Soundcloud bags $75m funding from Pandora owner Sirius XM February 11, 2020 Veteran music streaming site Soundcloud today announced it has received a $75m (£58m) cash injection from Sirius XM, the owner of US streaming giant Pandora. Soundcloud said it will use the funding to speed up its product development and enhance services for its users. The investment follows an ad sales partnership between Soundcloud and Pandora, [...]
Merkel’s party set to rule out Huawei 5G ban in Germany February 11, 2020 Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party is set to throw its weight behind a new proposal that stops short of banning Huawei from building Germany’s 5G network. Top ministers in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) last night signed off on a four-page paper following weeks of discussions with hardline ministers who want to exclude the controversial [...]
DEBATE: Could AI ever win an Oscar? February 11, 2020 Could AI ever win an Oscar? John Gikopoulos, global head of AI and automation at Infosys Consulting, says YES. It’s entirely possible, and plausible, that artificial intelligence (AI) could soon win an Oscar. With the South Korean film Parasite winning Best Picture this year — the first ever foreign language film to do so — [...]
London tech salary growth outstrips global rivals February 11, 2020 Salary growth for UK techies outstripped all other locations last year as the country retained its status as a global tech hub. London software engineers enjoyed a salary hike of 13 per cent from 2018 to 2019, taking the average wage to £74,000, according to new figures from job search firm Hired. The fastest increase [...]
Revolut backer Lakestar leads $20m funding round London hotel startup Impala February 11, 2020 London-based hotel software startup Impala has raised $20m (£15.49m) in a funding round led by Revolut investor Lakestar. The Series B funding round, which comes four months after an $11m fundraise, will allow the startup to invest in developing tools to take bookings. Impala, which was founded in 2016, works with companies such as tech [...]
Four Chinese military hackers charged over US Equifax breach February 10, 2020 The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged four members of China’s military in relation to the 2017 Equifax hack, which saw the data of more than 145m Americans breached. The nine-count indictment accused the Chinese military of hacking into Equifax’s computer networks, maintaining unauthorised access to them and stealing sensitive, personally identifiable information about [...]
MWC 2020: Sony becomes latest tech firm to pull out due to coronavirus February 10, 2020 Sony today said it will withdraw from the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020 in Barcelona later this month due to fears over coronavirus, dealing a fresh blow to the bumper tech convention. MWC, which attracts more than 100,000 visitors, is due to take place between 24 and 27 February, but has been hampered by a [...]
UK tech firms suffer worst quarter in seven years as uncertainty weighs February 10, 2020 The UK’s thriving tech sector suffered its worst quarter since 2012 at the end of last year as political uncertainty took its toll on growth. Staff hiring declined and new business activity flatlined in the final three months of 2019, according to figures published today by KPMG. UK tech firms reported that overall business was [...]
Mike Lynch extradition would ‘cripple’ City and damage national sovereignty, says David Davis February 9, 2020 The extradition of British entrepreneur Mike Lynch to the US would “cripple the City” and signal an erosion of national sovereignty, according to ex-Brexit secretary David Davis. Lynch, founder of software company Autonomy, submitted himself for arrest in London on Wednesday after US authorities requested his extradition to stand trial for securities fraud, wire fraud and [...]
Campaign against Huawei is a ‘witch hunt’, says Chinese ambassador February 9, 2020 Top Tory politicians trying to reverse the decision to allow tech giant Huawei to help build Britain’s 5G networks are carrying out a “witch hunt”, China’s ambassador to the UK has said. Senior Conservatives, including four former Cabinet ministers, have written to Tory MPs urging them to reconsider the government’s decision on Huawei, instead calling [...]