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☆ Academic researchers blast Twitter’s data paywall as ‘outrageously expensive’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

But Twitter’s new tiered access system undercuts all of that, the researchers said. That represents 0.3% of what researchers used to be able to collect in a single day, the letter said. Before the change, researchers could pay about $500 a month for the ability to access up to 10% of the roughly 1 billion tweets a month that flow across Twitter’s platform. Now, though, “the most expensive Enterprise tier would cut that by 80% at about 400 times the price,” the researchers’ letter said. “The new pricing plans will also end at least 76 long-term efforts, including dashboards, tools, or code packages that support other researchers, journalists, first-responders, educators, and Twitter users.”

LAUNCESTON, Australia, March 28 (Reuters) - China's crude oil imports will average 10.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2023, matching the previous record high from 2020, according to the think tank of the country's leading energy group. What is interesting with the ETRI forecasts is that they would seem to show that China's refiners are still expecting to add crude oil to stockpiles over 2023. This is some 370,000 bpd more than the ETRI forecast for refinery throughput of 14.66 million bpd. China's crude oil imports seen rebounding to new high in 2023NEW REFINERIESIt's likely that some of the oil heading for storage will go to build working inventories for new plants expected to be commissioned this year. Flows in, or indeed out of, either commercial or strategic reserves are the biggest X-factor for China's crude oil imports.

☆ Two financial experts discuss the banking fallout's impact on the markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailTwo financial experts discuss the banking fallout's impact on the marketsRathbone Investment Management Co-CIO Ed Smith and JMP Securities Director of Financial Technology Research Devin Ryan explains the outlook for the markets amid the global banking turmoil.

☆ Accenture trims forecasts, to cut 19,000 jobs as IT spending slows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Chavi Mehta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Accenture PLC logo is seen on a smartphone in front of displayed same logo in this illustration taken, December 1, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoMarch 23 (Reuters) - Accenture Plc lowered its annual revenue and profit forecasts and decided to cut about 2.5% of its workforce, or 19,000 jobs, the latest sign that the worsening global economic outlook was sapping corporate spending on IT services. More than half of the jobs to be cut will be in its non-billable corporate functions, Accenture said on Thursday, sending its shares up 6.4%. Accenture now expects annual revenue growth to be between 8% and 10%, compared with its previous projection of a 8% to 11% increase. A survey of more than 1,000 IT decision makers by U.S.-based Enterprise Technology Research said they plan to reduce their 2023 budget growth.

☆ The U.S. banking system from a capital position is in a good spot, says JMP's Devin Ryan
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe U.S. banking system from a capital position is in a good spot, says JMP's Devin RyanDevin Ryan, JMP Securities director of financial technology research director, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss what the Credit Suisse sale means for the global banking picture and more.

☆ Enterprise Tech Firms Push Further Into Generative AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Generative AI, the technology underlying the viral ChatGPT chatbot, runs on algorithmic language models trained on vast amounts of online data. “We think 2023 will be the year that generative AI will become prevalent and a key component of modern office work,” he said. On Tuesday, the company launched a $250 million investing fund targeting generative AI startups. Yet despite assurances from the enterprise market’s biggest players, most corporate tech chiefs are taking a wait-and-see approach to ChatGPT-like generative AI technology, analysts said. Steve Santana, chief information officer at educational-testing company ETS, said he is more open to working with large enterprise-technology firms on generative AI capabilities, rather than small niche providers.

The court also allowed testimony from an expert who said Meta owes Neural Magic as much as $766 million in royalties. Representatives for Meta and Neural Magic did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision. Meta asked the court to throw out the case last year, arguing Neural Magic had failed to identify any protectable trade secrets and that Zlateski had not acquired the information improperly. But the court on Monday allowed Neural Magic's case to continue for all but one of the 41 secrets it accused Meta of misappropriating. The case is Neural Magic Inc v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, No.

☆ China Trumps U.S. in Key Technology Research, Report Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( James T. Areddy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Chinese researchers lead their American counterparts in the study of dozens of critical technologies, according to a new report that proposes Beijing is dominant in some scientific pursuits and positioned to develop key future breakthroughs. The report, published Thursday by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, puts Chinese researchers ahead of Americans in 37 of 44 technologies examined, across the sectors of defense, space, robotics, energy, environment, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, advanced materials and quantum technology.

☆ Salesforce honed in on optimizing sales and marketing spending, says Macquarie's Sarah Hindlian-Bowler
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSalesforce honed in on optimizing sales and marketing spending, says Macquarie's Sarah Hindlian-BowlerSarah Hindlian-Bowler, head of technology research Americas for Macquarie Capital, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss Salesforce's buyback activity, the expanding Salesforce board room, and opportunities for stock price appreciation.

☆ Geely's EV brand Zeekr raises $750 million in fresh funding round
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SHANGHAI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Zeekr, the electric car brand of China's Geely Automobile Holdings (0175.HK), is raising $750 million from five new and existing investors in a funding round that values the brand at $13 billion. Zeekr, which sells two purely electric car models, said in a statement on Monday that proceeds from the funding round will be used to support technology research and the global expansion of the Zeekr brand. The investors include Amnon Shashua, CEO and founder of autonomous driving technology company Mobileye Global (MBLY.O) - majority owned by Intel Corp (INTC.O) - and the Guangzhou city municipal government’s investment arm Yuexiu Industrial Fund, both new investors in the company. Supporters of the funding round also include Chinese battery maker CATL (300750.SZ), already among Zeekr's backers. Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by David HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Snow Software owners explore $1 billion sale -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Milana Vinn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 8 (Reuters) - The private equity owners of Snow Software are exploring a sale that could value the software management solutions company at about $1 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter. Sumeru Equity Partners, Ontario Pension Board, Vitruvian Partners and other investors behind Snow Software have hired investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) to explore options for the company, the sources said. Based in Stockholm, Sweden and Austin, Texas, Snow Software builds software tools and solutions that help companies obtain the proper licensing for the software they use. Snow Software currently generates annual revenue of about $175 million, according to the sources. Sumeru and Ontario Pension Board joined Vitruvian as shareholders in Snow Software in 2017 with a $120 million investment.

☆ TripActions Rebrands as Navan, Adds ChatGPT to Expense Reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

TripActions, a business-travel software startup, plans to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT capabilities across its online platform, an effort aimed at seizing market share by making expense reports easier to use. That way, the expense report is generated during the trip as expenses are incurred, Mr. Cohen said. “Generally, software in the business-to-business space is designed to serve the company,” rather than the employees, Mr. Cohen said. “Using AI helps you create the kind of software that I’m talking about,” Mr. Cohen said. PREVIEWSAP Concur has also begun using AI in its travel and expense software, which can “tap decades of expense data and experience tracking to identify hard-to-detect spend issues and anomalies,” said Charlie Sultan, president of Concur Travel.

☆ Watch CNBC's full interview with Macquarie's Sarah Hindlian-Bowler
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWatch CNBC's full interview with Macquarie's Sarah Hindlian-BowlerSarah Hindlian-Bowler, Macquarie's head of technology research joins 'TechCheck' to break down tech and its cloudy outlook.

☆ Software is 'one of the best houses on the block,' says Macquarie's Sarah Hindlian-Bowler
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSoftware is 'one of the best houses on the block,' says Macquarie's Sarah Hindlian-BowlerSarah Hindlian-Bowler, Macquarie's head of technology research, joins 'TechCheck' to break down the tech sector and its cloudy outlook.

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday stepped up sanctions against the Wagner Group, labeling the Russian mercenary company fighting in Ukraine as a transnational criminal organization responsible for widespread human rights abuses. The U.S. Treasury Department, as part of action targeting dozens of people and entities in an effort to degrade Russia's ability to wage the war, said it designated Wagner Group as a "significant transnational criminal organization" on Thursday. It had previously designated Wagner under its Russia and Ukraine sanctions programs. "These images were gathered in order to enable Wagner combat operations in Ukraine," Treasury said. He said the United States assesses Wagner has about 50,000 personnel deployed to Ukraine, including 40,000 convicts recruited from Russian prisons.

☆ Treasury imposes sanctions against Russian paramilitary firm Wagner Group
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Amanda Macias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A mural praises the Russian Wagner group and its mercenaries fighting in Ukraine on March 30, 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia. The Treasury Department identified the Wagner Group, led by Putin crony Yevgeny Prigozhin, as a "significant transnational criminal organization." Joint Stock Company Terra Tech, a Russian-based technology firm, for providing space and aerial imagery to the Wagner Group. Joint Stock Company Research and Production, a Russian space company supporting Russia's military activities in Ukraine. In addition, State announced steps to impose visa restrictions on 531 members of the Russian military for their role in Ukraine.

☆ The most-popular big tech default email programs are old and vulnerable
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Elizabeth Macbride | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

All over the world, organizations of all sizes, including small businesses, scrambled to upload patches and to figure out if they'd been infiltrated. Each time big software companies have changed default settings or made blanket changes with cybersecurity in mind, he points out, cybercrime fell measurably. Some of its donors are big technology companies. "Microsoft takes email security very seriously," said Girish Chander, head of Microsoft Defender for Office, in a statement to CNBC. Updating email software default settings.

☆ Startups Want to Help Airlines Prevent Tech Meltdowns
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Airlines should take advantage of new cloud-based tools, industry consultants said, to help prevent the recent snafus brought on by the use of antiquated and siloed technology at Southwest Airlines Co. and the Federal Aviation Administration. Photo: JIM VONDRUSKA/REUTERSSanta Clara, Calif.-based Couchbase Inc., founded in 2011, said it helped United Airlines Holdings Inc. modernize its operations by providing a cloud-based database for its crew-scheduling software. United declined to comment on its operations technology. Airlines generate a massive amount of data every year from their aircraft, passengers, suppliers and internal operations. Gurobi Optimization LLC, a company that develops mathematical-optimization software for industries including aviation, said it provides optimization technology for airlines such as Air France-KLM.

☆ Salesforce Customers Not Swayed by Slack, Analysts Say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Salesforce reported about $402 million in Slack subscription and support revenue in the fiscal third quarter ending Oct. 31. Meanwhile, on Wednesday Salesforce said it would lay off 10% of its workforce as customers take a more cautious approach to spending. “The Slack acquisition by Salesforce has not changed the trajectory of Salesforce up or down,” said Tim Crawford, CIO strategic adviser at Los Angeles-based enterprise IT advisory firm AVOA. “That’s really the struggle for customers, to maintain the pace with a company like Salesforce,” he said. Forrester’s Ms. Herbert said the recent departures of Mr. Taylor and the Slack executives might signal that Salesforce is shifting the focus back to its core products.

☆ BofA top banker Rick Sherlund predicts 2023 tech comeback, delivers bullish software call
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Stephanie Landsman | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

According to Sherlund, optimism surrounding technology stocks will make a comeback this year — but the key is weathering upcoming earnings season first. The latest market backdrop reminds him of prior downturns. "2022 was a terrible year for these [software] stocks," said Sherlund. His latest market forecast coincides with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 's latest struggles. Sherlund's base case is the move to high-growth areas such as the cloud will provide a long-term boost to software stocks.

☆ Mark Cuban on the habit all 30-somethings need to succeed: Without it, 'you're not expanding your mind'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

If you can't come up with a New Year's resolution, Mark Cuban has you covered. On Sunday, the Dallas Mavericks owner told Bill Maher on the "Club Random" podcast that everyone over 30 should be reading every day. "Somebody 40 and over, even 30 and over, if you're not reading, you're f---ed… because you're not expanding your mind," Cuban said. "I tell my kids… 'Somebody who doesn't read lives one life, somebody who reads an unlimited number of lives.'" But Cuban said he had to adopt a different strategy for his son, now 13, who doesn't like to read.

☆ Corporate Tech Leaders Untangle Their Cybersecurity Roles
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Information technology and cybersecurity chiefs grew closer than ever in 2022, a dynamic allowing for more comprehensive threat mitigation, but raising new questions over responsibilities. About 50% of the company’s threat planning simulations, in which IT plays an active role, involve ransomware scenarios, according to Ms. Smart. Ms. Allison is retiring at the end of the year, the company said, and will be succeeded by Gary Harbison. Photo: Adobe Inc.Prasad Ramakrishnan, the CIO and former CISO of software maker Freshworks Inc., said IT and security have shared roles in evaluating the cybersecurity resiliency of corporate software purchases. And in securing a hybrid work environment, his joint cybersecurity and IT roles included adding a new cybersecurity layer on top of cloud-based software on company laptops.

☆ Werner CIO Looks to Outfit Company Trucks With AI-Enabled Tech
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Mr. Mahon was hired in 2020 to help the 66-year-old trucking and logistics company modernize its technology—much of it built on legacy systems. Nearly 50% of Werner’s systems, data and applications have already been moved to the cloud from its data centers, Mr. Mahon said. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. While Werner is putting its costs “under the microscope heading into next year,” Mr. Mahon said technology is still an area of investment given its priority for company executives. “They understand that if we want to get to that stated goal of $5 billion in the next few years, and beyond that, we have to improve and increase our spend in technology,” Mr. Mahon said.

☆ Blockchain Fails to Gain Traction in the Enterprise
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. Some companies say they haven’t found a compelling enough reason to use it. Many didn’t have digital record-keeping systems and had to make large upfront investments before they could start using blockchain, Walmart said. Walmart is using blockchain to track leafy greens and green bell peppers. Earlier this year, the state of Jharkhand in eastern India began using blockchain to track seed distributions to farmers.

☆ The golden age of streaming TV is over
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

That August, the streaming analyst Eric Schiffer told The Verge that the "golden age" was over as competition increased, and Netflix was putting creators on a shorter leash. But just as Netflix was pulling back from its most creative content, the streaming wars were heating up. Netflix is now churning out cheap and broadly appealing reality TV shows like "Is It Cake?" Despite positioning itself for years as the ad-free way to watch TV, Netflix in October launched a lower-cost, ad-supported tier in many of its major markets. As the cheap money disappears, we're starting to get a better picture of the actual price of streaming media.

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