DealBook: América Móvil Maneuvers to Allow Bigger Stake in Dutch Operator

Dutch Man Said to Be Arrested in Powerful Internet Attack

While the authorities did not give the full name of the man in a statement published on a Dutch government Web site, they identified him as “S.K.” A source close to the investigation, who was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that the arrested man was Sven Olaf Kamphuis, a 35-year-old Dutch man who has been the spokesman of a group that was protesting a European antispam group’s tactics.

Spanish police arrested the man on Thursday at his home in Barcelona, at the request of the Dutch police, and seized his computers and mobile phones. He is expected to be sent to the Netherlands. Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for Dutch national prosecutor’s office, said “S.K.” was suspected of playing a role in a wave of attacks last month.

His arrest came after an investigation by authorities in the Netherlands and other European countries into Mr. Kamphuis’s involvement in one of the largest attacks on the Internet. Mr. Kamphuis has been suspected of starting a distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack against Spamhaus, the antispam group. Such attacks are a criminal offense under Dutch law.

Mr. Kamphuis calls himself the “minister of telecommunications and foreign affairs for the Republic of CyberBunker.” But many consider him to be the Prince of Spam. He runs CB3ROB, an Internet service provider, and CyberBunker, a Web hosting company that in the past has hosted sites like WikiLeaks and the Pirate Bay, a site accused of abetting digital content piracy.

Antispam groups say they believe CyberBunker acts as a conduit for vast amounts of spam. Last month, Spamhaus, an antispam group based in Geneva, added CyberBunker to its blacklist, which is used by major e-mail providers to block spam.

In the days and weeks after the blacklisting, Spamhaus was targeted with an DDoS attack, which flooded the site with traffic until it fell offline.

After Spamhaus hired a Silicon Valley Internet security firm, CloudFlare, to defend against the attack, the attackers turned their ire on CloudFlare. When efforts to bring down CloudFlare were unsuccessful, the attackers hit back with a far more powerful strike that exploited the Internet’s core infrastructure, called the Domain Name System, or D.N.S.

Their attack quickly reached previously unknown magnitudes, growing to a data stream of 300 billion bits per second, which resulted in slowing Internet traffic for millions of Internet users around the world.

Mr. Kamphuis has denied his role in the attack and said he was only a spokesman for Stophaus, a loose organization set up to take down Spamhaus. Asked about his involvement in the attacks last month, Mr. Kamphuis told The New York Times, “We are aware that this is one of the largest DDoS attacks the world has seen so far, yes.”

But through his Facebook page, Mr. Kamphuis has actively called on hackers to take Spamhaus offline.

“Yo anons, we could use a little help in shutting down illegal slander and blackmail censorship project ‘spamhaus.org,’ which thinks it can dictate its views on what should and should not be on the Internet,” he said on Facebook on March 23.

Dutch prosecutors singled out Mr. Kamphuis because of his vocal role. Greenhost, a Dutch Internet hosting service, said in a blog post that it had found CB3ROB’s digital fingerprints while studying the attack traffic directed at Spamhaus.

Mr. Kamphuis’s arrest in Barcelona was made through the European Union’s judicial collaboration unit, Eurojust.

An anonymous statement was posted to Pastebin, a Web forum for hackers, on Friday, proclaiming Mr. Kamphuis’s innocence and threatening another round of attacks if he is not released. “We demand u to release Sven or we will indeed start the biggest attack u humans have ever experienced toward The Internet, and yourself,” the hacker wrote.

Eric Pfanner contributed reporting.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 26, 2013

An earlier version of the Web summary on this article misstated who had arrested a man believed to be connected to an online attack. Dutch authorities announced the development, but it was Spanish police who made the arrest, they said, not the Dutch.

Road 2 Rockstar Webisode 4 - Studio Session

R-Stonze links back up with Cleveland, OH rap artist, Dutch Mastermind. This time, both artist collab together and record a joint off Stoney's Rock S.T.A.R. album titled "What You Doin". Classic 216 music at its finest, Rock S.T.A.R. the album drops 5-20-13. Shoutout to H.O.S. (Hustle Or Starve) from the almighty Stakk Money Gang aka SMG.

Shot & Edited by RyVisions
Canon Rebel T3

DealBook: Dutch Tech Firm ASML to Buy Cymer for $2.6 Billion

LONDON – The Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML agreed on Wednesday to buy Cymer, a maker of microchip components, for 1.95 billion euros ($2.6 billion).

The cash-and-stock deal is an attempt by ASML, which supplies companies like Intel and Samsung, to develop new microchip technology, according to a company statement.

“We believe that this transaction will improve our capabilities to bring new technologies to our customers,” ASML’s chief executive, Eric Meurice, said in a statement.

Under the terms of the deal, shareholders in Cymer, based in San Diego, will receive $20 and 1.15 ASML shares for each Cymer share. The offer represents a premium of about 70 percent to Cymer’s closing share price on Tuesday.

Shares of ASML fell about 3 percent in morning trading in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

ASML said it would continue to operate Cymer as a stand-alone division in the United States.

Analysts cautioned that the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2013, could add extra complexity to ASML’s operations and slow down the company’s pipeline of new semiconductor equipment.

ASML announced agreements this year with a number of its customers to sell a combined 23 percent stake in itself. Cash provided by the clients, including the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, has been set aside to accelerate the development of next-generation microchip technology.

DealBook: Intel to Buy Stake in Dutch Semiconductor Equipment Firm

Intel agreed Monday to buy a 15 percent stake in ASML Holding, a Dutch semiconductor equipment maker, in an investment that may total as much as $4.1 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, Intel will buy an initial 10 percent of ASML’s shares for about $2.1 billion. The American technology giant also agreed to pay about $1 billion to help finance additional research and development costs at ASML.

The investment will be used primarily to speed up the introduction of bigger chip wafers and newer semiconductor manufacturing technology known as extreme ultraviolet lithography.

If approved by ASML shareholders, Intel would later buy an additional 5 percent for $1 billion.

ASML, which is based in Veldhoven in the Netherlands, had previously said that it planned to sell up to 25 percent of itself to chip makers like Intel as a way to raise capital.

Intel said that it plans to pay for the investment through cash held in foreign subsidiaries, which it can use without incurring taxes in the United States.