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Design app Canva doubles valuation to $6 billion, plans US expansion

Melanie Perkins, Co-founder & CEO, Canva, on creatiff Stage during the opening day of Web Summit 2019 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal, November 5, 2019.Eóin Noonan | Sportsfile | Getty ImagesCanva has raised $60 million in an investment round that values the Australian design start-up at $6 billion, almost double what it was worth when it last raised capital in October.The investment round was co-led by Blackbird Ventures and Sequoia China, while other existing backers such as Bond — the venture fund co-founded by former tech investment banker Mary Meeker — and Felicis Ventures also bought new shares.Sydney-based Canva has surged in popularity thanks to its easy-to-use app with free templates for designing everything from logos to Instagram posts. The platform now has over 30 million monthly active users across 190 countries, who have collectively made over 3 billion designs to date.But it's Canva's paid offerings, Canva Pro and Canva for Enterprise, that have become the main revenue generators for its business. The company is taking on industry giants like Adobe and Microsoft while, at the same time, aiming to make design and publishing more accessible than platforms from larger rivals.US expansionCanva, which was previously challenging its U.S. rivals from abroad, is now looking to open a new office in Austin, Texas.While Read the full article

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Google Cloud CFO Steffan Tomlinson leaves to be CFO of Confluent

Confluent CFO Steffan TomlinsonSteffan TomlinsonTwo months after raising venture financing at a $4.5 billion valuation, software vendor Confluent is taking its next step toward the public markets. The company said Monday that it hired Steffan Tomlinson from Google's cloud division as its chief financial officer. Tomlinson has spent more than 25 years working in finance at tech companies, including taking Palo Alto Networks public in 2012, and guiding Aruba Networks through its 2007 IPO. He was hired by Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat to run finance at Google Cloud in April 2019.Confluent, founded six years ago, is one of the many subscription software businesses that have powered through the Covid-19 crisis, proving its value as most of its customers' employees are working remotely. Companies including RBC, HomeAway and Bosch use Confluent's so-called event streaming software to pull together siloed data from various business units into a single pipeline so employees can make quick decisions and provide concise information to customers.Tomlinson said he met Confluent CEO Jay Kreps last year. They reconnected in recent months, as Kreps was looking for a CFO to help take the business to the next stage. Tomlinson said it was the perfect time for him to make the move."What I look for in a company is the journey they're on," Tomlinson said in an interview. "Clearly, Confluent is a late-stage, privately held company. Read the full article

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Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested

Markus Braun, CEO of the technology and financial services company Wirecard, poses in the company headquarters in Aschheim near Munich, southern Germany, on September 18, 2018. (Photo by Christof STACHE / AFP) (Photo credit should read CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images)CHRISTOF STACHE | AFP | Getty ImagesFormer Wirecard CEO Markus Braun has been arrested on charges of inflating the company's balance sheet, prosecutors in Munich said on Tuesday.Braun resigned on Friday after the German payment service provider said auditors at EY couldn't locate 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) of cash on its balance sheet. On Monday, the company said it was likely that those funds do not exist.Prosecutors said that Braun turned himself in on Monday evening and would be brought to an investigating judge on Tuesday who will then decide whether he should remain in custody.  Source link Read the full article

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Google, Amazon and Tesla slam Trump's crackdown on H-1B and L-1 visas

Google CEO Sundar Pichai testifies before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.Liu Jie | Xinhua News Agency | Getty ImagesTech leaders have criticized President Donald Trump's latest immigration crackdown on the visa programs that their companies rely on to employ thousands of staff.  Trump signed an executive order on Monday that suspends foreign work visas including the L-1 visa that allows firms to transfer staff from overseas offices and the H-1B visa that enables companies to hire highly skilled people in certain fields.Google's Sundar Pichai, YouTube's Susan Wojcicki and Tesla's Elon Musk were quick to condemn the restrictions, as were representatives from Amazon, Facebook and Twitter."Immigration has contributed immensely to America's economic success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today," Pichai said via Twitter. "Disappointed by today's proclamation — we'll continue to stand with immigrants and work to expand opportunity for all."The restrictions on the visas will come into play on June 24 and remain in place until at least the end of this year.Wojcicki, YouTube's CEO, said on Twitter that immigration was "central" to America's story and her own family's story. "My family escaped danger and found a new home in America." Pichai "is right," she continued, before adding YouTube would "join Google in standing with immigrants and working to expand opportunity for all."The Read the full article

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Microsoft acquires CyberX, terms undisclosed

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the Future Decoded Tech Summit in Bengaluru, India, on Feb. 25, 2020.Samyukta Lakshmi | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMicrosoft on Monday said it's acquiring CyberX, a cybersecurity start-up focused on internet-connected industrial equipment. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, although a May report from Israeli news outlet Globes said Microsoft was in talks to pay $165 million for the startup.Microsoft offers security products across several categories, including antivirus software and a service for securing the use of cloud applications. In recent years the company has become more interested in managing systems in the so-called internet of things, or IoT; last year it bought Express Logic, a company that makes an operating system for connected devices.With the acquisition of CyberX, Microsoft will gain additional technology for monitoring corporate hardware like alarms, cameras, phones and industrial control systems for security vulnerabilities."CyberX will complement the existing Azure IoT security capabilities, and extends to existing devices including those used in industrial IoT, operational technology and infrastructure scenarios," Microsoft corporate vice presidents Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk and Sam George wrote in a blog post."With CyberX, customers can discover their existing IoT assets, and both manage and improve the security posture of those devices. Read the full article

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Microsoft acquires CyberX, terms undisclosed

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the Future Decoded Tech Summit in Bengaluru, India, on Feb. 25, 2020.Samyukta Lakshmi | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMicrosoft on Monday said it's acquiring CyberX, a cybersecurity start-up focused on internet-connected industrial equipment. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, although a May report from Israeli news outlet Globes said Microsoft was in talks to pay $165 million for the startup.Microsoft offers security products across several categories, including antivirus software and a service for securing the use of cloud applications. In recent years the company has become more interested in managing systems in the so-called internet of things, or IoT; last year it bought Express Logic, a company that makes an operating system for connected devices.With the acquisition of CyberX, Microsoft will gain additional technology for monitoring corporate hardware like alarms, cameras, phones and industrial control systems for security vulnerabilities."CyberX will complement the existing Azure IoT security capabilities, and extends to existing devices including those used in industrial IoT, operational technology and infrastructure scenarios," Microsoft corporate vice presidents Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk and Sam George wrote in a blog post."With CyberX, customers can discover their existing IoT assets, and both manage and improve the security posture of those devices. Read the full article

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New MacBook Pro and iMac coming with Arm chips instead of Intel: Kuo

Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller announces the new iMac during an Apple special event at the historic California Theater on October 23, 2012 in San Jose, California.Getty ImagesApple is planning to move all of its Macs from Intel processors to custom Apple chips in 2021, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a note over the weekend. Apple has been using Intel chips to power its computers for 15 years, but iPhones and iPads are powered by Apple's A-Series Arm-based processors. If Apple switches Macs to the same type of processors, it will be able to build computers without waiting for Intel to develop a new processor. And it could help Apple stand out from competitors in the laptop market, such as HP, Dell, Samsung and Microsoft, that rely on Intel or AMD chips."We expect that ARM Mac models outperform Intel Mac models by over 50%-100%," Kuo said in the note.Kuo expects the first of Apple's new computers, which include an "all-new form factor design iMac," to launch as soon as the fourth quarter of 2020. Today's Mac apps were designed to run on Intel chips, but Apple's macOS Catalina software, which powers Macs and was released in October, includes Apple's Catalyst technology. It allows developers to bring iPad and iPhone apps to the Mac. One area Apple will need to discuss, however, is how developers who have written apps only for the Mac will be able to move them over to the new chips, too. Read the full article

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Why Facebook chose to open its first European A.I. lab in Paris

Director of Facebook AI Research Yann LeCunGetty ImagesFacebook's chief AI scientist has revealed why the social media giant decided to open an AI research lab in Paris as opposed to London or another European city.The Facebook AI Research (FAIR) unit was first announced in late 2013 and the company said at the time it would set up a European branch. After considering its options, Facebook launched FAIR Paris in 2015."The original idea was to open it in London," said Yann LeCun on a press call. "It would be the logical place for Facebook given that Facebook has a large engineering lab in London."Facebook has thousands of staff in London and it employs more technical people in the U.K. capital than it does in any other European city.LeCun said after some analysis it turned out that "the ecosystem of talent was much more open and available in continental Europe, and particularly in Paris.""Clearly, there is a lot more competition in London than there is in Paris," LeCun told CNBC in a follow up Q&A. "In London there was DeepMind, Microsoft Research in Cambridge, and there were a couple of others."He said they "occupied the terrain" and there were some concerns about "going on their turf."FAIR Paris is now one of Facebook's three main AI labs worldwide along with New York and Menlo Park, California.It is home to about 30 permanent research scientists and 20 research engineers, LeCun said. Read the full article

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Epic Games and Unity are helping Hollywood go virtual during pandemic

Beginning in March, film production was suspended as shelter-in-place orders went into effect, leaving many in the industry out of work. And while California was given the go ahead for production to resume as of June 12, it is unclear when film and TV production will return to full capacity.However, technology developed for the video-game industry could play a role in getting Hollywood back to work. Virtual production, which was integral in creating the first Star Wars TV show, "The Mandalorian," and Disney's remake of "The Lion King," allowed some filmmakers to continue working while everyone was at home.Watch the video to learn more. Source link Read the full article

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Apple, Penn National Gaming, Spotify, Peloton & more

Customers distance before entering an Apple Store during phase one of reopening after the COVID-19 lockdown in New York City, New York, U.S. June 17, 2020.Brendan McDermid | ReutersCheck out the companies making headlines in midday trading. Apple — Apple shares jumped more than 1.8% to a record high as investors cheered a slew of announcements from the tech giant's Worldwide Developers Conference. The company unveiled a new operating system for its flagship product, the iPhone, along with a new OS for its computers. Apple also said it would ditch Intel chips when building its new Mac computers. Several Wall Street analysts praised these announcements, with UBS even hiking its price target on the stock to $400 per share from $325 per share.Penn National Gaming — Shares of the Pennsylvania-based casino operator jumped more than 15% on Tuesday after CEO Jay Snowden said it has resumed operations in 30 of Penn National's 41 properties and has plans to open the rest in the "coming weeks," Snowden said on CNBC's "Mad Money" on Monday. Snowden was joined by Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who said Barstool's sportsbook with Penn National will be a "dominant player in the game" and an additive to the casino operator.JPMorgan, Citigroup, Citizens Financial — Several bank stocks were outperforming the broader market on Tuesday as Treasury yields moved slightly higher and economic data pointed to a growing recovery. Shares of JPMorgan Chase and Citizens Financial rose 1.4%, Read the full article

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Fauci says parts of U.S. are seeing a 'distrubing surge' of coronavirus

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, arrives to testify during the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing titled Oversight of the Trump Administration's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, in Rayburn Building on Tuesday, June 23, 2020.Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesWhite House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that parts of the U.S. are beginning to see a "disturbing surge" in coronavirus infections.While New York state is seeing a decline in Covid-19 cases, other states are seeing a rise in cases that "reflect an increase in community spread," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "That's something I'm really quite concerned about." The coronavirus, which has sickened more than 2.4 million Americans, continues to rapidly spread throughout the United States. As of Monday, the U.S. seven-day average of new infections increased more than 30% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. Cases are growing by 5% or more in 26 states, including Arizona, Texas, Florida and Oklahoma. Coronavirus hospitalizations are on the rise as well.U.S. cases had risen to about an average of 30,000 infections per day at the peak of the outbreak before plateauing to around 20,000 infectious per day, Fauci said. "Now we're going up . Read the full article

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Apple App Store policy changes 'very little' developer says

In an interview on CNBC's Squawk Alley on Tuesday, the developer at the center of a controversy about Apple's App Store rules said that changes announced by Apple on Monday — seemingly in response to his company's complaints — amounted to "very little."Apple said on Monday that it would allow developers to "challenge" its App Store rules after David Heinemeier Hansson, CTO of Basecamp, said that Apple threatened to remove his company's new email app, Hey, unless it implemented in-app purchases that would gave Apple a 30% cut of revenue. Hansson argues that Apple's rule is unfair. Hansson's complaints tapped into long-running negative developer sentiment about App Store business practices and inspired scores of other Apple app makers to voice their complaints ahead of Apple's annual developer conference.Hansson said on CNBC on Tuesday that he feels that the changes Apple made in response were a good first step towards marketplace reforms, but that he was also skeptical that the changes would be enough. "What they've given out is actually so far very little. Apple has said that you can appeal to Apple if you want Apple to investigate Apple. OK, maybe there's something there, but it hinges on what those verdicts are going to be," Hansson said. An Apple spokesperson wasn't immediately available to comment.Apple also announced on Monday that it would no longer hold up minor updates geared towards fixing bugs over App Store guideline violations. "I Read the full article

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Facebook to end Oculus Go VR headset sales

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesFacebook on Tuesday announced it will discontinue sales of its entry-level Oculus Go headset as it focuses on its higher-end virtual-reality products. "We'll end sales of Oculus Go headsets this year as we double down on improving our offerings for Quest and Rift," the company said in a blog post. Facebook introduced the Go in May 2018 starting at $199. The device is an all-in-one VR headset capable of operating without tethering to a computer or relying on a smartphone for its computing power. Since then, Facebook has launched the $399 Quest, a more powerful all-in-one headset, and the $399 Rift S, which must be connected to a computer to function. "Oculus Go's success first proved that the all-in-one form factor can deliver highly immersive experiences," the company said in its blog post. The company has not disclosed sales of its VR headsets, but in its 2020 first quarter earnings in April, Facebook reported $297 million in revenue from its non-advertising businesses, which includes Oculus. That was up 80% compared to a year prior.Facebook's decision to end sales of the Go comes one day after it was announced that the company acquired Ready at Dawn Studios. The deal is the latest in a spree of VR studios acquired in the past year by Facebook. Facebook will continue to ship bug fixes and security patches for the Go through 2022, but it will no longer ship new features, the company said. Read the full article

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Twitter is making Election Day in the U.S. a paid holiday

Jack Dorsey, chief executive officer of Twitter Inc. and Square Inc., speaks during an Empowering Entrepreneurs events at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Tuesday, April 2, 2019.Cole Burston | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesTwitter is giving its U.S. employees Election Day off and offering global employees paid time off to vote in national elections, the company told employees Tuesday. "Given the importance of voting, going forward all national election voting days that take place on a weekday will be a paid day off. Since the U.S. presidential election falls on a work day (November 3), we will plan to close all U.S. offices on that day," the company told employees in an internal memo that was shared with CNBC."For all other elections, if you do not have enough time outside of working hours to vote or your country doesn't already have a process in place to address this, you should take the time you need to do so and you will be compensated for the time off," the memo said.Employees that are responsible for election-related functions, such as security of its service, will still have to report to work those days, Twitter told employees.In the United States, Election Day takes place on a Tuesday in November, making it difficult for some people to get to the ballot box because they have to work. Twitter previously permitted employees up to two hours of paid time off to vote, but some companies are moving to honor the day as a holiday. Read the full article

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Some investors are making the biggest bet against the stock market in nine years

A woman walks in the rain outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in the financial district of lower Manhattan during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York, April 13, 2020.Andrew Kelly | ReutersInvestors are making the biggest bet in the futures market since 2011 that the stock market is going to sell off.There's been a net short position in E-mini S&P 500 futures building since April. Some strategists believe when a lot of investors take the same position,  there's a herd mentality at work and investors are actually sending a contrarian signal. In this case, that would be positive for stock market gains. But Peter Boockvar, chief investment strategist at Bleakley Global Advisors, disagrees that stock futures investors are necessarily representing a contrarian call. According to the CFTC, as of last week, there was a net short position of 303,000 futures contracts for the S&P E-minis held by the non commercial traders, an investment group viewed as speculators. In early March, the same investors held a net positive position, at a high of about 55,000 contracts.Boockvar said about twice as many futures contracts were now short as long, for the week ending last Tuesday. He points to cases where the shorts were right, like in September, 2007 when they were at a record high ahead of the market peak in October.He Read the full article

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Twitter flags another Trump tweet for violating its policies

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office before signing an executive order related to regulating social media on May 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump's executive order could lead to attempts to punish companies such as Twitter and Google for attempting to point out factual inconsistencies in social media posts by politicians.Doug Mills | Pool | Getty ImagesTwitter on Tuesday once again placed a label over one of President Donald Trump's tweets, claiming he violated the platform's policies against abusive behavior.Trump's tweet said that those who try to create an "Autonomous Zone" in Washington, D.C. "will be met with serious force." Twitter claims the tweet violates its rules because it includes a "threat of harm against an identifiable group."A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The tweet came after a group of protesters on Monday unsuccessfully attempted to pull down a statute of former President Andrew Jackson near the White House. The protesters later tried to claim an area near Black Lives Matter Plaza as a "Black House Autonomous Zone," The Washington Post reported, before police removed them. Protesters in Seattle began occupying an autonomous zone in the city earlier this month as the police department pulled officers out of a local precinct. Recently, Twitter has been more actively enforcing its content policies against the president. Read the full article

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Dell, VMware spike on report Dell looking at options for VMware stake

Dell CEO Michael Dell delivers a keynote address during the 2013 Oracle Open World conference on September 25, 2013 in San Francisco, California.Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesShares of computer maker Dell Technologies and enterprise software company VMware are up as Dell reportedly considers what to do with its position in VMware. Dell rose as much as 21% in extended trading on Tuesday after the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, said the company looked into buying out the minority stake of VMware that it doesn't already own or selling its share of VMware. VMware shares were up more than 11% following the report.Both companies declined to comment. Dell shares are down about 5% since the beginning of the year, while VMware is down less than 2%, as VMware seeks to grow from companies transitioning to public clouds. VMware formed a partnership with top cloud provider Amazon in 2016. Dell's revenue was roughly flat year over year in the quarter that ended on May 1, while VMware's portion of the revenue, representing about 13% of Dell's total revenue, was up 12%.Dell controlled about 81% of VMware's outstanding common stock and about 97% of the combined voting power of VMware's outstanding common stock as of May 1, according to VMware's most recent earnings report.In 2018 Dell returned to public markets after going private in 2013. Read the full article