Amazon's grave NYC HQ2 mistake: the political landscape changed but the company's playbook didn't
The HQ2 contest was very Amazonian. So was its refusal to back down. — No one looks good in the wake of Amazon's decision to scrap plans for a giant New York headquarters in Long Island City, Queen...
Twitter hides a tweet, reportedly from Iran's head of state, for pointing out that a previous leader's verdict to murder novelist Salman Rushdie is still valid
Twitter has previously used a newsworthiness standard to defend its refusal to apply abuse and harassment rules to President Donald Trump's account.
After Amazon misread New York's politics, pulling out was a typical Bezos power play of belligerently confronting opposition he views as unfair or unjust
And Everyone Lost Paige Leskin / Business Insider : Amazon was having official talks with city officials just the day before it canceled the New York HQ2 Chris Nuttall / Financial Times : Amazon and N...
Security researcher says Twitter retains direct messages for years, including messages users have deleted, which may be illegal under the EU's new GDPR laws
When does “delete” really mean delete? Not always or even at all if you're Twitter . — Twitter retains direct messages for years …
Sources: Apple buys Pullstring, an SF-based enterprise voice app developer, for up to $40M; Pullstring has raised around $44M in venture capital
Apple has agreed to buy Pullstring, a San Francisco-based startup that enables the design and publishing of voice apps, Axios has learned.
Samsung unveils 10.5-inch Galaxy Tab S5e, its lightest and thinnest tablet and the first with Bixby built-in, starting at $399, launching in the second quarter
It's $399 and comes in three “millennial friendly” colors — There isn't a single Android tablet we can currently wholeheartedly recommend …
Amazon has made $11.2B in profits in 2018 but will pay no federal income tax and will receive a rebate of $129M due to unspecified tax credits
Amazon, the ubiquitous purveyor of two-day delivery of just about everything, nearly doubled its profits to $11.2 billion in 2018 from $5.6 billion …
Source: Didi to lay off ~2,000 people, or 15% of its workforce, from non-essential business units this year, as it focuses on its core ride-hailing services
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Didi Chuxing will lay off 15 percent of its staff or about 2,000 people this year, a source said …
Pokémon Go creator Niantic agrees to settle class action with property owners for unsanctioned PokéStop and Gym placements; monetary damages up for mediation
After fighting over the meaning of “trespass” in the digital age, Niantic agrees to a system for resolving nuisance complaints …
Google rolls out ARCore 1.7 with a new Augmented Faces API for the front-facing camera that can overlay effects on a user's face even without a depth sensor
ARCore is Google's platform for mobile augmented reality which does not require specialized hardware.
Facebook engineers on how they developed intelligent video framing for Portal devices by combining computer vision tech with expertise of Hollywood filmmakers
Facebook's Portal home camera has its drawbacks-privacy concerns not least among them-but it does have one undeniably cool feature …
US Copyright Office has refused a copyright claim for the “Carlton Dance”, a potential blow to performers seeking rights to dance emotes in games like Fortnite
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter :
Samsung's wearables app reveals new products including Galaxy Buds wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Watch Active smartwatch, and Galaxy Fit and Fit e fitness bands
Sam Byford / The Verge :
Samsung to open stores in LA, Houston, and Long Island on February 20, the first US retail stores to be operated by the company
Shara Tibken / CNET :
Insiders at Israeli hacking tools company NSO Group say they bought back the 70% stake they sold to US PE firm Francisco Partners; source: at a $1B valuation
Market source says the deal values the Israel-founded company, which helps governments spy on phones, at about $1 billion; NSO says it had revenues of $250 million in 2018
Uber sues New York City over the law that caps the number of ride-hail cars and pauses the issuance of licenses to drivers for 12 months starting last August
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge :
Profile of real estate ad giant Zillow, as it joins the new breed of “iBuyers” who flip homes at a massive scale using algorithms for granular price predictions
With its tan stucco exterior and red tile roof, the Rittenhouse home on South Star Canyon Drive looks a lot …
Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone Group agree to pay €46 per share for Scout24, valuing the Germany-based online classifieds company at €4.9B
Thomas Mulier / Bloomberg :
Uber reports Q4 revenue of $3B, up 24% YoY, gross bookings of $14.2B, up 37% YoY, and adjusted EBITDA losses of $842M, up 88% YoY and 60% QoQ
last valued at $77 B, which is more than Goldman Sachs (!) — saw its revenue grow just 2.3% last quarter. That is not a great number for a ‘growth’ company that lost $3.3 billion last year https://www...
SEC filing: Spotify paid ~$337M to buy Gimlet Media and Anchor; Spotify told investors it expects to spend $400M-$500M in total on podcast acquisitions in 2019
Todd Spangler / Variety :
Delaware filing: Opendoor, which buys homes from sellers directly to sell at a profit, is raising a $200M Series E-2 at an estimated valuation of $3.7B
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
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Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements
2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.