Tag: iab-business operations

Microsoft, Google post strong quarterly sales growth as Big Tech continues its comeback
Technology

Microsoft, Google post strong quarterly sales growth as Big Tech continues its comeback

New York CNN  —  Big tech companies are continuing a turnaround from last year, as Alphabet, Microsoft and Snap kicked off earnings season with strong sales results for the quarter ended in September. Google parent company Alphabet on Tuesday reported quarterly sales of $76.69 billion, up 11% from the same period in the prior year. The company also posted profits of $19.69 billion for the quarter. Meanwhile, Microsoft posted 13% year-on-year sales growth to $56.5 billion, also beating expectations. Microsoft’s quarterly profits hit $22.3 billion, up 27% from the year-ago period. Snapchat parent Snap on Tuesday reported a return to sales growth in the September quarter, after two consecut...
LinkedIn is cutting more than 650 jobs
Technology

LinkedIn is cutting more than 650 jobs

New York CNN  —  LinkedIn is laying off 668 people across its engineering, product, talent and finance teams as part of a broader restructuring, the social media platform announced Monday. In a blog post, the social media site for professionals said it is making changes to its organizational structure and streamlining its decision making. “Talent changes are a difficult, but necessary and regular part of managing our business,” the company said. Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016. The company is dedicating many of its resources toward artificial intelligence. Recently, LinkedIn announced an AI-assisted candidate discovery for recruiters using the site. And in Microsoft’s most recent earn...
How the tech sector in Israel is navigating the war
Technology

How the tech sector in Israel is navigating the war

London CNN  —  Israel’s vast tech sector has seen its fair share of crises, from financial downturns and the Covid-19 pandemic to periodic flare-ups in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Each time, the industry has bounced back, demonstrating why the country of just 9 million people is known as the world’s “startup nation.” But the war sparked by the Hamas assault last weekend that killed more than 1,300 people in Israel has upended daily life in a way that presents a unique challenge to the country’s most important industry. Schools have been ordered to close, once-bustling streets in Tel Aviv, the center of business, have virtually emptied and many businesses remain shut. Some are closed for securit...
Samsung flags 78% profit drop as chip demand remains weak
Technology

Samsung flags 78% profit drop as chip demand remains weak

Hong Kong CNN  —  Samsung warned that operating profit in the third quarter likely plunged 78% as it continues to contend with lower than usual demand for consumer devices. The South Korean tech giant released earnings estimates Wednesday, forecasting operating profit of about 2.4 trillion Korean won ($1.8 billion) for the three months ended September. That compares with 10.85 trillion won ($8 billion) in the same period last year. Revenue was also projected to drop 12.7% from a year ago. That continues a dreary run for the electronics maker, which has reported major losses in recent months as global economic uncertainty weighs on consumers around the world, leading many people to hold o...
A woman was found trapped under a driverless car. It’s not what it looks like, the car company said
Technology

A woman was found trapped under a driverless car. It’s not what it looks like, the car company said

CNN  —  A pedestrian in downtown San Francisco was found critically injured and trapped underneath a driverless car Monday night. But the company that operates the autonomous car says it’s not at fault. San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Justin Schorr told CNN early Tuesday that the victim has multiple life-threatening injuries. The driverless vehicle was operated by Cruise, a San Francisco-based self-driving car company and subsidiary of General Motors (GM). But the company says another vehicle was to blame for the pedestrian’s injury. “A human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV,” said Cruise spokesperson Navideh...
Dubai to start robotaxi trials next month in major autonomous push
Technology

Dubai to start robotaxi trials next month in major autonomous push

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here. Abu Dhabi, UAE CNN  —  Dubai is rolling out its first round of robotaxis next month, as a part of a plan to alleviate congestion and accidents. Five fully autonomous electric taxis, operated by a General Motors subsidiary called Cruise, will begin test driving on an 8km (5 mile) stretch in the upscale Jumeirah district of the United Arab Emirates city, according to Ahmed Bahrozyan, the CEO of Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA). Dubai hopes to become the first Middle Eastern city to introduce driverless taxis, B...
Mate 60 Pro: Huawei keeps quiet about new smartphone at launch event
Technology

Mate 60 Pro: Huawei keeps quiet about new smartphone at launch event

Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter which explores what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Hong Kong CNN  —  Huawei has disappointed legions of fans — and US officials — eager to know more about its Mate 60 Pro smartphone, which has quickly become a symbol of the tech rivalry between the United States and China since it went on sale last month. Huawei’s consumer chief, Richard Yu, showed off a slew of new products including a tablet, smartwatch, earphones and even a challenge to Tesla (TSLA) on Monday, without going into detail about its flagship device, which has provoked calls in Washington for more sanctions against the Chinese tech and mo...
US says it has no evidence that Huawei can make advanced smartphones ‘at scale’
Technology

US says it has no evidence that Huawei can make advanced smartphones ‘at scale’

Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter which explores what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Hong Kong CNN  —  Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo says the US government has no evidence that Huawei can produce smartphones with advanced chips “at scale,” as it continues to investigate how the sanctioned Chinese manufacturer made an apparent breakthrough with its latest flagship device. On Tuesday, Raimondo told US lawmakers that she was “upset” by news of the launch of Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro during her visit to China last month. “The only good news, if there is any, is we don’t have any evidence that they can manufacture 7-nanometer [chip...
Google launches watermarks for AI-generated images
Technology

Google launches watermarks for AI-generated images

New York CNN  —  In an effort to help prevent the spread of misinformation, Google on Tuesday unveiled an invisible, permanent watermark on images that will identify them as computer-generated. The technology, called SynthID, embeds the watermark directly into images created by Imagen, one of Google’s latest text-to-image generators. The AI-generated label remains regardless of modifications like added filters or altered colors. The SynthID tool can also scan incoming images and identify the likelihood they were made by Imagen by scanning for the watermark with three levels of certainty: detected, not detected and possibly detected. “While this technology isn’t perfect, our internal test...
T-Mobile to lay off 5,000 workers
Technology

T-Mobile to lay off 5,000 workers

New York CNN  —  T-Mobile on Thursday announced it plans to lay off 5,000 employees, or around 7% of its total staff, over the next five weeks. The reductions will largely affect corporate and back-office jobs that are “primarily duplicative” to other roles and will reduce the company’s middle management layers, CEO Mike Sievert said in a letter to employees Thursday. The company also plans to reduce its spending on “external workers and resources,” but its retail and “consumer care” staff who work directly with customers will not be affected, he said. “What it takes to attract and retain customers is materially more expensive than it was just a few quarters ago,” Sievert said. T-Mobil...