Broadcom’s bid for Qualcomm has been shut down by the government citing fears over national security.
Amazon is hiring more developers for Alexa than Google is hiring for everything. As Team Bezos builds out more cloud services, there are rumors this week that Amazon is focusing on corporate training services.
IBM thinks Lotus Notes can make a comeback… is it wishful thinking or is there a real strategy?
Acquisitions
- Apple to Acquire Digital-Magazine-Subscription Service Texture
Apple Inc. said it will acquire Next Issue Media LLC and its digital-magazine-subscription service Texture, a product developed by top magazine companies that bundles together some 200 subscriptions into one monthly service.
The acquisition comes as Apple looks to beef up its services business, which includes music streaming and mobile payments.
Apple has set a goal of increasing total revenue from services to more than $40 billion by 2020. The company generated nearly $30 billion in services revenue in its fiscal year ended in September.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-to-acquire-magazine-subscription-service-texture-1520875158
- Why Intel Is So Wary of a Broadcom-Qualcomm Merger
Since late last year, Intel has been exploring a bid for Broadcom to forestall that company’s $117 billion offer for Qualcomm in what would be the biggest-ever tech deal, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal in an article published Friday. Intel’s interest in derailing that deal reflects its worry that a combined Broadcom-Qualcomm, which would create the third-largest chip company by revenue after Intel and Samsung Electronics Co., would endanger its competitive position, the people said.
A merged Broadcom and Qualcomm would combine market-leading smartphone chips with a strong presence in data centers, two areas Intel has targeted for growth. And Qualcomm’s own proposed purchase of Dutch automotive chip specialist NXP Semiconductors NV would turbocharge such a merger in the automotive market, where Intel has placed one of its biggest bets.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-intel-is-so-wary-of-a-broadcom-qualcomm-merger-1520800808
Broadcom’s Bid for Qualcomm May Be Headed for Rejection, U.S. Panel WarnsA government panel reviewing Broadcom’s $117 billion bid for Qualcomm has warned that it may refer the potential deal to President Trump for rejection, further dimming the prospects for what would be the biggest-ever technology takeover in history.
In a letter to the two companies on Sunday, the panel, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, said that it believed the offer by Broadcom posed national security concerns. Broadcom is currently headquartered in Singapore, but is in the process of relocating its legal base to the United States to allay those issues.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/business/dealbook/cfius-broadcom-qualcomm-merger.html
Rejection of Qualcomm-Broadcom Deal Followed Monthslong StrategyQualcomm’s Jan. 29 filing to CFIUS helped trigger a chain of events that culminated in President Donald Trump’s decision Monday to block the deal. Broadcom on Wednesday said it had withdrawn its offer for Qualcomm, though it is proceeding with plans to change its domicile to the U.S. from Singapore.
Qualcomm’s appeal tapped into gathering concern among some congressional Republicans and the Trump administration about U.S. national security and competitiveness with China, especially in advanced technologies—sentiment that already was fueling an effort to expand the power of CFIUS. The company also got help from sympathetic senators and representatives who pressed the administration.
Artificial Intelligence
- Amazon Is Hiring More Developers For Alexa Than Google Is Hiring For Everything
Amazon is hiring 1,147 people for its Alexa business unit alone, says Citi Research in a new report. That’s more than Google is hiring for product and technical roles across the entire Alphabet conglomerate, including YouTube, Waymo, Google Fiber, and — of course — the main money maker in the Alphabet empire: the original Google.
“Key takeaways from the job openings at Alphabet include that the company’s pace of hiring relative to its current headcount (3%) is among the lowest in our coverage,” said Citi analysts Mark May and Caleb Siegel.
That could bode well for Google’s margins, Citi says.
It also could mean that innovation is slowing.
Cloud
- Amazon’s cloud is looking at building a corporate training service
The move suggests Amazon Web Services sees ready-to-use services, rather than raw computing and storage resources for roll-your-own application development, as vehicles for maintaining the rapid growth of its cloud and keeping its lead ahead of the likes of Google and Microsoft. With learning-management software, individuals can go through collections of content such as videos to gain skills, and managers can track progress.
Amazon already has online training programs for partners to train their employees on how to use AWS offerings. This would be a broader general-purpose service that companies could use to manage all kinds of corporate training and learning programs.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/15/amazon-aws-exploring-learning-management-space.html
Security
- Microsoft expands software and microcode fixes for Meltdown and Spectre
Included as part of today’s Patch Tuesday rollout, Microsoft has expanded protections for the Meltdown vulnerability to x86 editions of Windows 7 and 8.1. That’s in addition to emergency fixes Microsoft first rolled out just after the exploits were disclosed. The company notes that it will continue to work on providing updates for additional supported versions of Windows.
In addition to expanding its software fixes, Microsoft says that it has also removed the antivirus compatibility check for security updates on Windows 10.
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-expands-software-and-microcode-fixes-meltdown-and-spectre
Software/SaaS
- IBM thinks Notes and Domino can rise again
Since announcing that HCL would take over development of IBM’s collaborationware, the two companies have conducted a long listening tour that saw them stage 22 meatspace meetings and four online forums. The results of that consultation, which reached 2,000 people, plus lab work already conducted by IBM and HCL, were recently presented to the faithful.
The top line message imparted to users was that IBM and HCL think Notes can rise again: the companies have given themselves the “big hairy audacious goal” of having Notes seen as “… the application platform that business users tap to solve their collaboration intensive business problems – anyone, anywhere.”
Execs from the companies said the first step towards that goal will be version 10 of the platform, which will land sometime in 2018. Attendees at a webcast were told version 11 has already been planned.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/13/ibm_hcl_notes_domino_10_roadmap/
- Amazon Chime to be charged per-use
A blog post penned by Amazon Web Services (AWS) chief evangelist Jeff Barr explains that following the initial 30-day free trial where users have access to all Amazon Chime features, users can still chat with each other and attend meetings at no cost. However, in order to use the scheduling and hosting features once the trial is over, users must be connected to an AWS account.
On days where users host meetings, they will be charged $3 per-day, capped at $15 per month, starting from April 1, 2018.
“Based on historical usage patterns, this will result in an overall price reduction for virtually all Amazon Chime customers,” the blog reads.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-chime-to-be-charged-on-a-per-use-basis/
Slack Needs to Worry About Microsoft TeamsIn a blog post on Monday, Microsoft provided an update on Teams to mark its one-year anniversary. Teams is now in use at 200,000 organizations in 181 markets, with big-name users including A.P. Moller-Maersk, Macy’s, and General Motors. That’s up from 125,000 organizations in September.
One reason Teams has taken off so quickly is that it’s included with various Office 365 plans. Office 365 Business Premium, which costs $12.50 per user per month, includes Teams along with the full Office suite and other services such as OneDrive, Exchange, and Skype for Business. Office 365 Business Essentials, which leaves out the Office suite, is priced at just $5 per user per month. Microsoft’s three Office 365 enterprise plans, which start at $8 per user per month, also include Teams.
Slack offers a free plan, with two other plans priced at $6.67 and $12.50 per month. For any business that already uses Microsoft Office 365, using Teams over Slack is a no-brainer, even with Slack being a more mature product. For businesses using alternative productivity software, like Google’s G Suite, Office 365 with Teams and Slack are both priced in the same ballpark.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/03/13/slack-needs-to-worry-about-microsoft-teams.aspx
Other
- Some hard truths about Twitter’s health crisis
Because Twitter’s content problems really boil down to Twitter failing to enforce the community standards it already has. Which in turn is a failure of leadership, as I have previously argued.
A good current example is that it has an ads policy that bans “misleading and deceptive” ads. Yet it continues to accept advertising money from unregulated entities pushing dubiously obscure crypto exchanges and flogging wildly risky token sales.
Twitter really doesn’t need to wait for a new metric to understand that the right thing to do here is to take crypto/ICO ads off its platform right now.
https://beta.techcrunch.com/2018/03/10/some-hard-truths-about-twitters-health-crisis/?ncid=rss
- Former Equifax executive charged with insider trading ahead of massive data breach
According to the SEC, Jun Ying, the CIO of an Equifax business unit and next in line to be the global CIO, received confidential information about the company’s breach before the news was public. Ying allegedly exercised his stock options and sold his shares, making close to $1 million and avoiding a $117,000 loss when the stock price tanked post-announcement.
The SEC said the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is also filing criminal charges against Ying.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/14/17119538/equifax-insider-trading-data-breach-charges
- Why media companies are shifting their attention from Facebook to YouTube
While Facebook Watch hasn’t taken off as a revenue source for publishers and the social network has deprioritized publisher content, YouTube offers something of a safe harbor for publishers that want to get into the video business. For example, publishers can direct-sell into their video on YouTube, said Kai Hsing, svp of marketing and operations at Bustle, which recently rekindled its interest in YouTube. YouTube was the most lucrative platform for publishers after Facebook, according to a Digital Content Next report.
Publishers also recognize that people are going to YouTube specifically to watch videos. That’s a reason parenting publication Fatherly recently resurrected its YouTube channel. In January, Fatherly hired Adam Banicki, a former video producer at Vice, as its first vp of video. In February, it began uploading videos to its YouTube channel for the first time since June 2017.
https://digiday.com/media/media-companies-shifting-attention-facebook-youtube/
Photo: Michael Baldovinos