Electronics giant Sony is planning to merge its UK-headquartered European business into its Dutch arm as Japanese companies manoeuvre to soften the impact of a no-deal Brexit. The move will see Sony’s £3.3bn European business register its corporate seat, effectively its legal headquarters, in Amsterdam. The combined arm will be responsible for the Tokyo giant’s electronics business in Europe. The deal will be completed on March 29 2019, according to merger documents reviewed by The Daily Telegraph.

The boom in solar and wind power in the United States will deal a fresh blow to coal country in the next few years. Renewable energy, led by solar and wind, is projected to be the fastest-growing source of US electricity generation for at least the next two years, according to a report published Friday by the US Energy Department. Boosted by swiftly falling prices, utility-scale solar power is expected to increase by 10% in 2019 and 17% in 2020, the Energy Information Administration said. Wind power should grow 12% and 14% in those years, vaulting it ahead of hydropower for the first time.

A Bahamian caterer who accepted a "good faith contract" with the fraudulent Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland to prep thousands of meals and provide lodging for VIP partygoers -- and found herself cooking without pay for stranded festival patrons -- has raised more than $100,000 through a GoFundMe campaign. Maryann Rolle, proprietor of the Exuma Point Bar and Grille, near the site of the disastrous Fyre Festival, said she dipped into her life's savings to pay workers who labored around the clock -- even though she herself never saw a dime.

For any online business management, outsourcing and managed services are two online business strategies. Read them for smooth management.

Shoshana Zuboff’s new book is a chilling exposé of the business model that underpins the digital world. Observer tech columnist John Naughton explains the importance of Zuboff’s work and asks the author 10 key questions.

SEATTLE: When a chain of physical therapy centers wanted new patients, it aimed online ads at people near its offices who had bought knee braces recently on Amazon. When a financial services provider wanted to promote its retirement advisory business, it directed ads to people in their 40s and 50s who had recently ordered a personal finance book from Amazon.

Disney reported losses of more than $1 billion tied to its ownership of Hulu and BAMtech, which powers ESPN+ and other streaming services.

Google has been fined nearly $57 million by French regulators for violating Europe’s tough new data-privacy rules, marking the first major penalty brought against a U.S. technology giant since the region-wide regulations took effect last year. France’s top data-privacy agency, known as the CNIL, said Monday that Google failed to fully disclose to users how their personal information is collected and what happens to it.

Electric carmaker Tesla has said it will cut its workforce by 7% after the "most challenging" year in its history. In an email to staff on the firm's website, founder Elon Musk said that growth had been strong. But he added it was difficult to make Teslas with their new and developing technology as cheaply as conventional cars, and the firm's cars were still "too expensive for most people". Tesla employs more than 45,000 people, indicating it will cut about 3,000.

A federal appeals court has upheld a landmark patent judgment brought by VirnetX against Apple, affirming a $440 million judgment in a years-long patent dispute. On Tuesday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied Apple's efforts to overturn a 2016 verdict that imposed $302 million in damages. That figure has since risen to encompass enhanced damages, interest, and more. Many would dub the Nevada-based VirnetX a "patent troll," as it has no meaningful source of income outside of patent litigation.

Costco is opening a chicken farming operation in eastern Nebraska so it can (partially) escape America's chicken monopoly.

Netflix just released its fourth quarter earnings report, which looks mixed compared to Wall Street expectations. The company added 8.8 million subscribers, well above the 7.6 million that it had predicted at the beginning of the quarter. It also beat estimates for earnings per share — analysts had predicted EPS of 24 cents, but actual EPS came in at 30 cents. However, revenue was a bit lower than expected — $4.19 billion, compared to predictions of $4.21 billion.

Successfully owning and operating your small business means staying relevant. Small business owners don’t have the giant marketing budgets and brand recognition that big box stores do, which means that they need to make sure that their business practices have the most impact for their dollars. High-quality products, flawless customer service, and a genuine passion for their industry are the hallmarks of a thriving small business.

Kraft Heinz Co. is offering a helping hand to federal workers who have been without pay amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history by offering them unlimited free Kraft food products. The food giant announced Tuesday that it is opening a pop-up grocery store in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to help workers who are struggling to make ends meet.

The baby boomers have entered their golden years and medical advances are helping people to live longer; the combination is leading to an aging U.S. population. Statistics tell the story clearly. In 2000, slightly more than 12 percent of the U.S. population was over the age of 65. By 2020, that number will be close to 17 percent and by 2050 it will likely reach 22 percent. Our society must find ways to financially support this segment of the population for more years than ever before as life expectancy increases.

It doesn’t matter if we buy them less often, we’re all going to continue to buy smartphones. The congregation of loyal iPhone users will continue to grow, which means Apple’s biggest challenge isn’t mobile – it’s Mac.

A potential reconciliation between CBS and Viacom has produced a tumultuous “Will They or Won’t They” narrative over the past few years. But at this point, industry analyst Michael Nathanson believes the merger is a “foregone conclusion.” MoffettNathanson said in a research report that CBS’ stock is being negatively impacted by both the loss of CEO Les Moonves and Viacom deal overhang. But by recombining CBS and Viacom, both companies could address several potential problems.

Apple, Google, and Microsoft are the champions of teaching tech in schools. For many, they are saving education. Apple cuts prices on their hardware for dot-edu email owners to make their products available to students. Google competes by selling cheap Chromebooks and provides a suite of education services to improve teamwork and collaboration. Microsoft has countless programs to empower classrooms with new technologies, such as teaching with Hololens.

It’s a tale as old as time, or, at least, the internet: None of us are reading any more, the physical book is dead, Amazon has killed the independent bookstore, and it’s all only going to get worse. But this year, the story looks like just that—a fiction. We are buying books—especially the kind with physical pages—and we’re doing so, increasingly, in well-loved indie bookstores.

Although shoppers kept credit card machines busy this holiday season, growing evidence indicates that Americans are starting to feel uneasy about the pile of debt to which we continue to add. A new survey from CreditCards.com finds that more than two in five Americans currently carrying debt don’t know when they’ll pay off those balances — and one in four say they expect their debts to outlive them. “It’s definitely a depressing statistic,” said Ted Rossman, industry analyst for the site. “When we did a similar study back in 2013, only 9 percent never expected to get out of debt, and now it’s 25 percent.”

Google (Alphabet Inc.) has reportedly blacklisted keywords mentioning Ethereum (ETH) on its advertising platform Google Ads, smart contract auditing startup Decenter tweeted on Jan. 10. The official Google Ads account replied to the tweet stating that cryptocurrency exchanges targeting the United States

The video about toxic masculinity, bullying and men's behaviour sparks outrage online.

Apple needs its next big thing—fast. With its shares down nearly a third in the past three months and the financial guidance bombshell earlier this year, the burning question turns to what Apple (ticker: AAPL) can do to spark a turnaround. On Jan. 2, the smartphone maker lowered its December-quarter revenue guidance 8% below the Wall Street consensus. The announcement confirmed the market’s worst fears that a negative growth year for the iPhone was ahead.

SpaceX will lay off up to 10 percent of its work force, the company said Friday evening. The company characterized the job cuts as "a strategic realignment," designed to ensure it is positioned to succeed for the long term. They were announced to employees Friday in an e-mail from company president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell. The company has a work force of more than 6,000 employees.

Netflix is raising its U.S. prices by 13 percent to 18 percent, its biggest increase since the company launched its streaming service 12 years ago. Its most popular plan will see the largest hike, to $13 per month from $11. That option offers high-definition streaming on up to two different internet-connected devices simultaneously. Even at the higher price, that plan is still a few dollars cheaper than HBO, whose streaming service charges $15 per month.

Apple stole the limelight at CES without even appearing as an exhibitor, thanks to a series of announcements from Samsung and a series of other television makers incorporating Apple's AirPlay 2 wireless streaming in their products, including LG, Sony and Vizio. This news was cynically portrayed as a "strategy reversal" and a new effort at "copying Microsoft" by the Wall Street Journal -- and out here in the real world, it is nothing of the sort.

The gaming company behind such popular titles as Fortnite and Infinity Blade has an “F” rating with Better Business Bureau due to unanswered customer complaints. BBB serving Eastern North Carolina (BBB) is warning consumers about Epic Games of Cary, NC, which has 279 BBB complaints on file in the past three years with 271 of those complaints filed in the last year alone. Of the 279 total complaints, 247 of those have gone unanswered.

Amazon became the world's most valuable company on Monday, followed by Microsoft, giving the Seattle area bragging rights over Silicon Valley.

Once again, Facebook is embroiled in a scandal where it was caught violating millions of people's privacy. By Trevor Timm.

Choose the right communication app

A trade group representing California car and truck dealerships has filed a petition with the state’s New Motor Vehicle Board to stop Volvo from offering cars on a subscription model. The filing, first reported by Teslarati, is an escalation of the dealer group’s effort to disrupt Volvo’s subscription program, which became public late last year after it sent a letter to the CEO of the Swedish automaker’s North American division.

It’s not Brexit, terrorism, or even climate change that keeps CEOs awake at night. Instead, recession is the primary concern for 1,400 global business leaders surveyed about their biggest fears for 2019. It’s not clear they have grounds to worry. The Conference Board, the think tank behind the survey, noted that, outside of the UK, “our economic indicators do not point to imminent recession risks.” Instead, the fear seems to be that “traditional levers of power—public policy and political institutions” simply wouldn’t have the mettle or stability to handle an economic crisis if it hurtled toward them.

Internet retailer Overstock has announced that it intends to become the very first major US-based company to pay a part of its state business tax in Ohio Internet retailer Overstock has announced that it intends to become the very first major US-based company to pay a part of its state business tax in Ohio using Bitcoin. 

Roku reports a 40% increase in active accounts in the fourth quarter.

Data breach is a threatening point that shred your whole business with just one struck. Small business owners should adopt all precautionary measures...