Technology

Bloomberg Qualcomm Inc., the biggest maker of chips used in mobile phones, forecast steep declines in profit and licensing sales, underscoring its dependence on the royalties that one of its largest customers, Apple Inc., has stopped paying. Sales in the company’s licensing division, which collects fees for use of its mobile technology, will sink as much as 47 percent in ...

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp.’s turnaround plan got back on track in the latest quarter, buoyed by rising sales of internet-based software and services. Profit in the fiscal fourth quarter exceeded analysts’ estimates and adjusted sales rose 9 percent as demand almost doubled for Azure cloud services, which let companies store and run their applications in Microsoft data centers. A tax-rate benefit ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. is taking another stab at turning its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset into a mass-market phenomenon. Later this year, the company plans to unveil a cheaper, wireless device that the company is betting will popularize VR the way Apple did the smartphone. Currently VR hardware comes in two flavors: cheap headsets that turn smartphones into virtual reality ...

Bloomberg Investing in the South Korean equity market has taken an interesting turn: look past the Samsung trade. Foreigners were net sellers of Samsung Electronics Co. even as they bought more than $15 billion of stocks in the past 12 months, helping push the MSCI Korea and Kospi indexes to record highs. Instead of piling into the tech giant, they ...

Bloomberg Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. forecast quarterly revenue that trailed estimates, dashing hopes that Apple Inc.’s iPhone will help the world’s largest contract chipmaker pull out of a smartphone industry slump and avert the impact of a strong currency. The Taiwanese maker of the iPhone’s processors forecast third-quarter sales of $8.12 billion to $8.22 billion, short of the $8.6 billion ...

Bloomberg Later this year, Apple Inc. will put augmented reality software in as many as a billion mobile devices. Alphabet Inc.’s Google beat Apple by three years in releasing AR tools, but its features are on very few phones and haven’t gained wide acceptance. By contrast, Apple can easily pair its software and devices, an advantage that will help it ...

Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. heads into the latter half of 2017 with record quarterly earnings under its belt, hoping to sustain that momentum as Apple Inc. prepares to debut the 10th-anniversary iPhone. Samsung intends to use its well-received Galaxy S8 to extend its lead against its American rival. But it will also lean heavily on its position as the world’s ...

Bloomberg Cyber crime insurers largely avoided costly claims from the recent attacks that hit businesses around the globe. The next global virus could change that. “It’s exceptionally likely that we will see an event over the next months that will seriously affect insurers,” Graeme Newman, chief innovation officer at CFC Underwriting, said in an interview. “It would only need a ...

Bloomberg Rambus Inc., a chip designer with a lengthy history of patent litigation, is considering a sale even as it has expanded its business to include sales of its own branded chips, people familiar with the matter said. The Sunnyvale, California-based company is working with a financial adviser to evaluate sale options and seek potential suitors, the people said, asking ...

Bloomberg Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car division, dropped three of four patent-infringement claims in its lawsuit against Uber Technologies Inc. over the startup’s autonomous vehicle program. Waymo’s decision to include patent claims in its complaint against Uber was a surprise move for Google parent Alphabet, which normally prides itself on limiting patent fights. The bulk of Waymo’s case is not ...