Yahoo buys mobile start-up

(Reuters) - Yahoo Inc said on Thursday it bought a small, mobile start-up company in New York, marking one of new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's first moves to revamp the struggling Web pioneer by acquiring outside products and technology. Yahoo purchased Stamped, which makes a product that lets consumers share favourite restaurants and music on their smart-phones. It did not disclose financial details. In a blog on the Stamped website, Stamped co-founders wrote that Yahoo would discontinue the Stamped product by the end of the year and that the team would be working on something "big, mobile and new." "As a team of mostly former Googlers, we've all worked with and are big fans of Marissa. So when an opportunity arose to become...

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Miners take "rail-veyors" and robots to automated future

(Reuters) - In an office trailer parked outside a mine shaft in northern Ontario, operator Carolyn St-Jean leans back in her chair and monitors a machine loading nickel-rich ore into rail cars deep underground. Once filled, the automated train will snake through a series of narrow tunnels, emerge from a rocky outcropping, then loop past St-Jean's window and dump its payload for sorting. Vale SA, the Brazilian company that owns the mine near this nickel-rich Canadian town, has spent nearly $50 million in two years to install and test the "rail-veyor." The company believes the transport system will revolutionize how it builds and extracts new mineral deposits. The equipment is made locally by Rail-Veyor Technologies Global Inc....

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A startup hub emerges in Chicago

span class="articleLocation"> span class="articleLocation">(Reuters) - Bernhard Kappe, the chief executive officer of Chicago's Pathfinder Software, steps up to a dry erase board and draws a crude graph, its slope curves upward. Then he plots a point in the middle to show where the city's web entrepreneurs stand in terms of growth and progress. "These things take 20 years to get to maturity, and they're not linear," says Kappe, who's also an executive director of the Chicago Lean Startup Circle, a group that fosters local website development. "But we're six to seven years in, and definitely in an acceleration stage." While Chicago may not compare to Palo Alto in terms of high-tech sexiness, it's experienced enough...

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Asian shares fall after disappointing U.S. earnings

A visitor looks at market indices displayed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo September 26, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Yuriko Nakao By Chikako Mogi TOKYO | Mon Oct 22, 2012 1:36am EDT (Reuters) - Asian shares fell on Monday as lackluster earnings from leading U.S. companies and a sharp drop in Japan's exports, a key driver of the world's third-biggest economy, dented risk appetites and prompted investors to take profits on recent gains. The euro, however, crept higher after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy secured...

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Analysis: Most companies won't be early adopters of Windows 8

SEATTLE | Mon Oct 22, 2012 12:11am EDT (Reuters) - There was once a time when the launch of a new Windows operating system was a huge deal for the technology departments in many businesses. Not anymore. Microsoft Corp's release of Windows 8 on Friday is likely to be a non-event for most companies -- and some experts say many may never adopt it. The system may appear to offer something for everyone: touch-screen functionality for tablet enthusiasts, a slick new interface for the younger set, and multiple versions to make it compatible with traditional desktop PC software. Many businesses, though, say there is no compelling reason to adopt. Indeed, a large number have yet to...

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China cabinet seeks ambitious economic reform agenda: advisers

China's Premier Wen Jiabao waits for a question at his annual news conference following the closing session of the National People's Congress (NPC), or parliament, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing March 14, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee/Files By Kevin Yao BEIJING | Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:34pm EDT (Reuters) - China's top leaders have asked policy think-tanks to draw up their most ambitious economic reform proposals in decades that could curb the power of state firms and give more freedom to the setting...

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