NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Dell Inc is in talks with private equity firms on a potential buyout, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, confirming reports that sent shares in the world’s No. 3 PC maker soaring 13 percent to nearly a eight-month high.

The firms are now holding discussions on a deal with billionaire Chief Executive and founder Michael Dell, who owns about 14 percent of the company, according to one source with knowledge of the matter.

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Dell Inc is in
talks with private equity firms on a potential buyout, a source
familiar with the matter told Reuters, confirming a Bloomberg
report that sent its shares soaring 13 percent to near an
eight-month high.

Bloomberg reported earlier that the world’s No. 3 PC maker
is in talks with at least two private equity firms about going
private. The discussions are preliminary and financing has not
been secured, said Bloomberg, citing two people with knowledge
of the matter.

LAS VEGAS, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Television makers, networks
and movie studios are embracing the tablet and developing
original content and software to drive audience interaction and
new advertising revenue after initially dismissing mobile
devices as a distraction.

At the heart of this volte-face is a growing recognition of
how TV viewing, which has stayed much the same over the past
decade, is evolving amid the growth of hand-held devices like
the tablet. More and more, viewers are fiddling with tablets or
smartphones while watching television or tuning out during
commercials.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – China’s Lenovo Group Ltd, on track to become the world’s No.1 personal computer maker, is leveraging on what it calls the “PC plus” era as the company ramps up its plant capacity in major markets including the United States.

PC demand growth has waned over the past year as more consumers flock to ultraportable and increasingly powerful tablets and smartphones for basic computing. Hewlett Packard (HP), Dell and other stalwarts of the PC industry are now fighting to sustain growth as tablet computers eat into their PC-related businesses.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics, the global leader in consumer smartphones, is planning two major thrusts in 2013: bulking up mobile content and moving faster into the corporate market dominated by Research in Motion.

The South Korean electronics company is investing in devices that enterprise users like corporations will endorse, with a higher level of security and reliability than general users need. In doing so, Samsung is capitalizing on doubts about the longevity of the BlackBerry as its Canadian maker struggles to revive growth.

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc shares tumbled more than 6 percent on Wednesday, chalking up their biggest single-day loss in four years as fears grow about intensifying competition in the mobile device market.

Investors and analysts blamed the sell-off on a mix of factors, including a forecast by an influential research firm that the iPad maker is continuing to cede ground to rival Google Inc’s Android gadgets, and unconfirmed reports that at least one major stock-clearing house was raising margin requirements on Apple stock trades.

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Shares of Apple Inc tumbled nearly 4 percent on Wednesday, rounding off a bleak ten weeks for the most valuable U.S. company, with analysts citing factors such as increasing competition in the tablet market.

The stock was one of the biggest percentage losers on the S&P 500, dropping 5.2 percent to $545.56 at one point as more than 17 million shares changed hands, putting it on track to surpass the company’s average daily volume over 50 days of 21 million shares.

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – For Leo Apotheker, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, a July 2011 meeting with Autonomy founder Mike Lynch at a chic seaside resort in France was pivotal to his effort to remake a storied technology giant.

In the nine months since taking the helm at HP, Apotheker had tried furiously to find a way to move the lumbering company away from its low-margin computer hardware business and into the lucrative corporate software and services arena. Apotheker was looking for a big, transformative acquisition, two people familiar with the situation said, and after overtures to several companies went nowhere, he set his sights on Autonomy.

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK/LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) – For Leo
Apotheker, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, a July 2011
meeting with Autonomy founder Mike Lynch at a chic seaside
resort in France was pivotal to his effort to remake a storied
technology giant.

In the nine months since taking the helm at HP, Apotheker
had tried furiously to find a way to move the lumbering company
away from its low-margin computer hardware business and into the
lucrative corporate software and services arena. Apotheker was
looking for a big, transformative acquisition, two people
familiar with the situation said, and after overtures to several
companies went nowhere, he set his sights on Autonomy.

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has levelled an accusation of dodgy accounting at Autonomy, the British software company it bought last year, and is taking an $8.8 billion charge in the latest of a string of setbacks.

HP has discovered “serious accounting improprieties” and “a wilful effort by Autonomy to mislead shareholders” after a whistleblower came forward, the company said on Tuesday.