Overnight newspapers online. 01-17-2014 | Sci

The dynamic 48-year-old Swede fits the bill as a media-savvy technology fanatic, but his emergence as a leading candidate for the U.S. company will still come as a surprise to many on Wall Street.

Vestberg, a former elite-level handball player, worked his way through the ranks at the world's largest mobile telecoms equipment maker, with stints in China, Brazil, Mexico and the United States en route to becoming chief financial officer before taking the top job in 2010.

But he has struggled to convince investors that Ericsson can maintain its lead in mobile networks in the face of stiff competition from rivals such as China's Huawei.

Since Vestberg took the helm, the company's shares have underperformed the sector. Though the share price has risen 19 percent, in line with Microsoft, that compares with a leap of nearly 60 percent for the Stoxx Europe 600 Technology Index over the same period and a 41 percent rise for Sweden's blue-chip index.

Both Microsoft and Ericsson declined to comment on Bloomberg's report, though a source close to the U.S. company has said that no CEO appointment is likely until the last week of January at the earliest.

Furthermore, Microsoft might prefer a candidate with more experience in consumer products as it tries to take the fight to market leaders Apple and Samsung in handsets and tablets after its purchase of Nokia's mobile phone business.

Vestberg was in charge of Ericsson's exit from its handset joint venture with Sony two years ago, ending the company's association with consumer products.

"I don't think it's very likely that they will choose Vestberg," said Bengt Nordstrom, head of Swedish telecoms consultancy Northstream.

"It's more logical that they will find a U.S. leader, from their network of owners, board members and experienced CEOs with a software, enterprise and media background. There's enough with talent and experience in the U.S. market."

LIMITED OPTIONS

Since Microsoft's Ballmer announced his retirement plans last August, analysts have discussed potential candidates ranging from company insiders Satya Nadella and Tony Bates to several outsiders.

But speculation refocused on internal choices this month after the leading external candidate, Ford Motor Co CEO Alan Mulally, took himself off the list.

The warnings were due to end on 8 April 2014 when all other support for the software is scheduled to stop.

However, the numbers still running the 12-year-old operating system convinced it to provide more help.

About 30% of all desktop computers are still running XP, according to figures from research firm Net Applications.

Microsoft explained its change of policy in a blogpost saying the feed of security information was the only support XP users would receive after 8 April this year.

This would mean that it continued to provide signatures for well-known malicious programs that will help Windows XP spot when viruses, trojans and other cyber-threats try to compromise a PC. The malware-spotting updates will be provided for Microsoft's Security Essentials and for a wide variety of corporate tools used to protect large numbers of PCs.

These security updates will be produced until 14 July, 2015.

However, security patches, regular updates and bug fixes for XP will stop as scheduled on 8 April.

In its blogpost, Microsoft warned users to stop using XP to ensure they stay safe.

"The effectiveness of anti-malware solutions on out-of-support operating systems is limited," said Microsoft. "Running a well-protected solution starts with using modern software and hardware designed to help protect against today's threat landscape."

Despite its age, Windows XP has proved to have a long life on desktops in homes and businesses. This led Microsoft to keep selling it long past the date it was due to be removed from shop shelves.

The refund agreement settles long-standing complaints over in-app purchases made by children without their parents' consent.

Apple will also be required to change its billing procedures to make sure customers have given consent before they are charged for in-app purchases.

The company said it had settled rather than take on a "long legal fight".

"This settlement is a victory for consumers harmed by Apple's unfair billing, and a signal to the business community: whether you're doing business in the mobile arena or the mall down the street, fundamental consumer protections apply," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez in a statement.

"You cannot charge consumers for purchases they did not authorize."

'Tens of thousands' The FTC's complaint alleged that Apple failed to inform parents that by entering a password they were approving a single in-app purchase and also 15 minutes of additional unlimited purchases their children could make without further consent.

It also said that Apple often presented a password prompt screen for parents to enter their details without explaining that this would finalise any purchase made in the app.

The FTC also noted that Apple received at "least tens of thousands of complaints" about unauthorised in-app purchases by children.

One woman said her daughter had spent $2600 in one app.

This refund settlement only covers customers who have made purchases through Apple's US app store but the BBC's technology editor Rory Cellan-Jones says Apple has previously almost always refunded parents in the UK who have complained about big bills from their children's in-app purchases.

The changes to Apple's billing process, which means express consent must be obtained before in-app charges are made, must be in place by 31 March, said the FTC.

In an internal email obtained by the website 9to5Mac, chief executive Tim Cook told Apple employees that the FTC's proposals were in line with the company's own intentions.

"The consent decree the FTC proposed does not require us to do anything we weren't already going to do, so we decided to accept it rather that take on a long and distracting legal fight," he said.

Promise He also explained that Apple began setting out a process to refund customers last year.

Cecilia Abadie was pulled over and given a ticket for speeding and wearing the smart spectacles while driving on 30 October.

She pleaded not guilty to breaking a California law barring motorists from watching TV while driving.

The case may influence future laws regarding wearable technology.

"It's a big responsibility for me and also for the judge who is going to interpret a very old law compared with how fast technology is changing," Ms Abadie told the Associated Press news agency.

She was one of an estimated 30,000 people initially selected to try the device before it becomes widely available this year.

Device 'turned off' In October Ms Abadie was pulled over by a California Highway Patrol officer for driving 80mph (128km/h) in a 65mph zone on Interstate 15 in San Diego.

The officer observed Ms Abadie wearing Google Glass and cited her for using a visible "monitor", a charge typically issued to people driving while watching a television screen.

The device includes eyeglass frames equipped with a camera and small display controlled by voice command.

Europe's largest defense contractor said in an employee newsletter the rebranding would take effect as of January 31, and the unit would target customers such as financial sector firms and utilities that need to protect confidential customer information.

"The stakes are changing in the market and threats are coming from the rise of technology and mobile devices," the unit's Chief Marketing Officer Morag Lucey said in the message.

BAE, which bought Detica for $1 billion in 2008, has been building up its cyber business in anticipation of rising demand from governments and firms at a time when defense budget cuts are affecting military equipment demand.

In February, BAE and mobile phone operator Vodafone unveiled a five-year deal to work together on cyber security solutions.

BAE said on August 1 that first-half sales in its cyber and intelligence unit, made up of its U.S.-based Intelligence & Security business as well as Detica, fell 10 percent to 657 million pounds ($1.1 billion), accounting for just under 8 percent of the group total. The fall was mainly due to lower sales at the U.S. business, while Detica sales grew 9 percent.

Registrations in the European Union and European Free Trade Association trading bloc jumped 13 percent from a year earlier to 948,090 vehicles, the fourth straight monthly gain, the Association of European Carmakers (ACEA) said.

Still, analysts cautioned that two extra working days in the five biggest markets Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain, accounting for over three quarters of sales in the region, triggered the massive December boost.

Italy, the region's fourth-biggest market, swung to growth of 1.4 percent, after shrinking for 11 months, as sales in all major markets increased. Greece and Portugal, victims of the euro zone's debt crisis, posted double-digit growth.

"The recovery process in Europe is seemingly taking hold," Matthias Wissmann, head of Germany's VDA auto industry lobby said. "People are building up trust again in the strength of economies."

This year, industry executives and analysts expect a return to low single-digit sales growth in Europe after six years of decline, but caution that chronic excess capacity, which has sparked a price war, will continue to dampen car makers' profitability.

"There were some early signs of green shoots in the final quarter" of 2013, Bernstein analyst Max Warburton said in a January 13 research note. "But it's patchy and far from sufficient to rescue the industry."

The December rally pared the sales decline for 2013 to 1.8 percent or 12.3 million cars, the sixth consecutive year of contraction but a more modest fall than many in the industry had feared earlier in 2013.

London-based Erich Hauser, automotive analyst with International Strategy & Investment was braced for a 7 percent decline last summer.

He ruled out that December statistics were inflated by so-called self-registrations, a controversial practice car makers routinely employ when selling new vehicles to themselves and affiliated dealers, rather than to customers, to overstate demand.

"The recovery may be very slow but a growing number of signs show that the uptrend is intact," Hauser said.

RENAULT REBOUND

Sales at Renault jumped 29 percent, driven by a 48 percent-surge in sales of its low-cost Dacia brand. Germany's VW, Europe's No. 1 carmaker by volume, posted a 22 percent rise in sales, with double-digit growth extending from luxury flagship Audi to the no-frills Skoda and Seat divisions.

Telekom Austria said on Thursday that America Movil would directly and indirectly own 26.8 percent of the company after transferring a 3.14 percent stake from a Slim family foundation to America Movil's European holding company, Carso Telecom B.V.

Under Austrian law, stakeholders must make a mandatory takeover bid once they reach a threshold of 30 percent. Holding 25 percent or more gives an investor the power to veto major company moves.

The Austrian government holds 28 percent of Telekom Austria - in which Slim acquired his stake in 2012 - and has said it is also committed to maintaining its blocking minority.

America Movil has said it does not plan a hostile takeover bid for Telekom Austria.

A spokeswoman for America Movil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

America Movil, which also owns a stake in Dutch KPN, has been seeking to invest outside Latin America, where regulation and competition have been squeezing sales.

As in the last few years, the United States looks set to the lead the way, with growth also quickening in Britain and Germany.

However, Japan looks set to disappoint and the euro zone will probably lag again compared with its Western peers. Emerging markets again look a mixed bag.

Perhaps the main difference this year is that forecasts from the 300 or so economists polled across the world over the last week at least suggest little prospect of a return to recession in the euro zone, the world's largest trading bloc.

Overall, the poll showed the world economy will grow 3.6 percent this year compared with 2.9 percent in 2013.

That would snap a three-year stretch of slowing global growth since the world economy first rebounded from the severe recession of 2009.

The last few months have been marked by steeply falling inflation in many of the top developed economies, with consumer prices rises in some cases far below stability targets set by their central banks.

Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, on Wednesday warned of the risk of deflation - a damaging and sustained spiral of falling prices - even as she was optimistic about improving economic growth.

Although the poll suggested deflation itself looks unlikely, weak inflation will remain widespread.

Consumer prices are expected to rise tepidly in most of the countries polled - even in the euro zone, where inflation slowed to 0.8 percent in December.

"We're not forecasting a descent into outright deflation. Instead, we're highlighting the risk that inflation remains too low or, worse, that it continues to sink over the next two years," said Stephen King, group chief economist at HSBC, in its global outlook for the year.

MIXED FORTUNES

Thursday's Reuters polls suggested mixed fortunes ahead for emerging markets.

Mexico's ambitious reform agenda will start to pay off after a very disappointing 2013, but the recovery will not likely be as strong as previously hoped as Latin America braces for a bumpy year for local markets.

Turkey too is on course for a difficult year ahead, although growth prospects in South Africa look better in 2014.

The consensus for the world's largest economy, the United States, was upgraded slightly compared with a poll last month. It is expected to grow 2.9 percent, up from 2.6 percent in the December poll and versus an estimated 1.9 percent in 2013.

Citing documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden, the New York Times said 100,000 machines were fitted with small devices that emitted radio waves.

Targets included the Chinese and Russian military as well as drug cartels, the newspaper claimed.

On Friday, the US President is expected to address concerns over NSA activity.

Quoting sources "briefed" on Barack Obama's plans, the Times reported that restrictions on the scope of collecting bulk telephone data will feature, and that a person will be appointed to represent the views of the public in secret intelligence meetings.

Furthermore, tighter controls on foreign surveillance will be implemented - an attempt, the paper suggests, to dampen the political fall-out from revelations the US had obtained data from the communication tools of world leaders without their knowledge.

Offline access This latest leak details how the NSA accessed targets by inserting tiny circuit boards or USB cards into computers and using radio waves to transmit data without the need for the machine to be connected to a wider network.

It is a significant revelation in that it undermines what was seen to be one of the simplest but most effective methods of making a system secure: isolating it from the internet.

While the technology involved is not new, its apparent implementation by US security services was previously unknown.

In a statement made to the New York Times, an NSA spokeswoman said none of the targets were in the US, adding: "NSA's activities are focused and specifically deployed against - and only against - valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements.'

Huawei became the world's third-biggest smartphone manufacturer last year, mainly due to a fast-growing Chinese market. That is helping cushion the impact of a global slowdown in network equipment spending, which caused the company to miss its revenue growth target last year.

Consumer devices will also help Huawei buy some time before 4G network upgrades in China lead to more orders for telecom equipment.

Huawei's smartphone ventures, like its domestic rivals ZTE Corp and Lenovo Group Ltd, have so far focused on selling low- and mid-priced handsets in emerging markets.

The companies have yet to gain a foothold in the high-end segment of developed markets - such as the United States - that offer wider margins.

Huawei's name is virtually unknown - and unpronounceable - in the U.S., the second-biggest smartphone market, where lawmakers have flagged Chinese telecommunications equipment as potential security risks.

"Huawei in an ideal world would love to be in the U.S. but it's probably better for them to be seen as eyeing up the market than be seen as begging," said Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based tech advisory BDA.

"They can probably succeed in the U.S. in this world of consumer electronics, where consumers, not carriers, can choose what to buy."

Consumer devices accounted for 23 percent of Huawei's overall revenue last year, up from 22 percent in 2012. That helped lift total unaudited revenue to 238 billion yuan to 240 billion yuan ($39.73 billion), Chief Financial Officer Cathy Meng told a press briefing on Wednesday.

Unaudited revenue grew 8 percent, compared with a target of 10 percent annual growth for the next five years, starting in 2013.

Unaudited operating profit rose to 28.6 billion yuan to 29.4 billion yuan, the company said. That compared with an audited 2012 operating profit of 19.96 billion yuan - an increase of 43.3 percent.

The company put the leap in operating profit down to changes in internal management and reducing operating costs.

Huawei will release audited results in March or April, including net profit which should not be largely different from operating profit, the company said. SMARTPHONES

Huawei had a 5.1 percent share of the global smartphone market in October-December, a distant third behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd with 35.2 percent and Apple Inc with 13.4 percent, according to Strategy Analytics.

A new management team led by Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra and President Dan Ammann took the reins Wednesday, saying the company expects a slight uptick in pretax profits this year, while margins likely will remain flat until 2015.

China remains GM's strongest market. The automaker plans to open four new plants there through 2015, increasing annual production capacity to 5 million vehicles, keeping neck and neck with chief rival Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE). In comparison, GM built 3.3 million vehicles in North America last year.

"We continue to perform well in the two most important markets in the world, the U.S. and China," Barra said in a statement. "We're taking advantage of our strength in these countries to restructure and make the investments necessary to grow profitably in other parts of the world."

GM plans to launch 17 new or upgraded models this year with joint-venture partners in China, including the Cadillac ATS, Chuck Stevens, who succeeded Ammann as chief financial officer, said at a Deutsche Bank auto analyst conference.

The automaker sold 3.1 million "very profitable" vehicles last year in China, Stevens said, and expects volume to grow again in 2014. Margins likely will remain flat this year, but GM anticipates improved sales and earnings in 2015, he said.

Growth in China will be driven in part by a push to boost the Cadillac brand. GM expects Cadillac sales there to double over the next two years, to 100,000 in 2015.

Europe remains something of a problem child for GM. The company cut its losses and boosted revenue there in the second half of 2013. With the withdrawal of the Chevrolet brand in Europe, GM's Opel subsidiary expects a modest increase in sales volume and market share this year, Stevens said.

But GM Europe's financial performance could deteriorate further, in part because of currency volatility in Russia and restructuring costs associated with the impending closure of Opel's Bochum plant in Germany.

Ammann described 2014 as a "transition year" in Europe, where Opel will introduce a redesigned Corsa subcompact late in the year. A redesigned Astra compact is expected to follow in early 2015, along with new families of gasoline and diesel engines, helping to drive GM's European operations back to breakeven, Stevens said.

Intel said on Wednesday that providers of data-center services would begin offering their customers details about the Intel chips used to power their servers - helping those customers make better buying decisions.

Intel controls nearly all of the server market and is determined not to cede ground to Advanced Micro Devices and other companies developing energy-efficient server chips based on technology from Britain's ARM Holdings.

"Strengthening awareness of the quality, features and impact of Intel technologies within (cloud providers') infrastructure highlights the challenge competing vendors and architectures will have," Intel marketing director Raejeanne Skillern said in an interview.

The "Intel Cloud Technology" campaign expands on an agreement last year with Amazon Web Services to provide the specifications about the various kinds of Intel chips used in services offered by AWS.

Last week, Qualcomm Inc's soon-to-be chief executive, Steve Mollenkopf, said data centers presented an opportunity for the smartphone chipmaker and hinted that the company might develop components for low-power servers.