses the various issues involved. How was it even possible, for instance, that the parachute line was capable of being cut by something on the drone?

IEEE Spectrum first noted the news stateside. The company the following statement on the matter:

This is the first time ever that our vehicle parachute system has failed. As stated in the report, the flight termination system was triggered nominally per the drone’s specification, but the parachute cord was severed during the parachute deployment.

At Matternet, we take the safety of our technology and operations extremely seriously. A failure of the parachute safety mechanism system is unacceptable and we are taking all the appropriate measures to address it.

Swiss Post and Matternet reacted to the incident immediately by grounding all the operations involving this vehicle type. Our experts analyzed the incident and proposed the appropriate mitigations which are being evaluated by FOCA. We will restart operations once Matternet and Swiss Post, FOCA and our hospital customers in Switzerland are satisfied that the appropriate mitigations have been applied.

Drone delivery is a promising field, but situations like this one don’t do it any favors when regulators take a look. Despite sunny predictions from the industry, there is a huge amount of work yet to be done in terms of flight proving the technology, and although 2 failures out of some 3,000 may not sound like a lot, if one of those failures is an uncontrolled fall that nearly takes out some kids, that could set the entire industry back.

(This story has been slightly updated to accommodate a new statement from Matternet.)

Documents show that Amazon's Ring vets and authors public statements about Ring attributed to police and delays announcing partnerships with police departments (Dell Cameron/Gizmodo)

Dell Cameron / Gizmodo:
Documents show that Amazon's Ring vets and authors public statements about Ring attributed to police and delays announcing partnerships with police departments  —  Amazon's home security company Ring has garnered enormous control over the ways in which its law enforcement partners are allowed …



Indian govt is finalising a framework to tax big tech firms

Revenue threshold of Rs 20 cr and a limit of 500,000 users may be set for a non-resident technology firm to pay tax on profits earned locally https://ift.tt/2MtjmO6 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

How to explain IT to end users

Imagine how useful it would be if your company's end users actually understood the IT department and a little bit of computer science. Here are 10 ideas for making that happen.

How to explain IT to end users

Imagine how useful it would be if your company's end users actually understood the IT department and a little bit of computer science. Here are 10 ideas for making that happen. https://ift.tt/2SSJIdj https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Monday, July 29, 2019

Google Confirms Paying People $5 to Scan Their Face for Pixel 4

Google paid people $5 in exchange for a facial scan to build an accurate face unlock feature for the upcoming Pixel 4. https://ift.tt/2GB7V2Z

Uber is cutting 400 jobs from its marketing team

At the end of the first quarter, Uber reported having 24,494 workers worldwide, with more that 1,200 of them in marketing. https://ift.tt/2K0t9tc https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

MP High Court 2019 – HJS (Entry Level) Prelims Score Card Released

Madhya Pradesh High Court has released Prelims score card for the post of HJS (Entry Level).

How Amazon may deliver really bad news for Zomato, Swiggy

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Researchers: Wind River's popular VxWorks' real-time operating system for embedded devices has had serious flaws for the past 13 years; patches are available (Ionut Ilascu/BleepingComputer)

Ionut Ilascu / BleepingComputer:
Researchers: Wind River's popular VxWorks' real-time operating system for embedded devices has had serious flaws for the past 13 years; patches are available  —  Almost a dozen serious vulnerabilities have been sitting for the past 13 years in the VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS) …



250,000 and counting: Handsets sector sheds jobs to remain afloat

The cut of about 15% of the workforce comprised mainly of in-store brand promoters who were put out of work after thousands of small phone-retailing shops shut down. https://ift.tt/32Z3DvI https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

ETtech Top 5: Women in gig economy, Slowing India internet usage & more

A closer look at today's biggest tech and startup news and why they matter. https://ift.tt/2YyCf8y https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

No, WhatsApp isn’t offering you 1000GB of free data: 9 things to know about this 'happy birthday' scam

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Feds: former cloud worker hacks into Capital One and takes data for 106 million people

Oppo K3 to Go on Sale Today via Amazon.in in India

Oppo K3 is all set to go on sale once again today via Amazon. The Chinese smartphone maker will be putting the phone on sale at 12pm (noon). https://ift.tt/2KfTP8l

Realme 3i to Go on Sale in India via Flipkart, Realme Online Store Today

Realme 3i flash sale is set for today, and it will begin at 12pm (noon) IST on Flipkart and Realme online store. https://ift.tt/2Ot4Po1

Jack Ma’s $290 billion loan machine is changing Chinese banking

For China’s $13 trillion economy, which expanded at its weakest pace since at least 1992 last quarter, the implications could be profound. https://ift.tt/2GDkbzV https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

India’s internet user growth decelarates

Growth in internet user base is slated to come down for the second consecutive financial year. The 2018-19 growth rate will be even less than the 8% witnessed in 2017-18. https://ift.tt/2Zjeizi https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Swedish startup Minut, which makes a camera-less security device that relies on sensors including infrared motion detection and a mic, raises $8M Series A (Steve O'Hear/TechCrunch)

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:
Swedish startup Minut, which makes a camera-less security device that relies on sensors including infrared motion detection and a mic, raises $8M Series A  —  Minut, a Swedish startup that has developed a camera-less home security device that it claims protects privacy better than competitors, has raised $8 million in Series A funding.



DoT issues 5G trials norms, licence comes for Rs 5,000

The Indian government is yet to take a call on allowing Huawei to conduct 5G trials, amid pressure from both the US and Chinese governments. https://ift.tt/2yiQL5J https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

AppViewX, which offers a "low-code" platform that helps manage and automate application delivery, certificate lifecycles, and more, raises $30M Series A (James Thorne/GeekWire)

James Thorne / GeekWire:
AppViewX, which offers a “low-code” platform that helps manage and automate application delivery, certificate lifecycles, and more, raises $30M Series A  —  Seattle-based company AppViewX just raised $30 million to help expand its networking automation technology, GeekWire has learned.



Google says it plans to counter Japan's FTC over claims that it hobbles rivals in search; a source says Japan's FTC sent a cease-and-desist order to Google (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg : Google says it plans to counter Japan's FTC over claims that it hobbles rivals in search; a source says Japan's FTC s...