Fashion app Depop grabs $62m from Airbnb and Uber investor June 7, 2019 British fashion marketplace app Depop has today closed a series C funding round at $62m (£48.8m), led by US venture capital stalwart General Atlantic. Existing investors HZ Holtzbrinck Ventures, Balderton Capital, Creandum, Octopus Ventures and Tempocap also participated in the round, alongside Klarna founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski. Depop said it will use the funding to expand [...]
Barack and Michelle Obama sign podcast deal with Spotify June 6, 2019 Former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have signed on to a multi-year partnership with streaming giant Spotify to produce exclusive podcasts. Obama said he believes podcasts “offer an extraordinary opportunity to foster productive dialogue, make people smile and make people think, and, hopefully, bring us all a little closer together.” The news [...]
Huawei must improve ‘shoddy’ cyber security, says top UK spook June 6, 2019 Chinese tech firm Huawei is “shoddy” and has a lot of work to do to improve its cybersecurity, a top UK spook has said. Read more: US trade ban on Huawei could slow global 5G rollout, warns Barclays Dr Ian Levy, technical director of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), blasted the embattled firm over [...]
Google Cloud buys analytics firm Looker for $2.6bn June 6, 2019 Google will buy analytics firm Looker for $2.6bn (£2bn) as it looks to expand its cloud offerings. Read more: Microsoft and Oracle team up to take on Amazon Web Services The deal is the first big move for the company’s new cloud chief, Oracle veteran Thomas Kurian, who replaced Diane Greene last year. The acquisition [...]
Amazon to deliver packages by drone ‘within months’ June 6, 2019 Amazon will begin delivering packages by drone within months, fulfilling a goal that has eluded the world’s biggest online retailer for years. The new fully-electric drones take off and land vertically like a helicopter. They use visual, thermal and ultrasonic sensors to fly themselves and can avoid objects in the air and on the ground. [...]
US trade ban on Huawei could slow global 5G rollout, warns Barclays June 6, 2019 The US’s decision to blacklist Chinese tech firm Huawei could slow down the global rollout of 5G, Barclays has warned. In a new report analysts said network carriers in Europe could be hit by heavy costs and technical disruption if they are forced to upgrade existing Huawei 4G technology with gear made by a different [...]
Tech firms urge Tory leadership candidates to back UK’s digital sector June 6, 2019 Tech firms have issued a desperate plea to candidates in the Tory leadership race, urging them to avoid a no-deal Brexit and back the UK’s booming digital sector. Tech UK, which represents more than 900 businesses, has written to the candidates warning of “long-lasting and damaging consequences” of a no-deal Brexit for tech investment and [...]
Autonomy trial: Meg Whitman ‘ready to throw Leo under bus’ for failed merger June 5, 2019 Former HP chief executive Meg Whitman was prepared to throw her predecessor “under the bus“ and blame him for the tech giant’s failed £8.4bn acquisition of Autonomy, a court heard yesterday. In an email to HP’s head of communications in 2012 Whitman said she was “happy to throw Leo under the bus in a tit for tat”. Read more: HP not suing Autonomy [...]
Games round-up: Observation and Heaven’s Vault reviews June 5, 2019 Observation Platform: PC, PS4 Observation is one hell of a proposition: a follow-up to the superlative indie horror game Stories Untold, set in a space station designed by alumni of Alien: Isolation, in which you control a rogue AI inspired by HAL from 2001. And for the most part, it lives up to that promise. [...]
Microsoft and Oracle team up to take on Amazon Web Services June 5, 2019 Microsoft and Oracle will connect their cloud services in an effort to woo big businesses and take on market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS). The combined service will enable users to connect Oracle’s autonomous databases with Microsoft services, such as Azure analytics and artificial intelligence. The new high-speed link between the two company’s data centres [...]
