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.
United States
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.
Prevalent Networks Raised $8 Million in Series B Funding
Leading risk management software developer, Prevalent Inc. received its first Series B funding last week. Led by Spring Mountain Capital Invest, joined by its existing investor, Fulcrum Equity Partners.
IBM Confirms UStream Acquisition, Steps Further Towards Developing Own Cloud Video Streaming Unit
IBM has announced Thursday purchasing live video streaming platform, UStream. Details of the acquiring deal haven’t been disclosed, but the price believed to peg a price not more than $150 million in cash. IBM has furnished a press release in its website, which ends leaving probability for changing its narrated goals on forming cloud video unit.
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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.
Oracle has been accusing Google for violating copyright law through using Java operating system in Android for long five years. The search engine provider has failed in its earlier bid to derail the case in the US Supreme Court and lawsuit proceeding has resumed in a North Carolina District Court. The database maker’s attorney has placed to Google’s financials to claim a margin from Google’s earnings since its introduction of Androids.
Amazon, among retailers, has started offering full refunds for hoverboards in US and Canada ahead of growing concerns for reported fire incidences. CPSC is investigating two wheeler balance boards manufactured by 13 companies. Earlier, the retailing giant has offered refund for the UK customers. Intriguingly, hover boards of different manufacturers are still being sold amidst offering refunds.
