The New York Times has published its first online edition on Jan 22, 1996. Marking the 20th founding anniversary, the news conglomerate has launched ‘History of NYTimes.com’, narrating chronology of the news website’s evolution and further development. The capsule offers video and audio contents including interviews with people related to the evolution.
United States
Bankrupt cloudControl Releases Control Over dotCloud, PaaS To Suspend Operation on February 29
cloudControl, German owning entity of dotCloud, has filed for bankruptcy this week. To facilitate operation for the European brand, it has decided to shut down the operation of dotCloud. The PaaS has sent mails to its users regretting its failure to continue service and expresses gratitude for keeping trust on the brand. The startup that has once independently backed Silicon Valley’s prominent startup, Y Combinator, is going to end its path on February 29.
Volkswagen names Hinrich J. Woebcken for US operations; Michael Horn continues
Hinrich J. Woebcken, a former BMW executive, has been appointed by emission scandal-hit Volkswagen to oversee business operations in the US, Canada and Mexico. Woebcken will assume charge from 1 April 2016. Audi and Porsche brand don't come under Woebcken's area of operations. However, Volkswagen has retained Michael Horn as CEO of Volkswagen Group America Inc. The emission-scandal hit Volkswagen has been facing regulatory investigations in the US.
Canadian imports turn costlier as oil price drops
The falling oil price below $30 per barrel is impacting Canadian economy, which mostly depends upon commodities. Along with oil price, Canadian currency Loonie too declined against the US dollar. The weaker Loonie has eroded the purchasing power of Canada and is making imports costlier. Canada imports vegetables from the US. The surging US dollar made vegetables prices expensive by three folds for Canadian consumers.
Royal Dutch Shell to slash 10,000 jobs to trim costs
Royal Dutch Shell is slashing the headcount as part of the cost cutting exercise. Anglo-Dutch company has decided to cut down 10,000 jobs in the wake of continuous drop in oil prices. The global energy major aims at reduction of costs by $3 billion in 2016 and it already reduced operating costs by $4 billion in 2015. Shell is also banking on synergy advantages from the BG Group Plc merger, which is expected to be completed in few weeks.
Latest News
The subprime online lender company Elevate Credit delays its IPO scheduled on Thursday. Teetering market has been the main reason of the postponement and high risk of online subprime lending service.
Austin-based tech company, Waldo Photos closes its $5 million seed funding on Thursday. The seed funding round was led by California's venture capital firm Upfront Ventures.
Two of Fiat 500L used by Pope Francis during his visit in U.S. will be auctioned next week in Philadelphia Auto Show. Pope used the car during his historic visit to U.S. last September.
Schlumberger Ltd, on Thursday, reported a net loss of $1 billion for the fourth quarter and also said that it has axed 10,000 additional employees, as an effort to adjust its resource and cost base.
Dish is accused of making more than 55 million telemarketing calls and telemarketing robocalls to landlines and mobile number based on a complaint receive by the Department of Justice dated as far as 2008.
BBC journalist Rana Rahimpour who has a dual British-Iranian nationality was restricted from flying to the US due to changes to visa rules. Journalist deemed the new rules unfair.
Facebook has come out with yet another special feature, this time, exclusively for the sports fans. Its Sports Stadium will be a virtual hub for millions of sports fanatics to get together and post photos/videos, like them, look at a dashboard full of stats and, most importantly, chat about the games, all the while getting access to expert commentary by celebrities and their teams. Currently, this space has only been rolled out for iOS in the US.
Apple just released iOS 9.2.1 that fixes an iOS bug allowing malicious agents to impersonate end users' identities by granting the read and write access to website cookies.
GM's Maven is set to revolutionize the car-sharing and ride-sharing services with an hourly rate of $6. This has been quite an aggressive move from the conventional car-maker. However, the company is pretty confident that car-sharing section is now ready for a highly personalized, easy-to-use mobility service, which it plans to provide through its fleet of Chevrolet Spark and Tahoe.
