acquisition

Elon Musk may turn Twitter into ‘Everything App’

The renowned social media application, Twitter, is one of the most highly used apps around the world. Elon Musk claims to have “amazing” ideas for Twitter and wants to turn it into everything app.

Musk has spoken of his objective to develop it into a super app, which aims to offer users a wide range of products and services and many of the services are not related to each other.

The term “super app” was first subjected to WeChat, which is owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent and has a variety of uses, making it popular throughout China. According to an earlier Forbes story, WeChat and other affiliated mini-apps “connect every facet of life in China,” from “hailing a cab, buying groceries, booking a doctor’s appointment, and purchasing insurance.”

Other examples of super apps include Grab in Southeast Asia, which began as a taxi-hailing app and has since expanded its services to provide transportation, food delivery, and financial services, and Alipay, a payment system owned by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba that offers a variety of services such as retail, bookings, utility bill payments, and more.

Mr Musk told Twitter staff earlier this year: “Think of it like WeChat in China, which is great now, but there’s no WeChat equivalent outside of China. There’s a real opportunity to create that.” “You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so helpful, so useful to daily life. I think if we achieve that or come even close to that with Twitter, that would be a success”, He added.
“We continue to believe Musk saw the writing on the wall and knew his chances of a victory in Delaware were slim to none with the best path accepting the current deal and move forward,” an analyst at investment firm Wedbush, Dan Ives said.
Source: telegraph.co.uk

Elon Musk had been trying to back out of a deal to buy the social media company claiming that Twitter management’s figures for the number of fake accounts and “bots” on the social network were ambiguously low, but on Tuesday he announced a surprise reversal, saying he would buy the company for $54.20 per share. As Twitter pressed him to complete the takeover, he was facing a court battle.

On Tuesday, Musk gave no detail about the outlook of the app he wants to create but when one user suggested that creating X as a separate entity from scratch would be easier, Musk responded that taking over Twitter “accelerates” his plans to create X “by three to five years.”

Text messages between Mr Musk, his friends, and advisers revealed as part of his legal battle with Twitter revealed some of his thoughts on social media.

In one note to his brother, Kimbal, Mr Musk said: “I have an idea for a blockchain social media system that does both payments and short texts/links like Twitter. You have to pay a tiny amount to register your message on the chain, which will cut out the vast majority of spam and bots.”
Source: telegraph.co.uk

Twitter has stated that it intends to proceed with the sale to Mr Musk. Twitter shares increased by 21% after the deal was redeemed. Tesla, his electric car company, saw its stock rise by 2%.

According to CNN experts, Elon Musk’s plan for a super app may be difficult to achieve. For one thing, several other social media apps, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube, are constantly competing to become super apps. Experts told the outlet that anti-monopoly regulations and policymakers’ opposition could be additional barriers.

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

Qualcomm Sued By ARM For Licensing And Trademark Violations.

Arm Limited sued Qualcomm limited for the violation of contract and trademark breaches resulting in setting up an official confrontation between SoftBank Group Corporation’s acquired chip company and one of its greatest customers.

The dispute focuses on Qualcomm’s acquisition of Nuvia corporation, a chip startup, last year. The startup produced chip designs by using Arm licenses and it was not in their rights to transfer the designs to Qualcomm without permission, based on the suit filed in US district court, Delaware. According to a report, Arm said that Nuvia’s licenses were terminated after negotiations failed to a proper conclusion in February.

Arm and Qualcomm are two of the most prominent chip companies worldwide and the conflict between them is certain to be closely watched in the tech industry. Qualcomm, based in San Diego, is the largest smartphone-used processor and modem developing firm. It depends on an instruction set from UK-based Arm, a firm that has made the majority of the underlying technology for mobile electronics, just like many other companies in the chip industry. An instruction set is a fundamental code that chips use or follow to operate software such as operating systems.

“Because Qualcomm attempted to transfer Nuvia licenses without Arm’s consent, which is a standard restriction under Arm’s license agreements, Nuvia’s licenses terminated in March 2022,” Arm stated in a statement. “Before and after that date, Arm made multiple good faith efforts to seek a resolution.”
Qualcomm asked Arm for verification of a new processor core in May. “Based on the timing and circumstances surrounding Qualcomm’s request, discovery is likely to show that Qualcomm’s processor core design is based on or in part the processor core design developed under the prior Nuvia licenses,” the suit stated.
Source: indianexpress.com

Qualcomm said something that the complaint ignores, that its licenses cover custom-designed processors with Arm.

Qualcomm purchased Nuvia to strengthen and enhance its technology and enable it to field more powerful and beefy chips. It is a fraction of a larger strategy by Cristian Amon, chief Executive officer of Qualcomm, to reduce the firm’s dependency on the smartphone industry and take a share of the laptop chip market and ultimately, the remunerative server processor trade. But this lawsuit may jeopardize his whole plan and efforts.

Qualcomm, said Arm does not have any rights to interfere with NUVIA’s or Qualcomm’s innovations, which acquired Nuvia for $1.4 billion last year.

“Arm’s complaint ignores the fact that Qualcomm has broad, well-established license rights covering its custom-designed CPUs, and we are confident those rights will be affirmed,” said, Ann Chaplin, General Counsel of Qualcomm in a statement.
“Qualcomm’s opportunity moving forward with the PC (and potentially server) business is utterly dependent on Nuvia designs, and Nuvia is the primary means by which Arm can get into Windows PCs. So, the companies really need to partner well if they want to have a meaningful impact on the PC market,” Bob O’Donnell of Tech-analysis Research, said.
Source: www.reuters.com

Arm behaves as traffic police on the use of technology by authenticating the compatibility of every new processor. That provides it with a unique view into what the firms are doing in the industry. As per Arm’s rules, anything developed under the revoked licenses should be destroyed.

Qualcomm is also fully aware of licensing disputes. The firm gets a large piece of its profit from trading the rights to its technology which is the main part of mobile wireless communications. Many renowned brands are its customers, Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc., the two major smartphone brands, being its important customers.

Qualcomm arose victorious from a wide-ranging legal confrontation with Apple in 2019. Also, it won a court verdict on an appeal in opposition to the US Federal Trade Commission, which claimed that the company was using ravaging licensing activities.

Suhani Jain

Elon Musk Confirms Acquisition Of Twitter For $44 Billion.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Team YTS

Elon Musk, a billionaire, has taken control of Twitter in one of the biggest tech deals in history. Elon Musk will pay approximately $44 billion for the social network, with shares valued at $54.20. On April 14, Musk announced his takeover bid, calling it his ‘best and final offer.’

Free Speech

“Free speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where important issues affecting humanity’s future are discussed.” I also want to make Twitter better than it has ever been by adding new features, opening up the algorithms to increase trust, defeating spambots, and authenticating all humans. “I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock Twitter’s tremendous potential,” Elon Musk said in a press statement posted to his Twitter account.

On the platform, he has been a staunch supporter of ‘free speech.’ “I invested in Twitter because I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk wrote in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. “Twitter has extraordinary potential,” he wrote in the filing.

“I hope that even my harshest critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech means,” Musk said earlier today on Twitter. It’s also worth noting that Musk sent out a rather obnoxious tweet about Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Saturday, ostensibly in response to Gates shorting Tesla. More than a million people have liked the tweet. He then joked that his tweet was being reviewed by the ‘shadowban council.’

New Ownership

According to Twitter, the publicly-traded company will now become a private company owned by Musk, who negotiated a $54.20 per-share purchase price.

“Twitter serves a purpose and is relevant to the entire world. We are immensely proud of our teams and inspired by work that has never been more critical, “Parag Agrawal, the company’s CEO, said in a tweet.

Musk secured $46.5 billion in financing last week to complete the deal, and Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, predicted earlier in the day that the board would likely accept his offer because no other buyer could be found.

In an interview with CNBC, he said, “This basically put (their) back against the wall, and they had to come to the negotiation table.” Around 1915 GMT, Twitter stock was trading 5.9% higher on Wall Street.

Poison Pill Strategy

While the board initially stated that it was considering Musk’s offer, it later rejected him and implemented a “poison pill” strategy that would have made it more difficult for Musk to gain control of the company.

Musk, whose immense wealth stems from the popularity of Tesla electric vehicles as well as other ventures, announced last week that he had secured funding.

Despite Musk’s wealth, the issue of financing had been viewed as a potential stumbling block because a large portion of his holdings is in Tesla stock rather than cash.

Musk claimed in a filing that the deal was made possible by a $13 billion debt facility from a financing consortium led by Morgan Stanley, a separate $12.5 billion margin loan from the same bank, and $21 billion from his own assets.

Musk’s efforts have sparked optimism about Twitter’s commercial potential, which has struggled to achieve profitable growth despite its cultural and political clout.

New Features

Twitter has made progress on new monetization features, such as subscription products, under Agrawal, who took over as CEO late last year. “Short term, Musk’s involvement at this stage runs the risk of disrupting those efforts,” Truist Securities said in a note.

However, the campaign of the polarising Tesla CEO has alarmed technology and free-speech experts, who point to Musk’s erratic statements and history of bullying critics, which contradict his stated goals.

According to the progressive group Media Matters for America, Trump could return to Twitter if Musk’s acquisition goes through, according to the progressive group Media Matters for America.

In a statement, the group’s president Angelo Carusone said, “Any negotiations to sell Twitter to Musk must include clear enforceable mechanisms to uphold and maintain existing community standards, including the removal of those who violate those standards.”

Team YTS

Byju’s acquisition of Aakash Educational Services cost nearly $1 Billion.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Annasha

Byju’s has a very broad market in the E-Learning sector not only in India but in other nations as well. The online learning platforms have witnessed a major rise in demand especially with the onset of COVID-19. Since Byju’s has a strong online presence, it is aiming to expand its offline presence as well. This is one of the reasons why Byju’s acquired the offline physical coaching center company, Aakash Educational Services. Byju’s has revealed the news on Monday about acquiring the chain of these coaching centers and accelerating its offline growth.

Byju’s is a very common and broadly used e-learning platform in India. When it comes to understanding concepts and practicing problems for competitive exams, Byju’s is one of the best options for students. And, Aakash institutes are also very famous for providing high-quality coaching mainly for NEET and JEE aspirants.

Closing the deal

The news of the acquisition has been spreading since January that Byju’s has agreed to buy Aakash Educational Services. Back in 2019, Aakash sold a 37.5 percent stake to Blackstone but Byju declined to comment on this topic. Byju’s whose current valuation is $13 billion has acquired the old chain of coaching centers for nearly $1 billion paid in cash and equity for the acquisition, that is, $600 million in cash and the rest in stock (TechCrunch).

When the deal was closed with Blackstone a couple of years ago that made Aakash’s total valuation to $500 million. Currently, Aakash owns more than 200 physical coaching centers all over India where top-quality mentorship is provided to the aspirants. The total number of students enrolled in Aakash coaching centers is more than 250,000.

Change in perspective

Since Aakash Educational Services is well known for providing top-class coaching to the students in India, they didn’t stop teaching during the pandemic. As the classes shifted to a virtual platform, Aakash started offering many services online to the students. So, with Byju’s already having a powerful online presence and Aakash newly making coaching options online, both the companies landed on a mutual interest during the pandemic. Though the deal has been finalized recently, both the companies were discussing terms since last year.

Even after the acquisition, the founders of the company will be attached to it and they will be still working towards providing quality coaching to the students. Aakash Chaudhry, managing director and co-promoter of Aakash Educational Services sounded very optimistic about the deal. He said that this joint partnership between two leading brands in the educational sector will provide “very substantial and value-additive services to students.”

Advantages to the acquisition

With Byju’s being the country’s most valuable Ed-tech company and Aakash having a strong physical presence, both the companies together will create a huge omnipresent brand for Indian students. Aakash Chaudhry has further added that Aakash has provided the students so far with physical coaching and whoever was in need of online tutorials and accessing content anytime, Byju’s has been their savior. So, joining hands together a unique solution will be provided to the students by leveraging physical location and online learning technology.

Byju Raveendran, co-founder, and CEO of the ed-tech startup Byju’s has said that in the future of education especially in our country, both online and offline experiences will be blended. Even before Byju’s started the online platform he used to teach hundreds of students offline on the stadiums. Apart from creating an omnichannel, this partnership is also aiming to reach students from small towns and remote areas in India.

Amit Dixit, co-head of Asia Acquisitions of Blackstone has also mentioned that the presence of an omnichannel “will be the winning model in test prep and tutoring” especially when two of the most important companies in the Indian education sector are joining hands.

Growth of Byju’s

Byju’s has come a long way since 2011 which currently serves over 80 million users. 5.5 million of the total Byju’s audience are paid customers. The company has gained massive recognition very quickly especially among students. The company has made a few big acquisitions so far which includes US-based Osmo and Scholr. One of the biggest acquisitions of the company was in 2020 when they acquired WhiteHat Jr for $300 million.

Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

Nvidia to Acquire ARM Holdings from Softbank at a $40 Million Valuation

Leave a Comment / Artificial Intellegence, News, Tech News / By Athulya

The coronavirus pandemic has made this a precarious time for companies of all kinds. As a result, we have been seeing quite a few mergers and acquisitions in recent months. The newest addition to that group is the collaboration between Nvidia and Arm Holdings. Through a shock announcement on Sunday, Nvidia has agreed to buy smartphone chip-designer Arm Holdings, from Softbank at a valuation of $40 billion. Here’s a look at everything you need to know about this acquisition and the lead up to it.

Details Regarding the Deal

The companies announced via a report on Sunday that they were near closing the acquisition deal. The deal, which values Arm at $40 billion will include $21.5 billion via Nvidia stock, $12 billion in cash, with a $2 billion payable at the signing of the deal. In 2016, Softbank acquired Arm at a $31.4 billion valuation, making it one of the most expensive acquisitions ever. Arm Holdings is a known chip-design and manufacturing company that focuses on the design of chipsets for smartphones. They are also involved in the making of Qualcomm and Apple chips, making them a popular choice within the industry. Furthermore, Apple has also expressed plans to shift its MAC computers from Intel to Arm chips, opening new avenues for the company.

Nvidia’s Plan for Arm

Nvidia is a giant in the field of AI and graphic card design and manufacture. They also have operations that help with the design and creation of self-driving vehicles and other autonomous applications. The company stated that it would retain Arm’s licensing model which is largely open in structure. Furthermore, Nvidia also said that they would continue to uphold Arm’s customer neutrality. Nvidia has been doing quite well for itself due to a boom in the usage and sales of video games due to the global pandemic. The company is aiming to launch a new desktop graphics card that will help PC gamers play more intensive games. As per the last earnings report, the company has projected a 46% growth in revenue for the third quarter of this year.

Image Source: nvidia.com

Past Acquisition

SoftBank’s acquisition of Arm was a result of them entering the Internet of Things space. The company viewed Arm Holdings as a valuable investment in this field due to its work on wireless connectivity and smart devices. Arm Holdings also works on intelligent chipsets that could possibly help with the development of everyday smart devices, such as refrigerators, other appliances, and cars. At the time of the acquisition, Masayoshi Son, who serves as the Chairman of Softbank, had hailed the move. He went as far as to say that Arm was a company he had always admired and that the acquisition means a lot to him.

Tough Time for Softbank

However, over the years, Softbank has had to deal with financial troubles. A couple of intensive investments, in companies like Uber and WeWork, has led to them losing money. Furthermore, the company’s shares lost value recently due to it holding stock in tech companies that had fared poorly in the market in September. While it is unclear precisely how much Softbank will make through the Nvidia acquisition, it might help them take a capital-intensive company off their hands. However, experts are concerned about whether Softbank will be able to make a lot of money on the sale due to it having invested quite a bit on Arm.

Softbank also requires cash to help the start-ups that it has picked up via the Vision Fund initiative. This move will provide some relief to start-ups that are facing hardships due to the lockdowns brought in by the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this year, it had also stated that it would sell about $21 billion worth of stock it holds in T-Mobile. The acquisition will see Arm working as an Nvidia division. The company will stay headquartered in the UK and follow the same licensing model and customer base. However, the deal might still face intense scrutiny with regard to regulations from the EU.

Microsoft has also signed on-board, making Arm-based Surfaces and using it on their Windows. Also, the two companies are not competitors per se as Nvidia does not do much of CPU design or mobile hardware manufacturing. Nvidia might be planning an entry into the next stage of AI computing with this acquisition. Reports are stating that Nvidia wants to invest in building a brand-new AI center for research in Cambridge. If this proves to be true, then the companies can align with each other enabling both to push ahead with regards to AI software develop

Athulya

Being a cinephile with a love for all things outdoorsy, Athulya never misses a chance to chase inspiring stories or poke fun at things, even when the subject is herself. Currently pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, she is someone innately interested in technical and scientific research. Music reviews and op-eds define her as they allow her to explore different perspectives. Though sometimes she thinks she makes more sense playing the guitar than she does while writing.

VR Studio Owlchemy’s Acquisition By Google

start-up / By Anoop Singh

Virtrual Reality is the next big thing which is going to change (to some extent, it already has) the way we consume media; especially videos and games. Nearly 7 years ago, the grand success of Avatar did ‘the thing’ for 3D technology after which every big movie releases in 3D. Fast forward to 2017, we have Virtual Reality taking the same road and it’s becoming popular with every passing day. Talking about development in this field, every major technology firm is involved; Microsoft, Google, Facebook- you name it!

Coming to Google, the company has already contributed a lot towards VR tech with their Daydream headset, which claims to give the best virtual reality experience at present. Google is not stopping there and aims to provide best VR content as well. They made it clear with the recent acquisition of Owlchemy Labs, the developer behind a number of acclaimed PC and console VR games like Job Simulator and Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality.

In a blog sharing his enthusiasm, Owlchemy co-founder Alex Schwartz said “We are continuing to do all of this with even more support and focus on building awesome stuff. It’s incredibly exciting that Google and Owlchemy are so well aligned on our goals and vision for the future of VR.”

Established in 2010, Owlchemy Labs specializes in creating interactive VR games and simulators using hand gestures as controls, eliminating the need of remote whatsoever. Probably, that’s what Google is interested in given the Daydream Project uses a remote as well. Daydream is an amazing device to experience quality VR, there is no doubt in that. But, using a remote is not very intuitive when it comes to complete immersive experience. And that’s where Owlchemy comes into play.

Relja Markovic, Engineering director VR and AR, Google said “Together, we’ll be working to create engaging, immersive games and developing new interaction models across many different platforms to continue bringing the best VR experiences to life.”

In the official press release, there is barely any info regarding future plans with Owlchemy, but the speculations are they will be working together on Daydream VR Project. There’s a I/O developer conference next week and we hope Google is going to reveal, if not all, some important details. Till then, we can assume VR has a bright future in Google’s hand.

Anoop Singh

Anup Singh is a professional writer with a bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Durgapur. His love for content writing started 2 years back with writing articles and paper descriptions for college magazine. From then on, he has developed his skills as a technical content writer. He is also a passionate lyricist.