One Thing Today in Tech
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Zendesk to be bought out for $10.2 bln; IT services staff in no hurry to WFO; Intel expands India design centre
Zendesk has agreed to be acquired by a group of buyout firms for $10.2 billion, bringing back a deal that will be one of the biggest private-equity takeovers of the year, Wall Street Journal reports. IT services employees are in no hurry to get back to the office, according to a survey by CIEL HR, Economic Times reports. And Intel has expanded its design and engineering capacity in Bengaluru by 2000 seats
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Apple and Android phones hacked by Italian spyware; Flipkart commits to net-zero by 2030
Apple's iPhones and Android smartphones were hacked by an Italian company's spyware in Italy and Kazakhstan, Google said in a report on Thursday, according to Reuters. Flipkart has committed to decarbonising its operations by 2030 and that of its entire supply chain by 2040, the Walmart company said in a press release. And Fundamental VC, an early-stage Bengaluru investor, is raising $130 million for its first fund
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Accel announces $4 bln 'later-stage' fund; UK probing polio virus find; EV raw material costs double
Accel, one of the top global venture capital firms, best known in India for backing Flipkart and Freshworks, has raised a $4 billion fund to invest in what it calls later-stage ventures. Britain has declared a 'national incident' after a rare discovery of a 'vaccine-derived' polio virus in sewage samples in London. And the cost of raw materials needed for EVs has doubled during the pandemic, according to AlixPartners, a consultancy
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Biden nominates Arati Prabhakar as top S&T advisor; Google ends French dispute, Germany probes Maps; Matrix to raise $450 mln India fund
US President Joe Biden yesterday announced his intent to nominate Indian American engineer, Dr Arati Prabhakar, to serve as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), and once confirmed to this position, also as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. Google ended a two-year fight against France, agreeing to a fine and stipulations over deals with news publishers.
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TCS to roll out e-passports by the end of the year; Volvo Trucks testing H2 fuel cells; AI detects autism in children
Tata Consultancy Services, which recently extended its contract to operate India's passport services, expects to roll out chip-based e-passports by the end of the year, Economic Times reports. Volvo Trucks is testing hydrogen fuel cells that could offer ranges up to 1000 km, CNBC reports. And scientists have shown that machine learning can help detect autism in children by studying their speech
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Apple faces UK 'batterygate'; Telegram tops 700 mln users; Everest base camp glacier is melting away
Apple is facing another claim of nearly a billion dollars, that it knowingly throttled the performance of older iPhones, this time in Britain. Telegram, a messaging app rival to WhatsApp, said it now had 700 million monthly active users and launched a premium subscription plan. And Khumbu glacier, on which Mt. Everest's base camp is located, is melting away at an alarming rate, BBC reports
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TCS rises, Infosys debuts on Kantar BrandZ global 100; Microsoft, Zara, and IBM lead on the new sustainability index
Tata Consultancy Services rose 12 positions from last year to rank number 46 on Kantar BrandZ's annual list of global brands. Rival Infosys debuted on the list, joining the top 100, ranking at number 64 on the widely followed ranking of the world's biggest brands every year. Accenture improved its ranking by one spot to place at number 26. Microsoft, Zara and IBM, however, lead the list on a new sustainability index that Kantar has started this year
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SatoriXR wins Grameen Foundation's Tech4Inclusion challenge; Clari acquires Wingman; UpGrad raises $225 mln
SatoriXR, a tech startup in Chennai that offers 3D and augmented reality technologies for engineering design and manufacturing, has won Grameen Foundation India's first Tech4Inclusion challenge. And entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala's UpGrad has doubled its private valuation in new funding round, ET reports
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Coinbase cuts 18 percent staff; Google suspends engineer for 'sentient' AI claim; HDFC Bank, 100X.VC strike partnership
Coinbase is laying off almost a fifth of its workforce amid a collapse in its stock and crypto prices, CNBC reports; Google has suspended an AI engineer for basically saying a program he helped build was human; And Terra.do has released a mobile app for people interested in the climate economy to find jobs, recruits, communities and continued learning opportunities
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Infosys to add four tier-2 hubs; Sequoia raises $2.85 bln for India and SEA; Spotify buys Top Gun voice AI company Sonantic
Infosys is setting up four more delivery centres in India's tier-2 cities to allow staff to work closer to their hometowns, and tap a wider talent base, Economic Times reports, citing Krishnamurthy Shankar, the IT services company's head of human resources. Sequoia raises its largest India fund yet. And Spotify adds a voice AI team and tech via an acquisition
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Google to pay $118 million to 15,500 women in gender-discrimination case; Ed-tech company's co-founder threatens teachers with 'blacklisting'
Google has agreed to pay $118 million to settle a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit with around 15,500 women, according to a statement from the law firms representing the women. Meanwhile, The UK's competition regulator wants to investigate how Apple and Google use their mobile phone dominance to kill competition. And an ed-tech company's co-founder wants to blacklist teachers if they seek better prospects, ET reports