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(Reuters) – Google Inc has morphed into Alphabet Inc. After U.S. markets closed on Friday, Alphabet replaced Google as the publicly traded company that will house Google's search and Web advertising businesses, maps, YouTube and its “moonshot” ventures such as driverless cars. Google's class A shares and class C shares will automatically convert into the same number of Alphabet class A shares and class C shares and start trading on the Nasdaq from Monday. The structural overhaul, announced in August, is intended to separate the company's core businesses from ventures such as the driverless cars, glucose-monitoring contact lenses and Internet-connected high-altitude balloons.

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By Phin Upham Although William Bradford Shockley was born in England, he spent most of his life in California. He earned a physics degree from the California Institute of Technology […]

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Europe's antitrust chief dismissed on Friday accusations of anti-U.S. bias over her decision to go after Google for abusing its Internet search dominance and Apple over an Irish tax deal, saying such talk was a fallacy. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager's robust defense of her actions came after she was criticized in the U.S. media for a spate of cases opened over the past year against U.S. giants such as Google, Apple, Amazon and Starbucks. “Some claim that our cases involving Internet giants such as Apple or Google are evidence of bias.

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By Alexandria Sage FREMONT, Calif. (Reuters) – Tesla Motors delivered the first of its long-awaited Model X electric sports-utility vehicles on Tuesday, a product investors are counting on to make the pioneering company profitable after years of losses. “I think we got a little carried away with the X,” Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told reporters ahead of a launch event near the company's Fremont factory, where luxury Model Xs have been moving down the production line in recent weeks, nearly two years behind the company's original schedule. Invited to the event were Model X reservation holders, Tesla employees and Model S and Roadster owners.

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(Reuters) – Facebook Inc's social media website was inaccessible for some users on Monday afternoon, its second outage in less than a week. The company's shares were down nearly 4 percent at $89.25 in afternoon trading. Facebook's map on Downdetector.com, which monitors disruptions, showed major outages over parts of North America. (http://bit.ly/1aIqOPd) The social network's mobile app appears to be down as well, but Messenger services appear to be working. A message displayed on facebook.com said “sorry, something went wrong. We're working on it and we'll get it fixed as soon as we can. ..

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By Matt Spetalnick and Michael Martina WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he had reached a “common understanding” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on curbing economic cyber espionage, but threatened to impose U.S. sanctions on Chinese hackers who persist with cyber crimes. The two leaders also unveiled a deal to build on a landmark emissions agreement struck last year, outlining new steps they will take to deliver on pledges they made then to slash their greenhouse gas emissions. Speaking after White House talks during Xi's first U.S. state visit, Obama quickly homed in on the thorniest dispute between the world's two biggest economies – growing U.S. complaints about Chinese hacking of government and corporate databases, and the suspicion in Washington that Beijing is sometimes behind it.

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By Julia Love, Siddharth Cavale and Pauline Askin SAN FRANCISCO/SYDNEY (Reuters) – The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus hit stores around the world on Friday, at the start of what is expected to be a record weekend for sales of Apple Inc's marquee product. Eager buyers – joined by at least one robot – flocked to Apple stores from Sydney to New York, itching to get their hands on new models boasting a 3D touch feature and an improved camera. “The first thing I'm going to do is take a picture,” said Lithuanian student Justina Siciunaite, 25, the first of hundreds to emerge with an iPhone 6s from Apple's flagship store on New York's Fifth Avenue.

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By Yimou Lee HONG KONG (Reuters) – On a bustling street in China's southern boomtown of Shenzhen, more than 30 stores carrying Apple Inc's iconic white logos peddle pre-orders for the new iPhone, a gadget that has become a status symbol among many better-off Chinese.     Many of the stores look just like Apple's signature outlets, right down to the sales staff kitted out in blue T-shirts bearing the company's white logo and the sample iPads and iWatches displayed on sleek wooden tables. Most of the stores in the roughly 1 km shopping corridor are unauthorized “fakes” – although they are selling genuine Apple products – and their numbers have mushroomed ahead of the release on Friday of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6s Plus. The rapid increase in copycat Apple stores underscores the popularity of the brand in China, where it doubled its revenue in the third quarter from a year earlier to more than $13 billion, and suggests the U.S. tech giant is on course to shrug off weakening consumer spending in its second biggest market.

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By Michael Martina and Eric M. Johnson SEATTLE (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to reassure U.S. officials on Tuesday that Beijing remains committed to financial reforms and an open economy. “China will not go backward in this process,” Xi said at a forum for U.S. and Chinese governors in Seattle during the first day of his week-long visit to the United States. Xi's visit will include meetings with tech and other top business leaders, a black-tie state dinner at the White House hosted by President Barack Obama and an address at the United Nations.

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(Reuters) – Skype, Microsoft Corp's online telephone and video service, said some users are unable to make calls on Monday because their settings show that they and their contacts are off line, even when they are logged in. In an updated blog post, Skype also said some messages to group chats are not being delivered and that users who are not already signed in may face difficulty while accessing their accounts. Users may also face difficulty loading web pages on the Skype Community, the company said in a blog post.