Techlife News #552

Computer chip and software maker Broadcom will spend about $61 billion to acquire the cloud technology company VMware, one of the biggest deals of the year despite an environment of rising inflation and economic uncertainty. The proposed deal comes just weeks after billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered to spend $44 billion on Twitter and it is second in size this year only to Microsoft’s nearly $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the maker of Candy Crush and Call of Duty. The massive buyouts are occurring at a time of heightened anxiety because of turmoil on the global supply chain, war in Europe and rising prices that have the potential to cool both business and consumer activity. But that uncertainty has also created opportunities for companies like Broadcom. The tech-heavy Nasdaq has…

Twitter will pay a $150 million penalty and put in new safeguards to settle federal regulators’ allegations that the social platform failed to protect the privacy of users’ data over a six-year span. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement with Twitter. The regulators allege Twitter violated a 2011 FTC order by deceiving users about how well it maintained and protected the privacy and security of their nonpublic contact information. From May 2013 to September 2019, Twitter told users that it was collecting their phone numbers and email addresses for purposes of account security. But it failed to disclose that it also would use the information to enable companies to send targeted online ads to users on the platform, the government alleged. The regulators also alleged, in a federal…

Pay packages for the women who run S&P 500 companies jumped in 2021 as the economy recovered and stock prices and profits soared. Median pay for the women occupying the corner office rose to nearly $16 million, according to the annual survey done by Equilar for The Associated Press. Still, experts say there’s much more to be done to improve gender diversity in the corporate ranks and close the pay gap between men and women. Jane Stevenson, vice chair, Board & CEO Services at organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry said while it is good that women CEO’s pay rose, there is still a lot to be done. “I think the danger is to look at those cases of CEOs making more their peers and see a message about the pay gap being…

Boeing’s crew taxi returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Wednesday, completing a repeat test flight before NASA astronauts climb aboard. It was a quick trip back: The Starliner capsule parachuted into the New Mexico desert just four hours after leaving the orbiting lab, with airbags attached to cushion the landing. Only a mannequin was buckled in. Aside from thruster failures and cooling system snags, Starliner appeared to clinch its high-stakes shakedown cruise, 2 1/2 years after its botched first try. Flight controllers in Houston applauded and cheered the bull’s-eye touchdown. “It’s great to have this incredible test flight behind us,” said Steve Stich, director of NASA’s commercial crew program. He described the demo as “extremely successful,” with all objectives met. Added Boeing’s Mark Nappi, a vice president: “On a scale of…

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on Thursday reported a single-digit increase in its fourth-quarter revenue, its slowest quarter yet as its online services and e-commerce businesses took a hit amid COVID-19 lockdowns across China. Revenue increased 9% to 204.05 billion yuan ($30.3 billion) in the three months ended March, as its core e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall suffered from disruptions in supply chain and logistics and a dip in demand due to COVID-19 outbreaks in March, the company said. The single-digit increase in revenue paled in comparison to the 64% increase in revenue growth during the same quarter last year. But Alibaba’s sales growth still exceeded analyst estimates, and its New York-listed shares were up more than 9% in early trading. Executives said that Alibaba reached 1.31 billion annual active consumers on its platforms over…

China is trying to navigate its biggest coronavirus outbreak without a tool it could have adopted many months ago, the kind of vaccines that have proven to offer the best protection against the worst outcomes from COVID-19. As early as the spring of 2020 a Chinese pharmaceutical company, Fosun Pharma, reached an agreement to distribute — and eventually manufacture — the mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech. It still has not been cleared in mainland China, despite being authorized for use by separate authorities in Hong Kong and Macao. Now health experts say that delay — a result of putting politics and national pride above public health — could lead to avoidable coronavirus deaths and deeper economic losses because whole cities would be locked down to insulate the country’s unprotected population. “The…