Tomorrow Newspapers Online. 10-25-2013 | Sci

The letter, issued in conjunction with Icahn's new website "Shareholders Square Table," comes after Icahn urged Cook this summer to use Apple's $150 billion in surplus cash to buy back company shares.

In the wake of Icahn's letter, Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer at PIMCO and a prolific Tweeter, said via Twitter: "Icahn should leave Apple alone & spend more time like Bill Gates. If Icahn's so smart, use it to help people not yourself."

In a tender offer, a company offers to purchase some or all of its investors' shares. Though tender offers usually come at a premium to the current share price, Icahn wants Apple to borrow money to make its offer at $525 per share, the level at which shares of Apple are currently trading.

In the letter, Icahn revealed he now owns 4.7 million shares of Apple stock, up from a previous total of 4 million. That means he owns nearly $2.5 billion worth of shares of the iPhone maker.

Apple is already in the process of spending $100 billion through 2015 on share buybacks, as well as dividend payouts. But Icahn believes Apple should increase its share buyback program and spend $150 billion on its share buyback.

In a twist to his proposal, Icahn said he will defer from participating in the tender offer.

"Per my investment thesis, commencing this buyback immediately would ultimately result in further stock appreciation of 140 percent for the shareholders who choose not to sell into the proposed tender offer," Icahn said.

Almost 80 percent of those surveyed happen upon news when they are checking up on friends or sharing photos. Heavy news consumers did not describe Facebook as an important source of news, the study found.

"People go to Facebook to share personal moments - and they discover the news almost incidentally," Amy Mitchell, director of journalism research at Pew, said in a statement.

The survey is the first part of a series of studies that the Pew Research Center in collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation are conducting to examine social media and news consumption.

The study said that about two-thirds of all U.S. adults use Facebook. The world's largest social media site displays a stream where people and publishers can share news. Only 4 percent of Facebook news consumers said the platform is the most important way they obtain their news.

Social media is playing an increasingly important role in how people find news. The trend is especially pronounced among young people who prefer to get news through platforms like Twitter or Facebook rather than traditional forms of print or broadcast television.

In an earlier study, Pew found that 34 percent of people aged 18 to 24 consume news through social media compared with 10 percent of adults between the ages of 50 to 64.

The current Pew study found that adults aged 18 to 29 account for a third of Facebook news consumers.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all experimenting with ways to aggregate and share news as a way to keep people coming back to their platforms. On Monday, Facebook said that referral traffic to publishers' sites increased 170 percent through the past year.

Arriving for a two-day summit in Brussels where the broad economic and social policy agenda has been overshadowed by allegations of eavesdropping by the U.S. National Security Agency against Italy, France and Germany, Merkel said she had told President Barack Obama in a telephone conversation late on Wednesday that the acts were unacceptable.

"It's not just about me but about every German citizen. We need to have trust in our allies and partners, and this trust must now be established once again," she told reporters.

"I repeat that spying among friends is not at all acceptable against anyone, and that goes for every citizen in Germany."

The stern words follow an announcement by the German government on Wednesday that it had seen evidence suggesting the chancellor's mobile was "monitored" by the NSA. Germany's foreign minister has summoned the U.S. ambassador to Berlin to discuss the issue, an event diplomats said had rarely happened in the past 60 years.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama had assured Merkel in their telephone call that the United States "is not monitoring and will not monitor" her communications, leaving open the possibility that it had happened in the past.

The affair dredges up memories of eavesdropping by the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany, where Merkel grew up, and is an emotive topic for many Germans.

Following the unceasing flow of leaks by former U.S. data analyst Edward Snowden, which revealed the reach of the NSA's data-collection programs, Washington finds itself at odds with a host of important allies, from Brazil to Saudi Arabia.

Germany's frustration follows outrage in France after Le Monde newspaper reported the NSA had collected tens of thousands of French phone records between December 2012 and January 2013, and an Italian news magazine reported on Thursday that the NSA had monitored sensitive Italian telecommunications.

The revelations could have an impact on major legislative and trade initiatives between the United States and the European Union, with some German lawmakers saying negotiations over an EU-U.S. free-trade agreement should be suspended.

The channel, which is owned by Qatar-based Al Jazeera and launched in August, will be available on digital basic cable packages in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas in the next six months, according to a statement by Time Warner Cable on Thursday.

Time Warner Cable said it would add the channel on all of its systems in the coming months. The company is the second-largest U.S. cable provider, with 12 million subscribers.

Time Warner Cable declined to comment on the terms of the deal, so it is unclear whether Al Jazeera was paying to be carried on the cable system. A spokeswoman for Al Jazeera did not respond to a request for comment on whether the network would pay Time Warner Cable.

Last January, Time Warner Cable had dropped the channel just hours after Al Jazeera announced it was buying Current TV, a struggling cable channel founded by Al Gore.

Bright House Networks, a smaller cable system that Time Warner Cable negotiates programming contracts for, will also carry the new channel.

In a statement, Al Jazeera America interim Chief Executive Officer Ehab Al Shihabi said the channel would now be available in 55 million homes. It will still trail the reach of CNN significantly since that network is available in about 100 million homes.

Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable operator, carries the network, as does DirecTV, Dish Network Corp and Verizon Communications Inc's FiOS.

Al Jazeera has sued AT&T Inc, which decided not to carry the channel on its U-verse TV service, which had 5.3 million subscribers as of September 30.

Globally, Al Jazeera is seen in more than 260 million homes in 130 countries. But the new U.S. channel funded by the emir of Qatar has so far had difficulty getting distributors, in part because Al Jazeera was perceived by some as being anti-American during the Iraq war.

The White House will press for a delay in action on a sanctions bill that the Senate Banking Committee had been expected to introduce last month. While Congress has sought harsher sanctions on Iran, President Barack Obama's administration wants time to give negotiations including the six nuclear powers over Iran's nuclear program a chance.

Poland would bring its decrepit transport system into the 21st century, European construction firms would win contracts at a time of recession, and the European Union, whose cash helped fund the work, could point to how it was helping.

Poland got its roads, for the most part. But in many other ways the enterprise, one of the biggest construction projects in Europe, went seriously wrong. Several contractors are in legal battles to recover billions of euros they say Poland owes them. Dozens of Polish companies are in bankruptcy, and multinational firms have blamed losses on the Polish contracts turning sour. Six European governments have complained to Poland about the way their companies have been treated. The European Commission is investigating what went wrong.

Here's the twist: This is not so much a story of corruption as of cost-cutting zeal. Poland stuck to its budget and the prices agreed in its contracts. That was the problem. In an industry where firms routinely bid as low as possible and costs routinely overrun, Poland frequently refused to budge on cost. In its drive to keep costs down, it also ignored warnings - including some from independent engineers hired by the state - that designs and plans needed to be changed.

The drive to economize was repeated on dozens of projects, industry groups and construction company executives say, and left many involved in the projects struggling. One of the biggest losers was Alpine Holding GmbH, the Austrian unit of Spanish group FCC, which entered bankruptcy proceedings in June, becoming Austria's biggest corporate collapse since World War Two.

A project that should have been a bonanza for Europe has turned into "a slaughter house for Polish and European firms," Jaroslaw Duszewski, a former Alpine executive, wrote to the head of the Polish state roads agency in June this year. A spokesman for FCC declined to comment.

Five other firms have told Reuters they are still in dispute with the road agency over payment: Austria's Strabag, the Polish unit of Germany's Bilfinger, Ireland's SIAC, a joint venture of Ireland's Sisk and Roadbridge called SRB, and Budimex, a Polish unit of Spain's Ferrovial. All but one said they had filed suits against the state road agency which were unresolved. Bilfinger's subsidiary said it was seeking to resolve the dispute out of court.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker now expects 2013 pretax profit to top last year's $8 billion and sees losing less money in Europe than in 2012. Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said Ford's vehicle prices stabilized in Europe in the third quarter and overall auto sales in Europe may see "very, very modest growth" in the near term.

The automaker's stock rose 2.3 percent to $17.93 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Ford shares rose as high as $18, its best since late January 2011.

Ford's overhaul of Europe is modeled after Chief Executive Alan Mulally's "One Ford" strategy that helped the company reverse heavy losses in North America. Under the plan, Ford expects to return to profitability in Europe by mid-decade.

Ford narrowed its losses in Europe to $228 million in the quarter from $468 million a year ago. The performance trounced Wall Street estimates of losses exceeding $400 million.

"Europe losses have shrunk significantly, excluding restructuring, raising the possibility of a near-breakeven result in 2014," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a research note. Jonas has an "overweight" rating on Ford shares.

Excluding the one-time items, Ford reported adjusted earnings of 45 cents per share, 7 cents better than the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Third-quarter net income fell by a little more than one-fifth to $1.27 billion, or 31 cents per share, due to nearly $500 million in special charges, including $250 million spent on restructuring Europe.

In the quarter, Ford posted a combined profit in its three overseas regions-- Asia Pacific and Africa, Europe and South America - the first time Ford did so in more than two years.

In South America, the automaker had a pretax profit of $159 million, up sharply from $9 million last year. In Asia Pacific and Africa, Ford earned $126 million, nearly triple last year.

Ford reported a North American pretax profit of $2.3 billion in the quarter, little changed from last year.

"They seem to continue to execute," said Gary Bradshaw, a portfolio manager with Hodges Capital Management in Dallas, Texas, which owns about 300,000 Ford shares. "We're all driving 11-year-old cars. We've got to upgrade and I think the economy gets better."

Previously, Ford said its global profit would be equal to that of last year and losses in Europe would be about $1.8 billion. During the first nine months of 2013, Ford lost $1 billion in Europe and spent $400 million to restructure those operations.

Andrew Slavitt, executive vice president with the parent of Quality Software Services Inc, said his company told the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of concerns about testing the Healthcare.gov website.

"We expressed all of those concerns and risks," Slavitt said in testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, without immediately elaborating on what those concerns were.

QSSI, a unit of United Health Group, was hired to build a "data hub" that will allow people to buy insurance on the state exchanges that are the heart of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare policy, commonly called "Obamacare."

Another contractor, website developer CGI Federal, said the website will be fixed in time to allow people to enroll in private health insurance by a December 15 deadline to obtain benefits beginning on January 1.

"The system is working. People are enrolling. But people will be able to enroll at a faster pace," said Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president at CGI Federal.

The troubled rollout of the online exchanges, or marketplaces, is undergoing its first full-length public airing on Thursday in a crowded congressional hearing room, where lawmakers questioned technology contractors.

Lawmakers are trying to determine why the online portal for uninsured Americans in 36 states has malfunctioned since its October 1 start, the beginning of a six-month enrollment period that is expected to draw at least 7 million people to sign up for federally subsidized private insurance for 2014.

Republicans who control the panel criticized top administration officials and contractors for assuring lawmakers over the summer that the system would work, only to produce an enrollment characterized by crashes, glitches and system failures.

"This is not about blame - this is about accountability, transparency, and fairness for the American public. The broken promises are many," said Representative Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who chairs the committee.

"We still don't know the real picture as the administration appears allergic to transparency and continues to withhold enrollment figures," Upton said.

The new feature, called "supervised users", allows "managers" to set up profiles of the people they want to monitor.

Managers can view the supervised users' browsing history, block specific sites, and approve access requests.

The feature is available on Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

It is also available to Chromebook users.

But Google says the default setting is to allow a newly created supervised user to view all websites - managers have to specify what sites they want to block.

SafeSearch is activated automatically for supervised users, preventing most adult content from appearing in Google search results.

The move comes after growing concerns over inappropriate content children can be exposed to online.

Other browsers, including Microsoft's Internet Explorer, offer content controls that can be set by an administrator.

Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system enables users to set up a "Kid's Corner" section on the phone that only allows access to specified games, music, videos and apps. Kids are unable to access disallowed websites.

A recent survey found that many youngsters aged nine to 11 were engaging in risky behaviour online, such as sharing personal information and playing games rated for much older children, including the 18-rated Call of Duty series.

ISC2, an organisation which helps schools educate children about web safety, also found that 43% of youngsters went online every day and 46% spent more than two hours online every time they did so.

"Just sent a letter to Tim Cook. Full letter will be disclosed on my website, the Shareholders' Square Table, which will be launched tomorrow," he said on Twitter.

Icahn, who has said Apple could trade at $700 with a larger stock buyback, told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday that Apple needs a board that goes in and does a "huge buyback."

Apple did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Icahn, who is known for taking large positions in companies and pushing for management change, has said his stake in Apple is worth around $2 billion.

The investor had dinner last month with Cook and Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer and described the meeting as "cordial."

In August, Icahn told Reuters that "Apple has the ability to do a $150 billion buyback now by borrowing funds at 3 percent.

A Reuters reporter who visited an HTC factory at the company's former headquarters in Taoyuan, about an hour's drive from Taipei, saw loading docks shuttered and a sign on a locked lobby door that read: "Lobby is temporarily closed for use. Thank you for your cooperation."

HTC launched its latest version of the flagship One series handsets this year but has struggled to gain traction in a market dominated by larger rivals Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The company, whose woes have been exacerbated by supply chain constraints and internal turmoil, reported its first ever quarterly loss this month and its cash flow from operations dropped to a negative $707.27 million as of the end of June.

Despite lackluster sales, HTC devices usually receive rave reviews, and it has in recent months expanded its range to include smaller and larger models of the One phone and hinted at further products, including a tablet and a wearable device.

HTC initially denied it was shutting down any production, in Taiwan or elsewhere, and declined to comment on whether it was in discussions to outsource production.

"HTC in not shutting down nor has plans to sell any of its factory assets," the company said in an emailed response to queries from Reuters. "HTC has a very strong balance sheet and will provide the latest financials in our upcoming earnings call to investors and the broader community."

When asked about what Reuters had seen at the factory in a telephone interview, HTC Chief Marketing Officer Ben Ho declined to give details, but said: "Like any manufacturer, we do volume planning to optimize our lines, our manufacturing and production facilities.

"Whether we are operating those facilities depends on market demand and our own expectations. When you have less demand you work with less facilities to optimize your costs. When you have demand, or bigger growth, you definitely have to activate all these facilities."

In a strongly worded statement, the spokesman said Merkel had told Obama that if such surveillance had taken place it would represent a "grave breach of trust" between close allies.

"She made clear that she views such practices, if proven true, as completely unacceptable and condemns them unequivocally," the statement read.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, responding to the news in Washington, said Obama had assured Merkel that the United States "is not monitoring and will not monitor" the communications of the chancellor.

When pressed on whether spying may have occurred in the past, a White House official declined to elaborate on the statement.

"I'm not in a position to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity," the official said.

The news broke as Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to Rome, faced fresh questions about mass spying on European allies, based on revelations from Edward Snowden, the fugitive former U.S. intelligence operative granted asylum in Russia.

French President Francois Hollande is pressing for the U.S. spying issue to be put on the agenda of a summit of European leaders starting on Thursday.

He also called Obama earlier this week after French newspaper Le Monde reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) had collected tens of thousands of French phone records in a single month between December 2012 and January 2013.

The NSA appeared to be targeting people tied to French business and politics as well as individuals suspected of links to terrorism, the paper said.

Merkel is not the only foreign leader whose personal communications may have been monitored by the United States. Last month Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called off plans for an October state visit to Washington because of similar revelations.

DIFFERENT ATMOSPHERE

On a June visit to Berlin, Obama defended U.S. anti-terrorism tactics, telling reporters at a joint news conference with Merkel that Washington was not spying on ordinary citizens.

Revelations before the trip of a covert U.S. Internet surveillance program, code-named Prism, caused outrage in a country where memories of the eavesdropping East German Stasi secret police are still fresh.