Maria Deutscher
Latest from Maria Deutscher
France slaps Google with $57M fine for breaching EU data privacy law
France’s privacy watchdog today fined Google LLC 50 million euros, or about $57 million, for breaching the General Data Protection Regulation that the European Union passed last year. At issue is the activation workflow for new Android devices. CNIL, as the watchdog is known, found that Google failed to meet a number of GDPR rules around obtaining ...
In new consumer push, Microsoft looks to put Cortana into rival voice assistants
Microsoft Corp. is looking to make its Cortana voice assistant available as a native “skill” for Amazon.com Inc.’s Alexa and Google Assistant as part of a new push to court consumers. Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella (pictured) shared the plan during a press event earlier this week. His remarks, which were made public today, indicate ...
Microsoft backs $51.5M round for business messaging startup Zipwhip
Just as team chat services such as Slack have taken over the workplace, texting is emerging as the go-to communications medium for consumers. Seattle-based Zipwhip Inc. is developing tools to help companies address this shift and automate their operations in the process. The startup today announced that it has raised $51.5 million in funding expand ...
Amazon launches new re:MARS conference for cutting-edge tech and science
Every year, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos hosts an invite-only event where attendees get a chance to see the world’s richest man recreate a scene from the Alien franchise, walk a robotic dog or put on some other tech-themed spectacle. Today, Amazon announced plans to launch a spinoff conference that will be open to ...
Facebook takes down 500+ fake pages and accounts linked to Russia
Facebook Inc. has removed two Russia-linked misinformation networks that used more than 500 fake accounts, pages and groups to target users. Nathaniel Gleicher, the social media giant’s head of cybersecurity policy, announced the takedown today. The larger of the two misinformation networks consisted of 289 pages and 75 accounts with undisclosed ties to Sputink, a news website owned ...
Red Hat’s shareholders greenlight $34B acquisition by IBM
IBM Corp.’s closely watched acquisition of Red Hat Inc. moved a step closer to completion today after Red Hat shareholders voted to approve the deal. The transaction is valued at $34 billion, making it the largest acquisition in the history of the software industry. The sum represents a 63 percent premium to the last closing price of ...
Looking ahead to an IPO, enterprise software giant Infor raises a massive $1.5 billion
This week’s wave of big-ticket funding rounds just reached a new high point. Little-known enterprise software giant Infor Corp. today announced that it has secured a hefty $1.5 billion in fresh capital from Koch Equity Development, the investment arm of Koch Industries Inc., and Golden Gate Capital. The company previously raised more than $2 billion from Koch in ...
Data management heavyweight Veeam lands $500M funding round
Veeam Software Inc., a major provider of data protection and management tools, today announced that it has landed a $500 million funding round led by Insight Venture Partners. The massive round comes just a day after competing data management startup Rubrik Inc. reeled in a $261 million investment of its own, valuing it at $3.3 billion. ...
With Accengage buy, Urban Airship aims to become mobile engagement powerhouse
Mobile users accounted for an estimated 57 percent of web traffic in the U.S. last year. Urban Airship Inc., a marketing technology startup backed by $100 million from investors, today acquired fellow startup Accengage SA to secure a leadership position in this key market. Both companies compete in the customer engagement market. They provide platforms that enable ...
Microsoft inks broad cloud deal with Walgreens to power new healthcare services
With its latest cloud deal, Microsoft Corp. will gain nearly 400,000 new Office 365 users and a bigger presence in the $3.5 trillion U.S. healthcare sector. The company today announced that Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., the largest drugstore chain in the U.S., will move the bulk of its backend technology infrastructure to the Azure cloud ...