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Bertelsmann SE & Co KGaA, Europe's largest media group, is close to acquiring a minority stake in learning technology firm HotChalk, according to people familiar with the matter, as the educational technology sector continues to grow. Bertelsmann is leading a funding round that could value the Campbell, California-based company at $600 million to $800 million, the people said this week. Bertelsmann may use one of its subsidiaries for the investment, which is still under negotiation, the people added.

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By Ritsuko Ando and Reiji Murai TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan Display Inc's new chief executive said on Thursday the screen maker's “biggest client”, widely understood to refer to Apple Inc , is increasing orders ahead of the expected launch of a new iPhone this month. Mitsuru Homma, who was appointed CEO in June, said weakness in China's smartphone market, the world's biggest, amid that country's broader economic slowdown was not affecting the orders for display screens it was getting from its top client. Apple is expected to unveil the new iPhone at an event on Sept. 9.

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By Dan Levine SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Uber drivers are entitled to class action status in litigation over whether they are independent contractors or employees, a U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday, in a case that could have wide implications for the sharing economy. Three drivers sued Uber in a federal court in San Francisco, contending they are employees and entitled to reimbursement for expenses, including gas and vehicle maintenance. In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco said drivers could sue as a group on the question of whether they are employees or contractors, and over their demand for payment of tips that were not passed on to them.

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Swatch plans to add to its new smartwatch range, the Swiss watchmaker's chief executive told a newspaper in an interview published on Saturday. The Biel, Switzerland-based company is competing with Apple and other watchmakers in the budding smartwatch market. “Our product is called Touch Zero One and that gives enough room for Zero Five, Zero Nine,” Nick Hayek was quoted as saying by Switzerland's Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.

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By Alastair Sharp and Josephine Mason TORONTO (Reuters) – Hackers dumped online personal details of more than a million users of infidelity website AshleyMadison.com, tech websites reported on Tuesday, the latest high-profile cyber attack that threatens to wreak strife in relationships across the globe. Have an affair,” hackers claimed to publish a huge cache of email addresses and credit card data stolen in July. Avid Life Media, which owns Ashley Madison and Established Men, widely described as a “sugar daddy site,” did not verify the data was real, but said it was aware of the claim.

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The United Nations said it expects member states to respect its right to privacy and is assessing how to respond to a report that telecommunications company AT&T Inc helped the U.S. National Security Agency spy on the world body's communications. The company gave technical assistance to the NSA in carrying out a secret court order allowing wiretapping of all Internet communications at the headquarters of the United Nations, an AT&T customer, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The New York Times cited newly disclosed NSA documents that date from 2003 to 2013 and were provided by fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

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By Joseph Menn SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Beginning more than a decade ago, one of the largest security companies in the world, Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, tried to damage rivals in the marketplace by tricking their antivirus software programs into classifying benign files as malicious, according to two former employees. Some of the attacks were ordered by Kaspersky Lab's co-founder, Eugene Kaspersky, in part to retaliate against smaller rivals that he felt were aping his software instead of developing their own technology, they said. “Eugene considered this stealing,” said one of the former employees.

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By Joseph Menn LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Google Inc and Samsung Electronics Co will release monthly security fixes for Android phones, a growing target for hackers, after the disclosure of a bug designed to attack the world's most popular mobile operating system. The change came after security researcher Joshua Drake unveiled what he called Stagefright, hacking software that allows attackers to send a special multimedia message to an Android phone and access sensitive content even if the message is unopened. “We've realized we need to move faster,” Android security chief Adrian Ludwig said at this week's annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

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Time Warner Inc's shares fell as much as 9 percent after Walt Disney Co alarmed investors with a dour outlook for its cable business, suggesting that more people were switching to video-streaming from paid TV than previously expected. Disney's comments overshadowed Time Warner's strong quarterly results, which were boosted by a deal with video-streaming service Hulu and the release of “Batman: Arkham Knight” and “Mortal Kombat X” videogames. Today is the day after Disney spooked the sector with their comments that cord-cutting is worse than they thought.” Disney cut its profit forecast for its cable networks unit on Tuesday, citing a decline in subscribers.

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By Se Young Lee SEOUL (Reuters) – For four years Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has basked in the success of its Galaxy smartphones, making billions of dollars competing with Apple Inc in the premium mobile market. The coming years are set to be more somber for the South Korean tech giant, as it is forced to slash prices and accept lower margins at its mobile division in order to see off competition from rivals including China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Xiaomi Inc in the mid-to-low end of the market. Behind Samsung's reality-check is the fact it is stuck with the same Android operating system used by its low-cost competitors, who are producing increasingly-capable phones of their own.