Elon Musk’s US$44 billion offer to buy Twitter and turn the social media platform into a private company is almost a done deal. But not quite. While Twitter’s board has endorsed his offer, Musk now needs the nod from a majority of Twitter’s shareholders and US corporate regulators. Before we get on to the details… Read more »
Ridesharing company Uber has admitted it misled customers when it warned them of additional fees for cancelling trips and has agreed to wear a $26 million fine following action by consumer watchdog the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission. Uber has admitted that it breached the Australian Consumer Law by making false or misleading statements in… Read more »
Hotel comparison site Trivago has been hit with $44.7 million in penalties by the Federal Court, misleading representations about hotel room rates on its website and in television advertising, in proceedings brought by the ACCC. The fine brings to an end a four-year legal battle against the Nasdaq-listed German tech company, launched by consumer watchdog the… Read more »
An estimated 400 Atlassian customers have had access cut for up to a week in an ongoing problem the company has blamed on a maintenance script. The incident first occurred around April 5, with the company acknowledging the problem on Twitter two days later. While running a maintenance script, a small number of sites were… Read more »
There’s no doubt that online dating and dating apps have transformed the way we initiate, form and end romantic relationships. We might also question whether the convenience of these apps has encouraged us to behave differently than we would in “real life”. More specifically, do mobile dating apps breed bad or antisocial behaviour? If you… Read more »
Rideshare and taxi users in NSW will be slugged with an ongoing $1 surcharge as part of a whopping $1 billion compensation package for the taxi industry being considered by the NSW government, more than six years after Uber was legalised in the state. When rideshare was legalised in late 2015, the then-Baird government announced… Read more »
When the News Media Bargaining Code was introduced by the federal government last year, forcing Facebook and Google to pay media companies for news, it was hailed as a game changer for the industry. Twelve months on, the game has changed, but tech giants Google and Facebook have created a more skewed playing field for… Read more »
On the last day of his 11 years as chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Rod Sims announced the commission is bringing a “world-first” claim against Meta (owner of Facebook) in the Federal Court for false or misleading conduct. The ACCC alleges Meta failed to take sufficient steps to stop displaying scam… Read more »
The world’s five leading tech companies – Google (now Alphabet), Apple, Facebook (now Meta), Amazon and Microsoft – have taken steps to impose significant and (mainly) voluntary sanctions on Russia, in response to its invasion of Ukraine. But the decisions didn’t come unprompted. Ukraine has lobbied the major tech companies in the same way it… Read more »
Amazon drivers and transport unionists celebrated a win against the gig economy last week after the NSW Industrial Relations Commission agreed to give Amazon Flex drivers a minimum rate of $37.80 per hour. The new rate of pay will be incrementally phased-in starting from 1 March, beginning at $27.83 and reaching the full $37.80 per… Read more »
NASDAQ-listed Australian software venture Atlassian is looking at moving its parent company from the United Kingdom to the US. Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM) announced last week that it had undertaken an exploration of redomiciling the parent holding company across the Atlantic. The workplace collaboration software business originally set up in the UK in 2014 ahead of… Read more »
Western Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest has lodged criminal proceedings against Facebook over cryptocurrency scam ads that used his name and image. Dr Forrest, chair of Fortescue Metals Group, and a major tech startup investor, has alleged that Facebook breached federal anti-money laundering laws by failing to remove the ads, which have been appearing on the… Read more »
After all the bad press tech companies have received, would anyone still be surprised to learn the outwardly smiling face of social media conceals a sophisticated data-collection industry? Last year’s headlines delivered news of an array of concerning data and privacy violations from the world’s biggest tech players. But interestingly, it also seemed to be… Read more »
Biotech startup founder Elizabeth Holmes has been found guilty of four of 11 charges by a US Federal Court jury. Holmes, 37, was the high-profile CEO of Theranos, a supposedly revolutionary blood testing tech startup, which she dropped out of Stanford University, aged 19, to launch in 2003. The company’s ambitions ground to a halt… Read more »
We’ve probably all been there. We buy some new smart gadget and when we plug it in for the first time it requires an update to work. So we end up spending hours downloading and updating before we can even play with our new toy. But what happens when we can’t update our gadgets any… Read more »
The lessons from Uber, Ola and rideshare’s disruption is that in the end, the consumer still pays 
Here are the finalists in Fintech Australia’s 2024 Finnies awards 
Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar steps down as co-CEO 
Unicorn dehorned: Nasdaq-listed Brisbane EV charging venture Tritium collapses into receivership 
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