FTC v. Microsoft: Phil Spencer says Microsoft acquired ZeniMax for $7.5B to stop Sony from paying for Bethesda games like Starfield to be PlayStation exclusives
Microsoft's Xbox chief has revealed one of the key reasons behind the acquisition of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax: potential Starfield PlayStation exclusivity.
Andy Jassy says Amazon plans to invest $15B more in India by 2030, likely most for AWS expansion; in May 2023, AWS announced a $12.7B investment in the country
Amazon plans to more than double its investment in India in the next seven years, the e-commerce group said …
Sources: Meta plans to debut its Twitter rival, potentially named Threads, in mid-July and is pitching celebrities and creators to join a “sanely” run platform
Mark Zuckerberg is the overwhelming favorite to beat Elon Musk in a cage match. Will it actually happen?
NetBlocks: at least five Russian telcos block Google News and other ISPs reduce access to the service, as Russia's feud with a mercenary leader intensifies
At least five telecommunications companies have blocked the service, which aggregates news from various sources …
Sundar Pichai says Google plans to invest $10B in India's digitization fund and announces the opening of Google's fintech operation center in GIFT City, Gujarat
The Economic Times :
Midjourney adds a “zoom out” feature that builds out a larger scene around images generated within the AI service, simulating zooming out with a camera lens
Midjourney v5.2 features camera-like zoom control over framing, more realism. — On Thursday, Midjourney unveiled version 5.2 …
Startups are using remote work to attract talent; report: 81% of companies with fewer than 5K employees offer remote work vs. 26% for those with 25K+ employees
How small tech companies are using remote work to compete with the big guys. — It used to be that Big Tech companies like Google …
Social media startup IRL is shutting down after an investigation by its board concluded that 95% of its claimed 20M MAUs were “automated or from bots”
Last year, the CEO of messaging app IRL repeatedly said it had 20 million monthly active users, who chatted about shared interests and planned real-world events together. LinkedIn: Michael Jackson . B...
Meta plans to remove news content from Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada after the Online News Act passed Canada's Senate and received royal assent
Anja Karadeglija / National Post :
A US federal court sentences UK citizen Joseph James O'Connor to five years in prison for helping hack into dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts in July 2020
Prosecutors called for the British hacker to serve at least seven years — Three years after one of the most visible hacks …
A look at the Apple Vision Pro's features in the visionOS SDK, including a “Moving at Unsafe Speed” alert, a “Travel Mode” for airplanes, and a “Guest Mode”
here's how Carrie Marshall / T3 : Apple wants you to wear a Vision Pro while flying Mark Anthony Ramirez / Laptop Mag : Apple Vision Pro Travel Mode could make economy feel like first class — but is i...
YouTube is testing Aloud, an AI-powered dubbing tool developed by Google's Area 120, with “hundreds” of creators, starting with English, Spanish, and Portuguese
Jay Peters / The Verge :
Sources: Apple is in talks to launch Apple Card in India, and has met with HDFC and the RBI; a source says Apple is holding Apple Pay discussions with the NPCI
Anand J / Moneycontrol :
Internal email: Google invited employees to test Playables, a YouTube product that lets users play games like Stack Bounce instantly on the YouTube site or app
The new service, called ‘Playables,’ is part of CEO's push into new areas amid advertising slowdown
A profile of Michael Kives, a Hollywood agent turned investor, as FTX's bankruptcy lawyers sue his VC firm K5 Global to recover the $700M that SBF had invested
New York Times :
How companies are repurposing military-grade AI, built by US defense contractors for intelligence, to identify labor organizing, internal leakers, and critics
Spycraft developed by defense contractors are now being sold to employers to identify labor organizing. Regulators must step up to protect workers' privacy.
Sources: IBM is close to a deal to acquire cloud-based IT management startup Apptio from Vista Equity Partners for ~$5B; Vista acquired Apptio for ~$2B in 2019
Purchase of Apptio, owned by private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners, could be finalized over the weekend
Thierry Breton says he sees a “strong willingness” from Twitter to comply with the EU's DSA and that the company was the first to undergo the law's stress test
The EU's top tech enforcer warned Elon Musk on Thursday that Twitter must have enough resources to moderate dangerous content by August 25 or risk being in violation of the bloc's landmark rules to re...
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton says he and Mark Zuckerberg are “aligned” on the EU's regulation of AI; Sam Altman says he also agrees with the EU's approach
Technology company executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman expressed support for government oversight of artificial intelligence …
Google plans to update Android's Emergency SOS after UK police blame the feature, activated by repeatedly pressing a side button, for a surge in false 999 calls
Google adds a Perspectives tab to search results, featuring info from individuals posted on YouTube, Reddit, Stack Overflow, and more, after its May 2023 reveal
Jay Peters / The Verge :
Representatives of Prosus and Peak XV, formerly Sequoia India, resign from Byju's board; Deloitte quit as Byju's auditor over its delayed financial reporting
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Source: Jacob Devlin, who left Google to join OpenAI in January 2023 after complaining internally Bard was being trained on ChatGPT data, has returned to Google
Jon Victor / The Information :
A profile of Alibaba co-founder Eddie Wu, set to become CEO in the fall, who has a close relationship with mentor Jack Ma and will manage the company's breakup
Financial Times : Forums: r/baba Forums: r/baba : Eddie Wu prepares to run Alibaba empire built with mentor Jack Ma
SEC filing: Andreessen Horowitz created a16z Perennial Venture Capital Fund and a16z Perennial Management investment advisor, presumably for wealth management
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch :
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
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.