News

Software giant SAP to spin off Qualtrics and take it public

NEW YORK (AP) — SAP says it plans to spin off Qualtrics and take it public less than two years after acquiring the survey-software provider. SAP said Sunday it will retain majority ownership of Qualtrics’ shares. The German software giant announced in November 2018 that it agreed to pay $8 billion cash for Qualtrics, just […]

Twitter and Facebook become targets in Trump and Biden ads

CHICAGO (AP) — Social media has become the target of a dueling attack ad campaign being waged online by the sitting president and his election rival. They’re shooting the messenger while giving it lots of money. President Donald Trump has bought hundreds of messages on Facebook to accuse its competitor, Twitter, of trying to stifle […]

Zuckerberg, Bezos, other tech CEOs testify on competition

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four Big Tech CEOs — Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook — will answer for their companies’ practices before Congress at a hearing Wednesday by the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust. The panel has conducted a bipartisan investigation over the past year of the tech […]

Coronavirus impact saps AT&T in 2Q; hit to WarnerMedia

The coronavirus sapped $2.8 billion in revenue from AT&T in its most recent quarter, mostly in its WarnerMedia TV and film division. Its satellite TV business, DirecTV, continued to bleed customers. “I expect we’re going to be dealing with some of these economic challenges in the COVID environment as we move forward here,” said AT&T […]

A world in isolation, a surge of new users for Twitter

LONDON (AP) — The global pandemic and U.S. protests are forcing a pullback by advertisers on Twitter, but it’s also led to an unprecedented surge of users. Average daily user growth spiked 34% in the second quarter, the company said Thursday, the largest jump in users ever recorded by the company. In an earnings call, […]

Microsoft weathers pandemic, beats Wall Street expectations

REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft said the coronavirus pandemic has increased demand for its flagship products, reporting quarterly earnings Wednesday that beat Wall Street expectations. The software giant said an ongoing trend of working and learning from home has fueled increased demand for its cloud computing services and workplace productivity products, such as email and […]

Pakistan warns TikTok video service, blocks Bigo Live app

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan has threatened China’s TikTok and blocked the Singapore-based Bigo Live streaming platform, citing what the regulating authority called widespread complaints about “immoral, obscene and vulgar” content on the apps. The move was promptly decried by Pakistani rights activists who saw it as a potential precursor to an even greater censorship in […]

Facebook's voting labels on candidate posts sow confusion

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Facebook has started adding informational labels to all posts about voting by federal elected officials and candidates in the U.S., as it said it would do. But the move appears to be sowing confusion rather than dispelling it. This week, the social network applied labels to posts by President Donald Trump […]

LinkedIn laying off nearly 1,000 amid hiring slowdown

NEW YORK (AP) — LinkedIn is laying off nearly 1,000 employees, approximately 6% of its workforce globally, with unemployment in the U.S. above 13% and national economies from Europe and Asia, to the Americas, shrinking due to the pandemic. The outbreak has disrupted commerce globally, closing thousands of businesses while forcing others to furlough large […]

Report: Disney cuts back on Facebook, Instagram ads

MENLO PARK, California (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. has “dramatically” slashed its advertising budget on Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It’s the latest setback for the social network, which is facing a growing advertising boycott over its policies and actions on hate speech on its platforms. […]