Ex-Sage chief Stephen Kelly appointed chair of Tech Nation May 31, 2020 The former boss of Sage Group Stephen Kelly has been appointed the chair of technology industry body Tech Nation. Kelly succeeds Eileen Burbidge, partner at technology venture capital firm Passion Capital, who stepped down in January after four and a half years at the helm. Kelly led the turnaround of enterprise software company Sage Group [...]
Jeff Bezos takes stake in UK tech startup Beacon May 31, 2020 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is reportedly investing in UK technology startup Beacon. The world’s richest man has agreed to back the startup, which is a specialist in digital freight forwarding and supply chain finance, according to Sky News. Bezos, who is worth approximately $143bn, is said to be participating in a $15m Series A funding [...]
Twitter flags Trump tweet for ‘glorifying violence’ as row escalates May 29, 2020 Twitter today said that one of Donald Trump’s tweets had broken its rules about “glorifying violence”, marking the latest salvo in an escalating feud between social media firms and the US president. “These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen,” Trump tweeted, in reference to protests over the [...]
Softbank Vision Fund boss doubles pay despite hefty loss May 29, 2020 Softbank has more than doubled the pay of its Vision Fund boss Rajeev Misra even as the mammoth tech fund dragged the Japanese company to a record loss last year. Misra pocketed 1.6bn yen (£12m) in total compensation for the year to March, more than twice as much as he earned in the previous 12 [...]
Trump to sign executive order about social media amid Twitter spat May 28, 2020 US President Donald Trump will today sign an executive order on social media firms, the White House has said. The move comes after the president became embroiled in a dispute with Twitter, which marked one of his tweets with a fact check warning over its inaccurate claims. Trump yesterday threatened to shut down social media [...]
Twitter stamps fact check warning on Donald Trump tweet May 27, 2020 A tweet by US President Donald Trump has been marked by Twitter with a warning for the first time ever after its unsubstantiated claims were debunked by fact checkers. In a post published yesterday Trump said there was “NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent”. In the post, which [...]
Cloud-based phone system Aircall raises $65m amid home working boom May 27, 2020 Cloud-based phone system Aircall has raised $65m in Series 3 funding led by DTCP, as demand for the firm’s technology has surged during the remote-working boom sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The round was led by DTCP with participation from new investors Swisscom and Adam Street, as well as existing investors Balderton Capital, Draper Esprit, [...]
Security officials launch review into Huawei role in 5G network May 25, 2020 Security officials have launched a review of Huawei’s involvement in Britain’s 5G network after fresh US sanctions. The US commerce department earlier this month said it would extend the sanctions to require licences for sales to Huawei of semiconductors made abroad with American technology. The UK government has since confirmed that the National Cyber Security [...]
Alibaba profit tumbles despite Covid-19 lockdown sales boost May 22, 2020 Alibaba today reported a plunge in profit during the fourth quarter as investment losses offset a surge in ecommerce sales during the coronavirus lockdown. The Chinese tech behemoth reported an 88 per cent decline in net income to 3.2bn yuan (£368m) in the three months to the end of March. The group said the decrease [...]
Competition watchdog launches investigation into fake online reviews May 22, 2020 The competition watchdog has opened an investigation into several major websites over whether they are doing enough to protect shoppers from fake and misleading reviews. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it will probe how the sites detect, investigate and respond to issues such as suspicious reviews — for example where one user has [...]