Items tagged with Business
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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