Cisco buying IoT platform Jasper for US$1.4b

"I am excited about the opportunity for Cisco and Jasper to accelerate how customers recognise the value of the Internet of Things," Cisco chief executive officer Chuck Robbins said in a release. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

FEB 4, 20168:10 AM

[SAN FRANCISCO] US computer networking titan Cisco announced on Wednesday that it is buying Internet of Things service platform Jasper Technologies in a deal valued at US$1.4 billion.

"I am excited about the opportunity for Cisco and Jasper to accelerate how customers recognise the value of the Internet of Things," Cisco chief executive officer Chuck Robbins said in a release.

"Together, we can enable service providers, enterprises and the broader ecosystem to connect, automate, manage, and analyse billions of connected things, across any network, creating new revenue streams and opportunities."

Jasper is a privately held firm based in Silicon Valley and enables businesses to launch, manage, and make money from the Internet of Things (IoT), a reference to the boom in traditionally dumb devices being made smart with computer processors or sensors and then connected online.

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"With Jasper, companies can connect any device - from cars to jet engines to implanted pacemakers - over the cellular networks of the top global service providers, and then manage connectivity" of services in the cloud, Cisco said.

The purchase will be made with a combination of cash, assumed equity awards, and retention based incentives.

Cisco planned to build upon the Jasper IoT platform.

"IoT has become a business imperative across the globe," said Jasper chief executive Jahangir Mohammed.

The acquisition was expected to close early this year.

AFP

      

India's IT exports seen growing 10-12% in fiscal 2017: industry body

FEB 4, 20164:28 PM

[MUMBAI] India's IT and software services export revenue is expected to grow between 10 per cent and 12 per cent in the next financial year beginning in April to as much as US$121 billion, an industry body said on Thursday.

In the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2016, export revenue is expected to grow 12.3 per cent to US$108 billion, helped by new business wins in the high-margin digital services business, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said.

India's IT services exporters, including Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, have been betting on high-margin digital services to drive growth as focus shifts away from routine technology services contracts.

REUTERS

Fingerprint Cards sales soar on biometric demand from China

      

FEB 4, 20164:41 PM

[STOCKHOLM] Fingerprint Cards AB, the Swedish maker of biometric technology whose stock rose 1,600 per cent last year, reported a 12-fold surge in fourth-quarter sales fueled by demand from mobile-phone makers in China.

Revenue in the three months ending Dec. 31 jumped to 1.35 billion kronor (US$160 million) from 105 million kronor a year earlier, while Fingerprint's gross margin increased to 46 per cent from 32 per cent, it said in a statement Thursday. Analysts predicted revenue of 1.32 billion kronor with a margin of 45.6 per cent, based on two estimates compiled by Bloomberg. 

The manufacturer raised the lower end of its revenue outlook for this year and now expects sales of 7 billion kronor to 8.5 billion kronor. Its board is proposing a 5-to-1 stock split and a share buyback mandate at its next shareholder meeting.

Fingerprint jumped 6.1 per cent to 471.40 kronor, giving the company a market value of 28 billion kronor. Before today, the stock had sunk 34 per cent from the record set Dec 4.

The Gothenburg-based company has benefited as makers of mobile phones increasingly adopt its technology enabling users to access smartphones and devices with the tap of a finger. Fingerprint said it's established a market-leading position in China, where it expects continued growth, partly driven by the demand in secure mobile payments.

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Hackers attack 20m accounts on Alibaba's Taobao shopping site

Hackers in China attempted to access over 20 million active accounts on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Taobao e-commerce website using Alibaba's own cloud computing service, according to a state media report posted on the Internet regulator's website. 

PHOTO: REUTERS

FEB 4, 20164:24 PM

[BEIJING] Hackers in China attempted to access over 20 million active accounts on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Taobao e-commerce website using Alibaba's own cloud computing service, according to a state media report posted on the Internet regulator's website.

Analysts said the report from The Paper led to the price of Alibaba's US-listed shares falling as much as 3.7 per cent in late Wednesday trade.

An Alibaba spokesman on Thursday said the company detected the attack in "the first instance", reminded users to change passwords, and worked closely with the police investigation.

Chinese companies are grappling a sharp rise in the number of cyber attacks, and cyber security experts say firms have a long way to go before defences catch up to US counterparts.

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In the latest case, hackers obtained a database of 99 million usernames and passwords from a number of websites, according to a separate report on a website managed by the Ministry of Public Security.

The hackers then used Alibaba's cloud computing platform to input the details into Taobao. Of the 99 million usernames, they found 20.59 million were also being used for Taobao accounts, the ministry website said.

The hackers started inputting the details into Taobao in mid-October and were discovered in November, at which time Alibaba immediately reported the case to police, the ministry website said. The hackers have since been caught, it said.

Alibaba's systems discovered and blocked the vast majority of log-in attempts, according to the ministry website.

The hackers used compromised accounts to fake orders on Taobao, a practice known as 'brushing' in China and used to raise sellers' rankings, the newspaper said. The hackers also sold accounts to be used for fraud, it said.

Alibaba's spokesman declined to comment on how the hackers were able to use its cloud computing service for the attack. He said they could have used any such service, and that the attack was not made possible by loopholes in Alibaba's platform.

"Alibaba's system was never breached," the spokesman said.

REUTERS