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(Reuters) -Salesforce said on Wednesday it would spend $1 billion in Mexico over the next five years, as the cloud software provider looks to expand its operations and drive artificial intelligence adoption. The company, which began operating in Mexico in 2006, said the investment will fund a new Mexico City office and a Global Delivery Center to support customers across the Americas. "This $1 billion investment is a commitment to Mexico as a key market for AI-powered growth," CEO Marc Benioff said. Mexico is rapidly emerging as a tech services hub, drawing investments from technology companies, particularly in the AI domain due to the country's proximity to the U.S. and growing talent base. Microsoft announced last year that it will spend $1.3 billion over the next three years to build up its infrastructure in Mexico for cloud computing and AI. Salesforce said Mexico is a growth market for the company, with a customer base including organizations such as Xcaret, Grupo Bafar and FEMSA. "This investment will not only create jobs and build AI skills within Mexico but will also position our country as a key consultancy hub for markets across Latin America on AI agents and more," Mexico's Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said. Last month, Salesforce forecast third-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates. The company had also announced a $20 billion increase to its existing share buyback program. Salesforce has rolled out AI across its cloud services at a rapid pace, culminating in the 2024 commercial launch of Agentforce — its AI agent platform designed to automate tasks, streamline operations and help lift margins. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

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By Milana Vinn (Reuters) -Confluent is exploring a sale after attracting acquisition interest, according to three people familiar with the matter, the latest data infrastructure company to draw suitors for its potential in supporting artificial intelligence development. The software provider is working with an investment bank on the sale process, which is in its early stages and was instigated after both private equity firms and other technology companies expressed their interest to the company in buying it, the sources said. Confluent's stock jumped 11% in the opening minutes of Wednesday trading following the Reuters report, giving the company a market value of around $7.9 billion. The gains help reverse some of the company's stock fall this year. It had slumped 26% in the year to October 7. Some of the sources had told Reuters while Confluent's technology is highly sought-after, it became vulnerable to takeover approaches when its stock price dived in July, when it reported losing business from a large customer. The sources cautioned that no deal is guaranteed and Confluent could ultimately remain independent. They also spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential. Confluent did not immediately respond to a comment request. Mountain View, California-based Confluent provides technology needed to manage massive, real-time data streams for artificial intelligence models. The company was founded by the original creators of Apache Kafka, a popular open-source technology that helps companies process huge torrents of data in real time, from bank transactions to website clicks. Confluent commercializes Kafka, providing enterprise-grade features, services, and support to major corporations worldwide. The interest in Confluent highlights a surge in demand for data infrastructure companies, fueled by the corporate race to develop generative artificial intelligence. In May, Salesforce agreed to acquire software maker Informatica for approximately $8 billion to bolster its AI capabilities by integrating Informatica's data management, integration, and governance tools into the Salesforce platform. (Reporting by Milana Vinn in New York; Editing by David French, Christopher Cushing and Nick Zieminski)

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By Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Hollywood and Bollywood groups are lobbying an Indian panel for stricter copyright protection that will prevent artificial intelligence firms from using their intellectual property to train AI models, letters show. AI companies remain at loggerheads with content owners globally and governments are fast developing regulations that lay down rules for the new technology. While Japan gives broad exemptions to AI firms in using copyrighted content, the European Union has stricter rules that allow content owners to opt-out of such use. The movie industry is particularly concerned that AI tools could scrape their copyrighted videos, images and clips online – like trailers and promos – and more critically ingest pirated content onto their platforms. India's current copyright law does not account for use by AI. The government formed a panel this year consisting of lawyers, government officials and industry executives to review if existing copyright law is sufficient to tackle AI-related disputes, and make recommendations. WORRIED FILM STUDIOS LOBBYING HARD Motion Picture Association (MPA), which represents Warner Bros, Paramount and Netflix, and the Producers Guild of India have argued India should not tinker with its copyright law and instead promote a licencing regime.  In response to the panel's private inquiry on why India should not allow blanket training exceptions to bolster AI innovation, MPA India Managing Director Uday Singh said in an August 2 letter the move could "undermine the incentive to create new works and erode copyright protection in India." The Indian guild's CEO Nitin Tej Ahuja told the panel in his letter "licensing copyrighted works is essential for creators' revenue and business sustainability." MPA declined to comment, while the guild did not respond to Reuters queries on the letters, which are not public.  India's commerce ministry official Himani Pande, who chairs the panel, did not respond to Reuters queries. The panel is finalising its recommendations which it will present to senior officials in coming weeks, a source with direct knowledge said. INDIA'S VIBRANT MOVIE MARKET     India has one of the world's most vibrant film industries. A Deloitte-MPA study in May said India's film, TV and online content industry generated $13.1 billion in revenues last year, growing 18% each year since 2019.      The deliberations come just when a Bollywood couple has gone to court to challenge YouTube's AI policies after their manipulated videos started spreading online.  The film studios' position is in contrast to the Business Software Alliance, which represents AI firms like OpenAI, and which argued in  public submissions in July that New Delhi should ensure exceptions to permit lawful AI use. MPA members however remain concerned. The association has said India should not consider allowing use of content in AI models with an opt-out system as it will put the burden of responsibility on the movie studios, a move that could force them to individually track and block sharing of their work on scores of AI platforms. Such exceptions "would hinder future investments, development of high-quality local content," MPA India said. In September, Warner sued AI service Midjourney in Los Angeles by saying it brazenly stole the studio's works to generate images and videos of Batman, Superman, Bugs Bunny and other copyrighted characters. Midjourney maintains the way it trains its AI model amounts to fair use. (Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) -Elon Musk and X Corp have reached a settlement in a lawsuit by four former top executives at Twitter, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, who claim they were not paid $128 million in promised severance pay after Musk acquired the social media company and fired them. The terms of the settlement, which was first announced in a filing in San Francisco federal court last week, were not disclosed. A federal judge on October 1 pushed back filing deadlines and a hearing in the case so the settlement can be finalized.  X in August agreed to settle a separate lawsuit by rank-and-file Twitter employees who lost their jobs during mass layoffs and claimed they were owed $500 million in unpaid severance.  The cases are among a series of legal challenges that Musk, the world's richest person, has faced after he acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, cut more than half of its workforce and renamed it X. X and lawyers for the former Twitter executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The plaintiffs are Agrawal; Ned Segal, Twitter's former chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, its former chief legal officer; and Sean Edgett, its former general counsel. The former executives say that Musk falsely accused them of misconduct and forced them out of Twitter after they sued him for attempting to renege on his offer to purchase the company. Musk then denied the executives severance pay they had been promised for years before he acquired Twitter, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs say they each are owed one year's salary and hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of stock options. Musk and X have denied wrongdoing and said the executives were fired over their performance. (Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New YorkEditing by Marguerita Choy)

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By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) -Elon Musk and X Corp have reached a settlement in a lawsuit by four former top executives at Twitter, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, who claim they were not paid $128 million in promised severance pay after Musk acquired the social media company and fired them. The terms of the settlement, which was first announced in a filing in San Francisco federal court last week, were not disclosed. A federal judge on October 1 pushed back filing deadlines and a hearing in the case so the settlement can be finalized.  X in August agreed to settle a separate lawsuit by rank-and-file Twitter employees who lost their jobs during mass layoffs and claimed they were owed $500 million in unpaid severance.  The cases are among a series of legal challenges that Musk, the world's richest person, has faced after he acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, cut more than half of its workforce and renamed it X. X and lawyers for the former Twitter executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The plaintiffs are Agrawal; Ned Segal, Twitter's former chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, its former chief legal officer; and Sean Edgett, its former general counsel. The former executives say that Musk falsely accused them of misconduct and forced them out of Twitter after they sued him for attempting to renege on his offer to purchase the company. Musk then denied the executives severance pay they had been promised for years before he acquired Twitter, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs say they each are owed one year's salary and hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of stock options. Musk and X have denied wrongdoing and said the executives were fired over their performance. (Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New YorkEditing by Marguerita Choy)

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By Sneha S K (Reuters) -Telehealth company HealthTap said on Wednesday it is joining Eli Lilly's digital healthcare platform, LillyDirect, to offer virtual diabetes management services. Diabetic patients across the U.S. would have access to HealthTap's primary care physicians through the platform. The company said its clinicians support medication management, lab review and preventive care tailored to each patient's condition, as the company's model focuses on maintaining a long-term relationship with one doctor to provide holistic care. WHY IT MATTERS Telehealth firms, along with weight-loss drug makers Lilly and Novo Nordisk, pharmacies, and related entities, have launched several direct-to-consumer offerings to tap into the extraordinary demand for GLP-1 drugs used to treat diabetes and obesity. CONTEXT In April, another primary care provider, knownwell, said it will provide health and weight-management services through LillyDirect. Lilly has also expanded its LillyDirect platform to include telehealth providers that diagnose and care for patients with Alzheimer's disease. KEY QUOTE "As Lilly markets its website as a destination for consumers and grows their traffic base, we get to tap into it in a very relevant way, because essentially, they're doing the marketing to attract consumers seeking primary care and we're being presented as an option for them," HealthTap co-founder and CEO Sean Mehra told Reuters. (Reporting by Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

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By Amina Niasse NEW YORK (Reuters) -Amazon said on Wednesday its pharmacy business in December will begin filling some prescriptions for common medications at electronic kiosks in its One Medical primary care locations, which the company says will reduce barriers to access and limit shipping costs. Amazon plans to start the offer with One Medical patients in Los Angeles for drugs including antibiotics, asthma inhalers and treatments for high blood pressure, the company said. The kiosks will be the first in-person pick-up service offered by Amazon Pharmacy, which has been providing prescription services primarily by delivery, said Hannah McClellan Richards, a vice president at Amazon Pharmacy. One Medical offers a membership structure that allows patients to access primary and urgent care at a subscription fee of $199 annually. Patients without a membership are still able to book an appointment and would be able to use the kiosk, the company said. Richards said in an interview that the company plans to expand the kiosk model outside of California in 2026 and is in talks with external health systems to introduce the machines through partnerships. Amazon does not plan to offer medicines that must be refrigerated, such as GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, or more tightly regulated prescriptions like controlled pain medicines through the kiosk. Inventory for each kiosk will be tailored to the provider, and patients would be able to consult a company pharmacist virtually, Amazon said in a press release. Amazon.com, the $2.34 trillion e-commerce company, launched pharmaceutical delivery in 2018 through its acquisition of PillPack. In 2023, the company purchased One Medical, a national primary care provider. Analysts this year have flagged shipping and logistical costs as a potential squeeze on Amazon's profits. Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, in a second-quarter earnings call, said the company planned to make strategic decisions on product placement in an effort to shorten delivery routes and improve availability. "We're committed to initiatives that further improve our cost structure," he said at the time. Richards acknowledged that the most expensive part of the e-commerce supply chain is shipping. "If you put inventory closer to customers," she said, "your shipping costs go way down and your demand goes way up." (Reporting by Amina Niasse; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)

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By John Revill and Anton Bridge ZURICH/TOKYO (Reuters) -SoftBank Group has agreed to buy the robotics business of Swiss engineering group ABB in a $5.4 billion deal, as the Japanese investor forges ahead with a strategy to fuse robotics and artificial intelligence. The acquisition, announced on Wednesday, is the latest by founder and CEO Masayoshi Son to establish Softbank as a core player in the development of artificial intelligence. SoftBank pushed into humanoid robotics a decade ago with its Pepper robot but later scaled back its ambitions. Its recent investments in the sector include Berkshire Grey and AutoStore, and it also led a $40 billion funding round in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and in March bought chip design company Ampere for $6.5 billion. SOFTBANK'S STRATEGY: MERGING AI WITH ROBOTICS "SoftBank's next frontier is Physical AI," Son said in a statement. The deal means ABB has abandoned its original decision to spin off and separately list the industrial automation business, which competes with Japan's Fanuc and Yaskawa, as well as Germany's Kuka in making factory robots. The decision is the first major move under ABB CEO Morten Wierod, who took charge last year, and follows years of struggling sales and falling profitability for the robots business. ABB's robotics division, which employs 7,000 people, generated sales of $2.3 billion last year, equivalent to 7% of ABB's total revenues. But the company saw limited crossover with the rest of its business, which focuses primarily on electrification and automation. ABB announced to shareholders in April its decision to spin off robotics but decided to sell instead because the SoftBank deal provided money immediately, Wierod told Reuters. Following the deal's announcement, Switzerland's Zuercher Kantonalbank said it had expected a valuation of slightly less than $4 billion for the robotics business under the planned spin-off. ABB shares opened 2% higher in Zurich after the sale announcement, while SoftBank's shares did not move significantly, ending the day down 2%. ABB TO FOCUS ON ELECTRIFICATION, AUTOMATION, ACQUISITIONS "We always said that robotics is a market with much higher volatility. And that's what we've seen over the years, both when it comes to growth, but also margins," Wierod said. "So it is a bit of a different market than, say, the rest of ABB today, which is focusing on electrification and automation." The transaction is expected to close in mid- to late-2026 and will generate cash proceeds of roughly $5.3 billion, ABB said. The money will be spent on developing new technology and production capacity in electrification and automation, and could also fund new acquisitions, Wierod said. "We do have firepower to also do bigger acquisitions, so we're not excluding bigger deals," Wierod said. (Reporting by John Revill and Anton Bridge; Editing by Miranda Murray, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Joe Bavier)

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By Milana Vinn (Reuters) -Confluent is exploring a sale after attracting acquisition interest, according to three people familiar with the matter, the latest data infrastructure company to draw suitors for its potential in supporting artificial intelligence development. The software provider is working with an investment bank on the sale process, which is in its early stages and was instigated after both private equity firms and other technology companies expressed their interest to the company in buying it, the sources said. Confluent's stock jumped 11% in the opening minutes of Wednesday trading following the Reuters report, giving the company a market value of around $7.9 billion. The gains help reverse some of the company's stock fall this year. It had slumped 26% in the year to October 7. Some of the sources had told Reuters while Confluent's technology is highly sought-after, it became vulnerable to takeover approaches when its stock price dived in July, when it reported losing business from a large customer. The sources cautioned that no deal is guaranteed and Confluent could ultimately remain independent. They also spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are confidential. Confluent did not immediately respond to a comment request. Mountain View, California-based Confluent provides technology needed to manage massive, real-time data streams for artificial intelligence models. The company was founded by the original creators of Apache Kafka, a popular open-source technology that helps companies process huge torrents of data in real time, from bank transactions to website clicks. Confluent commercializes Kafka, providing enterprise-grade features, services, and support to major corporations worldwide. The interest in Confluent highlights a surge in demand for data infrastructure companies, fueled by the corporate race to develop generative artificial intelligence. In May, Salesforce agreed to acquire software maker Informatica for approximately $8 billion to bolster its AI capabilities by integrating Informatica's data management, integration, and governance tools into the Salesforce platform. (Reporting by Milana Vinn in New York; Editing by David French, Christopher Cushing and Nick Zieminski)

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London (PA Media/dpa) – Taking “exercise snacks” throughout the day can boost people’s health and make them fitter, researchers say. Bursts of activity, lasting just a few minutes, increase respiratory fitness and could be ideal for people who lack time and or suffer low motivation, according to experts. Engaging in as little as 10 to 59 minutes of activity per week has also been associated with an 18% reduction in premature death from any cause. Most adults do not meet recommended exercise guidelines of 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate activity, or 75 to 150 minutes a week of vigorous activity. Now, researchers writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, say there is collective evidence that exercise spread throughout the day has health benefits. “Exercise snacks are intentionally structured, short duration bouts of physical activity, such as stair climbing or body weight exercises, that are deliberately incorporated into daily routines,” said the team, including from the University of Oviedo, Spain, and the Danish Centre for Motivation and Behaviour Science. “Snacktivity encourages the accumulation of short physical activity bouts (two to five minutes) to achieve recommended weekly activity targets.” The researchers assessed 11 randomised controlled trials involving 414 inactive people, 69% of whom were women. Exercise snacks were defined as structured bouts lasting less than five minutes, performed at least twice daily and for at least three days every week. Pooling the results showed that exercise snacks significantly improved cardiorespiratory fitness in adults and there was limited evidence they improved muscular endurance in older adults. While the snacks were not shown to alter body composition, blood pressure or cholesterol levels, they were still regarded as beneficial. The team said people were also very likely to stick with short bursts of activity rather than starting longer training sessions and then giving up. They added: “Achieving even half of the recommended weekly physical activity volume (150–300min/week of moderate or 75–150min/week of vigorous intensity activity) confers significant mental health benefits, including an 18% lower risk of depression. “These findings highlight the potential of low volume, accessible physical activity strategies to produce significant health benefits, particularly among physically inactive adults.” The researchers said the “time efficient nature of exercise snacks” may help people who think they are too busy to exercise. “Exercise snacks may enhance adherence to regular physical activity by providing short, flexible exercise bouts that are easier to integrate into daily routines.” Known examples of moderate activity include very brisk walking, heavy cleaning such as washing windows or mopping, cycling or badminton. Vigorous activity includes hiking, jogging, shovelling, fast cycling, basketball or tennis. The following information is not intended for publication pa dpa coh

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