Tech Titans & Market Movements: From Smartphones to Cybersecurity

AI-Driven Growth, Mega Tech Deals, and Game-Changing Broadcasts

Smartphone Market Grows 6% as AI and Discounts Help Demand - Bloomberg

• iPhone shipments stabilized in the June quarter as the wider smartphone market accelerated its growth.

• Apple shipped 45.2 million handsets in the quarter, a 1.5% improvement on the same period a year earlier.

Top French League Is Said to Pick Dazn, BeIN Broadcast Deal - Bloomberg

• France’s Ligue de Football Professionnel has approved a broadcast deal with Dazn Group Ltd. and beIN to screen live matches this season.- The deal is for a period stretching until 2029 and should bring in about €500 million a year in revenue.

• The decision comes after months of talks between Ligue 1 and various parties and puts an end for the time being to talk of the league creating its own channel. The league originally set an ambitious target of around €1 billion ($1.1 billion) for its domestic and global broadcast rights but has struggled to obtain that figure from conventional deals.

• Broadcast revenues are a key component of budgets for most European teams and most broadcast deals include guaranteed payments early on in the season.

Alphabet in Talks to Buy Wiz in $23 Billion Cyber Deal - Bloomberg

• Alphabet is in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz Inc.

• The transaction could total up to $23 billion, making it the tech giant’s largest acquisition to date

• Talks could still end without an agreement

• Alphabet has already shelved efforts to acquire customer relationship management company HubSpot Inc.

Hacker Says AT&T Paid About $400,000 to Erase Sensitive Data - Bloomberg

• A hacker claims to have stolen sensitive call and text logs from AT&T Inc. and was paid $400,000 to erase the data trove.

• An analysis of a Bitcoin wallet address provided by the hacker shows a transaction in mid-May that aligns with an extortion payment, valued at about $380,000.

• The payment is relatively low compared to ransom demands and payments for other recent high-profile data breaches, such as Colonial Pipeline Co. paying $4.4 million and UnitedHealth Group Inc. making a $22 million payment to a cybercrime group after a February breach of Change Healthcare. The hacker claimed other hackers were involved in the attack and provided a video of them deleting the data to demonstrate that they had fulfilled their agreement. The size of the alleged ransom payment could be due to the national security risks presented by the data breach. - The hacker said they didn’t believe the information they had stolen was valuable or if they knew who might be interested in purchasing it.

Google Nears $23 Billion Deal for Cybersecurity Firm Wiz, WSJ Reports - Bloomberg

• Alphabet is in advanced talks to buy cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion, its largest acquisition ever.

Google Close to Its Biggest Acquisition Ever, Despite Antitrust Scrutiny - New York Times

• Google is in talks to buy Wiz, a cybersecurity start-up, for $23 billion, its largest-ever acquisition.

• The deal signals that Google is willing to fight to beef up its cloud-computing division despite the possibility of regulatory scrutiny and a pending verdict in two antitrust cases.

• Wiz was founded in Israel in 2020 and is now headquartered in New York, and was valued at $12 billion last year. The company has grown rapidly this year, with $350 million in recurring revenue and $1 billion in funding raised in May. The chief executive of Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian, has led the push to acquire Wiz to make cybersecurity a distinguishing strength of his division.                - The acquisition would forge a connection between Google Cloud and companies that use Wiz to safeguard data held in AWS, Azure, and other cloud computing systems.

Electric Vehicles May Become Harder to Rent - New York Times

• Rental car companies are offering temporary deals on electric cars they are selling after the cars lost value more quickly than expected.

• Hertz scaled back plans to acquire 100,000 Teslas due to the rapid depreciation of cars made by Tesla, which cut prices on new models to prop up sales

• More than 4% of cars sold by manufacturers to rental companies were electric last year, but only 1.4% this year

• Renting an electric car is a great way for people to try and become comfortable with new types of vehicles like battery-powered cars that produce no tailpipe emissions

• The potential of rental companies to reshape consumer behavior and promote adoption of electric vehicles is critical

• Resale values are critical for rental companies as they are 100% dependent on residual values

• Many rental car companies found it difficult to offer customers electric vehicles at a profit due to lack of chargers and difficulty in maintaining them

• Used electric vehicles have lost value faster than the average used gas car this year

The End of the Affair? Not for Eric Schmidt. - New York Times

• Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, had an extramarital relationship with public relations executive Marcy Simon while he was in the mid-2000s.

• They split in 2014, a decade after they were seen together on the French Riviera and Fire Island

• The relationship has been messy and involves contracts, amended contracts, arbitrations, lawsuits, and advisers

• Mr. Schmidt approved a confidential settlement in 2014 with Ms. Simon that paid her an undisclosed amount of money, but the deal imploded due to years of wrangling and accusations of fraud against her

• During his years leading Google, he was known as a brainy, button-down sage who mentored the founders and propelled the company to great heights

• In 2019, he left the board of Google and took on an influential role advising the U.S. government on defense and artificial intelligence policy and making his mark with philanthropy initiatives

• He has remained married to Wendy Schmidt, his wife of 44 years.

Is There a Future in the Doomsday Economy? - New York Times

• Fortitude Ranch is a network of survivalist compounds across the United States

• Entrepreneur Drew Miller is betting on franchised timeshares for people worried about the end of the world

• The West Virginia branch is located in a 50-acre property with two large dormitories and a bare-bones bunker designed to house more than 100 members

• Members are expected to pay $2,000 to $20,000 (depending on the level of accommodation) to join and another $1,000 per year per person in dues to call it their home fort

• There are also underground living and meeting rooms and a locked armory with assault rifles and crossbows

• Inside the compound, members are guaranteed a 2,000 calorie-per-day diet that is supplemented by chickens, sheep, and rabbits

• Drew Miller, a retired Air Force colonel, runs the five compounds through his corporation and is seeking to expand the business through franchising

• Growing evidence of climate change, political divisions, and anxiety about the future have made apocalyptic fantasies less fantastical.

How Janet Yellen Became an Unlikely Culinary Diplomat - New York Times

• Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen views food as a way to connect with other officials and gain a better understanding of local economies.

• She has been eating on the road for over 300,000 miles over the past three years to grapple with inflation and devise new ways to cripple the Russian economy.

• Yellen has had unique culinary experiences, including mayonnaise mixed with ants, aged garlic aged 25 years, and hallucinogenic mushrooms at a Yunnan-style restaurant in Beijing. Her use of chopsticks at a Cantonese restaurant in Guangzhou has been praised by China’s state media despite rising tensions over U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. The hysteria over her dining adventures stems from top government officials not usually being seen eating in public, according to a New York Times reporter.

FirstFT: New details emerge about Trump assassination attempt - Financial Times

• The Republican candidate was injured in a shooting incident in Butler, Pennsylvania, which is being investigated as domestic terrorism and attempted assassination.

• The FBI has identified the shooter as Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old man from Bethel Park, a town in the battleground state about 40 miles from where the rally took place. The incident has transformed the 2024 race and threatens to further polarise the country with less than four months to go until polling day in November.

• Samsung Electronics has debuted its latest phones in Paris, but the company has been hit with a chip crisis and has been accused of using Chinese-made sensors that may be harmful to the health-care industry. - The US congress has launched an investigation into “inexcusable security breaches” at Trump’s campaign rally, and the Federal Reserve officials have sent signals that they are preparing to cut interest rates. The Communist party’s Third Plenum in Beijing is a key economic policy meeting, and Google’s parent company Alphabet is in talks to buy cyber security start-up Wiz for about $23bn.

Google parent in talks to buy cyber security start-up Wiz for $23bn - Financial Times

• Alphabet is in talks to buy cyber security start-up Wiz for $23bn, the largest acquisition in the tech group’s history

• Talks are still ongoing and there is a chance the deal could fall apart due to disagreements over details

• The acquisition would be a test case for antitrust regulators and mark a further push into cyber security for Alphabet

• Wiz helps companies secure programs in the cloud and has raised $2bn from investors since its founding four years ago

Starmer plans to introduce AI bill in King’s Speech - Financial Times

• Sir Keir Starmer is expected to introduce an AI bill in the King’s Speech on Wednesday

• The bill will seek to enhance legal safeguards around AI technologies and focus on large language models

• Other proposed legislation includes ousting hereditary peers from the House of Lords, empowering the Office for Budget Responsibility, and implementing worker protection reforms

• Labour will also revive the previous Conservative government’s ambition to create a register of children missing from schools and a cyber security bill

• Starmer’s AI bill marks a departure from the strategy of former prime minister Rishi Sunak, who set out voluntary agreements between the government and companies

• Regulators are concerned about the potential harms of AI technologies, including biases and harmful materials

• GB Energy will be the centrepiece of Labour’s green energy plans, with immediate action to boost the role of solar power.

Chinese EV laser maker fights back against Pentagon blacklisting - Financial Times

• Hesai, the world’s biggest producer of laser sensors used in electric vehicles, was accused by the US Congressional Research Service in May last year of supporting the Chinese military.

• In January 2021, the Pentagon added Hesai to a list of Chinese entities alleged to be part of China’s military-civil fusion programme, creating a perception of investment risk for the company.

• The company began legal proceedings by suing the Pentagon in a US court in May, alleging that the Pentagon’s behavior was arbitrary and capricious and did not provide prior notice or an opportunity to respond. The Pentagon declined to comment on the lawsuit but stated that Hesai met the definition of a “Chinese military company”.

• Congress is considering legislation that would ban the Pentagon from using products that contain Chinese-made lidar, which uses lasers to detect surrounding road conditions for advanced driver-assistance systems and robotics products.

Samsung’s ‘chip crisis’: AI ambitions hit by unprecedented worker unrest - Financial Times

• Samsung Electronics is facing a labour crisis that is hindering its efforts to catch up with rivals in the market for semiconductors used in AI systems.- Samsung is trailing behind in developing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a crucial component of AI systems, and is yet to pass tests required to qualify as an HBM supplier to Nvidia.

• The company has failed to make a dent in TSMC’s dominance of the global foundry business, despite optimism that big customers would seek to reduce their dependence on the Taiwanese chip giant.

• Workers are on an indefinite strike demanding better pay and conditions, with an estimated 6,500 members of the National Samsung Electronics Union launching an unprecedented three-day strike last week. The strike is the biggest organised labour action in the Samsung company’s history

• Samsung shares have risen about 7.5% this year, against a 65% rally for smaller domestic rival SK Hynix

• Analysts say Samsung is missing out on a big opportunity in the HBM market due to falling behind in areas identified as essential for future growth

• Employees are feeling low morale and directionless management is causing a sense of crisis at Samsung Electronics.

Google Near $23 Billion Deal for Cybersecurity Startup Wiz - Wall Street Journal

• Alphabet is in advanced talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Wiz for $23 billion, its largest acquisition ever.

• The acquisition could boost Alphabet’s efforts in cloud computing and come at a time of intense antitrust scrutiny of the search company and other tech giants

• Wiz raised $1 billion earlier this year at a valuation of $12 billion, one of only a few startups outside the artificial-intelligence industry to raise money at a higher valuation in 2024

• Tech startups are still suffering from the hangover effects of the tech boom that peaked earlier this decade

• If a deal for Wiz comes together, it would be one of the largest technology deals of late

• Alphabet has been a more conservative acquirer than some of its big-tech peers in recent years

• Google is currently awaiting a verdict in a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit over claims that it used illegal means to bolster its dominance in internet search.

Microsoft Quits OpenAI’s Board Amid Antitrust Scrutiny - Wall Street Journal

• Microsoft has resigned its observer position on the board of OpenAI, as regulators scrutinize the partnership between the tech giant and the AI startup.

• Microsoft had invested $13 billion in OpenAI in exchange for a 49% stake in its for-profit arm, which is now facing antitrust scrutiny in the US and Europe.

• The tech giant had gained a nonvoting observer position after the formation of the new board following the abrupt firing and reinstatement of Sam Altman as CEO in late last year. (

• Apple had been set to have a board observer seat after signing a partnership to put ChatGPT on its iPhones and other devices as part of a broader AI initiative called Apple Intelligence).

• OpenAI is establishing a new approach to informing and engaging key strategic partners, such as Microsoft and Apple, and will no longer have board observer seats for any partner.

Samsung Electronics Union Launches Indefinite Strike - Wall Street Journal

• Samsung Electronics unionized workers have launched an indefinite strike in South Korea.

• The union demands an extra one day of leave, an average 3.5% wage increase, and a change to an unfair bonus pay system.

For AI Giants, Smaller Is Sometimes Better - Wall Street Journal

• Tech giants and startups are using small or medium language models to make AI software cheaper, faster, and more specialized. These models are trained on less data and often designed for specific tasks. Smaller models cost less than $10 million to train and use fewer than 10 billion parameters. Microsoft, Google, and Apple have all released smaller models this year. OpenAI recently released a version of its flagship model that it says is cheaper to operate. Businesses and consumers are looking for ways to run generative AI-based technology more cheaply. Small models can answer questions for as little as one-sixth the cost of large language models in many cases. Fine-tuning small models on specific sets of data allows them to perform as effectively as large models at a fraction of the cost.

In an Era of Fakes, How to Know When Someone Online Is Real - Wall Street Journal

• Personalized schemes to dupe internet users are on the rise

• The single best step to determine someone’s identity online and protect yourself is to slow down

• Tech companies are beginning to help, with Google, LinkedIn and Bumble introducing features to detect suspicious messages and users

• Guidelines for operating online are changing, some old rules still apply

• Before transferring funds, ask for your prearranged secret word.