Category Archives: Technology sector

Hewlett Packard to pursue Mike Lynch’s estate for up to $4bn

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Tech company says it will follow legal proceedings ‘to their conclusion’ after tycoon’s death last month

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has confirmed it will push ahead with a high court lawsuit against the estate of the deceased tech tycoon Mike Lynch in which it is seeking damages of up to $4bn (£3bn).

The US company said in a statement it would follow the legal proceedings “through to their conclusion” despite Lynch’s death last month when his yacht sank off the coast of Italy.

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Publish data on ride-hailing apps ‘to cut exploitation and emissions’, say campaigners

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Campaign group says firms such as Uber should reveal data on driver miles to help boost wages

Uber and other ride-hailing apps should be forced to publish data on drivers’ workloads so that regulators can tackle exploitation and cut carbon emissions, campaigners argue.

Analysis by the pressure group Worker Info Exchange suggests drivers for Uber and its smaller rivals may have missed out on more than £1.2bn in wages and costs last year because of the way they are compensated.

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X goes offline in Brazil after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws

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Millions of users shut out and 500,000 switch to rival platform Bluesky as providers enact supreme court ban

One of the world’s most popular social networks, X, has gone offline in Brazil – the country with the fifth largest digital population – after Elon Musk’s refusal to comply with local laws meant it was blocked by the supreme court.

Millions of Brazilian X users found themselves unable to access the network on Saturday morning as internet providers and mobile phone companies began to enforce the ban.

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Fear of US recession rattles global markets as tech shares fall

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Europe’s main indices all decline and Japanese equities suffer worst day since 2020 while gold hits fresh record

Stock markets in Europe, Asia and New York tumbled on Friday as fears of a US economic slump grew and technology shares were hit by underwhelming earnings.

Concerns that the US could be sliding towards a recession spurred a global sell-off, which accelerated after a poor employment report on Friday showed that the US jobs market was cooling fast, pushing up the unemployment rate.

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Elon Musk claims Tesla will start using humanoid robots next year

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Billionaire says Optimus will start performing tasks for carmaker in 2025 and could be ready for sale in 2026

The Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, has claimed the company will produce “genuinely useful” humanoid robots to start working in its factories next year.

The world’s richest person, who has a penchant for making overambitious claims on social media, posted on his platform X, formerly Twitter, that he also hoped to expand into “high production” mode to make robots with a humanlike form available sell to other companies in 2026.

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Cybersecurity firm Wiz rejects $23bn bid from Google parent Alphabet

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Israeli company aims for stock market flotation after spurning biggest deal in tech group’s history

The cybersecurity firm Wiz has turned down a $23bn (£18bn) takeover bid from Google’s parent, Alphabet, spurning what would have been the tech company’s biggest ever acquisition and seeking a stock market flotation instead.

Alphabet had been in talks with Wiz, founded by alumni of Israel’s cyberintelligence unit, as it seeks to catch rivals Microsoft and Amazon in the hyper-competitive cloud services market.

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British chipmaker Graphcore bought by Japan’s SoftBank

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Deal for undisclosed sum secures Bristol-based company’s future after ‘material uncertainty’ in 2023

Graphcore, a British chipmaker once seen as a potential competitor to Nvidia, has been bought by Japan’s SoftBank in a deal that secures the company’s future.

The Bristol-based startup’s products are focused on artificial intelligence and it has been acquired by the powerful Japanese tech investor for an undisclosed sum. Last year, Graphcore warned that there was a “material uncertainty” over its survival and that it needed fresh funding by May 2024.

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Samsung Electronics workers to extend strike indefinitely

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Campaign for better pay and benefits stepped up, says union representing about 30,000 staff in South Korea

Thousands of workers in South Korea have pledged to extend indefinitely the first strike at Samsung Electronics, ramping up a campaign for better pay and benefits at one of the world’s largest smartphone and AI chip makers.

A union representing about 30,000 staff – about a quarter of its employees in South Korea – said members were extending industrial action that was originally meant to last only three days, after management failed to give any indication that it would hold talks with them.

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Post Office scandal: ex-Fujitsu engineer accused of ‘hiding’ IT problems

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Lawyers acting for victims of Horizon IT scandal accuse Gareth Jenkins of protecting ‘out of control monster’

A former Fujitsu engineer has been accused by a lawyer acting for victims of the Post Office scandal of “hiding” problems with the Horizon IT system to protect the “out of control monster”, a public inquiry heard.

Gareth Jenkins, formerly a senior engineer at Fujitsu, which developed the Horizon IT system, faced tough questioning by lawyers acting for post office operators caught up in the scandal, which has been described as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in recent history.

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Apple found in breach of EU competition rules

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European Commission finds iPhone maker broke new laws designed to protect smaller competitors against big tech platforms

Apple has been found to be in breach of sweeping new EU laws designed to allow smaller companies to compete and allow consumers to find cheaper and alternative apps in the tech business’s app store.

The European Commission, which also acts as the EU antitrust and technology regulator, said it had sent its preliminary findings to Apple after an investigation launched in March.

“For too long Apple has been squeezing out innovative companies — denying consumers new opportunities and choices,” said Thierry Breton, the European commissioner responsible for digital markets, on X.

In preliminary findings, against which Apple can appeal, the European Commission said it believed its rules of engagement did not comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) “as they prevent app developers from freely steering consumers to alternatives channels for offers and content”.

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Productivity soars in sectors of global economy most exposed to AI, says report

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Employers in UK, one of 15 countries studied, willing to pay 14% wage premium for jobs requiring AI skills

The sectors of the global economy most heavily exposed to artificial intelligence (AI) are witnessing a marked productivity increase and command a significant wage premium, according to a report.

Boosting hopes that AI might help lift the global economy out of a 15-year, low-growth trough, a PwC study found productivity growth was almost five times as rapid in parts of the economy where AI penetration was highest than in less exposed sectors.

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Brexit border IT outages delay import of perishable items to UK by up to 20 hours

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Lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers held up by new checks, with retailers rejecting some orders

Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK’s busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering Britain.

Businesses have described the government’s new border control checks as a “disaster” after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders.

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Arm owner SoftBank reports £1.2bn profit as it shifts towards AI

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Tech investor led £800m funding round into UK self-driving car software company Wayve

The Japanese tech investor SoftBank made a profit for the second consecutive quarter as it tries to turn its performance around before big planned investments in artificial intelligence.

SoftBank reported net income of 231bn yen (£1.18bn) in the first three months of 2024, compared with a 57.6bn yen loss in the same period last year, according to financial results published on Monday.

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Chinese PR boss says sorry after glorifying work-till-you-drop culture

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In a crisis of her own making, Qu Jing also threatened Baidu staff who dared to question her management style

The head of public relations at China’s biggest search engine, Baidu, has apologised after creating her own PR crisis with a series of videos glorifying the country’s work-till-you-drop culture.

Qu Jing, who is also vice-president at the company, said she would not take responsibility for her staff’s wellbeing “as I’m not your mother” in the videos posted over the May bank holiday on Douyin, the most popular short-video app in China. In another she said: “If you work in public relations, don’t expect weekends off.”

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Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX says it will be able to repay creditors full $11bn

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CEO confirms once company has sold off remaining assets it will have more than amount required

The bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has said it will be able to repay creditors the full $11bn (£8.8bn) it owes, as the boom-bust cycle repeats itself with a sharp increase in bitcoin prices.

John Ray III, who succeeded the disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried as the chief executive of FTX shortly after its collapse, said that once the exchange had sold off its remaining assets, it might have more than $16bn – well in excess of its debts.

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Fears of Putin swinging elections behind EU’s Meta crackdown

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Action against Facebook owner comes amid concerns about how it is dealing with fake news

Fears that Vladimir Putin is trying to fill the European parliament with more pro-Russia MEPs were behind the EU’s blunt message to the Silicon Valley owner of Facebook on Tuesday.

It gave Meta just five days to explain how it will root out fake news, fake websites and stop adverts funded by the Kremlin or face severe measures.

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EU to investigate Meta over election misinformation before June polls

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Brussels to act later this week against Facebook and Instagram owner over policies on deceptive advertising and political content, reports say

The EU is set to launch formal proceedings against Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, amid concerns it is not doing enough to counter Russian disinformation before the EU elections in June, according to reports.

It is also expected to express concerns about the lack of effective monitoring of election content and a potentially inadequate mechanism for flagging illegal content.

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‘Watershed moment’ for Tesla as Elon Musk’s visit to China reaps quick reward

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Deal to use mapping data from web search giant Baidu is a big step towards launching driver assistance tech in world’s biggest car market

Elon Musk’s visit to China has reportedly reaped immediate rewards with a deal for Tesla to use mapping data provided by web search company Baidu, a big step in introducing driver assistance technology in the world’s largest car market.

Musk made an unannounced visit to China over the weekend. The billionaire posted a picture of his meeting with the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, on X, the social network he took over in 2022.

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What’s behind the record FTSE 100 high?

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Hopes of a UK interest rate cut and easing geopolitical tensions are not the only reasons for the intraday peak reached this morning

The UK stock market has hit an intraday record high, lifted by hopes of interest rate cuts and easing geopolitical tensions, after setting a new closing high on Monday. The FTSE 100 index touched 8,076 points at the opening bell on Tuesday, surpassing a previous high of 8,047 reached in February 2023. We explain what is behind the rising London market.

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EU threatens TikTok Lite with ban over reward-to-watch feature

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App feature could be suspended unless child safety concerns addressed, in first use of sweeping new digital powers

The EU has said it will ban a new service launched by TikTok in Europe that it believes could be “as addictive as cigarettes” unless the company offers “compelling” fresh evidence that children are safeguarded.

If the ban goes ahead, it would be the first time the EU has used sweeping new powers to impose sanctions on social media companies since its landmark Digital Service Act (DSA) came into force last August.

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