Icahn seeks up to $7 billion for Dell bid

Activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc have initiated talks with banks and asset managers to line up commitments for as much as $7 billion in bridge loans to back their leveraged recapitalization proposal for Dell Inc, banking sources told Thomson Reuters LPC on Thursday.

Jefferies & Co is leading the deal.

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Google, like Facebook, in talks to buy Waze for about $1 billion: report

Google Inc is considering buying Israeli mobile satellite navigation start-up Waze Inc, which may lead to a bidding war with Facebook Inc, Bloomberg news reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Waze is seeking more than $1 billion and is fielding expressions of interest from multiple parties, said Bloomberg, citing a source.

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Apple enjoyed Irish tax holiday from the start

Apple has operated almost tax-free in Ireland since 1980, welcomed by a government keen to bring jobs to what was then one of Europe's poorest countries, former company executives and Irish officials have said.

Chief Executive Tim Cook faced criticism from a Senate subcommittee in Washington on Tuesday over the iPad and iPhone maker's tax practices, which had been shrouded from full view behind secretive tax-exempt Irish-based corporate entities.

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Senate panel hammers Apple over offshore tax strategies

Apple Inc came under fire on Tuesday at a Senate hearing over an investigation that alleged the U.S. high technology icon has kept billions of dollars in profits in Irish subsidiaries and paid little or no taxes to any government.

"Apple effectively shifts billions of dollars in profits offshore, profits that under one section of the tax code should nonetheless be subject to U.S. taxes, but through a complex process avoids those taxes," said Senator Carl Levin.

 

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook was slated to testify to the subcommittee at the hearing, along with other senior executives of the company.

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Yahoo's rise in Asia offsets risk from Tumblr bet

Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's $1.1 billion acquisition of blogging service Tumblr will be a test of her ability to revive the aging Web portal. Luckily for her, her performance may be graded generously.

Mayer faces plenty of challenges in her efforts to turn six-year-old Tumblr into a money-spinner, not least among them retaining users while devising new types of non-intrusive online ads outside of Yahoo's traditional area of expertise.

 

And then there is Tumblr's hefty price tag: a sum that equates to a fifth of Yahoo's cash.

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Ireland rejects blame for Apple's low tax rate

Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries.

The Irish government, which has seen the luring of U.S. multinationals with low taxes as a key part of its economic policy since the 1960s, said its system was transparent and other countries were responsible if the tax rate paid by Apple was too low.

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Sony Xperia UL announced in Japan

The Sony Xperia UL was revealed today by Japanese carrier KDDi. It packs the same 5-inch 1080p screen as the Xperia Z flagship, as well as its water and dust resistance.

   
The Sony Xperia UL

A 1.5 GHz quad-core processor is also in the mix, as well as the Adreno 320 GPU and 2 GB of RAM, but the real star of the show will be 13 MP camera sensor, which, besides HD video recording, is capable of taking burst photos at up to 15 frames per second. The Xperia UL also comes complete with a dedicated camera button, which the Xperia Z doesn't have.

  
Sony Xperia UL live images

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Samsung Galaxy S4 mini benchmark scorecard surfaces

We all know that, Samsung is working on a "mini" variant of its Galaxy S4 flagship smartphone. Images of the Galaxy S4 mini have been leaked few times and now, we got yet another benchmark results of the device.

Interestingly enough, the new result points to a Qualcomm chipset, rather than the Exynos 5 we heard of earlier. Either one of the two rumors is fake, Samsung had a sudden change of heart or there will be two different versions (like on the regular Galaxy S4).

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