For the continued growth of esports, local and accessible venues are key March 9, 2021 | City Talk In the summer of 2020, a monumental deal for the wider esports space was announced, and whilst it made some noise in financial, esports and gaming circles, it went by largely without much fanfare. The acquisition of Belong by GAME by esports infrastructure company Vindex, and the associated news that the US-based firm plans to [...]
Technology on stage: How becoming bionic will boost my acting career March 9, 2021 | City Talk We are often told how brand-new technology is changing humanity, but we rarely hear enough about how it is impacting individual humans. In December 2020 I joined a unique club of individuals who have been fitted with a 3D-printed bionic arm. The robotic arm is designed and manufactured by Bristol-based Open Bionics and mine was [...]
Bitcoin highlights the opportunity for sustainable data processing March 9, 2021 | City Talk The price of Bitcoin is not the only thing that is surging. According to an analysis by Cambridge University and reported on by BBC News, the computer processing power that is now required to “mine” the cryptocurrency is 126.35 terawatt-hours each year. Or put another way: if Bitcoin was a country, it would be in [...]
Zoom founder Eric Yuan cashes in $6bn of shares March 9, 2021 Zoom boss Eric Yuan has transferred about 18m of his shares worth roughly $6bn (£4.4bn), according to a regulatory filing. Yuan, who set up the video conferencing app in 2011, transferred roughly 40 per cent of his stake in the company to unspecified beneficiaries. The transfers were done in two tranches of about 9m shares [...]
More than 1m small businesses ‘at risk of collapse’ due to cyber threats March 9, 2021 The government has been urged to pump more money into cyber defences after new research revealed that more than 1m small businesses would collapse if they were targeted by hackers. A poll of more than 500 business leaders found nearly a quarter of UK SMEs — equivalent to 1.3m companies — were likely to go [...]
London cyber firm Kape acquires Israeli rival in $150m deal March 8, 2021 London-based cybersecurity company Kape Technologies has snapped up Israeli IT firm Webselenese in a deal worth almost $150m (£108m). Kape, which provides privacy-focused software, said the mixed cash and share deal will help expand its audience and fuel organic growth. Shares in Kape jumped by more than a fifth after the deal was announced this [...]
‘Missing’ sixth case of Brazil Covid mutation found in Croydon March 6, 2021 A mystery sixth person infected with a new Brazil coronavirus “variant of concern” has been found in Croydon, the health secretary has announced. Six cases of the new mutation, also known as the P1 variant or Manaus variant, had been identified across the UK. Three cases were linked to Scotland, while two out of three [...]
Anti-virus mogul John McAfee charged over crypto fraud March 5, 2021 Controversial anti-virus software mogul John McAfee has been indicted in New York on charges of fraud and money laundering linked to two fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. The tech millionaire and his bodyguard Jimmy Gale Watson Jr were charged in Manhattan federal court over schemes that promoted the digital currencies to investors. The pair exploited McAfee’s large [...]
Reddit appoints first chief financial officer amid IPO reports March 5, 2021 Reddit has appointed its first ever chief financial officer amid reports the company is considering a stock market float. The social media site, which has been at the centre of a recent retail trading frenzy, has tapped former Snap executive Drew Vollero to lead its finance team. Vollero, who was Snap’s first chief financial officer [...]
EU set to charge Apple over Spotify music streaming complaint March 4, 2021 The European Commission is said to be on the brink of filing formal antitrust charges against Apple over accusations it distorted competition in the music streaming market. Spotify filed a complaint against Apple in 2019, accusing the tech giant of unfairly restricting rivals to its own Apple Music service and complaining about the company’s 30 [...]