Sony is laying off around 900 employees in its PlayStation division, the company announced on Tuesday.
The cuts will impact 8% of the division’s global workforce, as Sony becomes the latest company to announce major cuts in recent weeks and months.
The layoffs come two weeks after Sony cut its sales forecast for the PlayStation 5 after warning of decreasing demand.
Sony isn’t the only company in the gaming business to announce recent job cuts.
Last month, Microsoft laid off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees and Unity laid off 25% of its workforce.
“While we do this, we’re going to pause the image generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon,” it added.
While we do this, we're going to pause the image generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon.
https://t.co/SLxYPGoqOZ — Google Communications (@Google_Comms) February 22, 2024Google launched the Gemini image generation tool earlier this month.
Gemini’s Al image generation does generate a wide range of people.
An earlier AI image classification tool made by Google caused outrage, back in 2015, when it misclassified black men as gorillas.
Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart has held discussions in recent weeks about potentially acquiring Dunzo, the hyperlocal delivery startup backed by Reliance Retail, three sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.
The acquisition talks follow a turbulent year at Dunzo, which has been struggling to raise cash and make staff payroll.
Flipkart is skeptical about precisely what all it will be able to take over if it were to acquire Dunzo.
Reliance Retail, the largest investor in Dunzo, has also not approved the deal.
Flipkart and Dunzo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal has resigned from the e-commerce group’s board, the two said Saturday.
Sachin Bansal, the Bengaluru-headquartered startup’s other co-founder, left the board in 2018 after scuffle with the investors.
Binny Bansal, who reserved the rights to stay on Flipkart’s board for as long as he preferred, cited conflict of interest with his new venture as the reason for the move.
“I am proud of the Flipkart Group’s achievements over the past 16 years.
After leaving Flipkart, Sachin Bansal founded Navi, a financial services firm that is looking to go public.
Of late, one of the most intense ones centers around humanoid robots.
Humanoid robots can, however, now claim a big tech name among their ranks.
Bill Gates this week issued a list of “cutting-edge robotics startups and labs that I’m excited about.” Among the names are three companies focused on developing humanoids.
An endorsement like this might not move the needle too far in the humanoid direction, and Gates is very much not a roboticist.
It is, however, enlightening to see the form factor continue to gain more mainstream legitimacy by the day.
Of late, one of the most intense ones centers around humanoid robots.
Humanoid robots can, however, now claim a big tech name among their ranks.
Bill Gates this week issued a list of “cutting-edge robotics startups and labs that I’m excited about.” Among the names are three companies focused on developing humanoids.
An endorsement like this might not move the needle too far in the humanoid direction, and Gates is very much not a roboticist.
It is, however, enlightening to see the form factor continue to gain more mainstream legitimacy by the day.
Like a tenacious balloon, no matter how hard crypto gets knocked down, it tends to float back up again.
I’ve found that to be true in all the years I have covered the decentralized market and economy since 2013.
After a lengthy downturn — a crypto winter, if you want — blockchains and their constituent tokens and services seem to be on a rebound.
Data paints the picture: Spot trading volumes reached a 12-month high earlier this month, the total value of crypto tokens has appreciated materially in recent months, and even NFTs are showing signs of life.
Yet, despite the run of positive news, venture capitalists’ interest in web3 startups continued to decline in Q4 2023, dipping further underneath a severely depressed third-quarter figure.
Discord has become a mainstay for many online communities in recent years, but its relative success hasn’t shielded the platform from the financial woes plaguing the tech industry.
Like other companies making sweeping cuts to their workforces this week, Discord is laying off 17% of its staff, or about 170 people.
In an internal memo obtained by the Verge, Discord CEO Jason Citron blamed over-hiring — echoing explanations that other tech CEOs have offered for recent layoffs.
“We grew quickly and expanded our workforce even faster, increasing by 5x since 2020,” Citron said in the memo.
Last August, Discord laid off 4% of its staff — nearly 40 employees — as part of a company-wide restructuring.
Hyperexponential, a London-based insurance technology (insurtech) startup that serves the property-casualty (P&C) insurance industry with “decision intelligence” for pricing, has raised $73 million in a Series B equity round of funding.
Boston-based venture capital (VC) firm Battery Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investor Highland Europe and Andreessen Horowitz (A16z).
Moreover, that Hyperexponential is bringing in high-profile U.S. VC firms points to an international roadmap, with the company confirming plans to expand beyond its current operations in the U.K. and Poland to the lucrative U.S. market.
“We’ve focused on building a capital-efficient, independent business that was both high-growth and sustainable from the outset,” said Hyperexponential co-founder and CEO Amrit Santhirasenan, in a statement.
The company also said that it plans expand into adjacent markets, including SME insurance.
The investors surveyed clearly aren’t the only ones who are excited about a potential Stripe exit in 2024, either.
According to secondary data tracker Caplight, there has been an absolute flurry of buyers looking to get shares in the company in recent months.
On Tuesday, literally the day after New Year’s Day, a secondary sale closed that valued Stripe shares at $21.06 apiece; that values the startup at $53.65 billion, according to Caplight data.
There are a few reasons why this deal is worth paying attention to.
For one, Stripe’s $53 billion value marks an increase from the company’s most recent primary round last March, when Stripe was valued at $50 billion.
