10 things in tech you need to know today | ||
| | ||
Good morning! Here's what you need to know in tech this Thursday. 1. There has been a major executive shake-up at Microsoft. Stephen Elop, formerly CEO of Nokia, is among those who have left the company. Here's a link to Satya Nadella's email to staff. 2. Airbnb is raising $1 billion at a massive $24 billion valuation. The massive new funding round, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, would make the room rental service more valuable than the Marriott hotel chain. 3. A huge security flaw has been discovered in Apple devices that could allow hackers to steal your passwords and data. The vulnerability exists on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. 4. Google has revamped Google Trends. It now provides real-time data and helps identify stories that are trending at any given time. 5. Nest launched its first new product since being acquired by Google — a smart camera. It's called the "Nest Cam," but there's one major problem: It doesn't work outdoors. 6. A ruling from the California Labor Commission threatens to undermine Uber's entire business model. The ruling said the ride-sharing service's drivers are employees, not independent contractors. The ruling isn't binding, but it could set a huge precedent. 7. Fitness tracker FitBit has IPO-ed at $20 a share. It is higher than previous estimates, and the IPO raised $740 million altogether, valuing the company at $4.1 billion, Fortune reports. 8. 10-second ads on Snapchat can cost up to $400,000. The company charges marketers two cents per view on a 10-second ad on Live Stories, which can be viewed up to 20 million times. 9. Apple is enjoying massive profits on the sale of additional bands for the Apple Watch. Research company Slice Intelligence says that though the entry-level sports band retails for $49, it costs just $2.05 to make. 10. AT&T has been hit with a huge $100 million fine for 'throttling' the connections of its unlimited plan customers. The FTC announced it would be fining the company for "misleading" its customers. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Greece is spiralling towards default with no hope of a deal at its 'last chance' summit | ||
| | ||
The finance ministers of Europe are about to meet for the last time before Greece's big International Monetary Fund (IMF) payment is due. And things aren't looking good. "The Eurogroup's meeting this Thursday could well be the last chance to get any disbursement ready in time for the bundled payment to the IMF on 30 June, but we are not holding our breath," said analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in a note Thursday morning. In less than two weeks, Greece owes €1.5 billion ($1.70 billion, £1.08 billion) to the IMF that the government almost certainly doesn't have the money to make. Athens is still in negotiations with its international lenders to unlock billions of euros, which would allow the country to make its debt repayments. But the situation is now a stalemate, with neither side expressing any interest in budging towards an agreement. The creditor institutions want major economic reforms and further austerity, things that the current government was elected in opposition to. So, as some people have pointed out, the only thing that the two camps currently agree on is that a deal looks pretty unlikely today. Both Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem see very slim chances of a deal. There's another €3.5 billion (£2.51 billion, $3.97 billion) owed to the European Central Bank (ECB) on July 20 — failure to make either payment could cause the central bank to pull the plug on its emergency assistance to the Greek banking sector. Even if the Eurogroup ministers found a sudden agreement with Greece on Thursday, it would likely take well over a week to complete the process — the structural reforms would have to be approved by Greek parliamentarians, and the bailout would have to be agreed to in parliaments across Europe. So Greece seems to be hurtling towards a default — not paying the IMF would put the country in a small club, with other members like Sudan and Zimbabwe. Deutsche Bank's Jim Reid points out that Greek stocks have now had four consecutive days of decline, a collective fall of 17%. That's actually greater than the drop when Syriza won January's election, and leaves Athens equities at their lowest levels since 2012:
It could get worse than that if it looks like the ECB is about to pull the plug — even Greece's own central bank sounded the alarm yesterday, saying that a "failure to reach an agreement would, on the contrary, mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country's exit from the euro area and – most likely – from the European Union." That painful and dramatic outcome hasn't looked so realistic in years. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This 1998 supercar could auction for $15 million  | ||
| |
10 things in tech you need to know today | ||
| | ||
Good morning! Here's what you need to know in tech this Thursday. 1. There has been a major executive shake-up at Microsoft. Stephen Elop, formerly CEO of Nokia, is among those who have left the company. Here's a link to Satya Nadella's email to staff. 2. Airbnb is raising $1 billion at a massive $24 billion valuation. The massive new funding round, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, would make the room rental service more valuable than the Marriott hotel chain. 3. A huge security flaw has been discovered in Apple devices that could allow hackers to steal your passwords and data. The vulnerability exists on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. 4. Google has revamped Google Trends. It now provides real-time data and helps identify stories that are trending at any given time. 5. Nest launched its first new product since being acquired by Google — a smart camera. It's called the "Nest Cam," but there's one major problem: It doesn't work outdoors. 6. A ruling from the California Labor Commission threatens to undermine Uber's entire business model. The ruling said the ride-sharing service's drivers are employees, not independent contractors. The ruling isn't binding, but it could set a huge precedent. 7. Fitness tracker FitBit has IPO-ed at $20 a share. It is higher than previous estimates, and the IPO raised $740 million altogether, valuing the company at $4.1 billion, Fortune reports. 8. 10-second ads on Snapchat can cost up to $400,000. The company charges marketers two cents per view on a 10-second ad on Live Stories, which can be viewed up to 20 million times. 9. Apple is enjoying massive profits on the sale of additional bands for the Apple Watch. Research company Slice Intelligence says that though the entry-level sports band retails for $49, it costs just $2.05 to make. 10. AT&T has been hit with a huge $100 million fine for 'throttling' the connections of its unlimited plan customers. The FTC announced it would be fining the company for "misleading" its customers. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Playtech is asking investors for £250 million to buy troubled trading firm Plus500 | ||
| | ||
Playtech just announced plans to raise £250 million ($395.4 million) to fund its £459.6 million ($702.05 million) acquisition of troubled trading firm Plus500. Gambling software maker Playtech is selling 29,050,000 new shares, equivalent to a 9.9% chunk of the company. Playtech's Israeli billionaire founder Teddy Sagi is buying 33.6% of the new shares through his investment vehicle Brickington, which currently owns 33.6% of Playtech. The money raised from the shares sale will be put towards plans to buy London-listed financial trading firm Plus500, as well as another possible acquisition in the space. Playtech, which made its money selling online gaming software to the likes of Ladbrokes, says it has the option to buy another company but hasn't named the business. The company recently moved into the trading space through the acquisition of TradeFX in April. To recap, Plus500's share price went into free fall last month after the UK's regulator told the company its anti-money laundering checks weren't up to scratch. The Israeli-headquartered company lets ordinary people make risky, leveraged bets on stocks and currencies through something called a contract for difference (CFD). Plus500 had to freeze thousands of UK accounts in the wake of the regulator's review and the company has been scrambling to fix its problems. Playtech swooped in with a low-ball bid at the start of the month. The fellow Israeli company's offer is almost half the £862 million ($1.3 billion) Plus500 was worth before the crisis blew up. Playtech's offer for Plus500 has proved controversial. Hedge fund giant Odey Asset Management, Plus500's biggest shareholder, says the offer is "an opportunistic bid exploiting current regulatory issues and risks." Odey Asset Management, headed by City of London supremo Crispin Odey, is sitting on 25% of Plus500 shares and plans to reject the offer. Even if Odey does reject the bid, the takeover may still go ahead. As both companies are Israeli, the deal falls under Israeli takeover law which only requires 50.1% of shareholders to consent to the deal. Plus500's management, who represent 35% of shares, have already approved the deal and they only need a further 15% of votes to get the deal done. Meanwhile, a US hedge fund that has been attacking Plus500 claims the company is worth just 52p a share. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Two models in Russia just posed with a 1,400-pound bear  | ||
| |
We just got more proof that there's loads of oil near Gatwick Airport | ||
| | ||
The board of oil and gas company Doriemeus just unveiled another independent report that confirmed that there is a whole glut of oil underneath the ground near Gatwick Airport. Doriemeus, a group that acquires companies and projects in the oil and gas sector in Europe, said in a regulatory statement that Horse Hill-1 oil field has 9,245 million barrels of oil in just 55 square miles covered by the Horse Hill licences (PEDL137 and PEDL246). The field was was at one point tipped to hold 100 billion barrels of oil for Britain. The independent analysis by Nutech comes only a couple weeks after another report estimated Horse Hill has 271.4 million barrels of oil per square mile. That report was authored by Schlumberger, one of the world's biggest oil and gas industry infrastructure groups. Both today's estimate and Schlumberger's estimate are more than UK Oil & Gas Investments originally touted in April when they suggested the local area had around 158 million barrels of oil per square mile. This is one of the biggest onshore oil discoveries in Britain. The Horse Hill Oil Field is in the Weald Basin, West Sussex, near Gatwick Airport. The Horse Hill-1 well is located within onshore exploration License PEDL137, on the northern side of the Weald Basin. The PEDL137 and PEDL246 licenses are held 35% by Magellan Petroleum Corporation and 65% by Horse Hill Developments Limited, a special-purpose company that holds the rights to a 65% participating interest and operatorship in the onshore Horse Hill Oil Field in the Weald Basin, West Sussex. “Nutech’s latest report is a significant step towards understanding the resource potential of the Weald licences, being the first independent semi-regional quantification of OIP over the area that incorporates the findings from the HH-1 well," said Donald Strang, Doriemus’ Chairman. UKOG's Chairman David Lenigas also tweeted his excitement about the announcement: Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Forget the Apple Watch — here's the new watch everyone on Wall Street wants  | ||
| |
