NEWSWORTHY
Not exactly spring chickens. Like a wedding at the senior living center, Xerox is apparently considering a $27 billion bid for Hewlett-Packard. Xerox has already obtained an informal funding agreement from a major bank, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Where the ball bounces. The National Basketball Association launched a cheaper option for watching some games (and more filler content) online. At $7 a month, about one-third of the cost of its more comprehensive League Pass service, the new NBA TV is aimed at casual fans of pro hoops.
Slammed. Yesterday was election day in many parts of the country, and voters in Jersey City, a popular destination for New York City visitors looking for cheap lodging, had some bad news for Airbnb and its fans. Thanks to the vote of 70% of its residents, the city banned short-term rentals unless the owner is living on-site.
Line of credit. As I joked on Twitter yesterday, now we know how former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann got all that money. The free stock trading app Robinhood had a bug that allowed users to buy stocks with nearly unlimited amounts of borrowed money. Dubbed the "infinite money cheat code," the glitch was more reminiscent of a misbehaving video game than a closely regulated securities trading app.
Burning down the house. On Wall Street, Match lit fire to its stock price and Peloton pedaled into a ditch. Match Group, which owns dating sites like OKCupid and Hinge, said its fourth quarter revenue would be lighter than analysts expected. Its stock price, up 68% so far this year, dropped 11% in pre-market trading on Wednesday. Peloton said it lost $1.29 per share last quarter, triple what analysts expected . Its stock price, previously down 15% since its September IPO, lost another 8% on Tuesday.
Burning down the house, part two. And on the Wall Street of Japan, the news was no happier. SoftBank Group reported its first quarterly operating loss in 14 years. The $6.5 billion of red ink was due to write downs of SoftBank investments, including holdings of Uber and WeWork. "There was a problem with my own judgment," chairman Masayoshi Son admitted on Wednesday.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
The story of California's deadly and uncontrolled wild fires has taken a tech turn, or more of an anti-tech turn, as Pacific Gas & Electric decided to cut power to customers in Northern California for days at a time. Writer and former Macworld editor Jason Snell tried to stay connected and working for three days last month without electricity. Even with a stash of batteries, solar chargers, and an Uninterruptable Power Supply, Snell ran into difficulties.
While I had planned in advance to lose power, what I hadn't planned for was the possibility that we'd entirely lose our connection to the internet. My local cable provider's internet infrastructure went down in the outage, and two-thirds of the cell towers in my county also went down, despite the carriers claiming that they had put generators in place for just this eventuality. As a result, I had a charged cellphone, a couple of backup batteries—and nothing to connect to.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Elon Musk Quit Twitter—and It Lasted All of Three Days By Chris Morris
Here's What's Good and Bad About Apple's New Beats Solo Pro Headphones By Lisa Marie Segarra
The 10 Best U.S. Cities for Women in Tech By Anne Fisher
Every State Was Given Funding to Increase Election Security. Here's How They Spent It By Nicole Goodkind
Looking for Growth, Spain's Santander Acquires Stake in High-Rising Fintech Startup By Jennifer Baljko
Fintechs TransferWise and GoCardless Partner to Let Businesses Collect Recurring Cross-Border Payments By Jeremy Kahn
Exclusive: #MeToo Pushes CEO Firings to a 15-Year High By Lance Lambert
BEFORE YOU GO
In the department of news that's almost too good to be true, Microsoft experimented this summer with giving some employees in Japan paid days off on Fridays. Even working just four days a week, sales per employee jumped 40% and electricity consumption fell 23%. Microsoft says it was just a pilot project, but maybe they're onto something?
If You Like This Email...
Share today's Data Sheet with a friend.
Did someone share this with you? Sign up here. For previous editions, click here.
For even more, check out Eye on A.I., Fortune's weekly newsletter at the intersection of artificial intelligence and industry. Sign up here.
Photo: startrek.com
No comments:
Post a Comment