Items tagged with Business
Mozilla has announced that it has let go of several employees via an official blog post. In the post, titled "Readying for the Future at Mozilla," Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Chairwoman and interim CEO, wrote that Mozilla has to do two things in this era including continuing to excel in its current work and innovating in areas most likely to impact the state of the internet and internet life in the future. Baker wrote that to change the future requires doing things differently and the allocation of resources for that purpose. While Mozilla is making a significant investment to fund innovation, it says it has had "to make some difficult" choices that led to the elimination of roles at the company....
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Federal regulators are big on keeping healthy competition in the wireless marketplace and have in the past blocked mergers of major wireless carriers from happening. Last April, T-Mobile and Sprint announced that they intended to merge with T-Mobile CEO John Legere leading the combined companies. The two carriers claim that when combined they would be better able to compete against Verizon and AT&T and accelerate the rollout of 5G. The two companies have attempted twice in the past two join forces. A third attempt likely surprised some considering the previous deals were never successful. Reports claim that even if the Justice Department approves the merger this time around, states...
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Things were looking bleak for EA ahead of Respawn launching Apex Legends earlier this year. Apex single-handedly turned EA's sagging stock around, and the game had 10 million players in only three days. Despite the standout title, EA has announced that it has laid off hundreds of workers across its marketing, publishing, and operations segments. EA says that in those segments of its business a total of 350 workers have been let go. The layoffs are part of EA's plan to ramp down its presence in Japan and Russia, but it is unclear if the eliminated positions are only in those countries. EA is clear that while it is ramping down its presence in those countries, it will find different ways to...
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Samsung is warning today that its coming financial results will be disappointing as prices for chips and LCDs have fallen as smartphone sales continue to slow. Samsung and Apple have both experienced sales slowdowns as they continue to push prices of smartphones higher in the face of lengthening upgrade cycles. Samsung has stated that there is a "widening price fall among major products" and a "weakening overall demand." Samsung rarely admits that its figures will miss goals; the early admission that earnings will fall sort have some fearing that the shortfall will be significant. The smartphone industry saw a 7% sales decline overall during Q4 2018, which marked the fifth consecutive decline...
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Last week we talked about the small round of layoffs at Valve that mostly affected workers from the virtual reality (VR) division. Valve maintained at the time that the reduction in workers didn't mean it was abandoning the VR space. In addition to the 13 Valve employees who were terminated, Valve also shed some contractors by not renewing their contracts. We have now learned that among those contractors let go were Richard Garfield and Skaff Elias. Garfield and Elias are two of the people who make up the consulting company called Three Donkeys and are the creators of the Valve game Artifact. Valve teased the launch of Artifact back in the summer of 2017. Garfield talked about being let go, noting...
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When the father of Android, Andy Rubin, left Google and later launched Essential Products, the world expected big things. The launch of the Essential Phone proved that just because you are the father of the most popular operating system for mobile devices doesn't mean people will flock to your new products. The Essential Phone was essentially a flop with the device moving less than 90,000 units in 2017. The phone launched with a massive price tag, but discounts were piled on the device as time went by, with the latest discount coming in August when the device was a mere $224 during a special Amazon deal. Now we're learning that Essential Products has laid off about 30% of its workforce according...
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Andy Rubin is the father of the Android operating system that powers hundreds of millions of smartphones around the globe. Rubin broke away from Google and eventually wound up at a new company called Essential Products Inc. The company's first smartphone was the Essential Phone and it flopped massively. Reports indicate that the Essential Phone sold fewer than 90,000 units in all of 2017. A person claiming to be familiar with sales claims that Essential has sold about 150,000 units to date. Reports have surfaced that things are bad enough over at Essential that the company has stopped development work on its next smartphones. The sources also claim that Essential has hired Credit Suisse Group...
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The name Cambridge Analytica has become synonymous with the illicit use of Facebook user data over the last few months. Facebook originally claimed that Cambridge had exploited the data of 50 million users during the last U.S. Presidential election. The social giant came back later and said that Cambridge Analytica had improperly accessed data on 87 million Facebook users. The privacy fiasco resulted in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg having to testify in front of Congress. Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix speaking in November 2017 The fallout from the privacy debacle is now forcing Cambridge Analytica to close up shop. The company has announced in the U.K. that SCL Elections Ltd. as well as...
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WhatsApp co-founder of Jan Koum is sitting on what is estimated to be a $9.1 billion fortune, and he will have plenty of time to enjoy that cash now that he has departed the company. That massive fortune came to Koum and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton when Facebook purchased their company back in 2009 for $22 billion in cash and stock. Acton and Koum haven't been very happy with Facebook, especially in recent months after the Cambridge Analytica privacy breach. In fact, Acton led a charge to encourage people to delete Facebook, biting the hand that fed him billions. So, what is 42-year-old Koum going to do with the remainder of his days? Sitting on that $9.1 billion fortune, he can do...
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Samsung Electronics has announced its estimates for Q1 operating profit, which jumped 56% to a record high. Analysts believe that the increased profit estimates have to do with high demand for DRAM memory chips. That record demand for memory could be an offset to the glut of inventory Samsung has on the display side. Samsung allegedly is scrambling to find buyers for the OLED screens it made for Apple after the company reportedly reduced orders due to slow sales of the iPhone X. Samsung has stated that its preliminary earnings reports for the quarter spanning January-March 2018 had operating income estimated to be 15.6 trillion won, which is about $14.7 billion. The same quarter a year before...
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Apple has made a crucial hire away from with John Giannandrea, who previously served as the search at Google. Giannandrea and Google announced early this week that he was stepping down from his role, but exactly where Giannandrea was going was unknown at the time. Giannandrea will be the head of Apple machine learning and AI strategy and will report directly to Tim Cook. Cook wrote in an email to Apple staff that was obtained by the NYT, "Our technology must be infused with the values we all hold dear. John shares our commitment to privacy and our thoughtful approach as we make computers even smarter and more personal." Apple has a very strict policy when it comes to the handling of personal...
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To say that Huawei has been beleaguered of late would be an understatement. The company has seen all hopes of distributing its smartphones in the U.S. thwarted, be it from wireless carriers or from nationwide retailers. Much of trouble that Huawei has been faced with comes as U.S. authorities are concerned about its close ties to the Chinese government. This poses a potential national security risk, which is why Americans are being warned to avoid Huawei products. Huawei has brought some of the trouble on itself by using shady tactics like encouraging fans to post fake reviews on Best Buy's website for a phone that hadn't even launched. Best Buy never openly said those fake reviews were the reason...
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Hewlett-Packard has unveiled a new device for virtual meetings and conferences that is called the Elite Slice for Meeting Rooms G2 with Skype Room Systems (that's a mouthful) along with a new 43-inch diagonal 4K conferencing display. The Slice integrates all the voice, video, and data capability needed for real-time collaboration into one device. The SRS version of the device also enables high-quality audio and video via Skype for Business. "Online collaboration continues to fuel growth around the globe, and we are pleased that HP Inc. is bringing the next generation of Skype Room Systems solution to market," said Bob Davis, corporate vice president, Microsoft. "The easy-to-deploy and use...
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Facebook is working hard to change how it operates to make the social network a more inviting place for users to connect with friends. Doing this involves bringing the hammer down on fake news and allowing the Facebook masses to determine what news sources they trust. Facebook has announced that one of the things it tried to do make the network better for everyone failed, and has since been killed off. Facebook's Adam Mosseri wrote, "We constantly try out new features, design changes and ranking updates to understand how we can make Facebook better for everyone. Some of these changes—like Reactions, Live Video, and GIFs— work well and go on to become globally available. Others don’t...
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Atari has just announced something that will surprise all the gamers out there who grew up on its consoles and games. The company made a big unveil today and while it's not a new console or game, Atari will actually be minting its own new type of cryptocurrency. The new altcoin type will be called "Atari Token" and no, it isn’t trying to take on Bitcoin. Atari Token won't be worth real money apparently, however, it will be used on a new digital entertainment platform to buy content like video games, music, and movies. The deal was inked by Atari SA, the French firm now holding all Atari properties and Infinity Networks. Technically Atari isn’t implementing the new cryptocurrency,...
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Gamers, for the most part, aren’t big fans of microtransactions in games. However, modern games are festooned with microtransaction for things you can buy in the game to upgrade characters and weapons all to make the game easier to defeat and to make progression faster. Whatever your feelings about microtransactions, they are here to stay because they are huge money makers for game developers. Activision Blizzard made a killing off microtransactions last year to the tune of $4 billion in revenue. That number came from a recently published earnings report that shows money made from "in-game net bookings" (including DLC sales, loot boxes, and in-app purchases for mobile games) reached...
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Snapchat isn’t having any of it, when it comes to employees leaking confidential data. The parent company of the popular app, Snap Inc., has laid down the law with a new company-wide memo that tells employees that it could seek jail time against them and that they could be personally financially liable if they leak company information to the public. This comes in the wake of some leaked Snapchat user metrics that the company didn’t want the public to see. Snapchat takes its security very seriously, with employees in some positions not even allowed to talk about what they are working on among other employees. Employees in the company are left in the dark about new features that...
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Apple is happy with the Trump administration new tax policies that will allow it to bring a massive stash of cash that's been stuck overseas back to the U.S. Apple has announced what it plans to invest in when that massive stockpile is back in America (other than possibly buying Netflix). The company will concentrate on three areas with the investments where it says there will be the greatest impact on job creation. The areas include direct employment by Apple, spending and investment with Apple domestic suppliers and manufacturers, and fueling the "fast-growing" app economy. Apple notes that new investments along with its current pace of spending with domestic suppliers and manufacturers is...
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Reports are going around that Softbank is intending to list the mobile phone unit SoftBank Corp. in Tokyo and abroad this year. Any potential public offering would be a massive money generator with some estimating that it could bring in 2 trillion yen, which is about $18 billion. SoftBank has the potential to be one of the largest ever IPOs for a Japanese company. SoftBank reportedly intended to apply to the Tokyo Stock Exchange as early as this Spring and to begin trading this fall. While the company starts trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the company also hopes to list stock overseas, possibly in London, at the same time. Reports indicate that SoftBank Group plans to sell about 30% of outstanding...
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Apple is sitting on one of the largest cash reserves of any technology company on the planet, and every now and again it reaches into its piggy bank to purchase companies relevant to its interests. Apple has recently purchased Shazam, the app that is most famous for for identifying songs. Shazam not only identifies the song, but it will also link the person using it to sources to listen to and purchase the music. Reports indicate that Apple likely didn't purchase Shazam for its music identification prowess, but for the massive trove of data Shazam has amassed. Shazam has been collecting data since its start in 2002 when you had to dial a number from your phone to find out what that song was....
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Netflix is easily the most notable streaming video service out there and the thing that helps keeps it that way is the wealth of original programming that the network offers. Not only does it have a lot of original content including shows and movies, but that content it's typically VERY good. The downside to this expansive catalog of high quality original content is that it costs a lot of money to produce. To cover the costs for making such good shows, Netflix has announced that it is increasing the price for higher tier subscriptions. Reports indicate that the $7.99 basic monthly plan is staying the same price for now. However, the Standard plan with HD content and two screens at once that most...
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Google has announced a significant change in how it handles digital publications that show stories and news items on Google Search results and on Google News. Google had a policy in place in the past called First Click Free that required websites listed in Google News or in Google's search results to offer a minimum of three free articles per day to readers. After those three free stories daily were consumed by the reader, they could be shown a paywall to try and convert the reader to a subscriber. Online news fans aren't known to be the sort who pay for news that is perceived as being a free service. Google is changing its stance, which could mean that news from some publications via Google...
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