Technology

Zoom Video Communications Inc's average user numbers in March were nearly three times that of its nearest rival Microsoft Corp's Teams, according to research firm Apptopia, as the cornonavirus-driven stay-at-home lifted demand for video conferencing platforms.

Xerox Holdings Corp decided on Tuesday to abandon its $35 billion hostile cash-and-stock bid for HP Inc after the coronavirus outbreak put the brakes on its takeover campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.

Global companies whose revenues have taken a hit during the coronavirus pandemic plan to cut technology spending this year by as much as 4.1%, according to the latest survey from U.S.-based Enterprise Technology Research (ETR).

President Donald Trump spoke with the biggest U.S. internet and mobile phone providers on Tuesday to talk about how the networks are holding up as tens of millions of Americans work from home.

Group video chat app Houseparty offered a reward of $1 million for evidence of what it said was a smear campaign against the company as it fought to quash claims that the app was stealing data from others installed on the same smartphone.

Walt Disney Co will launch its Disney+ service in India on April 3, the company said on Tuesday, intensifying rivalry with Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc's Prime Video in a country where demand for online streaming is surging.

Huawei warned on Tuesday that 2020 would be its most difficult year yet due to American trade restrictions which dealt a blow to its overseas sales in 2019, and predicted the Chinese government would retaliate against the United States.

The city of Helsinki had the right to scrap its contract with Siemens over the failed automation of the Finnish capital's metro, but both sides broke agreements, a Helsinki district court ruled on Tuesday in a long-running legal dispute.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp is seeing signs of a sales recovery in China, it said on Tuesday, as the country starts to return to normal following the coronavirus lockdown.

Google on Tuesday defended the impartiality of its search results after users in Japan seeking to corroborate rumors of an imminent state of emergency declaration by the government were met with no results on its website.

A survey of Line Corp's chat app users in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures in partnership with Japan's health ministry found 7.1% of respondents in the capital reporting at least one of the symptoms of the coronavirus.

Microsoft Corp said it has seen a 775% jump in a month for Teams calling and meeting in Italy, withdrawing an earlier statement that the surge was for its cloud services in regions around the world that enforced social distancing to curb transmission of the coronavirus.

Shares in meal-kit delivery firm HelloFresh jumped to a record high on Tuesday after it said it expected strong first-quarter sales and profit due to a surge in demand as coronavirus lockdowns prompt more people to cook at home.

Xiaomi Corp on Tuesday reported a 27% jump in December-quarter revenue, its fourth consecutive quarter of growth, and above analyst expectations, in spite a weak outlook for the global smartphone sector.

Amazon.com Inc is at the front line of responding to outbreaks of the novel coronavirus in the United States, delivering essential goods while more than half the population faces government stay-at-home orders.

Warehouse, delivery and retail gig workers in the United States went on strike on Monday to call attention to safety and wage concerns for people laboring through the coronavirus crisis.

Russia on Tuesday pushed back legislation that would require all smartphones, computers and smart TV sets sold in Russia to come pre-installed with Russian software, by six months until January 1, 2021, the TASS news agency reported.

Japan Display said on Tuesday it has finalised a deal to raise $200 million from "an overseas customer," which sources have said is Apple.

Vivendi closed on Tuesday the sale of a 10% stake in Universal Music Group (UMG) - home to Taylor Swift and The Beatles - to a Tencent-led consortium, in a deal giving UMG an enterprise value of 30 billion euros ($33 billion).

China's Huawei Technologies reported its smallest annual profit increase in three years, hurt by weak overseas sales amid an intensifying U.S. campaign to restrict its global expansion due to security concerns.