Maria Deutscher
Latest from Maria Deutscher
Waymo is setting up an autonomous vehicle plant in Michigan
Waymo LLC today received approval to open a plant in Michigan where it will retrofit vehicles with its autonomous driving technology to grow its ride-hailing fleet. The operation will be based out of an existing, yet-to-be-selected “light manufacturing” facility in the southeastern part of the state. Waymo didn’t share any specifics in its announcement this ...
Elliott pushes for organizational changes at eBay after taking $1.4B stake
Activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. has taken a $1.4 billion stake in eBay Inc. to push for changes at the online retailer, which it believes is underperforming compared with competitors. The firm published its “Enhancing eBay Plan” in a letter to shareholders today. Elliot’s main recommendation is that the e-commerce giant sell off its online ...
France slaps Google with $57M fine for breaching EU data privacy law
France’s privacy watchdog today fined Google LLC 50 million euros, or about $57 million, for breaching the General Data Protection Regulation that the European Union passed last year. At issue is the activation workflow for new Android devices. CNIL, as the watchdog is known, found that Google failed to meet a number of GDPR rules around obtaining ...
In new consumer push, Microsoft looks to put Cortana into rival voice assistants
Microsoft Corp. is looking to make its Cortana voice assistant available as a native “skill” for Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa and Google Assistant as part of a new push to court consumers. Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella (pictured) shared the plan during a press event earlier this week. His remarks, which were made public today, indicate ...
Microsoft backs $51.5M round for business messaging startup Zipwhip
Just as team chat services such as Slack have taken over the workplace, texting is emerging as the go-to communications medium for consumers. Seattle-based Zipwhip Inc. is developing tools to help companies address this shift and automate their operations in the process. The startup today announced that it has raised $51.5 million in funding expand ...
Amazon launches new re:MARS conference for cutting-edge tech and science
Every year, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos hosts an invite-only event where attendees get a chance to see the world’s richest man recreate a scene from the Alien franchise, walk a robotic dog or put on some other tech-themed spectacle. Today, Amazon announced plans to launch a spinoff conference that will be open to ...
Facebook takes down 500+ fake pages and accounts linked to Russia
Facebook Inc. has removed two Russia-linked misinformation networks that used more than 500 fake accounts, pages and groups to target users. Nathaniel Gleicher, the social media giant’s head of cybersecurity policy, announced the takedown today. The larger of the two misinformation networks consisted of 289 pages and 75 accounts with undisclosed ties to Sputink, a news website owned ...
Red Hat’s shareholders greenlight $34B acquisition by IBM
IBM Corp.’s closely watched acquisition of Red Hat Inc. moved a step closer to completion today after Red Hat shareholders voted to approve the deal. The transaction is valued at $34 billion, making it the largest acquisition in the history of the software industry. The sum represents a 63 percent premium to the last closing price of ...
Looking ahead to an IPO, enterprise software giant Infor raises a massive $1.5 billion
This week’s wave of big-ticket funding rounds just reached a new high point. Little-known enterprise software giant Infor Corp. today announced that it has secured a hefty $1.5 billion in fresh capital from Koch Equity Development, the investment arm of Koch Industries Inc., and Golden Gate Capital. The company previously raised more than $2 billion from Koch in ...
Data management heavyweight Veeam lands $500M funding round
Veeam Software Inc., a major provider of data protection and management tools, today announced that it has landed a $500 million funding round led by Insight Venture Partners. The massive round comes just a day after competing data management startup Rubrik Inc. reeled in a $261 million investment of its own, valuing it at $3.3 billion. ...
