Square is moving further beyond the swipe.

The payments company has begun testing a way to give Square merchants thousands of dollars to help them grow, according to three people familiar with the effort. The early-stage test is part of the startup’s push to diversify beyond processing credit cards for small businesses, a competitive and low-margin business.

Square has also been ...

More than six months ago, Google approached WhatsApp with an odd offer: It would pay the mobile messaging startup in exchange for the right to be notified if the messaging app entered into acquisition talks with other companies, according to a person involved in the process and two people briefed on it.

WhatsApp rebuffed the offer, which could have been worth millions of dollars, according to ...

Google is likely to tap longtime ad products head Susan Wojcicki as the new head of YouTube, according to two people briefed on the discussions, a surprising move that would place one of the company’s earliest employees at the helm of the video unit.

The move would send a clear signal that Google CEO Larry Page wants to zero in on the site’s ad products. While YouTube’s growth has ...

In recent years, top executives from U.S. technology giants such as Google, Microsoft and Intel routinely filed into a secured room deep inside the bowels of the National Security Agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Md.

During the visits, which continue today, the NSA and other U.S. government agencies provide classified, “top secret” intelligence about existing and potential cyber threats to ...

Nest Labs for $3.2 billion. DeepMind Technologies for $550 million. Which company will Google buy next?

The tech giant has been studying wearable technology companies to acquire, according to three people briefed on the internal discussions. It isn't clear whether the studying has led to formal talks and which companies Google is focused on. But the people said Google CEO Larry Page ...

Google is upping the ante in the race to deliver Internet to the developing world. In the process, it is vying with Facebook, Microsoft and others to strike partnerships with local telecom companies to try to bring new populations and revenue online.

In a previously undisclosed move, Google has discussed plans to launch a wireless Internet service in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, as soon as ...

There’s been a parade of new smart TVs, toys and washing machines at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But this year’s most anticipated gadget is still MIA.

That’s Apple’s iWatch. When Apple plans to start selling the device remains unclear. But a look behind the scenes shows a few apparent setbacks for the project. None are necessarily ...

Behind closed doors, Microsoft recently considered unconventional tactics to shrink the competitive gap between its Windows Phone software and Google’s Android, which powers the vast majority of smartphones in the world.

In one scenario, a smartphone buyer would be able to walk into a wireless carrier store, find a phone they like and only then choose whether they want Windows Phone or ...

Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system has struggled to make gains against Google and Apple. But it may soon get a shot in the arm from an old partner and rival: Sony.

Sony, whose mobile unit has exclusively made smartphones powered by Google’s Android software for nearly four years, has considered launching a Windows phone as soon as mid-2014, according to a person ...

Hewlett-Packard is entering the consumer mobile-handset market, again.

HP’s last two smartphone efforts flopped, first with its “iPaq” devices and more recently with phones made by Palm, the handset maker it acquired in 2010.

Now CEO Meg Whitman is taking another stab at the crowded mobile-phone industry as she tries to turn around the company. She is searching for new areas ...

YouTube’s quest to lure more-lucrative videos and ads is struggling as a leadership change may be afoot.

Recent initiatives such as the launch of new “channels” that YouTube helped fund have had mixed results for advertisers. Prices for premium ad space on the Google video site have been flat or falling this year, according to ad agencies, as supply for video ads has ...

Forget the floating Google showrooms. When it comes to retail, Samsung Electronics is contemplating a bigger plunge.

The South Korean company's U.S. telecom unit recently hired a senior Apple store designer, Tim Gudgel, as it ponders a deeper investment in U.S. retail, according to two people close to the company. Mr. Gudgel specializes in store design and planning. Earlier in his career ...

China has been viewed as a lost cause for Google ever since its services were hurt by government interference and strong domestic competitors.

But Android is proving to be a significant backdoor into China for Google's Web services. The mobile software, which Google makes available to handset makers, powers the vast majority of China’s hundreds of millions of smartphones and ...

Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other tech giants are battling to acquire expertise in a once-obscure branch of artificial intelligence that’s improving speech recognition, online-ad targeting and other technologies.

Their main problem: There isn’t enough talent. Only a handful of researchers can call themselves experts in the red-hot field known as “deep learning,” a branch of machine ...

The battle among technology companies to take over the living room is getting even more crowded.

Across Silicon Valley, employees are cashing out.

For years, the Valley's conventional wisdom has held that allowing employees to sell some stock before an initial public offering would reduce their drive and hurt retention. Sales began happening anyway, but behind employers' backs on the secondary markets.

But there has been a behind-the-scenes explosion of secondary offerings being ...