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Microsoft and Yahoo amend search deal

(Reuters) – Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc amended a 2009 partnership to give Yahoo more flexibility to enhance the search services on any platform. Microsoft will get exclusive rights to sell ads delivered by its Bing ads platform, while Yahoo will continue to sell ads on its Gemini platform. The 10-year search partnership was crafted by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and former Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz in 2009. (Reporting

India's Tata Consultancy accused in U.S. lawsuit of South Asian bias

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd has been sued by a white American information technology worker who accused India’s largest software services exporter of overwhelming favoritism toward workers of South Asian descent in the United States. In a complaint filed on Tuesday in San Francisco federal court, Steven Heldt said 95 percent of Tata’s 14,000-person U.S. workforce descend from South Asia, primarily India, and that the company violated federal civil rights law

Seattle homeless newspaper vendors pioneer scan-to-pay Google app

By Eric M. Johnson SEATTLE (Reuters) – Street vendors selling Seattle’s Real Change newspaper will accept digital payments from Thursday through a new smartphone application developed by workers at Google Inc in a volunteer project to help hawkers serve increasingly cashless patrons. Seattle residents looking for a weekly dose of reform-minded news will be able to scan a barcode with their phones to receive a $2.99 digital edition of the

U.S. housing starts data underperforms; jobless claims rise

U.S. housing starts rose far less than expected in March and permits recorded their biggest drop since last May, which could raise concerns about the economy’s ability to bounce back from a soft patch hit in the first quarter. Groundbreaking increased 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 926,000 units, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. Starts for single-family homes rose, while groundbreaking for the multifamily segment fell

Net neutrality row grows louder in India, Internet.org hit

A group of India’s leading technology and Internet firms has pulled out of Internet.org, Facebook’s flagship effort to get billions more online, in a growing debate over free access and internet neutrality in the country. Net neutrality is the concept that all websites on the internet are treated equally. The debate over access and neutrality has grabbed headlines in India this week after leading telecom carrier Bharti Airtel announced a

Goldman profit gets boost from increased trading

Goldman said its net income applicable to common shareholders rose to $2.75 billion, or $5.94 per share, for the quarter ended March 31, from $1.95 billion, or $4.02 per share, in the same period of 2014. Analysts on average had expected earnings of $4.26 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Goldman’s shares were up about 0.5 percent at $201 in premarket trading. Goldman has been more committed to fixed-income