Oracle ‘in talks’ over Tiktok takeover as US ban looms August 18, 2020 Oracle is said to be mulling a bid for Tiktok as it looks to rival Microsoft in the race to take over the wildly popular social media platform. The US tech giant, which is led by billionaire Larry Ellison, has held preliminary talks with Tiktok’s Chinese parent company Bytedance over an offer for Tiktok’s operations [...]
Huawei: US ramps up sanctions as China tensions grow August 18, 2020 The US last night announced a fresh wave of sanctions on Huawei as it ramped up its efforts to prevent the Chinese tech giant from accessing American technology. The White House has already banned Huawei from buying American products and blocked vendors from using US technology to manufacture components for the controversial telecoms firm. The [...]
The UK must close its digital skills gap — or face an unemployment crisis August 18, 2020 With the economy plunging a catastrophic 20 per cent between April and June, the magnitude of challenges facing UK industries is becoming clearer. A wave of unemployment is likely, and when the furlough scheme officially ends there is no knowing how many people employers will let go. Even with additional taxpayer bailouts, there are large [...]
Huawei pushes for document release in trial of finance chief August 17, 2020 Huawei will today call for the release of more confidential documents relating to the arrest of the company’s finance director as her extradition battle ploughs on. Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Vancouver in 2018 after US authorities accused her of bank fraud and breaching sanctions against Iran. Meng, whose father Reng Zhengfei founded Huawei, is [...]
The UK has £10bn skills gap, so investors must back the ‘edtech’ boom August 17, 2020 The “edtech” revolution began long before 2020. The last two decades have seen a surge in demand for skills such as coding and data science, which traditional educational institutions have, as yet, been unable to meet. A recent study by Qlik and Accenture estimates this skills gap, evidenced by the difficulty to fill positions or [...]
Future students won’t forgive universities for poor learning technology August 17, 2020 This year’s intake of undergraduates to universities around the UK are already changing the world. It is the first time where, for most of the first year, their experiences will be fuelled by often remote, digitally-driven courses rather than the typical immersion into a physical campus. Some of the UK’s higher education institutions had some [...]
N26 staff to form works council after bank fails to break up meeting August 14, 2020 Staff at N26 have made a major breakthrough in their efforts to form a trade union after the digital bank failed to break up a meeting of employees during a dramatic day of confrontation. N26 workers today confirmed they had met and selected an electoral board, which will now begin the process of organising an [...]
Party poopers: Airbnb to limit UK bookings for under-25s August 14, 2020 Airbnb is set to restrict under-25s from booking entire properties in the UK in a bid to crack down on rowdy parties and antisocial behaviour. The trial scheme will prevent guests under the age of 25 with fewer than three positive ratings from booking entire homes near to where they live. The measures, which are [...]
Angry Birds maker Rovio gets lockdown profit boost August 14, 2020 The company behind the Angry Birds franchise has posted a huge rise in profit for the second quarter as players flocked to the hit video game during the coronavirus lockdown. The figures Rovio’s adjusted operating profit jumped 160 per cent to €13.8m (£12.5m) in the three months to the end of June. Revenue slipped 3.6 [...]
Salesforce and Oracle accused of breaching GDPR in €10bn lawsuit August 14, 2020 A class-action lawsuit has accused tech giants Oracle and Salesforce of breaching EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in their processing and sharing of data for advertising purposes. Non-profit organisation The Privacy Collective, which filed the lawsuit, alleged the two companies are misusing consumers’ personal data through their third-party cookies Bluekai and Krux, which are [...]
