Microsoft plans to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7B in cash, or $95/share, closing in FY '23; Activision's stock, which closed last week at $65.39, jumps 27%+
Legendary games, immersive interactive entertainment and publishing expertise accelerate growth in Microsoft's Gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud.
Social Capital founder and CEO Chamath Palihapitiya says the “ugly truth” is “nobody cares about what's happening” to Uyghurs in China, himself included
- Chamath Palihapitiya said “nobody cares about what's happening” to Uyghur Muslims in China.
Crypto.com halted withdrawals and requires users to re-sign-in and reset 2FA; research shows Crypto.com lost 4,600+ ETH, worth $15M+, during a suspected hack
The crypto exchange has reportedly lost at least $15 million in Ethereum, and security experts believe the true losses could be much higher.
Microsoft says Xbox Game Pass has 25M subscribers, up from 18M in January 2021
Microsoft's all-you-can-eat catalog of games is getting bigger, and now it's adding Activision Blizzard — Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass service now has 25 million subscribers.
China's MY2022 Olympics app, mandatory for attendees to report travel and health data, has serious encryption flaws and contains censorship keyword lists
Key Findings — MY2022, an app mandated for use by all attendees of the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, has a simple but devastating flaw …
Samsung unveils its 4nm Exynos 2200 SoC with an Xclipse GPU using AMD's RDNA 2 architecture, offering hardware-accelerated ray tracing and variable rate shading
The processor packs Samsung's own Xclipse GPU based on AMD RDNA 2 architecture that the South Korean company says will offer …
The UK government will increase scrutiny of crypto ads, bringing the marketing in line with other financial promotions, citing risk to buyers
Quick Take — HM Treasury said it would ramp up scrutiny of crypto advertising in the UK. — The move will bring crypto marketing within … Source: GOV.UK .
Apple accounted for 22% of global smartphone shipments in Q4 2021, down from 23% in 2020, followed by Samsung (20%), Xiaomi (12%), Oppo (9%), and Vivo (8%)
Shanghai (China), Bengaluru (India), Singapore, Reading (UK) and Portland (US) - Tuesday, 18 January 2022
Binance conducted its first Binance Coin (BNB) auto-burn last quarter, removing over 1.6M BNB tokens worth $750M from circulation
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance implemented its first-ever binance token (BNB) auto-burn program last quarter, removing over 1.6 million BNB tokens worth $750 million from circulation. Source: Binance...
Game publishers' plans to add NFTs to games have sparked a fierce backlash from gamers, who have long resented the growing number of micro transactions in games
Game publishers are offering NFTs, but skeptical gamers smell a moneymaking scheme and are fighting back.
Analysis: Meta has filed dozens of patents to monetize its metaverse, including a virtual store with sponsored items, eye and face tracking in headsets, more
Meta hopes to use tiny human expressions to create virtual world of personalised ads — Pupil movements, body poses and nose scrunching …
Animoca Brands, an NFT and metaverse service, raises $359M led by Liberty City at a $5B valuation, up from $2.2B in October 2021
Soros Fund Management and the Winklevoss twins' venture capital firm are among investors in a funding round that's more than doubled the valuation of Animoca Brands Corp. …
Source: Israeli police used NSO's Pegasus to monitor citizens, mayors, political protesters, and former government employees without warrants or court oversight
Mayors, leaders of political protests against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former governmental employees …
Sources: the US government is reviewing Alibaba's cloud business to determine potential national security risks, including how it stores US clients' data
The Biden administration is reviewing e-commerce giant Alibaba's cloud business to determine whether it poses a risk to U.S. national security …
Shopify partners with JD.com to help US merchants sell goods in China; merchants can set up shops in 3-4 weeks, well below the current 12-month process
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC :
The EU levied €1.1B in GDPR fines during 2021, up from €158.5M in 2020, led by the €746M fine on Amazon and €225M fine on WhatsApp
Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg : Source: DLA Piper .
Ukraine's digital transformation ministry says “all evidence points to Russia being behind the attack”, which took down about 70 government websites
Max Seddon / Financial Times :
The Tech Oversight Project, mainly funded by Pierre Omidyar and Chris Hughes' organizations, launches Tuesday to push for Big Tech antitrust regulation
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post :
Apple clarifies it will still collect a commission from Dutch developers using third-party payments; Google will too in South Korea, just lowering its fee by 4%
An in-depth look at Sony's ambition to become the world's most fully integrated entertainment company across movie blockbusters, music catalogs, and PlayStation
The Japanese corporation is on the cusp of full integration but critics say it needs to be wary of distractions like electric vehicles Tweets: @grimes_ce , @haranikkei , and @ivan_brussels Tweets: Chr...
Istanbul-based mobile game developer Dream Games, which makes Royal Match, raises $255M led by Index Ventures at a $2.75B valuation, up from $1B in June 2021
Ryan Browne / CNBC :
Pinwheel, which offers APIs to fintechs for payroll, income, and other data, raises a $50M Series B at a $500M valuation, following a $20M Series A in June 2021
Anita Ramaswamy / TechCrunch :
Despite high hopes, AI in health care hasn't been effective because medical data is more complex and scarcer than web data, causing misleading results
Tom Simonite / Wired : Tweets: @carnage4life , @pkedrosky , @carnage4life , @thiago37 , and @reema__patel Tweets: @carnage4life : Lack of large datasets for training medical AIs means it's more likel...
Bahrain-based cryptocurrency exchange Rain Financial raises a $110M Series B co-led by Paradigm and Kleiner Perkins, following a $6M Series A in January 2021
Brandy Betz / CoinDesk :
In February, Spain will start requiring influencers and sponsors promoting cryptocurrencies to pre-notify authorities and warn of investing risks or face fines
Appcues, which offers analytics and no-code tools to fix user onboarding, raises a $32.1M Series B led by NewSpring, says it has ~1,500 customers including Lyft
User onboarding has been a longstanding and persistent challenge in the world of apps. Developers grapple with design …
Just Eat outsources 6,000 of its riders and drivers working across six UK cities to Dutch staffing agency Randstad, to comply with stricter UK employment rules
Morgan Meaker / Wired : Tweets: @wired and @tashabernal Tweets: @wired : As delivery apps struggle with staffing shortages and a new wave of legislation that is forcing them to assume more costs for ...
Despite “cringe content”, LinkedIn's ad-free business model and a willingness to stunt virality for healthier engagement make it the only good social network
Trung Phan / SatPost : Tweets: @vonneudeck Tweets: Nicolai von Neudeck / @vonneudeck : I would not say it is that healthy because the unhealthy part are recruiters who spam you with badly fitting and...
BitPay says Bitcoin use by its merchants fell to ~65% of crypto payments, down from 92% in 2020, as Ether purchases rose to 15% and stablecoins grew to 13%
Autonomous driving startup Wayve, which relies on machine learning to teach a car how to drive instead of hardware like lidar sensors, raises a $200M Series B
Sam Shead / CNBC :
How Netflix succeeded in South Korea, including by developing ideas considered too risky for broadcasters and licensing local content overseas
viewers who devoured ‘Squid Game’ started watching more shows in Korean.” @shirleyZhaoXY @Lucas_Shaw @business https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Amazon reverses its plan to ban the use of Visa credit cards in the UK, set to start on January 19; the company had cited high transaction fees
South Korean startup flex, which makes tools for automating HR processes and workflows, raises a $32M Series B led by Greenoaks at a $287M valuation
Kate Park / TechCrunch :
African startup Finclusion Group, which uses AI to provide credit-based financial services, raises a $20M pre-Series A in debt and equity
Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch :
India-based agritech startup Arya, which helps farmers in South Asia store and sell their produce and secure credit, raises a $46M Series C and $14M as debt
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Paris-based Spendesk, which offers spend management software to SMBs, raises $114M at a $1.5B valuation, after raising the same amount in July 2021
Benoit Berthelot / Bloomberg :
Shopify's new AI commerce stack
Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
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.