US payment startup Stripe's new plan threatens to crush one of Europe's hottest fintech firms | ||
| | ||
Stripe, the £3.2 billion ($5 billion) US online payments start-up, is rolling out across the Nordics, taking it head-to-head with one of Europe’s most valuable fintech businesses. Stripe’s co-founder John Collison announced at MoneyConf in Belfast today that the company is launching across Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland this week. That puts it in direct competition with Klarna, a rival Swedish online payment company valued at £650 million ($1 billion). Stripe tech makes it easier for businesses to accept money over the internet. The San Francisco-based company was built for developers and has become popular with online businesses. Stripe recently linked up with huge tech companies like Apple, Twitter, and Pinterest to help them develop mobile payment technologies. Klarna, meanwhile, let's any retailer put the equivalent of Amazon's "buy with one click" button on its site. Like Stripe, Klarna handles payments on behalf of retailers. Klarna processed an incredible 30% of all online purchases in Sweden last year and crunched through $9 billion (£5.81 billion) worth of payments globally. The company is backed by famous Silicon Valley VC Sequoia Capital, an early investor in Apple and Google. Sequoia Capital is also an investor in Stripe, as are PayPal co-founders Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Max Levchin. The company is reportedly in the process of raising more cash at a valuation of $5 billion (£3.23 billion). Collison, who founded Stripe with his brother Patrick in 2010, name-checked Klarna as one of the most exciting fintech start-ups in Europe, alongside TransferWise, but didn't talk about competing with Klarna in its home market. During his on-stage interview Collison announced the launch by saying: "In general, bringing Stripe to more places– that’s pretty exciting for us. One of the reasons we started Stripe was because the barriers to starting an online business had tumbled so much. Going from a product to a business is really, really easy." Collison also played down Stripe's rumoured $5 billion (£3.2 billion) valuation, saying: "Valuation is cost of capital. There are many, many other business metrics that people should be looking at, especially given that many tech start-ups today aren't that capital intensive. "Internally a Stripe we emphasis that people should not at all be valuation focused. We have so many other better metrics we can track — we can track how many customers we have, how happy those customers are, our total revenue, our profits. "What happens is that valuation is the only metric the press finds out about, so it ends up where people use valuation to try and infer all these other things." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 'The Little Prince' trailer looks better than anything Pixar has made in years  | ||
| |
A new study claims the UK tech scene is far more diverse than the US | ||
| | ||
The UK tech scene is considerably more diverse than its US counterpart, with those working at startups in Britain five times more likely to be female than in America, according to a new study. The research was conducted by startup accelerator Wayra, and found that the UK outpaces the US on diversity issues on a number of metrics. Entrepreneurs in London are three times more likely to be female than in Silicon Valley, for example, and individuals in the capital are also twice as likely to come from a black or minority ethnic background than in New York. The data drew on respondents at 222 startups from around Britain, and shows the UK is leading the pack, Wayra claims, and is "more diverse than other major startup ecosystems, including the US, Silicon Valley, NYC and Tel Aviv." Overall, however, it suggests there is still some way to go. Just 30.3% of the individuals in the "startup ecosystem" are women — and when it comes to funding, men are 86% more likely than women to receive venture capital funding. Over the last few years, diversity has become an increasingly important issue within the technology industry. Under pressure from campaigners to expand upon their traditionally white male workforces, big companies including Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have begun publishing yearly diversity reports. Executives have also upped their rhetoric on the issue. Apple CEO Tim Cook, for example, said diversity issues were "central to the future of our company," and that "diversity leads to better products." However, 70% of Apple's global workforce is male, and of its 15 top-tier executives, just 3 are women. In a 2014 Guardian poll, 73% of respondents (who worked in the industry) said they thought the tech industry was sexist, and 52% said women are paid less for the same job than men. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This animated map shows how European languages evolved  | ||
| |
Uber's website was hacked to display an ad for rival company Lyft | ||
| | ||
A flaw in Uber's website let a hacker take over a page and do whatever he wanted to it. Thankfully, security researcher Austin Epperson didn't try to steal personal details or spread malware, instead he used the hack to display an ad for Uber's arch-rival Lyft. Epperson was able to hack Uber through a flaw in a new petition it launched to try to convince the local government in San Francisco to allow the company to operate on Market Street. Uber's petition let Epperson enter the word "zipcode" as his zipcode in the petition form. That's a red flag — online forms should only accept numbers for that field. Epperson tried entering special characters (things like # and <), and was able to submit them. That's another big problem for an online survey, as allowing special characters to be submitted means that hackers can enter code into websites and take control of them. The security researcher used the flaw in Uber's petition to prank the company. Epperson inserted code into the website that made it display the homepage of Lyft, Uber's biggest rival.
But Epperson didn't stop there. He created a script to automatically enter code, and used different web browsers to enter over 1,000 signatures a minute. He modified the page to make it seem as if Uber was petitioning to turn Market Street in San Francisco into a giant slip & side. Epperson discovered after the hack that Uber had copied and pasted the code for its petition from a web tutorial on how to create a "simple" online contact form. This was a serious slip-up by Uber — hackers could have used the vulnerability to enter malicious code that spreads malware, find the personal information of everyone who had signed the petition, or to post a scam link on the site. Uber eventually took down all of its online petitions following the hack, and there's no evidence that any personal data was stolen due to the vulnerability. We reached out to Uber for comment on this story and will update this article if we hear back. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The 12 best new features coming to the iPhone  | ||
| |
A Spotify employee just leaked a new feature that builds retro playlists based on your current taste in music | ||
| | ||
It looks like Spotify is launching a new feature that lets you build decade-specific playlists based on your current taste in music. VentureBeat reports that a Spotify engineer posted a link to the new, mostly functioning feature on Sunday night. The Facebook post said: “Ever wondered which artists you would be listening to if you were born in another time? Spotify can help you turn your music back in time, try it out!” The feature presents you with a list of artists — some of which might not be artists you actually listen to — and you pick three "favourites." Spotify then takes you back in time, and gives you a tailored playlist from each decade, supposedly based on those selections.
For now, the feature has some bugs, and sometimes an empty playlist shows up. The pool of artists you originally get to pick from doesn't really change that much. Also, the results are also a little limited considering that Spotify has a catalogue of 30 million songs. But this is still an unofficial feature, and could have been released to the public too early. The finished add-on could be an attempt to get people to use Spotify in a different way, and remind them of just how much content Spotify actually has, in the face Apple Music's launch. We reached out to Spotify, but the company has yet to comment on the leaked feature. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The 12 best new features coming to the iPhone  | ||
| |
One of Twitter's biggest investors doesn't want Jack Dorsey to be the company's new CEO (TWTR) | ||
| | ||
Many people believe Jack Dorsey is the only logical candidate to take over as Twitter's permanent chief executive after current boss Dick Costolo announced his resignation last week. Dorsey is after all a Twitter cofounder, board member and former CEO and is now the interim CEO. But Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who was one of Twitter's earliest investors and who owns 5% of the company, doesn't agree. In an interview with the Financial Times, the Saudi billionaire said Dorsey should return to his other job, as CEO of the mobile payments company Square, rather than take on the Twitter job for a second time. Instead Prince Alwaleed thinks the new Twitter CEO should have the kind of marketing experience required for the company to encourage more users to join the platform. "Jack has another company called Square, which requires a lot of attention and a full-time job 'round there," Prince Alwaleed told the FT. "I believe and trust that Jack Dorsey is there on a temporary basis. The new leader has to have tech savviness, an investor-oriented process, and a marketing mentality." Prince Alwaleed didn't name a suitable successor, but his description sounds a lot like Adam Bain, Twitter's current revenue chief. The appointment of Bain would be warmly welcomed by the advertising community. Advertising executives told Business Insider earlier this month (ahead of Costolo's resignation) they would love Bain to ascend to the CEO role. Forbes has also pegged Bain as the front-runner for the CEO role, adding that Bain wanted the role, with a source saying the former News Corp executive had "total loyalty of half the company." SEE ALSO: This is who Madison Avenue wants to replace Costolo as Twitter CEO Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Dwight from 'The Office' explains how Twitter has evolved over the years  | ||
| |
Apple killed off a project to build a $750 Wi-Fi speaker (AAPL) | ||
| | ||
Apple shut down a project to build a Wi-Fi speaker for the home when it acquired headphone manufacturer Beats in 2014, Variety reports. Beats had a number of upcoming devices that it was working on when it was acquired by Apple in May 2014. But it doesn't look like any of those ideas will see the light of day. One of the devices that Beats was working on was a $750 home speaker that connected to music streaming services via Wi-Fi. Variety describes the speaker as a "Sonos killer" that could have seriously hurt rival home speaker company Sonos. The Beats speaker was going to include NFC technology, which could have meant that your home speakers could detect your presence and start playing music when you enter the room. However, Variety says Beats ran into problems with the device during development and ended up switching chip supplier. That could be a major reason why Apple shut down the project. It appears that Apple used the Beats acquisition to increase its hardware portfolio, adding Beats headphones and products to its stores, as well as tapping into the company's music industry knowledge for its own music streaming service. Apple announced at its WWDC conference earlier this month that it will launch Apple Music on June 30, and former Beats executive Jimmy Iovine came on stage to introduce the service. It uses elements of the Beats Music streaming service, and insiders told us in February that Apple was using Iovine's connections in the music industry to lure artists to the platform. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The 12 best new features coming to the iPhone  | ||
| |
George Osborne has a £140 collection of replica lightsabers | ||
| | ||
The replica weapons from the Star Wars films were given to the chancellor by Lucasfilm in 2013, before the studio announced that the seventh instalment of Star Wars would be filmed in the UK. Because of their price tag, the lightsabers are held by the Treasury, instead of the minister, the Mail said. "Replica lightsabers, these toys are," a Treasury spokesman confirmed, after the nugget of information was revealed in a freedom of information request, the Times said. The Treasury would not say which colours the lightsabers are, although the standard blade colours are blue or green (for the Jedi) and red (used by the Sith). The gift is fitting for Osborne, who is a huge Star Wars fan. In May, he announced that the eighth episode of Star Wars would become the fourth instalment to be filmed in the UK. Production of "Star Wars Episode VIII" will be based at Pinewood Studios with a release date scheduled for 2017. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 6 scientifically proven features men find attractive in women  | ||
| |
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne keeps lightsabers worth more than £140 ($217) in the Treasury, Russia just slashed interest rates to 11.5% | ||
| | ||
The Central Bank of Russia just cut interest rates to 11.5%, a 1 percentage point drop. According to Mike van Dulken of Accendo Markets, that's the fourth cut since the central bank dramatically hiked rates to 17% at the end of last year. Here's the relevant section from the CBR's release (emphasis ours): On 15 June 2015, the Bank of Russia Board of Directors decided to reduce the key rate from 12.50 to 11.50 percent per annum, taking account of lower inflation risks and persistent risks of considerable economy cooling. Amid significant contraction in consumer demand and ruble appreciation in February-May 2015, consumer price growth continued to slow down. According to the Bank of Russia forecast, given these factors annual inflation will fall to less than 7% in June 2016 to reach the target of 4% in 2017. The Bank of Russia will be ready to continue cutting the key rate as consumer price growth declines further in compliance with the forecast but the potential of monetary policy easing will be limited by inflation risks in the next few months. Another cut of 1 percentage point was expected, so there's not a massive market reaction: Immediately after the decision, the dollar dropped, down about 0.75% against the ruble. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 'The Little Prince' trailer looks better than anything Pixar has made in years  | ||
| |
US payment startup Stripe's new plan threatens to crush one of Europe's hottest fintech firms | ||
| | ||
Stripe, the £3.2 billion ($5 billion) US online payments start-up, is rolling out across the Nordics, taking it head-to-head with one of Europe’s most valuable fintech businesses. Stripe’s co-founder John Collison announced at MoneyConf in Belfast today that the company is launching across Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland this week. That puts it in direct competition with Klarna, a rival Swedish online payment company valued at £650 million ($1 billion). Stripe tech makes it easier for businesses to accept money over the internet. The San Francisco-based company was built for developers and has become popular with online businesses. Stripe recently linked up with huge tech companies like Apple, Twitter, and Pinterest to help them develop mobile payment technologies. Klarna, meanwhile, let's any retailer put the equivalent of Amazon's "buy with one click" button on its site. Like Stripe, Klarna handles payments on behalf of retailers. Klarna processed an incredible 30% of all online purchases in Sweden last year and crunched through $9 billion (£5.81 billion) worth of payments globally. The company is backed by famous Silicon Valley VC Sequoia Capital, an early investor in Apple and Google. Sequoia Capital is also an investor in Stripe, as are PayPal co-founders Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Max Levchin. The company is reportedly in the process of raising more cash at a valuation of $5 billion (£3.23 billion). Collison, who founded Stripe with his brother Patrick in 2010, name-checked Klarna as one of the most exciting fintech start-ups in Europe, alongside TransferWise, but didn't talk about competing with Klarna in its home market. During his on-stage interview Collison announced the launch by saying: "In general, bringing Stripe to more places– that’s pretty exciting for us. One of the reasons we started Stripe was because the barriers to starting an online business had tumbled so much. Going from a product to a business is really, really easy." Collison also played down Stripe's rumoured $5 billion (£3.2 billion) valuation, saying: "Valuation is cost of capital. There are many, many other business metrics that people should be looking at, especially given that many tech start-ups today aren't that capital intensive. "Internally a Stripe we emphasis that people should not at all be valuation focused. We have so many other better metrics we can track — we can track how many customers we have, how happy those customers are, our total revenue, our profits. "What happens is that valuation is the only metric the press finds out about, so it ends up where people use valuation to try and infer all these other things." Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 'The Little Prince' trailer looks better than anything Pixar has made in years  | ||
| |
A new study claims the UK tech scene is far more diverse than the US | ||
| | ||
The UK tech scene is considerably more diverse than its US counterpart, with those working at startups in Britain five times more likely to be female than in America, according to a new study. The research was conducted by startup accelerator Wayra, and found that the UK outpaces the US on diversity issues on a number of metrics. Entrepreneurs in London are three times more likely to be female than in Silicon Valley, for example, and individuals in the capital are also twice as likely to come from a black or minority ethnic background than in New York. The data drew on respondents at 222 startups from around Britain, and shows the UK is leading the pack, Wayra claims, and is "more diverse than other major startup ecosystems, including the US, Silicon Valley, NYC and Tel Aviv." Overall, however, it suggests there is still some way to go. Just 30.3% of the individuals in the "startup ecosystem" are women — and when it comes to funding, men are 86% more likely than women to receive venture capital funding. Over the last few years, diversity has become an increasingly important issue within the technology industry. Under pressure from campaigners to expand upon their traditionally white male workforces, big companies including Apple, Facebook, and Twitter have begun publishing yearly diversity reports. Executives have also upped their rhetoric on the issue. Apple CEO Tim Cook, for example, said diversity issues were "central to the future of our company," and that "diversity leads to better products." However, 70% of Apple's global workforce is male, and of its 15 top-tier executives, just 3 are women. In a 2014 Guardian poll, 73% of respondents (who worked in the industry) said they thought the tech industry was sexist, and 52% said women are paid less for the same job than men. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This animated map shows how European languages evolved  | ||
| |
Chad capital rocked by blasts 'outside police HQ, academy' | ||
| | ||
N'Djamena (AFP) - Several blasts went off on Monday outside the police headquarters and academy in the capital of Chad, whose forces have been instrumental in fighting Boko Haram jihadists in neighbouring Nigeria, witnesses said. The government convened an emergency meeting following the explosions, an official said on condition of anonymity. No official casualty toll was immediately available, with witnesses reporting at least several people wounded.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Carbon pledges not enough to halt warming: Energy Agency | ||
| | ||
Paris (AFP) - Countries need to improve pledges on reducing emissions to reach the goal of keeping the increase in average global temperature below 2C by the end of the century, the International Energy Agency said Monday. Setting out its assessment of various countries' commitments six months ahead of a crunch climate change conference in Paris, the IEA said: "These pledges will have a positive impact on future energy trends but will fall short of the major course correction required to meet the 2C goal." World powers hope to keep global temperature change under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). With the current pledges, the growth in global energy-related emissions "slows but does not peak by 2030," said the agency in a report. Furthermore, if deeper cuts in emissions do not occur, temperatures will continue to rise sharply, the IEA projected. "If stronger action is not forthcoming after 2030, the path ... would be consistent with an average temperature increase of around 2.6C by 2100 and 3.5C by 2200," predicted the IEA. The agency's executive director Maria van der Hoeven stressed that "time is of the essence", noting that "the cost and difficulty of mitigating greenhouse-gas emissions increase every year." While there is "growing consensus among countries that it is time to act", strong vigilance is required to ensure that the pledges are adequate and that commitments are kept, she added. The IEA suggested five key measures to ensure that global energy-related emissions peak already in 2020. They call for improved energy efficiency in key industrial sectors, reducing the use of inefficient coal-fired power plants, increased investment in renewable energy technologies, a gradual phasing out of fossil-fuel subsidies and a reduction in methane emissions in oil and gas production. "This major climate milestone is possible utilising only proven technologies and policies and without changing the economic and development prospects of any region," the IEA notes. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
A South Africa judge orders that Sudan's president, who may be tried for genocide, can't leave the country | ||
| | ||
South Africa will on Monday argue against a court application to force the government to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, the justice ministry said. On Sunday, South African judge Hans Fabricius ordered authorities to prevent Bashir, who is in South Africa for an African Union summit, from leaving the country because of an international order for his arrest, human rights activists said. Bashir stands accused in an ICC arrest warrant of war crimes and crimes against humanity over atrocities committed in the Darfur conflict. Al-Bashir appeared for a group photo with other African leaders at the summit in Johannesburg on Sunday, wearing a blue three-piece suit, a tie and a smile as cameras flashed. A South African judge ordered authorities to prevent al-Bashir from leaving South Africa because he is wanted by the International Criminal Court, human rights activists said Sunday. "President Omar al-Bashir is prohibited from leaving the Republic of South Africa until a final order is made in this application," Judge Fabricius said, according to local media reports. The judge ordered the South African government to ensure that officials at all border posts enforce the court's decision, according to Caroline James, a lawyer with the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, a rights group. The court is expected to rule on Monday if al-Bashir should be handed over to the International Criminal Court to face charges of alleged genocide and human rights abuses. Kamal Ismail, the Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs, told reporters in Khartoum that al-Bashir had received assurances from the South African government prior to his visit that he would be welcome and was expected to return to Sudan on schedule.
The African National Congress, which is South Africa's ruling party, said the South African government granted immunity "for all (summit) participants as part of the international norms for countries hosting such gathering of the AU or even the United Nations." "It is on this basis, amongst others, that the ANC calls upon government to challenge the order now being brought to compel the South African government to detain President al-Bashir," the ANC said, adding that African and Eastern European countries "continue to unjustifiably bear the brunt of the decisions of the ICC." Even before Sunday's events, the African Union had asked the International Criminal Court to stop proceedings against sitting presidents and said it will not compel any member states to arrest a leader on behalf of the court. Al-Bashir has traveled abroad before and local authorities had not detained him at the behest of the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague, Netherlands. International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has said South Africa is under a legal obligation to arrest al-Bashir and surrender him to the court. Her office has been in touch with South African authorities on the Sudanese president's reported visit. If al-Bashir is not arrested, the matter will be reported to the court's assembly of states and the United Nations Security Council, which first referred the case of Sudan's Darfur region to the International Criminal Court in 2005, she said. The charges against al-Bashir, who took power in a 1989 coup, stem from reported atrocities in the conflict in Darfur, in which 300,000 people were killed and 2 million displaced in a government campaign, according to United Nations figures. He has visited Malawi, Kenya, Chad and Congo in the last few years, all of which are International Criminal Court member states. The court doesn't have any powers to compel countries to arrest him and can only tell them they have a legal obligation to do it. In March, the International Criminal Court halted proceedings against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta after the prosecution said it did not have enough evidence against him. Kenyatta, who is attending the summit, was charged in 2011 as an "indirect co-perpetrator" in postelection violence that left more than 1,000 people dead in 2007 and 2008. He always maintained his innocence. Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto is on trial for crimes against humanity in the election-related violence. Associated Press writer Mohamed Osman contributed to this report from Khartoum, Sudan. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Dramatic video shows desperate migrants being rescued in the Mediterranean  | ||
| |
He said the court order preventing al-Bashir from leaving South Africa "has nothing to do with the reality on the ground there," adding that "until now things are normal and there is no threat to the life of the president of the Republic." Uber's website was hacked to display an ad for rival company Lyft | ||
| | ||
A flaw in Uber's website let a hacker take over a page and do whatever he wanted to it. Thankfully, security researcher Austin Epperson didn't try to steal personal details or spread malware, instead he used the hack to display an ad for Uber's arch-rival Lyft. Epperson was able to hack Uber through a flaw in a new petition it launched to try to convince the local government in San Francisco to allow the company to operate on Market Street. Uber's petition let Epperson enter the word "zipcode" as his zipcode in the petition form. That's a red flag — online forms should only accept numbers for that field. Epperson tried entering special characters (things like # and <), and was able to submit them. That's another big problem for an online survey, as allowing special characters to be submitted means that hackers can enter code into websites and take control of them. The security researcher used the flaw in Uber's petition to prank the company. Epperson inserted code into the website that made it display the homepage of Lyft, Uber's biggest rival.
But Epperson didn't stop there. He created a script to automatically enter code, and used different web browsers to enter over 1,000 signatures a minute. He modified the page to make it seem as if Uber was petitioning to turn Market Street in San Francisco into a giant slip & side. Epperson discovered after the hack that Uber had copied and pasted the code for its petition from a web tutorial on how to create a "simple" online contact form. This was a serious slip-up by Uber — hackers could have used the vulnerability to enter malicious code that spreads malware, find the personal information of everyone who had signed the petition, or to post a scam link on the site. Uber eventually took down all of its online petitions following the hack, and there's no evidence that any personal data was stolen due to the vulnerability. We reached out to Uber for comment on this story and will update this article if we hear back. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The 12 best new features coming to the iPhone  | ||
| |
A Spotify employee just leaked a new feature that builds retro playlists based on your current taste in music | ||
| | ||
It looks like Spotify is launching a new feature that lets you build decade-specific playlists based on your current taste in music. VentureBeat reports that a Spotify engineer posted a link to the new, mostly functioning feature on Sunday night. The Facebook post said: “Ever wondered which artists you would be listening to if you were born in another time? Spotify can help you turn your music back in time, try it out!” The feature presents you with a list of artists — some of which might not be artists you actually listen to — and you pick three "favourites." Spotify then takes you back in time, and gives you a tailored playlist from each decade, supposedly based on those selections.
For now, the feature has some bugs, and sometimes an empty playlist shows up. The pool of artists you originally get to pick from doesn't really change that much. Also, the results are also a little limited considering that Spotify has a catalogue of 30 million songs. But this is still an unofficial feature, and could have been released to the public too early. The finished add-on could be an attempt to get people to use Spotify in a different way, and remind them of just how much content Spotify actually has, in the face Apple Music's launch. We reached out to Spotify, but the company has yet to comment on the leaked feature. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The 12 best new features coming to the iPhone  | ||
| |
One of Twitter's biggest investors doesn't want Jack Dorsey to be the company's new CEO (TWTR) | ||
| | ||
Many people believe Jack Dorsey is the only logical candidate to take over as Twitter's permanent chief executive after current boss Dick Costolo announced his resignation last week. Dorsey is after all a Twitter cofounder, board member and former CEO and is now the interim CEO. But Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who was one of Twitter's earliest investors and who owns 5% of the company, doesn't agree. In an interview with the Financial Times, the Saudi billionaire said Dorsey should return to his other job, as CEO of the mobile payments company Square, rather than take on the Twitter job for a second time. Instead Prince Alwaleed thinks the new Twitter CEO should have the kind of marketing experience required for the company to encourage more users to join the platform. "Jack has another company called Square, which requires a lot of attention and a full-time job 'round there," Prince Alwaleed told the FT. "I believe and trust that Jack Dorsey is there on a temporary basis. The new leader has to have tech savviness, an investor-oriented process, and a marketing mentality." Prince Alwaleed didn't name a suitable successor, but his description sounds a lot like Adam Bain, Twitter's current revenue chief. The appointment of Bain would be warmly welcomed by the advertising community. Advertising executives told Business Insider earlier this month (ahead of Costolo's resignation) they would love Bain to ascend to the CEO role. Forbes has also pegged Bain as the front-runner for the CEO role, adding that Bain wanted the role, with a source saying the former News Corp executive had "total loyalty of half the company." SEE ALSO: This is who Madison Avenue wants to replace Costolo as Twitter CEO Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Dwight from 'The Office' explains how Twitter has evolved over the years  | ||
| |
Saudi Arabia just opened the Middle East's biggest stock market to global investors for the first time in history | ||
| | ||
Saudi Arabia just did something that Western investors have been pining for — the oil-rich nation has opened its stock market to the world. Until now, Saudi stocks were restricted in ownership to just Saudis and citizens of the nearby Gulf states. Westerners could only get a slice of the action through exchange-traded funds and similar financial vehicles. It's not just the biggest stock market in the Middle East, according to Bloomberg, it's bigger than all of the Gulf states' stock markets combined. London Capital Group market analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya called Saudi Arabia a "shiny new destination for investors looking to fly out of the European markets this week." Lots of analysts have suggested that there are big opportunities for investors in Saudi Arabia. Unsurprisingly, there's a decent chunk of petrochemical and energy companies in the main index, but there's a huge spread of retail, financial and construction companies too, amongst others. Take a look at the full list. But for now, ownership is still restricted to institutions with assets under management (AUM) of at least 18.75 billion Saudi riyals ($5 billion, £3.22 billion), so retail investors aren't invited to the party yet. In a note in May, HSBC noted that Saudi Arabia could make up as much as 2% of MSCI's emerging market index, if the institution decided to include the country in its index. But if it was included as an MSCI frontier market, it would dominate the index, taking up about 44% of the total capitalisation. Here's what the Tadawul index of Saudi stocks has looked like in recent years:
Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: This 1998 supercar could auction for $15 million  | ||
| |
UN chief calls for immediate Ramadan truce in Yemen | ||
| | ||
Geneva (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday called for an immediate two-week humanitarian pause in Yemen to mark Ramadan as talks got under way in Geneva to try and resolve the bloody conflict. "I hope this week starts the beginning of the end of the fighting," Ban said. "Ramadan begins in two days," he said, stressing that the holy Muslim month should be a period for "harmony, peace and reconciliation". "I have emphasised the importance of another humanitarian pause for two weeks," Ban said. Ban dismissed fears that the talks would be torpedoed by the non-arrival of an Iran-backed rebel delegation in time for the talks. The team's plane was delayed in Djibouti, according to UN and diplomatic sources. He said the delay was due to logistical reasons and added: "I am pleased to know that the other parties are on their way" and were expected to arrive later Monday. Underscoring the need for immediate action in Yemen, he said: "The ticking clock is not a time piece, it is a time bomb." He also called on all parties to reach agreement on a "comprehensive and lasting" ceasefire. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
| |
Apple killed off a project to build a $750 Wi-Fi speaker (AAPL) | ||
| | ||
Apple shut down a project to build a Wi-Fi speaker for the home when it acquired headphone manufacturer Beats in 2014, Variety reports. Beats had a number of upcoming devices that it was working on when it was acquired by Apple in May 2014. But it doesn't look like any of those ideas will see the light of day. One of the devices that Beats was working on was a $750 home speaker that connected to music streaming services via Wi-Fi. Variety describes the speaker as a "Sonos killer" that could have seriously hurt rival home speaker company Sonos. The Beats speaker was going to include NFC technology, which could have meant that your home speakers could detect your presence and start playing music when you enter the room. However, Variety says Beats ran into problems with the device during development and ended up switching chip supplier. That could be a major reason why Apple shut down the project. It appears that Apple used the Beats acquisition to increase its hardware portfolio, adding Beats headphones and products to its stores, as well as tapping into the company's music industry knowledge for its own music streaming service. Apple announced at its WWDC conference earlier this month that it will launch Apple Music on June 30, and former Beats executive Jimmy Iovine came on stage to introduce the service. It uses elements of the Beats Music streaming service, and insiders told us in February that Apple was using Iovine's connections in the music industry to lure artists to the platform. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: The 12 best new features coming to the iPhone  | ||
| |
Hungry tigers, lions, and wolves are running around Tbilisi after heavy rain destroyed their cages | ||
| | ||
Lions, tigers, wolves, a hippopotamus, and other potentially dangerous animals escaped from a zoo in the Georgian capital after heavy rainfall damaged their cages. Severe flooding in Tbilisi on Sunday also killed at least 12 people, while dozens are still missing, the Associated Press reports. There workers were also found dead inside the zoo.
The zoo's director, Zurab Gurielidze, told the AP that's it's impossible to know how many animals were set free because the zoo was still under water. As of Sunday night, however, five lions and may monkeys were still unaccounted for, a zoo spokeswoman said. Rescue teams helped to chase down a hippopotamus, which was shot with a tranquiliser dart.
Other animals have been shot and killed, including a white lion named Shumba, a zoo favourite. At least one elephant is now safely behind bars. Below, rescuers try to pull the body of a camel out from mud in the flooded zoo.
The animals "haven't been fed, and in their hungry state they might attack people," a resident told the AP. Residents have been told to stay indoors while helicopters have been sent to locate the wandering animals. Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: 5 clever iPhone tricks only power users know about  | ||
| |
