Business, Financial & Legal - Page 94

Tech companies earn lots of money, that's no news. The value of these companies exceeds even the largest oil giants. Earlier this year, Apple announced their last quarter's profit - $18.4 billion, which is the highest amount for a public company ever.

To help us mortals understand these large amounts, Penny Stocks Lab made a great visualization showing how much companies like Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook and many others, earn per second.

Together all the listed companies earn around $2360 a second, or around $141.600 per minute. The largest piece of the cake, about 50%, goes to Apple.

A memo sent to Verizon employees in Pensnsylvania, USA late last month makes a new directive clear: barring extenuating circumstances, you must replace a customer's broken copper phone line with its VoiceLink wireless home phone service. Failure to do so "may result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal", it reads.

The downsides of VoiceLink are that customers aren't able to add DSL internet afterward or use certain devices such as security alarms, pacemakers, and fax machines, among others (in the latter case, the company says this falls under extenuating circumstances, however).

Verizon claims it's pushing VoiceLink because it allows them to restore service quicker to customers.

Many thought that the death of Steve Jobs five years ago would mark the end of Apple as we knew it. The man who has defined Apple has left an indelible mark on the company and the technology world.

Today Apple has great financial results, their products are still in high demand, but there is also a sense that something is missing...

Under Jobs' leadership, Apple was a revolutionary company that changed the world. Macintosh was the first commercially successful computer with a graphical user interface and mouse, and Apple II was also a great success.

It has been five years since the world lost one of the most recognizable faces in the world of technology - Steve Jobs. Known as the founder of Apple, Jobs was one of the most influential people in the world of computer and mobile technology. The iPhone isn't just one of the most popular mobile phones, it's also one of the most popular devices of all time.

Together with Steve Wozniak, Jobs made the first home computer - Apple, the same name the duo called its company that became one of the most recognizable brands worldwide. Jobs' charisma and persistence had a lot to do with it.

Jobs began his career as a teenager. He worked at HP and designed video games for Atari. Then he met Wozniak, with whom he made the Apple I. A year later the duo made the Apple II computer that started the revolution in the personal computer industry.

Spotify could swell in size significantly if the reports of the company looking to acquire SoundCloud, with rumors that Spotify is in "advanced talks" to buy the company.

If the acquisition of SoundCloud goes ahead, Spotify would need to throw a pretty hefty amount across the table, but the deal makes sense from a business perspective. Spotify has been expanding constantly, from just albums to wider ranges of catalogs of DJ sets, demos, and other rough tracks, reports Engadget.

Spotify acquiring SoundCloud would give it a considerable edge against competitors Google, Tidal, and Apple Music that are always trying to get you into their services with artist exclusives (which sucks, by the way). Spotify's new acquisition of SoundCloud would allow for a future where you would listen to in-development songs, and then scope out the artist's commercially available music right away.

The Walking Dead is one of the biggest shows on TV, so it should come as no surprise that co-creator Frank Darabont is now suing AMC for $280 million, after he was fired from the network in the middle of The Walking Dead's second season.

Darabont alleges that AMC denied him profits from The Walking Dead "by producing the series and then licensing it to its cable network affiliate for not enough money". AMC says the lawsuit is without merit, adding: "Plaintiffs' damages claim has no basis in reality and we will continue to vigorously defend against this lawsuit".

THR reports: "Considering that Darabont was contractually entitled to as much as 10 percent of certain Walking Dead profits after deductions, the damages figure suggests the series has made billions. The lawsuit asserts, however, that a low license fee formula has been designed to ensure that the show would never be in the black for profit participants".

The pro basketball organization known as the Philadelphia 76ers has acquired and merged eSports teams Dignitas and Apex, and will manage the new entity as Team Dignitas on a day-to-day basis going forward. The organization says it will provide to the team sponsorship, sales, branding, digital marketing, merchandising, player recruitment, and publicity services, as well as development and wellness practices.

The acquisition makes the 76ers the first North American pro sports team to acquire an eSports team, although it isn't the only association between the two worlds: to name one example, pro/former pro athletes Shaquille O'Neal, Alex Rodriquez (aka A-Rod), and Jimmy Rollins have a stake in Team NRG.

Dignitas and Apex are known for League of Legends, Counter Strike: GO, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Smite.

Yahoo had reportedly been hacked a few years ago to the tune of 200 million usernames and passwords of account holders made it onto the dark web by 'Peace', hitting the Tor-based market 'The Real Deal'. Yahoo was said to be close to admitting the hack, but now they have, and it's even bigger than previously thought.

Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo, Bob Lord, said: "We have confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company's network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers".

The hashing algorithm used is very secure, and is hard to break, with Lord adding that while no bank data was stolen, users should change their passwords. Lord added: "Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo's network. Yahoo is working closely with law enforcement on this matter".

Analogix Semiconductor have been one of my favorite companies of recent years, getting their exciting technology into a bunch of devices driving them into a totally new direction. Well, they've been acquired by a consortium led by Shanhai Capital for a whopping $500 million.

The $500 million deal is considerable, as it's one of the largest in recent history for the semiconductor industry, where billions of dollars are flowing through the market and into chipmakers. The chips that Analogix make are incredibly important, as they can drive high-res, multi-display and multiple peripherals through a single USB connector with no lag - it's impressive, to say the least.

Analogix make makes high-speed, mixed-signal chips for applications used in mobile devices, virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR), and other high-performance electronic products. Customers include Apple, Samsung, LG, Microsoft, Google, Lenovo, Dell, HP, ASUS, and HTC. The majority of the company's engineering resources are in Beijing, reports VentureBeat.

We are edging closer to finding out the next US president, with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump set to battle on November 8, but before then we have the first presidential debate tomorrow, September 26.

Well before the presidential debate, it would've been good to read over Hillary Clinton's private email server that was nuked clean of its purported classified emails that would have ended her run for the White House - and that won't be happening. The State Department will be publishing 1,050 pages of the 10,000+ that still haven't been released.

Americans want as much transparency as possible, as Engadget reported, and they deserve it - and will not get it, it seems. Judicial Watch and other activist groups are suing the government because of the relaxed nature of the US government in its handing over of the Clinton emails, and are accusing the State Department of creating an "absolutely corrupt process" for publishing data. Ouch.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is a funny guy, and it seems like he's up to some epic and probably expensive trolling as he's behind the Reddit pseudonym "NimbleRichMan," and has been funding that claims it has proven that "shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real".

The organization is called Nimble America, which is a pro-Trump organization that spreads anti-Hillary Clinton memes, and calls her a "corrupt, a warmonger, a freedom-stripper". Nimble America says that people will be offended by their Hillary Clinton memes because they hate Trump, because they can't stand to see successful people.

Luckey, through his Reddit name NimbleRichMan, said:

These things always seem to happen close to a weekend, but there are rumors hitting fast and hard that Twitter is fielding acquisition talks with industry giants like Google and Salesforce, as well as others.

CNBC is reporting that Twitter might receive a formal acquisition big "shortly", with Twitter's board likely to sign right away. CBNC adds that there is no actual talk of a sale right now, but sources of the site say that the talks are getting much bigger, and something could happen before the end of the year. Twitter hasn't been having the success they have been aiming for, with Twitter shares plunging over the years.

They hit their high in early 2014 at around $69 per share, but hit rock bottom a few months ago at $14, and since the acquisition rumors began, they went up 3.75% to 22.38. Salesforce acquiring Twitter is interesting, as they were reportedly gearing to acquire LinkedIn before Microsoft pulled out its wallet - and Google, well... if they acquired Twitter it would give them a huge superpower against Facebook.

The Nashville Metro Council gave its final approval this week to the ordinance that would see Google Fiber installed across the Tennessee, USA town. However, it expects a lawsuit from AT&T is imminent, after the rival ISP threatened as such should the ordinance pass, and after its sued Louisville over the same issue in the neighbouring state of Kentucky.

"Unfortunately, the likelihood of protracted litigation could delay implementation of this law designed to benefit Nashville's consumers," stated Nashville mayor Megan Barry. "That is why I encouraged fiber providers to work together on a solution they could all agree upon, which they were not able to do. My hope now is that any potential legal disputes over this new law can be resolved quickly, and we can move forward with expanding fiber access throughout the city."

AT&T said the ordinance -- which allows Google to make necessary wire adjustments on its own -- is "is not a good solution for faster deployment of infrastructure." Meanwhile, Comcast (which has also lobbied against the bid -- said they believe there is "a better solution that is beneficial for all consumers."

Rumors indicated Apple has been in talks for months to acquire supercar maker McLaren in a bid to accelerate its self-driving electric vehicle developments. However, McLaren, who initially declined comment on the matter, has since denied any such proposition to Reuters.

The deal -- which was never described a sure thing -- was said to be valued at $1.3 billion or more.

Microsoft's multiple Skype offices in London are to be no more as the company consolidates them into one while merging engineering roles. In turn, the moves put 220 jobs at risk.

"Microsoft is consolidating offices across London, moving employees to Microsoft's new office at Paddington," the company's statement reads. "As part of this effort, Microsoft reviewed some London-based roles and made the decision to unify some engineering positions, potentially putting a number of globally focused Skype and Yammer roles at risk."

"We are deeply committed to doing everything we can to help those affected through this process. Microsoft will be entering into a consultation process and [it will] offer opportunities where possible."

It's not everyday that companies like AMD and Lenovo donate a bunch of laptops, so when the news that they donated some AMD-based Lenovo ThinkPad E-series notebooks to The Jamaica Positive Foundation - but it was when I discovered it all happened thanks to a simple Facebook post.

Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness posted on Facebook, where he donated a notebook to a student in his constituency. Lenovo GAM VP David Bennett followed Holness on Facebook, and together with his Jamaican heritage, noticed that the Lenovo laptop Holness was giving away in Jamaica was an AMD-powered one.

AMD and Lenovo were then in contact with the Jamaican PM, who agreed to talk with the companies and over a courtesy call, PM Holness gave his gratitude for the donation saying that there was a digital divide in the country, so the notebooks would make some rather large differences in students lives.

We all know religion is big business, but did you know that the mostly tax-free religion industry in the US is an absolute profit monster? According to the latest numbers, there are around $1.2 trillion (yes, that's trillion with a 't') in religious "healthcare facilities, schools, daycare and charities; media; businesses with faith backgrounds; the kosher and halal food markets; social and philanthropic programmes; and staff and overheads for congregations".

The report comes from The Socio-economic Contribution of Religion to American Society: An Empirical Analysis, co-authored by Georgetown's Brian J Grim and Newseum's Melissa E Grim, and published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion. The authors say that the $1.2 trillion estimate is "conservative", noting that religion as a whole has been declining in the US, and that spending on religious "social programs" has tripled since 2001, to a huge $9 trillion.

The report notes: "Grim and his co-author Melissa Grim of the Newseum Institute in Washington came up with three estimates of the worth of US religion. The lowest, at $378bn, took into account only the revenues of faith-based organisations. The middle estimate, $1.2tn, included an estimate of the market value of goods and services provided by religious organisations and the contributions of businesses with religious roots".

Tesla Motors is suing an oil company executive said to have impersonated its CEO Elon Musk in order to obtain financial information on the company.

The lawsuit names Todd Katz, CFO for Quest Integrity Group, and claims he used a similar email address to Musk's (elontesla@yahoo.com) to achieve his goal. Quest is partnered with BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, among other notable companies.

"The point of this action is that this was perceived as an effort to gain inside information, non-public information," said LA attorney John Hueston, representing the car maker. "Although it was caught here, Tesla is worried about this happening in some other form. This could have resulted in highly valuable information being improperly disclosed."

Co-creator of Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft franchises Chris Metzen has retired at age 42. Starting his career as an animator and artist at the then-startup company, he rose the ranks and eventually found himself the senior vice president of story and franchise development.

Metzen says his decision was motivated by a desire to spend more time with his family, including his newborn baby. In a farewell forum post on Battle.net, he speaks fondly of his 22-year history with Blizzard, describing it as "the time of my life" and says his fellow employees were a "second family" (complete with all the ups and downs).

Samsung has just exited the printer business, selling its printer division to HP for $1.05 billion, where HP says the purchase is intended to "disrupt and reinvent" the $55 billion printing industry, something that "hasn't innovated in decades".

HP said in a statement: "Copiers are outdated, complicated machines with dozens of replaceable parts requiring inefficient service and maintenance agreements". Samsung will spin its printing business into a separate company that will be sold to HP, with 6000 employees included. Samsung will continue selling printers branded as Samsung on its home turf in South Korea, but it will source them from HP.