Business, Financial & Legal - Page 87

Criminals will exploit anything they can get their hands-on and the most recent online marketplace to be corrupted is sadly Airbnb. According to a Daily Beast report, Russian scammers are using the service to launder dirty cash through stolen credit cards. This would be done through the use of corrupted hosts which are being recruited through Russian-language crime forums across the web.

The process of which the crimals use the service as a money laundering system is not even a complex one. The criminals are purchasing or creating Airbnb accounts and then use them to request bookings through the colluding hosts which will then send back a cut of the profits made from the transaction. Instead of actually going to your rented apartment or house this transaction requires no people to move and can move up to $3000 at a single time dodged by any identification checks made by usual Governments.

In response to these allegations made by Daily Beast Airbnb has said it has extensive algorithms as security against any "suspicious activity". The company continued by expressing that it uses "micro authorization friction and 3D-Secure to verify if a credit card is being used by its owner and assess the level of risk associated with a transaction."

Founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has had his net worth rise to $100.3 billion over the course of the Thanksgiving Black Friday sales. In 2017 Amazon's stock increased and with that increase Bezos has seen a $32.6 billion gain in his own worth.

As a very successful businessman Bezos plans for the future to keep his company at the forefront of more and more industries, but now Bezos wants to change that, tweeting a "request for ideas" to help the immediate now.

Here's what Bezos tweeted out:

I was just floating around on Twitter just now and stumbled across something Mike Cernovich re-tweeted, where he tagged @TeamYouTube on Twitter asking "Why does "How to have..." auto fill into pedophile content? Multiple people reported this to me."

I didn't believe it, thinking it was some crazy "alt-right conspiracy theory" but nope, it's real. I went to YouTube and typed on "How To Have" and then it auto filled it to a few different options with YouTube providing "how to have s*x with your kids" (what the actual f**k) and then "how to have s * x" with kids (which is equally as f**ked up).

YouTube will have to have an incredibly good answer for this, because it's beyond not normal. Furthermore, the auto fill options seem to be aimed at the younger audience searching YouTube with "how to have your first kiss" and "how to have good handwriting", but then it's mixed up with pedophile-friendly searches that will direct young kids to sick content. I couldn't bear clicking them, so I have no idea what comes up in the searches. Ugh.

Tencent has been valued recently at $510 billion, making it the first Chinese company in history to be worth the half-trillion-dollar mark. It's a huge deal for the company, as it joins many others in the industry that are based in the US.

We're talking about some of the biggest companies in the world that include Google/Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon, and more. Amazon reached $500 billion back when it went public in 1997, with social media giant Facebook hitting the $500 billion mark when it launched its IPO back in 2012.

Tencent went public in 2004 but has had absolutely phenomenal growrth over the last two years, with a shot to the moon in 2017 going from HK$175 per share to a huge HK$400+ per share.

Hasbro has reportedly made an acquisition offer to buy Mattel, according to sources of The Wall Street Journal, a deal that would make for quite the toy story... pun intended.

The massive collaboration between companies would see a conglomerate that owned franchises like Hot Wheels and My Little Pony under one roof, but the deal has Hasbro attacking Mattel while its weak. Hasbro is buffed right now after the massive sales of its Disney-themed toys, with the Star Wars franchise mixed in for good measure, as well as licenses for massive franchises in both the movie and TV markets.

Mattel on the other hand, isn't doing too well as physical toy sales are down. Hasbro was smart and closed their manufacturing facilities a while ago, but Mattel hasn't because physical toy sales (that need to be manufactured) are their bread and butter. The deal between Hasbro and Mattel would ignite some flames with a US antitrust lawsuit, as they would truly become the kings of the toy market.

The rumors of a Qualcomm takeover started a week ago with a huge $103 billion deal from Broadcom, but now Reuters is reporting that Qualcomm's board is planning to reject the offer.

Broadcom will reportedly offer $70 per share, which Reuters' sources say "undervalues the company and does not price in the uncertainty associated with getting the deal approved by regulators". Qualcomm is said to announce news of the $103 billion any minute now, but it might take a few days to trickle down to us in the real-world where $103 billion is unimaginable.

But as all big stories of $100 billion plus deals, Broadcom is said to be prepared to increase its bid to acquire Qualcomm according to Reuters' sources. It can get dirty from here, with Broadcom hoping to choose its own directors for Qualcomm's board, and if shareholders wants a deal, they can vote in new board members and force Qualcomm to negotiations.

A few days ago Intel announced it had collaborated with AMD on their new Kaby Lake G processor, with Radeon RX Vega GPU tech inside joined by 4GB of HBM2. 24 hours after that, Radeon Technologies Group Chief Architect, Raja Koduri, announced he was officially leaving. Rumor has it he was joining Intel, but even the largest analysts and tech media in the world didn't believe he'd join Intel for many reasons - anti-competitive reasons, and more.

It's now confirmed that Raja Koduri has joined Intel as their Chief Architect, and Senior Vice President of the newly-formed Visual Computing Group. Raja will also be the General Manager of a new initiative that will push edge computing solutions.

Dr. Murthy Renduchintala, Intel's chief engineering officer and group president of the Client and Internet of Things Businesses and System Architecture said: "Raja is one of the most experienced, innovative and respected graphics and system architecture visionaries in the industry and the latest example of top technical talent to join Intel. We have exciting plans to aggressively expand our computing and graphics capabilities and build on our very strong and broad differentiated IP foundation. With Raja at the helm of our Core and Visual Computing Group, we will add to our portfolio of unmatched capabilities, advance our strategy to lead in computing and graphics, and ultimately be the driving force of the data revolution".

Disney is thirsty for another massive acquisition, with CNBC reporting that the company is in discussions to buy 20th Century Fox, which is Fox's film and TV divisions. This purported deal would leave Fox to double down on its news and sports programs.

Fox would sell its entertainment divisions and make a tidy sum of money, as they're not interested in selling their Fox broadcast network that includes Fox Sports, and the Fox News and Fox Business brands. That doesn't matter however, as Disney is legally bound from buying the Fox network because it already owns ABC, leading into antitrust issues with ESPN.

Disney through an acquisition of Fox's film and TV divisions would secure the company massive international assets like Star and Sky, as well as FX and National Geographic. This deal could do some major things for Disney which has acquired some large players in the last few years making them one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world with Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Marvel.

Lenovo announced it will purchase a majority in Fujitsu's Client Computing branch in an effort to bolster its reduced PC market share.

Lenovo and the Development Bank of Japan have coordinated to acquire stake in Fujitsu's computing branch, with Lenovo purchasing a majority share at 51% and DBJ receiving 5% in the deal. Fujitsu will net about $245.45 million (28 billion yen) as part of the purchase contract, of which Lenovo will pay about $156.7 million in cash.

"The joint venture will focus on the research, development, design, manufacturing and sales of Client Computing Devices (CCD) for the global PC market," reads the press release announcement.

In the last 24 hours a story began surfacing that Kevin Spacey, the main actor in House of Cards by Netflix, attempted to sexually assault Star Trek Discovery actor when he was just 14 years old. The allegations forced Spacey to out himself as gay, and then claim that he honestly does not "remember the encounter".

Spacey tweeted out a massive reply, which you can see above, that he seems to really skim over. It seems he casually handles the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old, making this a very tragic event. Spacey said: "but if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years". Deplorable.

Netflix reacted by canceling House of Cards after its upcoming sixth, and now final season. Netflix and Media Rights Capital released a statement, where they said: "Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night's news concerning Kevin Spacey. In response to last night's revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time".

Rick and Morty fans have been going crazy across the world to get their hands-on the is-it-real-or-not McDonald's Szechuan sauce promotion, but now one of these stories has gotten out of control.

The Drive is reporting that someone from Michigan put up a packet of their Szechuan sauce up for trade, with someone offering up their 2004 Volkswagen GTI in exchange for the Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce. The owner of the Volkswagen posted on Facebook after she traded her wheels for the sauce, saying "thank you for the insane trade on the VW Golf mk4 for the legendary Szechuan Sauce", continuing the post with "I hope you get lost in the sauce!". Hmmm, alrighty then.

I don't even know what to say, so I'm going to leave it to the comments to try and help me find my thoughts.

Yesterday we reported that Toshiba had sold its memory division for $18 billion to the Bain Capital consortium, Seagate have today confirmed their participation in the Bain Capital consortium to acquire Toshiba Memory Corporation. Seagate have committed $1.25 billion in funding to the group by March 2018, in return Seagate expect that this will enable a long-term NAND supply agreement with Toshiba Memory that will provide NAND flash chips for Seagate's expanding SSD portfolio.

"Over the course of many years, Seagate has developed an excellent long-term relationship with Toshiba Memory, and we have always been impressed with their consistent leadership in advancing NAND technology," said Steve Luczo, Seagate's chairman and chief executive officer. "We are pleased and honored to be part of the Bain Capital consortium and to help facilitate maintaining Toshiba Memory as a world leading independent NAND technology company. We know that Bain Capital is dedicated to the long-term success of Toshiba Memory and believe this acquisition is in the long-term best interests of our industry and of storage customers worldwide."

Luczo continued, "In the coming years, the storage industry will see significant data creation and increased storage needs, and we must be able to support those demands. Our NAND supply agreement with Toshiba Memory will enable Seagate to continue innovating and providing customers with storage solutions that fit their needs, be they HDDs, SSDs, or hybrid solutions."

With months and months of behind-closed-doors meetings and whispers, Toshiba has reportedly inked an $18 billion deal to sell of its chip business.

Western Digital was reportedly in the running for Toshiba's memory division, but a consortium led by Bain Capital LP took the lead and secured Toshiba's memory business. Something of note: SK Hynix is part of this consortium, which isn't in the best interests of WD.

Japanese companies will still maintain 50% of the business, keeping the local government with smiles on their dials, while Toshiba retains a 40.2% stake in Toshiba Memory Corp. Bain Capital LP will sail ahead with 49.9% of Toshiba Memory Corporation, while Japanese medical company, Hoya Corp, takes 9.9%.

French conglomerate Vivendi, who's vying for a take-over of hit games-maker Ubisoft, has once again abstained from voting in the video games publisher's annual shareholders meeting.

The results for Ubisoft's 2017 general shareholders meeting are in, and they show that Vivendi has once again opted not to show up for the proceedings. Vivendi is currently pushing to buy out Ubisoft by slowly accumulate share capital and voting rights, and currently sits on the largest pool of share capital owned by one stakeholder at 26.63%. The company also has a huge stockpile of voting rights, but has yet to implement them at a shareholders meeting due to bad blood (to say there's bad blood between Ubisoft and Vivendi is a massive understatement).

Vivendi's absence for Ubisoft's 2017 general shareholders meeting stamped a 29.99% "abstain" vote on every single resolution drawn up by the publisher, including Extraordinary Resolution 31 that would've granted all Ubisoft employees free company shares. The resolution was the only measure that failed to pass; combined with Vivendi's nearly 30% abstain vote, 9.98% of attending shareholders voted against the resolution. The Guillemots drafted the resolution in an attempt to fortify employee faith and goodwill in the company, and Ubisoft's leaders' calls on Vivendi to help the measures pass went unheeded.

Microsoft has formally changed the name of the Windows Store to the "Microsoft Store," which hints at bigger things.

The storefront's name change was made in the latest update for Windows Insiders who test out pre-release Windows 10 updates, who noticed the name and the shop's icon getting a new shape. Outlets like Windows Central are curious if Microsoft will start selling content other than the storefront's current digital fare--apps, games, music, videos, etc.

Others wonder if Microsoft will actually start selling non-digital content through the onboard storefront as well, considering the "Microsoft Store" matches up with the company's website storefront and traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. All in all the shop shouldn't change all that much, and Microsoft has yet to formally announce the change--or what it actually means.

Beleaguered Taiwanese smartphone-maker HTC has halted trading of its shares, lending credence to buyout rumors.

HTC today announced that it has paused all trading of company stock on the Taiwan Stock Exchange ahead of a "major announcement," which is likely an official takeover reveal. The company, which once sat alongside the biggest phone-makers in the industry, recently reported its eighth straight consecutive loss in May, with losses of $66 million in first quarter of the current fiscal year.

Speculation indicates HTC will sell its research and development and smartphone divisions to Alphabet Inc, and other reports say the company will likewise spin off its VR division that's responsible for the HTC Vive headset.

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson has joined Intel's board of directors, and will continue his role leading EA while advising the hardware giant.

Tech titan Intel has elected EA's Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wilson onto its board of directors to help guide the company's future, the Santa Clara-based corporation today announced. "Andrew understands first-hand how technology and data create opportunity with his transformation of EA from offline packaged goods to a leader in online digital services," said Intel Chairman Andy Bryant in an official press release. "In addition to his experience leading and growing a global, technology-driven company, Andrew possesses a combination of creativity and business acumen that will further strengthen Intel's board."

With billions in yearly revenues, Electronic Arts is one of the biggest games companies in the industry, and sits at the forefront of the gaming world in regards to next-gen gaming technologies and monetization strategies. In fact, the games titan earned more from live services than it did from full game sales in its fiscal Q1'17 earnings. Live services, which include extra content/DLC/microtransactions from Ultimate Team and all subscription earnings, were up 22% year-over-year raking in $420 million or a whopping 61.67% of EA's first quarter digital net sales earnings.

The leading bid for Toshiba Memory Corp are now up to $22 billion, sources have told Reuters.

A consortium of buyers made up of chip-maker SK Hynix, investment firm Bain Capital, and numerous Japanese investors have raised their bid on Toshiba's storage chip business to 2.4 trillion yen, or $22.3 billion, sources familiar with the matter tell Reuters. Toshiba seeks to sell its storage business in an attempt to plug a massive earnings hole left by its failed Westinghouse nuclear business, which caused the company to lose $8.7 billion in its 2016 fiscal year.

U.S.-based Western Digital, who led a major bid for Toshiba's chip unit, has reportedly dropped out of the runnings. Sources say Toshiba is reviewing three consortium offers for the storage business, which included bids from a group led by Foxconn. Interestingly enough, tech giant Apple has backed all offers for Toshiba Memory Corp in an attempt to become closer to the source of storage memory to power its slate of iPhone devices.

Game of Thrones' latest season has just wrapped up, with one piracy monitoring company stating the S7 of Game of Thrones was pirated over one billion times.

Andy Chatterly, CEO and co-founder of Muso, recently spoke with Torrent Freak where he said: "It's no secret that HBO has been plagued by security breaches throughout the latest season, which has seen some episodes leak before broadcast and added to unlicensed activity".

He added: "In addition to the scale of piracy when it comes to popular shows, these numbers demonstrate that unlicensed streaming can be a far more significant type of piracy than torrent downloads".

As demand for flash memory soars, Japanese storage-maker Toshiba has announced that it will build a new semiconductor manufacturing facility in Iwate, northern Japan.

Beleaguered tech giant Toshiba is currently negotiating a sale of its Toshiba Memory Corporation chip business for up to $8.8 billion to plug vast losses of revenue, but that hasn't stopped the company from laying plans to open a new fabrication facility in Japan. This new plant, which is planned to go up in Iwate sometime next year, would be the memory-maker's second such facility, with the first located in Yokkaichi, central Japan.

The conglomerate may partner with Sandisk, the Western Digital-owned memory company, to help raise investment funds for the plant. With flash memory in major demand for consumer electronics, it will be interesting to see if this new facility helps alleviate the memory shortage that plagues key segments as well as Japanese-owned companies like Nintendo.