Trump Said to Tell Confidant He Remains Opposed to AT&T Deal

Donald Trump remains opposed to the megamerger between AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Inc. because he believes it would concentrate too much power in the media industry, according to people close to the president-elect, who has been publicly silent about the transaction for months. Trump told a friend in the last few weeks that he still considers the merger to be a bad deal, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the conversation was private.

AT&T sees faster path for deal

AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Inc. said they can avoid having the Federal Communications Commission scrutinize their proposed merger, eliminating a significant hurdle in the path of the $85.4 billion deal, which has attracted criticism from President-elect Donald Trump. “While subject to change, it is currently anticipated that Time Warner will not need to transfer any of its FCC licenses to AT&T in order to continue to conduct its business operations after the closing of the transaction,” the companies said in a regulatory filing dated Thursday.

At CES, voice assistants speak up

In the very near future, instead of controlling your gadgets by pressing buttons or tapping on screens, you may just talk to them. Intelligent assistant technology like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Echo is starting to spread widely.

How to Sign Up for a Robinhood Brokerage Account: A Step-by-Step Guide

As part of The Motley Fool’s mission to help the world invest better, we’re putting together a list of some of the top online investment brokers and giving you step-by-step guides on how to sign up for accounts. For this how-to, we’re focusing on Robinhood’s The company’s site says it takes less than four minutes to set up an account, which I found to be pretty accurate.

Trump Tells Confidant He Still Opposes AT&T-Time Warner 2 hours ago

Time Warner Inc. because he believes it would concentrate too much power in the media industry, according to people close to the president-elect, who has been publicly silent about the transaction for months. Trump told a friend in the last few weeks that he still considers the merger to be a bad deal, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the conversation was private.

Alexa Could Be Amazon’s “Fourth Pillar”

All three have been instrumental to Amazon’s success over the past decade-plus and Bezos wrote, “I assure you that we also remain hard at work on finding a fourth [pillar].” It’s been two years since Amazon unveiled the Echo, which can serve as a hub for other smart-home devices like thermostats and lightbulbs, and its functionality has been extended through third-party “skills,” which function like voice-controlled apps.

Toyota Plans Years of Building Cars Largely Controlled by Humans

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to spend years designing cars in which humans retain a large measure of control, since the goal of turning all driving decisions over to computers seems too dangerous for now. The problem, Toyota said Wednesday, is that society has come to accept 39,000 traffic fatalities a year in the U.S., mostly due to human error, but would never tolerate similar carnage involving cars controlled by computers.

China’s Sogou Targets $5 Billion IPO to Chase Rival Baidu

China’s third-biggest search engine expects to hold a U.S. initial public offering at a valuation of as much as $5 billion as it raises cash to close the gap with leader Baidu Inc. in the mobile market. Sogou, whose name means “search dog,” plans to sell about 10 percent of its shares in an IPO that will probably be held this year, Chief Executive Officer Wang Xiaochuan said in an interview.

Infosys, Wipro Leaders Warn of Challenging Times for Indian IT

The leaders of two of India’s largest technology services companies, Infosys Ltd. and Wipro Ltd., have warned employees that their industry faced a grave threat from rising political and economic conflict around the world. Employees need to innovate and bring out their best to survive, Infosys Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka said in a year-end note to staff.

Shorts Pick Wrong Time to Forget Toshiba Shares, Down 40%

So it goes for bears on Toshiba Corp., who’ve spent the last seven months covering short sales on the electronics maker after pushing them to a decade high in May. Bets against the stock hit the lowest level of the year this week, just in time for it to plummet more than 40 percent in three days on word of a writedown at its U.S. nuclear services unit. Now credit swaps are surging as rating agencies downgrade their outlook on the company.

Toshiba Falls by Record as Ratings Cut on Looming Writedown

Toshiba Corp. plunged by the most on record in intraday trade after the company’s credit ratings were cut following an announcement it may write down billions of dollars of an acquisition made by U.S. unit Westinghouse Electric. The shares fell as much as 26 percent, the most since 1974, according to available data, to 232 yen in Tokyo on Thursday.

Toshiba Says Nuclear Unit Faces Billions of Dollars in Charges

Toshiba Corp. warned that it may book a writedown of several billion dollars related to an acquisition made by U.S. unit Westinghouse Electric. The company’s shares fell 12 percent to 392 yen at the close in Tokyo on Tuesday, the biggest decline since December 2015, after earlier reports that it may book a loss of as much as 500 billion yen .

Apple’s New MacBook Pro Has Battery Problems, Consumer Reports Says

Consumer Reports does not recommend buying the new MacBook Pro from Apple Inc. , a first for the magazine in regards to the tech giant’s popular laptop computers, and said issues it found with the devices’ battery life was the reason. In a review published Thursday , Consumer Reports said it purchased three models of MacBook Pro laptops and found “battery life results were highly inconsistent from one trial to the next.”

Japan Display Secures New Lifeline From Government-Backed Fund

Japan Display Inc., which has struggled to deliver consistent profits since it was formed by a government-backed fund four years ago, is going back for more money. The Japanese maker of smartphone screens agreed to a 75 billion yen injection of cash from Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, which is already its largest shareholder.

Mistry Resigns From Tata Companies Amid Fight With Scion

Ousted Tata Sons Ltd. Chairman Cyrus Mistry resigned as director of group companies as the units prepared to host shareholder meetings to remove him from the boards in a brawl for control of the $100 billion group. Mistry stepped down as a director in Tata Steel Ltd. and Indian Hotels Co., and as chairman of Tata Motors Ltd., the three companies said in stock exchange filings on Monday.

Bitcoin’s Rally Crushed Every Other Currency in 2016. Here’s Why

Bitcoin, that nebulous digital currency that trades in cyberspace and is “mined” by code-cracking computers, emerged as a better bet this year than every major foreign-exchange trade, stock index and commodity contract. The electronic coin that trades and is regulated like oil and gold surged 79 percent since the start of 2016 to $778, its highest level since early 2014, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.