United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture floated by Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, has bagged a contract worth $882million for launching satellites for the US Air Force with Delta IV and Atlas V rockets. The contract is effective from 1 October and includes launch capability, mission, integration, base and range support, maintenance, depreciation on equipment, mission assurance, program management, systems engineering and launch site and range operations during the 2016 fiscal year, according to US Defense Department. The usage of Atlas V rockets will enable the US Defense Department to compete for military and spy satellite launch contracts. ULA is poised for its latest launch this week and this is its 100th mission this week.
United States
Wall Street suffers worst quarter since 2011
The US stocks were beaten down adversely during the third quarter ended September as Wall Street recorded bleak performance in any quarter ever since 2011. Barring limited bargain buying, there was no much buying support in the market.
Twitter plans to revamp its 140-character limit
Twitter is planning some improvements to grow its users and encourage posts. One of the plans includes taking off the 140-character restrictions. Twitter management wants to revamp the micro-blogging site. One feature they wanted to improve is the 140-character post limit. Though Twitter keeps mum about it, the news from Re / Code said it comes from a very reliable source.
Latest Mac OS, The El Capitan is here
Just a few weeks after releasing the latest iOS update the iOS 9, Apple released an upgrade to the latest Mac operating system, the OS X El Capitan. The latest upgrade contains many new feature that users have been waiting for including an important security update since cyber-attack is on the rise lately.
SoftBank invests $1bn in US fintech startup SoFi
Marking the first ever single major investment in financial technology (fintech) segment, SoftBank Group Corp has led an investment of $1billion in the US startup SoFi. Private equity (PE) firms such as Third Point have invested in SoFi. Both the companies are of a positive view that the Series E funding round will speed up the growth rate of SoFi. The fintech services are gaining support from customers, who're not satisfied with traditional banking services. SoFi is aiming at expanding financial offerings in the near future.
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It's no longer unusual if you see working mothers in the office, streets, or restaurants. With the high cost of living, children's education, and bills to pay, couples should help each other to make both ends meet.
The latest outcome of the two-day meeting between the US and Cuba held in Havana has paved the way for reviving the airline service between the both the nations. The commercial airline services between both the nations have been suspended for a long time. The agreement on restoring the airline service is expected to be complete this year. The officials from both the countries have decided to meet again before December. The follow-up meeting is expected to be held in Washington.
The United States imposes sanctions upon 30 individuals and groups linked to the Islamic State. Fifteen people were designated by the Treasury Department as Islamic State supporters, while 10 individuals and five groups were tagged by the State Department as foreign terrorist fighters.
Google unveiled its new Chromecast gadget on Tuesday during the same launching event as the new Nexus flagship in San Francisco. The new update saw Google providing users with two Chromecast devices for normal video and TV streaming and also for music streaming.
The giant tech company, Google had unveiled their latest android flagship during an event on October 29th. The company releases two new android phone the Nexus 5X and big-screened Nexus 6P. The event marks the first official gadgets release under the new CEO Sundar Pichai.
Oklahoma-based energy company, Chesapeake Energy Corp said it had laid off about 15 percent of its employees and citing the low oil price and gas as the main reason for the move. The second-largest natural gas company in the U.S had laid off 740 workers on Tuesday so far.
Chinese e-Commerce major Alibaba Group Holding's stock (NYSE: BABA) continued to ease on Wall Street for the fourth consecutive month following the reduction in revenue forecast for the next quarter of the year. Alibaba shares fell 13 percent in September and this continuous skid since May brought down the market value to $75billion. The economy sluggishness is impacting the e-commerce sales. Of late, Alibaba Group is facing cut-throat competition in online sales. Analysts hold the view that lot of uncertainty in store for Alibaba Group in the days to come.
ComScore Inc, a data analytics provider and a major player in web tracking, will acquire Rentrak Corp for an implied value of $771 in all stock deal. Rentrak offers viewership rating services. As part of the buying deal, every share of Rentrak will be converted into 1.15 shares of ComScore. After the buying process, Rentrak will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of ComScore. The combined entity is expected to become a major measurement system for media and advertisement agencies. The buyout deal is expected to close in early 2016. The combined entity will get cost benefit of $55mn over the next two years.
Evernote Corporation had layoff 47 of its workers and closes three of its global offices. Reports confirmed affected locations were in Moscow, Singapore and Taiwan. Evernote CEO Chris O'Neill wrote in the company blog on Tuesday that Evernote had reduced 47 jobs. The company shuts down operation in three offices as well. "Today we let go of 47 people from the Evernote team and announced the closure of three of our global offices. We are grateful for the immense contributions of each and every affected person."
