Supplier Report: 3/30/2018

As Amazon continues to grow, the company is drawing the attention of President Trump. Trump’s issues with Amazon and Jeff Bezos are well documented, and there are reports that Trump is focused on finding ways to halt Amazon’s growth while the rest of the government is focused on regulating Facebook and Google.

Microsoft is undertaking a massive reorganization centered on cloud and AI. This push has resulted in long-time Windows lead Terry Myerson opting to leave the company.

IBM is currently undergoing another round of job eliminations. The full scope hasn’t been reported yet, but the focus seems to be around sales and services, leaving remaining employees to wonder how the company can support existing customers.

Oracle took a stock hit a few weeks ago, but they had a massive win against Google.  The Java fair-use case that has been going on for years has finally shifted back in Oracle’s favor.  The company could get a $9B settlement from Google.

Acquisitions

  • Unit of Taiwan’s Foxconn to Buy Los Angeles-Based Belkin

    A unit of Foxconn Technology Group has agreed to buy smartphone and electronics accessories maker Belkin International Inc. for $866 million.

    The move disclosed Tuesday comes as Taiwan-based Foxconn, known as the contract assembler of Apple Inc.’s iPhones, seeks to bolster its consumer-branded operations.

    Privately held Belkin also owns Linksys, a wireless router brand, and the Wemo brand of products that control home lights, monitor cameras and similar devices.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/unit-of-taiwans-foxconn-to-buy-los-angeles-based-belkin-1522151550
    I wonder if Trump is going to let this sale happen?

  • DOJ and AT&T Clash Over Impact on Consumers of a Time Warner Deal

    The Justice Department argued a post-merger AT&T would use Turner’s valuable channels to wring higher prices out of rival cable providers who need that programming for their packages. The government also argued AT&T would try to deter emerging online rivals who are offering pay-TV packages at cheaper prices.

    Mr. Conrath highlighted Dish Network Corp.’s Sling TV, a new online-only TV package that competes against AT&T’s DirecTV Now streaming service, as proof of Time Warner’s importance. He said Turner chief John Martin warned a Sling TV executive the service would be “crap” if it didn’t carry Turner’s networks. (Mr. Conrath said Mr. Martin used a more profane word best kept out of the courtroom.) Sling TV today offers two basic $20-a-month TV packages, both of which carry Turner channels.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/doj-says-pay-tv-will-cost-more-if-at-t-buys-time-warner-1521746321

Artificial Intelligence

  • Apple and IBM Watson team for enterprise mobile machine learning

    In leveraging the new technology, customers can build machine learning models using IBM Watson (the company’s cloud-based AI platform for business) and train it with their own industry-specific data. This includes the ability to create different machine learning models, compare the results, and run automated experiments – identifying patterns and gaining insights, to reach decisions more quickly.

    Machine learning is implemented with IBM Watson’s visual modelling tools, such as PixieDust and Brunel, but there’s support for Jupyter notebooks with Python, R and Scala – plus the open-source RStudio. This is then converted to Apple’s Core ML to integrate it with Apple-compatible applications.

    One such application of machine learning enables iPhone cameras to access Watson’s image recognition capabilities. Users can identify and classify content, before analyzing it to extract detailed information. This capability could shake up workflows in the industrial, logistics, and healthcare sectors.

    https://internetofbusiness.com/apple-ibm-mobile-machine-learning/

  • IBM Could Be a Dark Horse in the Virtual Assistant Market

    Don’t expect IBM to launch a smart speaker, and don’t expect to be saying, “Hey, Watson.” The company is targeting enterprise customers with Watson Assistant instead of going after consumers directly. Watson Assistant can be used by companies and organizations to build industry-specific applications. It’s a white-label product, meaning that applications built on Watson Assistant will be branded and customized however the developing company chooses.

    IBM provided an example of how this could work in a post announcing the product:

    You’re on a business trip to Las Vegas. Upon landing at McCarran International Airport, Watson Assistant automatically checks into your hotel and your preferred rental car is not only ready, it has the hotel destination preprogrammed along with suggestions on where to get a latte while en-route. Nearing the hotel, the Watson Assistant in your car signals your arrival to the hotel and not only updates the room with your preferences for music, temperature and lighting, it synchs your smartphone, calendar and email with the in-room wall dashboard and checking you into the convention you’re attending.

    http://host.madison.com/business/investment/markets-and-stocks/ibm-could-be-a-dark-horse-in-the-virtual-assistant/article_a9b1a849-e6ad-53f5-b0ac-01f3b33f5903.html

  • Microsoft is launching a huge reorganization to focus on AI and the cloud

    The company is creating two new engineering divisions that it says will accelerate innovation and better serve its customers. One team will focus on the cloud and AI, the other on what it calls “experiences and devices.”

    The AI cloud: It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Microsoft has decided to lump together its cloud services with its AI research—combining the two is a big business, with Google, Amazon, and Chinese firms all providing stiff competition. This new division will also include its teams working on augmented- and mixed-reality technologies.

    Things people use: Microsoft’s new “experiences and devices” team will attempt to unify the way the firm is developing products for consumer and business users. It’ll include Microsoft’s mobile offerings, Windows, and its Microsoft 365 productivity suite.

    https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/610725/microsoft-is-doing-the-splits-to-focus-on-ai-and-the-cloud/
    Microsoft’s longtime Windows boss is leaving the company amid a huge executive reorganization

    As part of the reorganization, Rajesh Jha, the executive VP of Microsoft Office products, will expand his responsibilities to encompass Myerson’s role. Jha will become the leader of a group called Experiences and Devices, bringing Windows and Office together under a single banner.

    “The purpose of this team is to instill a unifying product ethos across our end-user experiences and devices,” Nadella said. “Computing experiences are evolving to include multiple senses and are no longer bound to one device at a time but increasingly spanning many as we move from home to work and on the go.”

    http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-terry-myerson-leaving-reorganization-2018-3

Cloud

  • Trump Attacks Amazon, Saying It Does Not Pay Enough Taxes

    Mr. Trump accused Amazon, one of the country’s most recognizable and successful brands, of putting thousands of local retailers out of business and said the company was using the United States Postal Service as its “Delivery Boy.”

    The president has lashed out publicly against the giant company and its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, on Twitter more than a dozen times since 2015. And privately, people close to him said, Mr. Trump repeatedly brings up his disdain for the company, often set off by his anger at negative stories in The Washington Post, which is owned by Mr. Bezos.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/us/politics/trump-amazon-taxes.html
    One area where Trump could really hurt Amazon

    The Washington Business Journal reported that the omnibus spending bill signed by Trump earlier this month contained a provision which requires the DoD to explain why awarding a contract that could run in excess of $10 billion to a single vendor is the best way to execute this plan.

    In 2013, Amazon Web Services won a $600 million contract from the CIA.

    And with signs pointing to Amazon having the upper hand in winning a potentially massive contract from the DoD, Clifton sees this as an area where Trump could hit back against Amazon.

    “Of all the stories we read [on Wednesday], however, we saw very little attention paid to the one area where Trump could actually hurt Amazon – cloud computing contracts,” Clifton writes. “Tech companies have been fuming at the possibility of Amazon being the sole company awarded a multi-year cloud services contract at DoD. Congress was forced to intervene in the recent omnibus.”

    https://sports.yahoo.com/one-area-trump-really-hurt-amazon-164512213.html

  • Oracle Opens The Doors To Massive Austin Campus Entirely Focused On Driving Cloud Solutions

    Oracle said the campus could ultimately support up to 10,000 workers, some of whom will live in a neighboring apartment building the company is constructing.

    From the campus, Oracle will launch its Next Generation Contact Center, a customer support operation which looks to enhance the customer experience by leveraging Oracle Sales Cloud to drive the sales process.

    A new Oracle Cloud Solution Hub will also be set up at the Austin campus.

    The hubs—three more will operate at other Oracle sites across the country—showcase Oracle cloud projects in the works or already deployed in the field for customers. Engineers will be available to demonstrate Oracle’s next-gen solutions, from AI to virtual reality to bots.

    https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/300101086/oracle-opens-the-doors-to-massive-austin-campus-entirely-focused-on-driving-cloud-solutions.htm

  • Microsoft will be worth $1T within year: Morgan Stanley

    Other tech heavyweights still hold a lead over Microsoft. Apple is worth $861 billion, while Amazon’s market cap is $739 billion. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, fell to $709 billion during Monday’s trading session.

    “Strong positioning for ramping public cloud adoption, large distribution channels and installed customer base, and improving margins support a path to $50 billion in [earnings before interest and taxes] and a $1 trillion market cap for [Microsoft],” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note to clients.

    https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/microsoft-will-be-worth-1t-within-year-morgan-stanley

Security

  • Apple’s Tim Cook calls for tougher regulation of personal data

    In a discussion at the China Development Forum, Tim Cook said that tougher, “well-crafted” regulation of personal data is likely “necessary” in the wake of Facebook’s crisis. The ability to learn “every intimate detail of your life” through your internet history and contacts “shouldn’t exist,” Cook said.

    He argued that Apple had been concerned about just this sort of privacy breach for a long time. It saw that were giving up info without understanding what they were doing, and that companies were creating profiles that would leave people “incredibly offended” when they learned the truth. This has happened “more than once,” Cook added.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/24/tim-cook-calls-for-tougher-regulation-of-personal-data/

  • President signs overseas data access bill into law

    The House of Representatives has approved a piece of legislation (PDF) that makes it easier for law enforcement to get access to info even if it’s stored in other countries. Officially known as Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act, the set of regulations was part of the 2,000-page Omnibus Spending Bill the president has just signed. CLOUD was created to replace the current rules for cross-border access to data, which require requests for info to be ratified by the Senate and vetted by the DOJ. The new rules give the DOJ the power to obtain data US-based tech companies stored overseas, such as the Outlook emails Microsoft stores in Ireland. It also allows the agency to forge agreements with foreign governments seeking data from US tech corporations even without approval from Congress or the courts.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/24/cloud-act-law/

  • Facebook has been collecting call history and SMS data from Android devices

    While the recent prompts make it clear, Ars Technica points out the troubling aspect that Facebook has been doing this for years, during a time when Android permissions were a lot less strict. Google changed Android permissions to make them more clear and granular, but developers could bypass this and continue accessing call and SMS data until Google deprecated the old Android API in October.

    Facebook has responded to the findings, but the company appears to suggest it’s normal for apps to access your phone call history when you upload contacts to social apps. “The most important part of apps and services that help you make connections is to make it easy to find the people you want to connect with,” says a Facebook spokesperson, in response to a query from Ars Technica. “So, the first time you sign in on your phone to a messaging or social app, it’s a widely used practice to begin by uploading your phone contacts.”

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/25/17160944/facebook-call-history-sms-data-collection-android

Software/SaaS

  • Oracle Wins Court Ruling Against Google in Multibillion-Dollar Copyright Case

    The court ruled Tuesday that Google’s use of Oracle’s Java programming technology wasn’t “fair,” a reversal of fortune in a case that dates back to 2010, when Oracle alleged Google’s Android smartphone operating system infringed copyrights related to Oracle’s Java platform. Oracle has sought as much as $9 billion in damages previously. Oracle general counsel Dorian Daley said in an interview that “the value has gone up,” though the company hasn’t come up with an updated number.

    The appeals court ruling, if it stands, could have a broad impact on the software industry by limiting the “fair-use” defense in copyright cases. That could make it more costly and technically complex for developers to use Java and other copyrighted software to create new products, legal and industry experts said.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/oracle-wins-court-ruling-against-google-in-long-running-copyright-case-1522164091?mg=prod/accounts-wsj

  • Google Is Working on Blockchain Technology, Too

    The search company is developing its own distributed ledger blockchain software to verify transactions within its cloud services. According to Bloomberg’s sources, Google will use the technology internally as well as provide a white-label version that other companies can run on their own servers. These sources said that Google has looked at the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger blockchain software. But it’s unknown whether the company will ultimately choose that open source software or something else.

    It’s also unknown precisely how Google might be planning to use blockchain. But Cointelegraph reported that the company filed a patent application for a tamper-proof auditing system based on the technology.

    https://www.sdxcentral.com/articles/news/google-working-blockchain-technology/2018/03/

Datacenter/Hardware

  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise to move HQ to San Jose

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise is moving from Palo Alto to San Jose. The company will relocate 1,000 employees to a 220,000-square-foot space in late 2018. HPE was spun-off from Hewlett-Packard in 2015 and is focused on servers and storage.

    This news comes months after HPE announced a different plan in which the company was moving to Santa Clara, where Aruba Networks, a company it previously acquired, is headquartered.

    HPE is going to occupy six floors in San Jose’s America Center, which is located near a forthcoming Berryessa BART station.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/hewlett-packard-enterprise-to-move-hq-to-san-jose/

Other

  • Mark Zuckerberg won’t lose his job any time soon

    As chairman of the board, Zuckerberg controls 87 percent of Facebook voting shares. Even if the remaining eight board members wanted to kick him out, they don’t have the power to do so, unless Zuckerberg decides to play along and vote himself out.

    This consolidation of power didn’t happen by accident. In December 2015, Zuckerberg pledged to give away 99 percent of his Facebook shares — valued at $45 billion at the time — to fund the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a charitable organization he founded with his wife. In order to do this without reducing Zuckerberg’s majority on the board, Facebook took a page of out the Google founders’ handbook. It introduced a new type of non-voting stock, Class C, that split every share for every stockholder into three distinct shares. A share worth $100 was transformed into three $33 shares, two of which were Class C, meaning they didn’t carry any voting rights.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/29/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-job-security/

  • SoftBank Group and Saudi Arabia plan to spend $200 billion building the world’s biggest solar power plant

    According to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the Saudi Arabian project is about 100 times larger than the next biggest proposed development, the 2 gigawatt Solar Choice Bulli Creek PV in Australia, which is expected to be completed by 2023.

    During an event with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in New York City on Tuesday, Son said the project will create 100,000 jobs, triple Saudi Arabia’s electricity generation capacity and save $40 billion in power costs. Saudi Arabia is the largest crude exporter in the world, but the kingdom is currently trying to diversify its economy beyond oil. Last month, the government awarded ACWA Power a $302 million deal to build Saudi Arabia’s first utility-scale renewable energy plant.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/softbank-group-and-saudi-arabia-plan-to-spend-200-billion-building-the-worlds-biggest-solar-power-plant/

  • Stop us if you’ve heard this one: Job cuts at IBM

    So far there is no word on the number of people who have been let go, and no Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices from IBM have been filed in New York or California. However, multiple posts from both groups suggest a significant portion of the sales staff has been axed.

    “Sales is getting hit hard especially over 50. My achievement was good, but now they are eliminating the territory,” says another person whose job was cut.

    “They are guessing it could be 20-30 per cent of sales force.”

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/29/ibm_layoffs/
    IBMers in TSS: How WILL we support customers after these latest job cuts?

    The document revealed staff are worried about the headcount that will be left to provide support to customers. In it, one ECC rep said he had “raised a concern that the proposed redundancies, in addition to attrition in the hardware domain, posed a significant business risk”. This was “noted” by IBM, it added.

    IBMers have told us of individual teams being obliterated with, in some cases, more than half of the personnel set to leave. One told us: “I am being dumped on the scrap heap” by the latest cost cutting in the support unit.

    “The out-of-hours support is being compromised to save money. IBM customers are paying for a service that will be depleted,” our source added.

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/27/ibm_tss/
    I keep saying this, but I do not understand why the company keeps going after services and consulting bids when they are cutting into those exact groups.

Photo by Elijah O’Donell on Unsplash

Supplier Report: 3/23/3018

Oracle and MicroFocus had a very rough week at the stock market.  MicroFocus dropped over 50% in value due to complications integrating HP software assets. Oracle investors are reacting to a lack of progress in cloud sales.

SAP settled a $600M software dispute with Anheuser-Busch, terms were not disclosed, but I am sure all parties need a drink after those discussions.

As China gains more traction in artificial intelligence, the US is attempting to curb any domestic growth in consumer goods or tech acquisitions.  Is this a sound strategy or is this the start of a potential trade war?

Acquisitions

  • Sources: Google is buying Lytro for about $40M

    Multiple sources tell us that Google is acquiring Lytro, the imaging startup that began as a ground-breaking camera company for consumers before pivoting to use its depth-data, light-field technology in VR.

    One source described the deal as an “asset sale” with Lytro going for no more than $40 million. Another source said the price was even lower: $25 million. A third source tells us that not all employees are coming over with the company’s technology: some have already received severance and parted ways with the company, and others have simply left. Assets would presumably also include Lytro’s 59 patents related to light-field and other digital imaging technology.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/sources-google-is-buying-lytro-for-about-40m/

  • Salesforce is buying MuleSoft at enterprise value of $6.5 billion

    But of course Salesforce gets more than tech with this purchase, which it can integrate into its growing family of products. It also gets major customers like Coca-Cola, VMware, GE, Accenture, Airbus, AT&T and Cisco. While Salesforce may have a presence already in some of these companies already, Mulesoft gives them entree into areas they might not have had and gives them the ability to expand that presence.

    What’s more, the company has big revenue goals. Having reached $10 billion in revenue faster than any software company ever has, a point that Chairman and co-founder Marc Benioff has been happy to make, they have actually set their sites on $60 billion by 2034. That’s a long way away, of course, but having a company like MuleSoft in the fold, which made almost $300 million in revenue in fiscal 201, will certainly help.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/salesforce-is-buying-mulesoft-at-enterprise-value-of-6-5-billion/

  • Google’s Cloud Boss Is Eyeing a ‘Major Acquisition’ to Get Ahead

    For 2018, Greene and her deputies mentioned a focus on winning customers in health care, energy and financial services. Greene said Google will keep working to sign cloud deals with the government, too. The company recently got its FedRAMP certification, a key clearance needed to provide cloud services to the U.S. government.

    Over the past two years, Alphabet has scaled back several costly initiatives, including projects in fiber broadband and drones. But the company has plowed money into Greene’s division. (Greene, an Alphabet director, said she recuses herself from board votes on cloud acquisitions.) That investment is indicative of the support that Alphabet CEO and Google co-founder Larry Page has for the business, Greene noted.

    “The entire board, including Larry, is pretty thrilled with what’s going on in cloud,” she said. “How could they not be? It’s phenomenal what the team has achieved.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-16/google-s-cloud-boss-eyeing-major-acquisition-to-get-ahead

  • Qualcomm’s Jacobs to Leave Board as He Explores Acquisition

    Qualcomm Inc. said director Paul Jacobs, son of the chipmaker’s founder and a former chief executive officer, will leave the board after he decided to explore an acquisition of the company.

    “The board reached that decision following his notification to the board that he has decided to explore the possibility of making a proposal to acquire Qualcomm,” the company said in a statement on Friday.

    Jacobs, 55, was stripped of his executive chairman title last week as the company sought to fend off a $117 billion hostile takeover bid from Broadcom Ltd. The board largely agreed with Jacobs that Broadcom’s bid was too low. However, early counts in a board vote tied to the Broadcom bid showed many Qualcomm shareholders had voted to replace Qualcomm directors, including Jacobs and Chief Executive Officer Steve Mollenkopf. U.S. President Donald Trump blocked the deal earlier this week.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-16/qualcomm-s-jacobs-to-leave-board-as-he-explores-possible-buyout

Artificial Intelligence

  • Look out, Alexa and Google Assistant — Watson Assistant is coming for you

    One of the key differentiating factors between Watson and all other smart assistants is its status as a white label product. That means that there’s no specific way in which to use Watson Assistant — there is no set wake word, nor a dedicated smart speaker in which the assistant will live. Rather, companies will be able to leverage Watson however they see best, making it easier to add actions and commands. And perhaps most importantly, every individual application of Watson Assistant will keep its data to itself, which means that large companies can’t, as The Verge notes, “pool information on users’ activities across multiple domains.”

    As IBM’s vice president of Watson Internet of Things, Bret Greenstein, explained to The Verge, “If you start running the entire world through Alexa, it’s an enormous amount of data and control to give to one company.” But Watson Assistant hopes to avoid that situation.

    https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/watson-ibm-assistant/

  • FedEx Follows Amazon Into the Robotic Future

    Yes, the robots replaced a few jobs right away. And in time, they will replace about 25 jobs in a facility that employs about 1,300 people. But the hub creates about 100 new jobs every year — and a robot work force still seems like the distant future.

    “Everyone will have a job,” said Galen Steele, the senior manager who oversees the depot. “It just might be in a different place.”

    As people have become more comfortable buying online, big and bulky goods like car tires, canoes and boxes as big as a coffin have accounted for an increasing percentage of the packages flowing through FedEx’s distribution centers, said Ted Dengel, who oversees operations technology for the FedEx Ground network, which includes 35 shipping hubs across the United States and Canada, including the facility in North Carolina.

    These ungainly items can’t fit on a conveyor belt. That’s where the robots, which cost several thousand dollars and are made by a Massachusetts company called Vecna, come in.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/technology/fedex-robots.html

  • China wants to shape the global future of artificial intelligence (Thanks JD)

    “[The Chinese government] sees standardization not only as a way to provide competitiveness for their companies, but also as a way to go from being a follower to setting the pace,” says Jeffrey Ding, a student at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute who studies China’s nascent AI industry, and who translated the report. The government’s plan cites the way US standards bodies have influenced the development of the internet, expressing a desire to avoid having the same thing happen with AI.

    China’s booming AI industry and massive government investment in the technology have raised fears in the US and elsewhere that the nation will overtake international rivals in a fundamentally important technology. In truth, it may be possible for both the US and the Chinese economies to benefit from AI. But there may be more rivalry when it comes to influencing the spread of the technology worldwide.

    https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610546/china-wants-to-shape-the-global-future-of-artificial-intelligence/

Cloud

  • Oracle stock heads for worst day in nearly 5 years, analysts run for shelter after cloud bursts

    In Oracle’s earnings conference call, CEO Safra Catz told analysts that the firm expects to report adjusted earnings of $0.92 to $0.95 per share and revenue growth of 1% to 3% for the fourth quarter. Heading into the report data, our Zacks Consensus Estimates were calling for earnings of $0.90 per share and revenue growth of 2.6%.

    But the real concern for investors is Oracle’s slowing cloud growth. Management guided for total cloud revenues to improve between 19% and 23% in Q4, which is sluggish compared to the 32% growth it saw this quarter-and even worse considering the 51% and 44% rates it witnessed in Q1 and Q2.

    https://www.nasdaq.com/article/is-oracle-orcl-worth-buying-on-the-post-earnings-dip-cm937297

Security

  • Best Buy to Stop Selling Huawei Phones

    U.S. intelligence leaders have recently recommended against Americans using phones from Huawei or Chinese rival ZTE Corp. The most recent to do so was Paul Nakasone, the nominee to head both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, who said at a Senate hearing last week that he wouldn’t want his friends or family using such devices.

    In addition to selling smartphones, Huawei is the world’s top maker of the equipment that goes into cellular towers and related infrastructure. The U.S. government’s broad concern is that the Chinese government could order Huawei to exploit knowledge of how its electronics are designed to spy or launch cyberattacks. Huawei says it is employee-owned and that no government has ever asked it to spy on or sabotage another country.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/best-buy-to-stop-selling-huawei-phones-1521725835

Software/SaaS

  • DocuSign has filed confidentially for IPO

    Like Dropbox, which is finally going public this week, San Francisco-based DocuSign has been an anticipated IPO for several years now. It’s raised over $500 million since it was founded in 2003 and has been valued at $3 billion. Kleiner Perkins, Bain Capital, Intel Capital, GV (Google Ventures) and Dell are among the many well-known names which have invested in DocuSign.

    But like many “unicorns” these days, the company took its time, spending 15 years as a private company. The DocuSign team decided that 2018 is the year for its debut and is targeting an IPO in either the second or third quarter.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/20/docusign-has-filed-confidentially-for-ipo/

  • Coca-Cola and US government use blockchain to curb forced labor

    Coca-Cola, the US State Department and a trio of crypto organizations (Bitfury Group, Blockchain Trust Accelerator and Emercoin) have launched a pilot project that will use blockchain to enforce worker rights. The initiative would use blockchain’s distributed ledger technology to create a secure, decentralized registry for workers and their contracts. They’d not only have the sort of identification that isn’t always guaranteed, but a trail of evidence in case employers abuse their power or don’t honor their end of a bargain.

    https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/18/coca-cola-and-us-government-use-blockchain-to-curb-forced-labor/

  • Microsoft’s Edge Browser Could Soon Be Harder to Ignore in Windows 10

    But if you keep scrolling, near the bottom of the patch notes for build 17623, there’s a bullet point that says Insiders on the Skip Ahead ring “will begin testing a change where links clicked on within the Windows Mail app will open in Microsoft Edge.” Please say it ain’t so. This means that regardless of what your default browser is set to in Windows 10, any hyperlink you click in the Mail app would open in Edge, whether you like it or not.

    Microsoft justifies this by saying Edge “provides the best, most secure and consistent experience on Windows 10 and across your devices” and that “With built-in features for reading, note-taking, Cortana integration, and easy access to services such as SharePoint and OneDrive, Microsoft Edge enables you to be more productive, organized and creative without sacrificing your battery life or security.”

    https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-s-edge-browser-could-soon-be-harder-to-ignore-1823843562

  • LinkedIn’s $27 Billion Challenge: Get People to Use It More

    Just 18% of LinkedIn members used the service daily in April 2016, according to Pew Research’s most recent look at the service’s usage in November 2016, a month before Microsoft MSFT 0.45% closed the deal. That’s down from 21% a year earlier.

    What’s more, more than half of members, 51%, used LinkedIn every few weeks or less often, Pew found. By comparison, 76% of Facebook Inc. members used the service at least daily, Pew found.

    At the time of the deal, Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said one goal was to weave together the tools people use to get their jobs done and professional networks that connect workers.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/linkedins-27-billion-challenge-get-people-to-use-it-more-1521201600

  • Oracle claims database 10 times cheaper than AWS, analyst says cloud on ‘continual slide’

    Speaking on an earnings call, transcribed by Seeking Alpha, Hurd talked up Oracle’s new autonomous database.

    “The amazing thing about the autonomous database is that it is the only database on the planet that requires no human labor to administer,” he said.

    “Oracle has a faster database than Amazon, it’s no big surprise there, but the interesting thing [is that] Amazon charges by the minute and we charge by the minute; our prices are essentially the same or close enough.

    “If we run 10 times faster, we are one-tenth the cost of Amazon’s database. We’ve been through all the public benchmarks – you can go and look at them – we’re one-tenth the cost.”

    https://www.channelnomics.com/channelnomics-us/news/3028817/oracle-claims-database-is-ten-times-cheaper-than-aws

  • Hewlett Packard Spin-Off Falters, as Shares Drop 55% in London

    It hasn’t worked out as planned. Micro Focus shares plunged 46% Monday after it said technical problems related to combining the computer systems of Micro Focus and HPE would lead to lower-than-expected sales.

    Micro Focus also said its chief executive, Chris Hsu, resigned after a 6½-month tenure. Previously HPE’s chief operating officer, Mr. Hsu was appointed CEO in January 2017 and officially took the position when the merger was completed this past September.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/hewlett-packard-spin-off-falters-as-shares-drop-55-in-london-1521471054

Other

  • Facebook Suspends Data Firm That Helped Trump Campaign

    Facebook said late Friday that it been given information that Cambridge Analytica, along with two individuals who don’t work there, improperly kept Facebook user data for years despite telling the social network that it had destroyed those records. Facebook didn’t say how Cambridge Analytica used that data or if it gave the data to the Trump campaign.

    Facebook, which didn’t elaborate on the source of its information, said it is suspending Cambridge Analytica, its parent Strategic Communication Laboratories and the two individuals from buying ads or administering clients’ pages while it investigates the reports.

    The move once again spotlights Facebook’s role during the 2016 presidential election and its shortcomings in policing manipulation and misuse of its platform.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-suspends-cambridge-analytica-for-failing-to-delete-user-data-1521260051

  • SAP settles licensing dispute with AB InBev

    Questioned about the settlement, an SAP spokesman added just one adjective: “There is nothing more to say than ‘There was a dispute and it was resolved amicably,’” he said via email.

    That the companies were able to conclude the dispute so amicably and quietly comes down to the framework SAP used to enforce its licensing agreement: the Commercial Arbitration Rules of the American Arbitration Association.

    Commercial arbitration proceedings are usually conducted in private, and unlike in U.S. courts, filings and rulings are not matters of public record.

    When a licensing dispute goes to court, it’s generally a lot harder to keep quiet, as another alcoholic beverage maker, Diageo, found when SAP sued it for accessing data stored in its SAP system without the appropriate licenses. In February 2017 a U.K. court ruled that Diageo needed named-user licenses for customers and employees to access the SAP system, even when they did so indirectly through a Salesforce.com app. The court didn’t immediately rule on how much Diageo had to pay, but SAP was asking for £54,503,578 (around $76 million).

    https://www.cio.com/article/3263717/enterprise-resource-planning/sap-settles-licensing-dispute-with-ab-inbev.html

  • Cutting “old heads” at IBM

    The company reacted with a strategy that, in the words of one confidential planning document, would “correct seniority mix.” It slashed IBM’s U.S. workforce by as much as three-quarters from its 1980s peak, replacing a substantial share with younger, less-experienced and lower-paid workers and sending many positions overseas. ProPublica estimates that in the past five years alone, IBM has eliminated more than 20,000 American employees ages 40 and over, about 60 percent of its estimated total U.S. job cuts during those years.

    In making these cuts, IBM has flouted or outflanked U.S. laws and regulations intended to protect later-career workers from age discrimination, according to a ProPublica review of internal company documents, legal filings and public records, as well as information provided via interviews and questionnaires filled out by more than 1,000 former IBM employees.

    https://features.propublica.org/ibm/ibm-age-discrimination-american-workers/

  • Trump strikes back at Chinese tech practices with new tariffs

    Trump directed his administration to take action that will likely result in tariffs on a proposed list of 1,300 products as punishment for Beijing’s intellectual property practices, senior White House officials said ahead of the announcement.

    The officials said the list of targeted products will largely focus on technology China is accused of forcefully taking from U.S. companies. The value of that list represents the harm that U.S. companies have suffered from China’s practices, they said.

    “What you’ll see is that many of these areas are those where China has sought to acquire advantage through the unfair acquisition or forced technology transfer from U.S. companies with an aim toward establishing its own competitive advantage,” said Everett Eissenstat, deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, during a call with reporters.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/22/trump-chinese-tech-practices-tariffs-428551

Photo by Guzmán Barquín on Unsplash