Musk finally acquires Twitter for $44bn

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, completes $44bn Twitter takeover, ousting Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s CEO, Ned Segal, finance boss, and Ms. Vijaya Gadde, with immediate effect, according to Twitter investor Ross Gerber,  who is the CEO of Gerber Kawasaki. Musk tweeted is interest in the social network platform was not about making money.  The social…

Twitter launches tip jar

Twitter has launched a new “ tip jar” feature that lets people send money to others on social networks. The company says the feature is “an easy way to support the incredible voices that make up the conversation”. Twitter says the feature is “an easy way to support the incredible voices that make up the…

Weetabix in a pickle over Heinz baked beans

Weetabix shared pictures on Twitter of Heinz baked beans slathered over a couple of its cereal biscuits. The tweet has since been shared thousands of times. The caption read: “ Why should bread have all the fun when there’s Weetabix? Serving up @ HeinzUK Beanz on bix for breakfast with a twist. #ItHasToBeHeinz#HaveYouHadYourWeetabix”. Google, YouTube,…

Alphabet sees record ad growth

  Google’s parent company Alphabet saw record revenues for the second straight quarter despite the pandemic. Google’s advertising business including YouTube, accounted for 81 per cent of Alphabet’s $56.9bn in fourth-quarter sales up 23 per cent compared with last year. The Cloud unit also saw strong growth as sales were $13.1 bn for the full…

Corporate America and China

Clyde Prestowitz who worked for President Ronald Regan, and renowned globalisation and Asian expert has advised subsequent US administrations offers useful advice for Joe Biden the new American 46th president to adopt, as resetting US relations with China will be one of his top agenda. The strategies that the United States and its allies can…

Verifying, Identifying and Amplifying new evidence  as history  is filmed by losers on their smartphones

Bellingcat, the home-grown investigative unit, the most innovative practitioners of open-source intelligence and online journalism, self-taught internet sleuths end up solving several mega crimes of our time. Their founder, a high school dropout on a kitchen laptop tells the story of how they created a whole new category of information-gathering galvanising citizen journalists across the…

IBM sues Airbnb over infringement of patents

IBM is suing Airbnb over what it claims it the illegal use of four patents in a move that casts doubt over the short-term rental company’s attempts to a proposed listing. IBM patents are homegrown and resulting from our more than $5bn investment a year in R&D. After six years of unsuccessful discussions with Airbnb,…

Facebook agrees to settle Cambrige Analytica fine

Facebook has dropped its year-long appeal against a £500, 000 fine imposed by the UK’s data watchdog for its failure to protect users’ information in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, without accepting any admission of liability. The payment comes amidst intense scrutiny of Facebook’s role in the democratic process, with a fresh dispute emerging over the…

Our extreme behavior with social media

Twitter and Instagram was used to hurl racist abuse at Paul Pogba, the Manchester United midfielder. Team-mates rallied to his defence, criticised social media companies who inturn gave their usual excuses that they were monitoring the situation banning those who participated in the abuse, investing in new tools to avoid such situations. The Twittering Machine…