05/10, 5:31pm
Counter-offer allows shareholders to keep shares, pays significant dividend
Investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management have proposed a new offer to Dell shareholders, who are considering a proposal by founder Michael Dell's group of investors, including Microsoft, to purchase existing shares at $13.65 each in order to take the company private. In a letter to Dell's board of directors, Icahn and Southeastern are counter-proposing a deal to give all Dell shareholders the option to retain shares in the company, plus take an additional $12 a share in cash or stock.
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05/09, 6:53pm
Chip manufacturer expects to return to growth by end of fiscal year
Graphic card producer Nvidia today reported revenue for the first quarter of the company's fiscal 2014, which ended April 28. The company report income of $954.7 million, down 13.7 percent from $1.11 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013. The company posted a $77.9 million profit, with earnings per share of $0.13, down 53.6 percent from $0.28 in the prior quarter. The results beat Wall Street expectations for the quarter, and the company expects to return to growth later in the year, on the strength of the margins on the Kepler GPU chipset and the release of the Tegra 4 system-on-a-chip.
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05/09, 5:40pm
53 channels launch program, more to come 'in the coming weeks'
YouTube has announced that is is opening a program for a "small group" of providers who will offer a subscription service of video content starting at $1 per month, but averaging overall just over $3 per channel. Starting today, partners such as Sesame Street, UFC, National Geographic, Jim Henson and the rest of the test channels will offer paid content with a 14-day free trial.
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05/09, 12:44pm
Crowdsourced navigation app may become part of Facebook mobile
Crowdsourced traffic and navigation app service Waze may be acquired by Facebook, according to a report. The discussions between Waze and Facebook come months after a possible acquisition offer from Apple and appears to be reaching the same financial levels as the billion-dollar Instagram deal in April last year.
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05/09, 7:05am
Nvidia, Occam Partners, Shasta Ventures provide Ouya funding
The makers of Ouya, the Android-based game console, has received extra funding from investors ahead of its launch. The additional outside investment has now allowed Ouya to set the date of the official public launch as June 25, allowing more time for it to manufacture consoles before shipping units to retailers.
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05/08, 10:43pm
Microsoft offer lower than current company value
Reports have surfaced that Microsoft is allegedly offering $1 billion to buy the digital assets of Nook Media, Barnes & Noble's venture into e-book publishing. Under the terms of the deal, Microsoft would redeem preferred units in Nook Media, which would give control of the operation to Microsoft.
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05/08, 10:49am
Company shells out to retain key executives
Apple's Peter Oppenheimer was the highest-paid chief financial officer during 2012, according to Bloomberg. The executive received compensation worth a theoretical $68.6 million, roughly 16 times what Apple CEO Tim Cook received for the year. By comparison, Oppenheimer's closest competition -- Oracle CFO Safra Catz -- was given $51.7 million, while Google CFO Patrick Pichette was granted $38.7 million.
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05/08, 5:27am
Carrier manages to sell 500,000 iPhones since April 12th launch on network
T-Mobile USA's first quarterly results of the year appears to show its Uncarrier campaign is working in attracting prepaid customers, though still lost high-earning postpaid accounts. Despite adding more customers overall, revenues for the quarter hit $4.68 billion, a drop of seven percent compared to $5.03 billion received for the same quarter last year.
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05/07, 6:18pm
CEO filed suit against apple in February for 'iPref' stock
In Greenlight Capital Investor's quarterly earnings conference call, Chairman David Einhorn revealed that he has grown his stake in the company. The move was made in reaction to Apple's announcement of the $100 billion share repurchase, and record-breaking dividend program which he called "a major step forward" for the Cupertino manufacturer.
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05/07, 4:21pm
Facebook, Square, Dwolla, AirBnb, Mt Gox, hundreds of others named
Frequent litigant Aaron Greenspan, one-time claimant to Facebook co-foundership has filed a lawsuit against the vast majority of Silicon Valley's largest investors, and many Internet companies offering "money services businesses" with cash transfers as a primary product. The list of corporate defendants include frequent Greenspan target Facebook, Airbnb, Dwolla, and Square, troubled BitCoin exchange Mt. Gox, and many others. Individuals named in the suit inlude Paypal founder Max Levchin, Airbnb creator Brian Chesky, billionaire Yuri Milner, and Reddit CEO Yishan Wong.
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05/07, 4:10pm
Analyst increases Yahoo gross revenue estimate by $60M
Microsoft has extended its revenue guarantee with Yahoo, according to an SEC filing. The revenue-per-search guarantee, part of the ten-year deal the two companies struck in 2009, will be extended by one additional year, allowing Yahoo to earn more revenue than it otherwise would have if the guarantee fully elapsed.
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05/07, 7:14am
Knowledge of TD-LTE spectrum to help Sprint in rollout
SoftBank's CEO is continuing to talk-up his company's $20.1 billion offer to buy out Sprint, by claiming SoftBank's experience with 4G will help the US carrier. Network enhancements, such as SoftBank's single frequency network technology for reducing interference, will help Sprint in the long run alongside other benefits, according to CEO Masayoshi Son.
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05/06, 6:30pm
Giants take 100 percent of all smartphone profits between them
Samsung is steadily improving its profitability in the smartphone area, but Apple continues to be the dominant player when it comes to making money on smartphones sales according to the latest report from Canaccord Genuity. Apple's lower profit margin on smartphones in the first calendar quarter of the year led to a significant drop in its share of smartphone profits but was enough to allow the iPhone maker to claim 57 percent of the entire industry's profits, with Samsung taking the remaining 43 percent.
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05/06, 9:52am
Earnings rise for seventh time in a row, eighth unlikely
Asus managed to sell 3 million tablets in the first quarter, offsetting a drop in sales of notebooks and computer parts, according to the company's latest quarterly results. Overall, the company managed to earn $3.5 billion in revenues for the quarter, with its $202 million quarterly profit an improvement compared to both year-on-year and the previous quarter by 5.8-percent.
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05/03, 10:17am
Apple dodges taxes it would owe on repatriating cash
Apple's $17 billion bond sale -- meant to help finance a $55 billion stock buyback, part of a plan to return $100 billion to shareholders by 2015 -- is saving the company about $9.2 billion in taxes, according to an estimate from Moody’s Investment Services. Had Apple decided to use repatriated foreign cash, it would have paid a 35 percent tax rate, and hence owed the US about $9.2 billion.
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05/02, 1:19pm
Shareholders to vote on June 12th, deal could close July 1st
The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the proposal from SoftBank to buy out Sprint. While shareholders in the US carrier are expected to discuss and vote on the deal at a meeting next month, the chairman of Dish Network has made comments against the proposal, citing the need for Sprint's network to be upgraded by US teams.
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05/02, 10:13am
Krzanich joined by new Intel president James in executive office
The current chief operating officer of Intel will become the chief executive officer of Intel on May 16th, according to an announcement from the board of directors. Brian Krzanich will take over from the outgoing Paul Otellini, and will become the sixth CEO in the company's history, while Renée James has been elected to be the president of Intel on the same date.
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05/01, 8:51pm
New loans and extensions puts sharp 800 billion yen in debt
A pair of Japanese banks are considering a 100 billion yen ($1 billion) bailout loan to Sharp, to help it meet an upcoming bond redemption. The electronics manufacturer has nearly $2 billion in convertible bonds, similar to Apple's current offering, maturing in September. Lenders Mizuho Corporate Bank and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ are also giving Sharp an extension on 360 billion yen in lending that matures in June. The offerings by the banks puts Sharp in the red to the two banks to just over $8 billion.
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05/01, 4:31pm
Second profitable quarter shows increase in mobile ad impressions
Social network Facebook has posted its quarterly earnings report, with results that have slightly exceeded Wall Street expectations. The company had total revenues of $1.46 billion generated from 665 million daily active users on the average. Net income came in at $219 million, with the company earning $0.13 per share with a 26 percent operating margin.
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05/01, 3:20pm
Vast majority of recovery shares being awarded to secured creditors
Eastman Kodak has filed its latest plan to exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy that gives ownership of the venerable company to unsecured creditors and bond holders. Second-lien note holders will receive 85 percent of common stock in the company, worth nearly $374.85 million. Unsecured creditors will be awarded the remaining 15 percent of shares.
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05/01, 9:24am
Final merger confirmed one week after MetroPCS shareholder vote
T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS have now completed their merger, and are now one company. The formation of the new entity, known as T-Mobile US and trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol TMUS, comes one week after MetroPCS shareholders voted to approve the merger after some improvements, a process which started in October last year.
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04/30, 10:11pm
Second major tech conference interview since becoming CEO
For the second year in a row, Apple CEO Tim Cook will be the featured interviewee on the opening night of the AllThingsD D11 conference, being held in San Francisco on May 28-30. Last year's interview with Cook, at the D10 conference, was his first formal interview at a third-party event not closed to investors. The opening-night spot is highly coveted and usually reserved for an extensive conversation. In his previous one-hour talk, Cook answered pointed questions on the patent system, Apple's legal fights and his relationship with former CEO Steve Jobs.
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04/30, 1:17pm
Could boost confidence in Apple stock
The richest man in Russia, Alisher Usmanov, recently bought $100 million in Apple shares, Bloomberg reports. While cautioning that "nothing is eternal," he argues that Apple is a "very promising investment" for the next three years, pointing to the company's plan to return $100 billion to shareholders by 2015. Usmanov's $19.8 billion fortune is based mainly on two websites, Alibaba and Mail.ru, as well as a Facebook investment that yielded over 10 times his initial input.
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04/30, 12:03pm
Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank confirmed as partners
(Updated with order book rumors, value of bonds) Apple's planned bond sale involves a six-part offering, according to a filing discovered by Bloomberg. Some floating-rate notes are set to mature in 2016 and 2018, while fixed-rate securities are due in 2016, 2018, 2023, and 2043. The filing confirms Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank as the institutions managing Apple's sale.
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04/30, 9:11am
Exchange of ownership for $774 million in cash, stock, to help simplify business
Electronics retailer Best Buy is selling its stake in Carphone Warehouse Group to co-owner Carphone Warehouse, in its continued efforts to financially turn itself around. The sale, which sees Best Buy exchange its holdings in the European entity for £500 million ($774 million) in cash and stock according to a statement, effectively ends Best Buy's faltering expansion into the continent.
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04/30, 7:23am
Masayoshi Son places $20.1B SoftBank offer above $25.5B rival bid
The CEO of SoftBank believes there is no need to change the Japanese carrier's offer to Sprint, following a secondary offer from Dish Network. Masayoshi Son, also the founder of the company, told the audience of an earnings briefing "There is absolutely no need for that since we believe our offer is above theirs."
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04/29, 3:47pm
Apple is taking steps towards offering its first-ever bond sale, Reuters reports. A source tells the newswire agency that the company is making investor calls to Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank today, and has filed paperwork for a debt offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The sale will go towards funding the company's plan to return $100 billion in cash to shareholders by 2015.
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04/26, 8:27pm
Recent backtrack on VPN change could indicate talks or appeal
Apple's recent "partial backtrack" on a plan to deprecate the "always on" feature in its implementation of VPN could indicate possible negotiations with VirnetX, which won a $368 million District Court ruling that Apple was violating its patents. However, new information discovered by Computerworld in an SEC Form 10-Q filing suggest that Apple is also be preparing to appeal the ruling. Documents filed by the iPhone maker say it will not yet record the court's award as a loss, because the company "is challenging the verdict."
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04/26, 10:03am
Continues to avoid repatriating foreign cash
Apple's plan to take out a loan for its $60 billion stock buyback is about saving taxes, notes the Washington Post. Although the company has $145 billion in cash reserves, roughly two-thirds of that is situated outside the US, and Apple has so far avoided repatriating the money in order to bypass a 35 percent tax rate. Taking out a loan for $60 billion means the company must still pay interest, but this is offset by not having to pay out dividends on the shares it's reclaiming.
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04/25, 10:37pm
Ruling more in line with Microsoft claims, well short of $4 billion request
US District Court Judge James Robart of the Western District of Washington has issued a critical ruling in the Motorola Mobile versus Microsoft patent lawsuit. The judge has decreed that Motorola Mobility is entitled to nearly $1.8 million per year from Microsoft for use of its standards-essential H.264 video playback and 802.11 Wi-Fi patents, a far cry from the $4 billion annually Motorola and its parent company Google demanded at the beginning of the lawsuit.
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04/25, 9:52pm
Amoroso remaining on board until shareholder meeting in June
Yahoo has announced that Chairman of the Board Fred Amoroso is resigning. The former IBM executive will remain on the board of directors until the annual shareholder meeting on June 25. The chairman position will be filled by Maynard Webb, Jr. temporarily until a new director is found.
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04/25, 9:14pm
Move allows Facebook revenue stream on all mobile app platforms
According to Facebook, the company has just acquired cloud coding company Parse, giving it a platform for back-end tools for mobile developers. Facebook calls the size of the deal "not material" to the acquisition, but reports place the deal between $80 and $95 million. Parse ownership claims that it had many corporate suitors, but chose Facebook because the social network fit the ethos of the startup better than the other companies involved.
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04/25, 8:59pm
Next quarter expected to be bolstered by Galaxy S 4, tablet sales
Samsung Electronics today announced quarterly revenues of 52.87 trillion won ($47.6 billion) for the first quarter ended March 31 -- a six percent decrease from the previous quarter. Consolidated operating profit for the quarter reached 8.78 trillion won ($7.9 billion), representing a one percent decline quarter-over-quarter. Samsung estimates revenues would hit 52 trillion won ($46.8 billion) with operating profit of 8.7 trillion won ($7.8 billion) in this last quarter.
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04/25, 5:45pm
Revenue estimates for second quarter expectedly bleak
Amazon today announced financial results for its first quarter that ended March 31. The company reports that net sales increased 22 percent to $16.07 billion in the first quarter, compared with $13.18 billion a year ago. Despite the increased sales, net income decreased 37 percent to $82 million in the first quarter, or $0.18 per share, compared with $130 million, or $0.28 per share in the first quarter of 2012.
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04/25, 4:12pm
Move similar to Apple's recently announced plan to access debt market
Microsoft has commenced selling debt in the US and European markets. According to the Wall Street Journal, the initial offering is a minimum of $500 million. The move is the software developer's fifth offering since 2009, and the company should be able to get the lowest yields of the year for a five-year corporate debt offering.
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04/25, 11:34am
Profit for year hits $403 million, beats own estimates
Sony has managed to earn its first annual profit in five years, according to its most recent full-year financial report. Net income for the year ending March 31st saw the company earn 40 billion yen ($403 million), an improvement from the 456.7 billion yen ($6.4 billion at the time) loss earned in the 2011-2012 fiscal year, and beating the 20 billion yen ($213 million) profit it reportedly expected to earn in previous reports.
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04/25, 5:55am
Cash, shares to be offered for 55-percent share of Verizon Wireless
Verizon is reportedly forming an offer for British carrier Vodafone, in order to buy out its stake in Verizon Wireless. The rumored proposal would see Verizon taking complete control in the jointly-owned carrier, and Vodafone exchanging its 55-percent share in Verizon Wireless for $100 billion, divided evenly between cash and stock.
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04/24, 4:51pm
Dividend payout greatest in company history, $5 billion in buyback planned
Chip designer Qualcomm has filed its second quarter of 2013 fiscal earnings. The company exceeded revenue expectations, and is raising its estimated 2013 device shipments and projected earnings for 2013 based on the strength of the quarter. Year over year, Qualcomm saw a 24 percent increase in revenues to $6.12 billion from $4.94 billion. Earnings per share climbed 16 percent tp $1.17 per share, up from $1.01 in 2012.
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04/24, 4:13pm
Company cites growing workforce, 'expanded' activities
Apple's research and development expenses grew 33 percent year-over-year in the March quarter, or about $278 million, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission found by AppleInsider. Overall spending for the first half of Apple's fiscal 2013 was up over $530 million, representing a 33 percent increase over the first half of 2012. Should Apple maintain higher spending, it could surpass $4 billion in R&D expenses by the end of FY2013.
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04/24, 2:47pm
Device 80 percent of carrier's smartphone sales
AT&T's March quarter results included 4.8 million iPhone activations, data shows. The device represented 80 percent of the carrier's 6 million overall smartphone sales for the quarter. The figure compares favorably against the 4.7 million iPhones AT&T sold in the iPhone 5's launch period, but represents a significant if expected drop from the record 8 million sold during the December quarter.
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04/24, 11:35am
Hopes pinned on fall figures
Some analysts have begun to scale back their forecasts for Apple in the wake of the company's second-quarter financial results. Wells Fargo's Maynard Um has reduced earnings-per-share predictions from $44.51 to $38.71 for FY2013, and from $49.86 to $43.66 for FY2014. His valuation range has been sharply reduced, from $600-630 to $485-525. The analyst cites results that were below Street consensus, but does argue that the worst is behind the company, and says he expects results to improve.
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04/24, 11:05am
Shareholder vote succeeds after Deutsche Telekom sweetens deal
Shareholders of MetroPCS have reportedly approved the merger of the carrier with the fourth-largest mobile phone network, the Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile USA. A shareholder vote for the proposal is the last hurdle for the merger to take place, after both the FCC and Department of Justice gave their approval last month with no negative commentary.
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04/24, 10:16am
Wireless data revenues up 21 percent, 1.2M smartphone sales
Quarterly results from AT&T shows the company has managed to increase its year-on-year earnings by $100 million to $3.7 billion, matching the expectations of Wall Street. The financial information also tells that its consolidated revenues of $31.4 billion is down 1.5 percent compared to the same period last year.
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04/24, 8:16am
Financial results show relatively steady revenues, mass Nextel exodus
Sprint managed to sell 5 million smartphones in the first quarter of this year, making up 86-percent of its device sales, according to recently released financial results. While 1.5 million iPhones were sold in the period, 43-percent to new Sprint customers, this is a drop from the record 2.2 million iPhones sold during the fourth quarter last year.
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04/24, 6:18am
Plasma TV, IT sales affect LG home entertainment division revenues
LG has seen an erosion of profits in the first quarter, according to the latest quarterly results. Operating profits fell 22 percent to $322.8 million compared to the first quarter of 2012, with net profit also falling 91 percent year-on-year to $20.3 million, though both are an improvement from the $100 million operating profit and the $427 million net loss of the previous quarter.
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04/23, 6:27pm
Apple notes growth above expectations, 138 percent iPad growth
Amidst generally positive numbers presented by Apple in its quarterly earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer presented some facts about the burgeoning smartphone market in China. When presented a question by an analyst questioning Apple's present and future success in China -- considering that it doesn't yet sell the iPhone on the largest carrier in the country -- Apple claimed to have its "best quarter ever" regionally.
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04/23, 6:17pm
Looking at new product categories, but no timeframe
Speaking during a conference call following the company's Q2 results, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted that the company may have no major product launches until the fall. He refused to talk about the specific timing for particular devices, but told analysts that there is "great stuff coming in the fall and across 2014." The statement may quash rumors of summer updates for the iPhone and/or the iPad and iPad mini.
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04/23, 5:15pm
Executives detail latest quarterly financials
Apple is set to hold an investor conference call detailing the company's fiscal second-quarter financial performance. Check our live page for continuous updates from the event, which is scheduled to begin at 2PM Pacific, 5PM Eastern.
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04/23, 4:42pm
Company plans $50 billion share buyback
Apple has posted the results of its fiscal second quarter, which ended in March. The company reaped $43.6 billion in revenue, up 11 percent year-over-year. Net income was $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per share. That's down, however, from Q2 2012, when Apple posted net income of $11.6 billion with $12.30 in EPS. During the latest quarter, Apple recorded sales of 37.4 million iPhones, 19.5 million iPads, and approximately 4 million Macs. Gross margin was 37.5 percent, at the low end of earlier guidance.
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04/23, 1:32pm
4G subscriber numbers after five months of service in UK
British carrier Everything Everywhere, known as EE, has revealed that 318,000 people have signed up for its 4G LTE service, just five months after it launched the first 4G network in the country. The carrier hopes to extend the number past 1 million UK customers using its high-speed network by the end of the year.
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