Business news in brief

Priceline's strategy chief named CEO

NORWALK, Conn. -- Priceline Group Inc. chose a 16-year veteran of the online travel company who presided over its extensive acquisition campaigns to be its new chief executive officer, ending an almost eight-month hunt for a new leader.

Glenn Fogel, 54, Priceline's head of strategy, will take over the top job from interim CEO Jeffery Boyd at the beginning of the new year. Boyd, who stepped into the CEO role after Darren Huston resigned in April, will become executive chairman.

Fogel takes over a company that is growing briskly as more travelers book their flights and hotels online each year. Still, it's facing threats from tech companies like Google, which is dipping its toes further into travel, and Airbnb, as well as fierce competition from Expedia Inc. and Chinese travel giant Ctrip.com International Ltd.

Priceline Group is a collection of various brands including Booking.com, restaurant booking service OpenTable, travel search site Kayak.com and Asia-focused hotel booking website Agoda.com, all of which have their own leadership teams. Fogel's job will be to set high-level strategy, allocate resources to the different brands, lead the company's mergers and acquisitions strategy and serve as a public face to the market.

-- Bloomberg News

GM's self-driving electric cars on road

DETROIT -- General Motors has started testing fully autonomous vehicles on public roads around its technical center in suburban Detroit.

The announcement comes after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation that allows the cars to be tested on public roads without a driver or a steering wheel. But the automaker says that for now, it will have human backup drivers for its fleet of autonomous Chevrolet Bolt electric cars.

Testing started late last week on roads near the tech center in Warren. The Bolts soon will move to the entire Detroit metro area, which will serve as the company's main testing center for snowy and cold weather.

The Bolt, which went on sale in California and Oregon last week, can go 238 miles on a single charge and costs about $30,000 when a $7,500 federal tax credit is factored in. Autonomous Bolts, which have distinctive spinning laser towers on their roofs, will come off the assembly line in Orion Township north of Detroit starting next year.

-- The Associated Press

Thailand OKs tighter Internet controls

BANGKOK -- Thailand's military-appointed legislature approved a bill Friday tightening the country's already harsh Computer Crime Act, defying critics who said it infringes on the right to free expression.

The National Legislative Assembly voted 168-0 with four abstentions to approve amending the 2007 law.

Internet activists had campaigned against the amendment, which will allow the authorities to intercept private communications and block websites deemed harmful to national security or public morals without a court order. Other provisions add specific criminal penalties for undermining national security and entering false information into computer systems, and increase the length of time for which service providers must retain data from 90 days to as long as two years.

The original law was passed to cope with a lack of regulation of the online world. Increasingly it has been used against critics of the government, particularly by the military regime that came to power after overthrowing an elected government in 2014.

Thai Internet service providers already block some websites with material such as pornography and criticism of the monarchy, and YouTube blocks some similar sites, but only in Thailand.

Some 300,000 people signed an online petition on the change.org website opposing the bill.

-- The Associated Press

Amazon announces U.K. data centers

LONDON -- Amazon Web Services, the cloud-hosting arm of Amazon.com Inc., opened new data centers in the U.K. as it seeks to stay abreast of competitors in offering cloud-computing services to government and health-care customers.

The new data centers, announced in a statement last week, follow decisions by IBM and Microsoft Corp. in the past two months to expand their cloud-computing infrastructure in the U.K.

The U.K. data region -- which comprises two zones, each consisting of multiple data centers -- is the 16th Amazon Web Services operates worldwide and its third in Europe. A fourth in France has been announced and will open next year.

Governments increasingly are moving computing functions into the cloud. But they are often required for regulatory and security purposes to hold data within their national borders. The same applies for sensitive health care information. Meeting these demands is one reason cloud providers are rushing to open more data centers around the globe.

-- Bloomberg News

Ailing billionaire to give up Viacom vote

NEW YORK -- Sumner Redstone, chairman emeritus and controlling shareholder of Viacom Inc., will give up his vote on the board after the media giant's next annual meeting.

Redstone, 93, will retain his title and continue to participate in meetings after the Feb. 6 shareholder gathering, Viacom said Friday in a filing. The billionaire, who has been in frail health, relinquished his title as chairman in February.

Viacom surged as much as 4 percent on speculation that Redstone's diminished role could make the company more open to a takeover or asset sales. Redstone had staunchly opposed plans by former Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman to sell a stake in the struggling Paramount Pictures unit earlier this year.

With her father ailing, Viacom Vice Chairman Shari Redstone won a legal battle with Dauman in August, allowing her to take the lead on decisions involving the leadership and strategic direction of the company. This month, she installed Bob Bakish as CEO and scrapped a plan to merge Viacom with her family's other major media holding, CBS Corp.

The Redstones' holding company, National Amusements Inc., holds 80 percent of the voting stock of Viacom and CBS.

-- Bloomberg News

SundayMonday Business on 12/19/2016

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