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Even before Tuesday's settlement, Staple Street's investment in Dominion had paid off handsomely. Yaghoobzadeh told reporters on Tuesday that Staple Street backed Dominion in its mission to shoot down lies against it. Staple Street investor Mark Hauser, managing partner of Hauser Private Equity, also welcomed the settlement news. "We are very pleased with the outcome and think that Staple Street has handled the situation very well on behalf of their investors. We’ve had a relationship with Staple Street since 2014 and think highly of their management team," he said.

☆ Influencers could get their own White House briefing room as part of Biden's strategy to reach younger voters for 2024, Axios reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Influencers may get a briefing room apart from the White House Press Briefing Room, per Axios. It's part of the Biden Admin's strategy to reach young voters who may not rely on mainstream news. Relying on an influencer's reach could also be part of President Joe Biden's strategy to reach younger voters ahead of the 2024 campaign. The Biden Administration has four staffers — not part of the Biden campaign — who will connect with influencers and independent content creators, Axios reported. A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

☆ Dangers from Hacks Stretch Beyond Broken Computer Systems
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( James Rundle | Kim S. Nash | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Newsletter Sign-up WSJ Pro Cybersecurity Cybersecurity news, analysis and insights from WSJ's global team of reporters and editors. Part of the delay, he said, was in getting details from the cloud company, which he declined to name. Cybersecurity companies should be held to a higher standard than others in relaying information about hacks quickly and thoroughly, Mr. Toubba said. The lessons learned from cyberattacks can be just as important as how a company responds to a breach, security chiefs say. LastPass has also rolled out several security tools in its infrastructure, data center and cloud systems, Mr. Toubba said.

☆ India's Tech Mahindra soars 10% as Infosys veteran to join as CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BENGALURU, March 13 (Reuters) - Shares of Tech Mahindra Ltd (TEML.NS) surged nearly 10% on Monday after the Indian information technology services firm appointed Infosys Ltd (INFY.NS) veteran Mohit Joshi as its new managing director and chief executive officer. Joshi has been with rival Infosys for 22 years, and is currently the president at the company. Shares of Tech Mahindra (TEML.NS) were up 8.2% at 1,148.80 rupees, Infosys (INFY.NS) fell 1.1% to 1,455.05 rupees. At least three brokerages indicated it is a welcome move for Tech Mahindra. The current average rating of 39 analysts covering Tech Mahindra is "buy" and the median price target is 1,143 rupees, according to data from Refinitiv.

☆ The Biden administration is shifting its approach to TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Jeremy Diamond | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The White House’s endorsement of a bill that would give the Biden administration new powers to restrict or ban TikTok in the United States marks a significant shift in the White House’s approach to the Chinese-owned social media app. It’s also a move that the White House has been actively mulling for several weeks while working with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to draft the legislation, Democratic and Republican aides said. The bill does not target TikTok specifically for a ban. The bill was drafted in close consultation with the White House’s National Security Council as well as the Commerce, Treasury and Justice Departments, according to aides familiar with the process. “A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide.”– CNN’s Brian Fung contributed to this report.

☆ US senators unveil bipartisan bill empowering Biden to ban TikTok and other services
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington CNN —A dozen US senators unveiled bipartisan legislation Tuesday expanding President Joe Biden’s legal authority to ban TikTok nationwide, marking the latest in a string of congressional proposals threatening the social media platform’s future in the United States. The legislation, called the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act, does not target TikTok specifically for a ban. In the case of TikTok, lawmakers have said China’s national security laws could force TikTok’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to provide access to TikTok’s US user data. The bill specifically directs the Secretary of Commerce to “identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, investigate, or otherwise mitigate” national security risks associated with technology linked to those countries. But those have expanded to include makers of surveillance cameras and, more recently, apps and software makers such as TikTok.

☆ Big tech was a major target at CPAC, but conservatives building alternatives are facing challenges
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Ben Goggin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., targeted big tech and the legal immunity companies enjoy under Section 230, which is currently being considered by the Supreme Court. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Co., said in her speech Saturday: "I have called for 230 protections to be removed from these big tech companies who are hiding behind section 230, and they are acting like editors rather than publishers." "The key was, could we build something that big tech couldn't tear down and couldn't stop?" But not all Big Tech was a target. LibsofTikTok creator Chaya Raichik criticized how big tech has treated her accounts while also boasting about her follower count on those platforms and promoting her book sold on Amazon.

☆ Technology Chiefs Seek Help Wrangling Cloud Costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Belle Lin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +6 min

Some chief information officers have turned to cloud management tools and established internal teams to oversee their cloud spending. Mr. Nimboorkar said the company has since built a dedicated team to manage its Amazon Web Services spending and invested in a third-party cloud spending management tool. Executives from all three cloud giants have said customers are optimizing or reining in their cloud spending, citing economic factors. Many of the best practices in cloud spending management have been codified by the nonprofit FinOps Foundation, which promotes cloud financial literacy and accountability, she said. That model allows Mr. Kanchi to wholly manage cloud spending, he said, but was only possible after UST figured out how to tag cloud usage by its various business units.

U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond's order in Philadelphia federal court granted a request by Unisys to depose Leon Gilbert and Michael McGarvey, former leaders of Unisys' "digital workplace solutions" business unit. Representatives for France-based Atos and lawyers for Gilbert and McGarvey did not immediately respond to messages on Wednesday seeking comment. Unisys in a court filing said that "this case involves the theft of huge quantities of Unisys trade secrets," including technologies and business strategies for digital workplaces. Attorneys for Gilbert and McGarvey disputed the allegation and said "Unisys has not identified a single trade secret." The case is Unisys Corp v. Leon Gilbert and Michael McGarvey, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

☆ Here are David Einhorn's top holdings that helped propel one of Greenlight's best years
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn just scored one of his best years ever as the value investor took advantage of the extreme market volatility. At the end of 2022, Green Brick Partners and Brighthouse Financial — two inflation plays he's held for a few years — remained Einhorn's top two holdings. CONSOL Energy and Teck Resources were also among Einhorn's biggest stakes at the end of 2022. Einhorn previously revealed that he established a new medium-sized long position in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers operator Tenet Healthcare during the fourth quarter. Einhorn revealed previously that his stellar performance last year was partly driven by his short position in a slew of innovative technology stocks like those touted by growth investor Cathie Wood.

☆ IPG Posts 3.8% Organic-Revenue Growth, Flags Tech-Sector Challenges
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Interpublic Group of Cos. reported organic-net-revenue growth of 3.8% for the fourth quarter, saying that growth continued—albeit at a slower pace—despite a more cautious marketing and media environment due to macroeconomic and geopolitical factors worldwide. Net revenue in the fourth quarter of 2022 was $2.55 billion, relatively flat when compared with the fourth quarter of 2021. For all of 2022, IPG reported organic-net-revenue growth of 7%. “As expected, growth slowed in the fourth quarter, consistent with global macroeconomic and geopolitical crosswinds which we are all aware of,” Chief Executive Philippe Krakowsky said on the company’s earnings call Thursday. Earlier this week, IPG competitor Omnicom Group Inc. reported organic-revenue growth of 7.2% for the fourth quarter.

☆ Omnicom CEO Wants to Embrace Generative AI as Quickly as Possible
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

The company reported organic revenue growth of 7.2% in the fourth quarter, beating the average analyst estimate of 3.7% organic revenue growth, according to FactSet. Organic revenue growth was 9.4% for the full year, the company said, beating the average analyst estimate of 8.4%. The company said it is forecasting organic revenue growth this year of 3% to 5%. Organic revenue growth is a metric that removes the effects of currency fluctuations, acquisitions and disposals. Reported total revenue in the fourth quarter of 2022 increased 0.3% to $3.87 billion versus a year earlier.

☆ Publicis Reports 9.4% Organic Revenue Growth for Fourth Quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Publicis Groupe SA said Thursday that organic revenue grew 9.4% in the fourth quarter as its data and technology services continued to capture a shift in client spending. The growth in the quarter ending Dec. 31 brought Publicis’s full-year 2022 organic revenue growth to 10.1%. The results beat the average analyst estimate of 5.3% growth for the quarter and 8.8% for the year, according to FactSet. Publicis said it expects organic revenue growth of 3% to 5% in 2023. Organic growth refers to the change in net revenue excluding the impacts of acquisitions, disposals and currency fluctuations.

☆ Attention laid-off tech workers: Non-tech companies are hiring. Here's how recruiters and career coaches recommend pitching yourself.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Rebecca Knight | Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Research shows most of the well-paying tech jobs on offer today are in non-tech industries. And yet research suggests that well-paying tech jobs are abundant — they're just not in the tech industry. Around 60% of the top 100 employers of tech talent were from sectors like healthcare, consulting, defense, and banking. Another pro-tip: Using the language of the industry you're targeting. "Exceeding in the softer skills is something that will set aside most of the tech talent from each other honestly."

☆ The technology challenges CEOs view as opportunity and threat in a post-Covid economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Bob Violino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

One challenge CEOs see is that emerging and disruptive technology is both an opportunity and a threat. CEOs said their organizations need to be quicker to shift investments to digital opportunities and divest in those areas where their organizations face digital obsolescence. Addressing employee burnoutAnother issue CEOs said their organizations need to address is pandemic-related employee burnout from accelerated digital transformation over the past two years. "I think that there is some truth to the state of fatigue brought on by the need to quickly adopt remote work-related technology," Clark said. Rather than focus on the "right technology," organizations should aim to deploy the right mix of technology, Carande said.

☆ U.S. Watchdog Sanctions KPMG Firms, Audit Professionals
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Jennifer Williams-Alvarez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

PREVIEWThe U.K. firm was additionally sanctioned for allegedly failing to reasonably supervise an unregistered audit firm, Romanian audit firm KPMG Audit SRL, in four consecutive audits of Endava PLC, a British technology services company. KPMG U.K. was found to have also made several inaccurate PCAOB filings about the involvement of unregistered firms in certain audit work. The PCAOB imposed a $600,000 penalty for the alleged failings around unregistered audit firms, which KPMG U.K. didn’t admit or deny. KPMG U.K. has reviewed the way it works with other firms, enhancing controls and providing additional training, Cath Burnet, U.K. head of audit at KPMG, said. The U.K.’s audit and accounting regulator in a July letter to seven audit firms, including KPMG, said that it is “deeply concerned” about audit professionals cheating on external professional exams and internal assessments.

☆ Egypt's index outperforms regional peers; Saudi extends losses
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Shamsuddin Mohd | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 4 (Reuters) - Egypt's blue-chip index outperformed regional peers to close higher on Sunday, while Saudi and Qatari stocks slipped on weakness in the financial and petrochemical sectors. They could fall further this week after OPEC+ agreed to stick to its oil output targets on Sunday but volatility is likely to continue after G7 countries and Australia also agreed a price cap on Russian oil. Saudi Arabia's benchmark index (.TASI) fell 0.9%, with Sabic Agri-Nutrients (2020.SE) down 4.2% and Sulaiman al-Habib Medical Services (4013.SE) 1.2% lower. Separately, Saudi oil behemoth Aramco's (2222.SE) base oil subsidiary Luberef announced its IPO price range between 91 and 99 riyals each. In Qatar, the index (.QSI) finished flat, as gains in energy stocks were partially offset by losses in financial stocks.

☆ Disney buys MLB's stake in streaming firm BAMTech for $900 mln
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 29 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) disclosed on Tuesday that it has taken full control of BAMTech, a video-streaming firm spun off from Major League Baseball's digital media company MLB Advanced Media. Disney earlier this month purchased the remaining stake in BAMTech from Major League Baseball for $900 million, the company said in a SEC filing. Previous to the transaction, streaming technology services provider BAMTech was owned 85% by Disney and 15% by Major League Baseball (MLB). BAMTech provides the streaming platform for such entities as Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment and Warner Bros Discovery Inc's HBO. Streaming service provider Hulu is owned 67% by Disney and 33% by NBC Universal (NBCU).

Nov 16 (Reuters) - Dell Technologies Inc (DELL.N) on Wednesday said it reached a $1 billion settlement of a lawsuit accusing it of short-changing some shareholders in a controversial $23.9 billion transaction in 2018 that marked its return as a publicly traded company. The disputed December 2018 transaction involved a stock swap related to Dell's interest in software maker VMware. Dell paid $14 billion in cash and issued 149.4 million Class C shares in exchange for outstanding Class V shares, which tracked VMware's publicly traded stock. Holders of the Class V shares sought $10.7 billion in damages, saying their stock was worth far more than Dell paid for it, while the Class C stock was worth far less than Michael Dell and Silver Lake claimed. Michael Dell was worth $52 billion on Tuesday, according to Forbes magazine.

☆ Greenlight's David Einhorn is crushing the market this year. Here are his top holdings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Greenlight Capital's David Einhorn is in the middle of a stellar year as his inflation bets and other trades pay off. Green Brick Partners , a bet on rising housing prices, continued to be his biggest holding, a new regulatory filing showed. During the third quarter, Einhorn increased his stake in tech stock Kyndryl Holdings to $60 million. Meanwhile, the hedge fund manager added to his holding in LivaNova drastically, making the medical device company Greenlight's eighth biggest bet, the filing showed. Einhorn previously said he's bearish on equities as the Fed continues to deflate the market with aggressive rate hikes.

☆ Sorrell's S4 Capital defies tech turmoil to maintain momentum
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Paul Sandle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies Digital ad group says it maintained momentum in Q3Reiterates full-year earnings forecastShares rise as much as 9%LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Martin Sorrell said his digital ad group S4 Capital (SFOR.L) had maintained momentum in a third quarter marked by disappointing results from major platforms including Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) and Facebook's Meta (META.O). Shares in S4 rose 9% to 229 pence in early deals, the highest level since the downgrade in the summer. Sorrell said Twitter and Snap, which each account for around 1% of the digital ad market, were not a good indicator for the sector. He said advertisers were pausing spending on Twitter pending clarity on how new owner Elon Musk would moderate content. "At the moment most clients are suspending their activities because they're worried about extreme content and content moderation on the site."

☆ China’s Lenovo posts first revenue drop in 10 quarters as COVID lockdowns weigh
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

HONG KONG, Nov 3 (Reuters) - China's Lenovo Group (0992.HK) reported its first revenue decline in 10 quarters as a pandemic-fuelled sales boom comes to an end, with sales especially falling in China as COVID lockdowns took a toll. Lenovo had already seen growth for its first-quarter revenue grind to a halt, at only 0.2%. Global PC shipments declined 15% year-over-year in the third quarter, according to a report published by data firm IDC last month. The report also showed that Lenovo, HP, and Dell saw year-over-year shipments fall by 16%, 28% and 21%, respectively. Chipmaker Qualcomm expects a slump in sales as its forecast for holiday-quarter revenue fell about $2 billion short of Wall Street estimates.

A voter casts their ballot in the Pennsylvania primary elections at Congregation Beth Or in Ambler, Pennsylvania, U.S. May 17, 2022. The alleged security breach came to light last month when Fulton County sued election equipment maker Dominion Voting Systems, citing purported security flaws discovered in Speckin's analysis of six hard drives from the machines. In a Pennsylvania Supreme Court filing on Tuesday, lawyers for the Secretary of the Commonwealth had asked the court to hold Fulton County officials, including Republican Commissioners Stuart Ulsh and Randy Bunch, in civil contempt for the breach. The lawyers said county officials "openly thumbed their noses at a clear and direct order of this Court" by allowing Speckin, a Michigan-based company, access to the machines. Stefanie Lambert, a Detroit-based attorney representing the county, did not immediately respond to a query about the special master appointment.

A voter casts their ballot in the Pennsylvania primary elections at Congregation Beth Or in Ambler, Pennsylvania, U.S. May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier/File PhotoOct 21 (Reuters) - A rural Pennsylvania county violated a court order when it allowed a forensics company to examine voting equipment in July, marking the county's second security breach of the machines, the state's top election official alleged in a court filing. The latest alleged breach came to light last month when Fulton County filed a lawsuit against election equipment maker Dominion Voting Systems, citing purported issues discovered in an examination of the equipment by Speckin Forensics LLC. She pointed to alleged security flaws highlighted in Speckin's report, and noted that the county has sued Dominion and no longer uses its machines. Petitioners have now twice breached the security of this voting system by turning its components over to unauthorized third parties," lawyers for the state wrote in the filing.

☆ Microsoft cloud leader Scott Guthrie says companies aren't holding off on cloud spending as inflation mounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of cloud and enterprise at Microsoft Corp., speaks during the Microsoft Developers Build Conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Monday, May 7, 2018. But Guthrie said that doesn't seem to be the case with Azure, Microsoft's cloud infrastructure service. "I've not seen the current situation cause people to pause cloud," said Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and artificial-intelligence group, in an interview with CNBC. Guthrie said he hasn't heard companies saying they would slow their use of cloud computing because of the higher energy costs. That's been a discussion topic among executives at Paris-based health care company Sanofi , which uses cloud services from Amazon , Google and Microsoft.

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