VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Japan's SoftBank Corp (9984.T) will soon downsize its Silicon Valley offices, people with knowledge of the matter said, signaling the company won't revive efforts to buy T-Mobile U.S. Inc (TMUS.N).

Technology startups in Canada are seeking to lure back expatriates from Silicon Valley with the promise of executive roles, generous stakes and the chance to stamp their mark on a nascent industry.

If Shubham Banerjee cannot lay claim to being the world's youngest venture capital-backed entrepreneur, he comes very close. Banerjee was 12 years old when he closed an early-stage funding round with Intel Capital, the company's venture capital arm, last month for his prototype for a low-cost Braille printer.

U.S. taxi service firm Uber said it is in early talks with investors to raise money at a higher valuation than $17 billion it secured with June's round of funding, Financial Times reported on Friday citing people familiar with the matter.

Microsoft Corp said it teamed up with online file-sharing company Dropbox Inc to allow Office software users to manage and share files through Dropbox's website and mobile app.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) CEO Tim Cook on Thursday became the most prominent American corporate leader to come out as gay, saying he was trading his closely guarded privacy for the chance to help move civil rights forward.

Salesforce Inc is betting big on healthcare, hiring key personnel and ramping up investment in hopes of replacing outmoded medical industry infrastructure and carving out a $1 billion annual business.

Hundreds of alleged usernames and passwords for online document-sharing site Dropbox were published on Monday on Pastebin, an anonymous information-sharing website.

FLG Partners (www.flgpartners.com), today announced the election of Mark Murray as a partner in the firm, bringing the number of partners to 24. "We are very pleased that Mark has joined the firm," said Jeffrey Kuhn, Managing Partner of FLG.

Silicon Valley stalwart Hewlett-Packard Co, which has struggled to adapt to the new era of mobile and online computing, plans to split into two companies as it looks to put more focus on the faster-growing corporate services market, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday.

High salaries and free food aren't enough any more in Silicon Valley, where maturing companies are competing for talent with creative health care and "wellness" programs that use gadgets to promote good behavior.

Softbank Corp’s investment in a Hollywood movie studio represents the coming out party for two new players in the U.S. entertainment industry -- the Japanese telecommunications company and Nikesh Arora, the former Google Inc executive running a new media and internet company.

PayPal's biggest threat as it prepares to split from eBay (EBAY.O) next year may come from former employees who back a crop of new businesses serving shoppers who increasingly prefer to pay with mobile phones rather than personal computers.

A proposed merger of Internet pioneers AOL Inc and Yahoo Inc could create a nimbler player in Web video, but strong growth, the measure of success in Silicon Valley, would remain elusive.

Amazon.com Inc will boost staffing at its secretive Silicon Valley-based hardware unit by at least 27 percent over the next five years as it tests Internet-connected "smart" home gadgets such as a one-button device to order supplies.