Here are the top trending stories from the world of technology. Stories that we feel every industry
1)
SoftBank writes down $100 Mn investment in the Bankrupt FTX
The stunning collapse of FTX is causing a huge meltdown moment not only for the crypto industry but also for its investors. Many are calling FTX’s shocking bankruptcy as the Lehman Brother moment for the nascent crypto industry. Japanese VC & telecom giant SoftBank, one of the prominent investors in FTX, has now announced that it will completely write off its $100 Mn investment in the crypto exchange industry. The value of its $100 Mn investment now stands at ‘zero,’ according to media reports. SoftBank was part of the $400 Mn funding round that was poured into FTX in January this year, valuing the company at staggering $32 Bn.
2)
Amazon to layoff 10,000 Employees – biggest layoff in Amazon’s history
The mounting losses has finally exerted the pressure on the e-commerce giant Amazon, which is reportedly bracing for its biggest lay off in its history. According to New York Times, Jeff Bezos’ company could lay off as many as 10,000 employees starting from the week. The e commerce behemoth’s last few quarterly performance has been unflattering and unimpressive, which has reflected on the company’s poor stock performance. Owing to the poor stock performance, the company has even dropped out of the coveted trillion dollar club.
3)
Nike rolls out Swoosh – its first big Web3 Project
Sportswear giant Nike on Monday launched its first ever virtual store Swoosh. Nike has described Swoosh as a “web 3 enabled platform” that will allow Nike fans to co-create virtual products ( like virtual Shoes & Jerseys) by collaborating with Nike designers. The first virtual collection will be launched as early as next year but there is still no clarity about how much control users will have on the final creation of the product. This is Nike’s first big push in Metaverse even though doubts linger over whether Metaverse will leave up to its hype or not. Off late, the Metaverse hype has lost the sheen after the poor performance of Meta’s stocks in recent weeks.
4)
Musk publicly fired a Twitter engineer for openly disagreeing with him
Elon Musk’s controversial takeover of Twitter has led to mass layoff, resulting in utter chaos. Adding to this churning chaos is Musk’s latest decision to fire a Twitter engineer Eric Frohnhoefer, albeit this firing did not happen privately but in full public glare on the Twitter platform. Musk, in one his tweets, apologized for Twitter being so super slow in several countries. However, Frohnhoefer soon tweeted that Musk’s assessment was wrong. Their open disagreement on Twitter finally ended after Musk tweeted that he (Frohnhoefer) is fired. This latest stunt by Musk has once again forced many to cast doubt over his claim that he is a “free speech absolutist”
5)
Tiger Global Increases stake in Uber, Microsoft and Block
Investment firm Tiger Global Management raised its stake in tech giant Microsoft, Jack Dorsey’s payment firm Block and Uber Technologies in the last quarter. This has been disclosed by the regulatory filings filed by Tiger Global. Tiger Global’s many portfolio companies have been underperforming, leading to the decrease in the VC firm’s overall valuation.
