Technology News (Reuters)

Chinese online education platform Yuanfudao, which is backed by tech giant Tencent Holdings , is close to completing a financing round that would value it at around $7.5 billion, two people familiar with the matter said.

Tesla Inc said on Thursday it will suspend production at its San Francisco Bay Area vehicle factory on March 24, ending a standoff with California authorities concerned about the spread of the coronavirus.

Engineer Anthony Levandowski, known for advancing self-driving car technology in the last decade, agreed to plead guilty on Thursday to taking sensitive documents from his former employer Google before joining rival Uber Technologies Inc.

Alphabet Inc's Google is exploring ways to use location information to slow the spread of the coronavirus by, for example, determining the effectiveness of social distancing.

Some Amazon sellers say the online retailer's abrupt decision to stop receiving non-essential inventory in response to the coronavirus pandemic could strangle the sales they need to make payments on their Amazon loans.

Tesla Inc said on Thursday it has decided to temporarily suspend production at its Fremont factory from Tuesday. The factory in New York will also suspend production, it said.

Activist investor Starboard Value is pressuring eBay for the second time in two years and said on Thursday that it plans to install four directors on the e-commerce company's 14-member board.

Citigroup Inc asked its non-essential workers across North America to hold off on logging into its remote access system until 1 p.m. on Thursday, as it braced for many employees to begin working from home, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The European Commission has warned Europe's telecoms providers not to block content platforms in an attempt to prevent internet gridlock caused by house-bound Europeans teleworking or video streaming due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Microsoft Corp's Teams chat and conferencing app gained more than 12 million daily users in one week, a 37.5% jump as more people worked from home during the coronavirus outbreak, the company said on Thursday.

Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday it has halted its Prime Pantry delivery service in the United States to restock groceries, following a surge in online orders by shoppers worried about the coronavirus pandemic.

Shares of Uber Technologies Inc surged as much as 44% on Thursday after Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said it had plenty of cash on hand to tide over the coronavirus crisis and signaled a recovery in some parts of its business.

Amazon.com Inc has started asking customers to cooperate with a Department of Justice criminal investigation of third-party sellers on its e-commerce marketplace, according to an email seen by Reuters.

Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it was closing a small New York warehouse temporarily after one of its associates tested positive for the coronavirus, a move that highlights the operational risk it faces as the disease spreads.

Shares of Uber Technologies Inc surged as much as 44% on Thursday after Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi said it had plenty of cash on hand to tide over the coronavirus crisis and signaled a recovery in some parts of its business.

Amazon.com Inc has started asking customers to cooperate with a Department of Justice criminal investigation of third-party sellers on its e-commerce marketplace, according to an email seen by Reuters.

The European Commission on Thursday warned Europe's telecoms providers against blocking content providers as they try to ease the strain on their networks caused by house-bound Europeans teleworking or video streaming due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Microsoft Corp's Teams chat and conferencing app gained more than 12 million daily users in one week, a 37.5% jump as more people worked from home during the coronavirus outbreak, the company said on Thursday.

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday that Teams, its chat and conferencing app, reached 32 million users as of March 11 amid a surge in remote work by companies around the world in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Israel's Quantum Machines, which developed hardware and software for the operation of quantum computers, said on Thursday it has raised $17.5 million in early stage funding.