Some things can’t be summed up in 140 characters. Twitter Inc’s (TWTR.N) announcement that Dick Costolo would exit as CEO on July 1 was long on plaudits but offered few clues on how the company will tackle its biggest problem: user growth. Twitter’ shares were down 0.6 percent in early afternoon trading on Friday, after rising much as 3.9 percent just after the opening, as investors assessed […]
Businesses that need to handle workloads with a range of different demands have a selection of new cloud-based, general-purpose instances to choose from through Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS on Thursday announced the availability of M4 instances, a next-generation Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) offering. Powered by custom 2.4-GHz Intel Xeon E5-2676 v3 Haswell processors, M4 instances are designed to support a variety of applications, including relational and […]
A broker laughs while speaking to a colleague, as they trade on their computer terminals at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, March 4, 2015. Reuters/Shailesh Andrade/Files MUMBAI Regulators hope plans for a new bourse with less stringent listing requirements will lure a stream of startups in the country’s burgeoning technology industry, looking for a platform to raise capital for expansion. The eased rules, marking a change […]
ISTANBUL — Late into the night on Sunday on the shattered streets of Kobani, the Syrian Kurdish city devastated last year by battles with militants affiliated with the Islamic State, residents celebrated the outcome of the recent Turkish parliamentary election results, honking horns, cheering and firing their guns. The election, in which the Kurdish party surpassed a threshold for the first time to enter Parliament, was the […]
A 3D plastic representation of the Facebook logo is seen in this illustration in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, May 13, 2015. Reuters/Dado Ruvic NEW YORK Overseas markets bring in more advertising revenue than the United States for Facebook Inc, amounting to 51 percent of global ad sales in the first quarter, with growth in Asia the fastest in the world at 57 percent, company executives told Reuters. […]
Big Blue is looking to make its mark on the mobile device and wearables market. No, IBM isn’t pushing out a smart watch or even a smartphone. In partnership with SiCAD, a silicon design platform company, IBM just announced High Performance Services for Electronic Design Automation (EDA). IBM is billing EDA as the electronic industry’s first enterprise-class, secure cloud service that provides on-demand access to electronic design […]
Tech giant Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off Monday at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco with the headlining keynote address. Among the topics discussed during the address were new capabilities for OS X, updates coming to iOS, native apps for the Apple Watch, a streaming music service, and a new version of the watchOS operating system. At the event, Apple also introduced […]
|TAP Special| Sections of public opinion in the Arab Gulf see anti-Arab bias and the grudge in losing the bid for hosting World Cup as the main motivation for the campaign against Qatar in the award of 2022 tournament. As it becomes increasingly clear that the corruption scandal can have very negative implications for the hosting of the tournament, the Arab public opinion is also becoming more […]
Plastic caution tape marks a small construction area on the exterior of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington May 27, 2015. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst WASHINGTON A massive breach of U.S. federal computer networks disclosed this week is the latest in a flood of attacks by suspected Chinese hackers aimed at grabbing personal data, industrial secrets and weapons plans from government and private computers. The Obama […]
Customer Hajime Shimada uses his newly purchased Apple Watch in front of Dover Street Market Ginza in Tokyo April 24, 2015. Reuters/Issei Kato NEW YORK When Maximo Cavazzani, creator of the popular mobile game Trivia Crack, learned about Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) plan for a new smart watch, it seemed like a logical step to adapt his game for the new product. But the little watch had some […]
UAE. Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity and stakebuilding is gaining momentum in the Middle East as financially strong and profitable insurers seek to deploy surplus capital to broaden their profiles and satisfy shareholders’ expectations. The market is ripe for consolidation as medium-size players seek to maintain their market positions, while many smaller insurers in particular struggle with profitability, owing to their high expense bases. In a new […]
UAE. Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, achieved its strongest financial results to date in 2014, posting a net profit of US$ 73 million on total revenues of US$ 7.6 billion, up 52.1 per cent and 26.7 per cent respectively over the previous year. 2014 PEFORMANCE SUMMARY OF ETIHAD AIRWAYS *The above results represent the standalone airline business within the newly formed Etihad […]
Remedy Service Management 9.0, the new IT service management (ITSM) platform from BMC, is designed to provide both IT managers and end users with a more intuitive, consumer-type experience. BMC announced the release of the new platform, which it claims can boost IT productivity by up to 75 percent, earlier this month. BMC said the Remedy 9 platform provides a Smart Reporting feature for IT professionals that […]
Tech giant Apple has acquired Metaio, a company that creates tools for authoring, rendering and managing augmented-reality applications, for an undisclosed sum, according to legal documents filed in Germany. A notarized registration form filed in a Munich court indicates that 29,121 Euros (around $32,000) in shares held by Metaio were transferred to Apple last week. Based in Munich, Metaio was founded in 2003. The company grew out […]
Travel tech firm moves to Microsoft Azure cloud technology DUBAI, 22 days ago Microsoft has signed a strategic deal with Illusions, a Dubai-based travel tech firm, to support the transfer of the company’s entire business operating platform onto Microsoft’s cloud technology, Azure, an initiative aimed at enhancing productivity and client satisfaction. The move to Azure will incorporate the existing system on which Illusions operates to provide services […]
One of the biggest challenges marketers face these days is keeping track of customer behavior across multiple channels and devices. Oracle is hoping to help with that by adding new mobile capabilities to its Oracle Marketing Cloud. Those new capabilities, rolled out earlier this month, include an enhanced mobile Data Management Platform (DMP) that helps to link multiple identities across platforms and devices to a single customer. […]
As virtual-reality enthusiasts await the first consumer edition of Oculus Rift next year, Facebook, which owns the game and the firm that makes it, is beefing up its talent roster. Oculus Wednesday said it acquired a trio of 3D reconstruction experts from computer vision firm Surreal Vision. The three founders of the UK-based immersive technology company will be moving over to Oculus: Richard Newcombe, the inventor of […]
JORDAN. Technology will be a “game changer” in tackling youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa’s emerging Digital Economy, but only if the government, private, and people sectors collaborate effectively, according to a new report released on the eve of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) 2015. The report “Re-Dynamizing the Job Machine: Technology-Driven Transformation of Labor Markets in […]
Iran is likely to abolish subsidised fuel allowances for motorists, an Oil Ministry adviser said on Saturday, in a move that will cut state spending but could also drive inflation and cause protests. The government is trying to curb subsidies that have led to profligate energy consumption and put a strain on public finances, already squeezed by international sanctions and last year’s drop in oil prices. “The […]
By TAP Staff|Arcapita, the global investment management firm, announcedthe completion of the sale of J.Jill Group Inc., a leading US-based multi-channel retailer of women’s apparel, accessories and footwear, to TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P., a New York and London-based investment management firm. The parties did not disclose the transaction value. Originally founded in 1959 and headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts, J.Jill provides inspired styles to its loyal customer through […]
N.R. Narayana Murthy acknowledges the media in Calcutta August 20, 2002. Reuters/Jayanta Shaw/Files MUMBAI The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has named Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy to head a panel that will devise rules for a new funding platform for homegrown start-ups, the regulator said on its website. In March, SEBI announced an alternative investment platform targeted at the country’s booming internet start-ups, relaxing […]
UAE. Landmark real estate regulatory changes including the UAE-wide Federal Mortgage Cap and Dubai’s doubling of Property Registration Fees last year, which was aimed at curbing speculative activity, have together gradually and successfully contained a market that was in danger of overheating with the level of transactional activity now dramatically reduced, according to latest research released by international real estate consultancy Cluttons. Cluttons Spring 2015 Dubai Residential […]
CRM behemoth Salesforce is rolling out the next iteration of Community Cloud, technology that lets companies combine business data and processes with its customer relationship management (CRM) platform to create personalized, mobile destinations. Specifically, Salesforce is adding Targeted Recommendations, Lightning Community Builder and Templates and Salesforce Files Connect for Google Drive. The goal is to help companies connect with stakeholders in new ways. Community Cloud was already […]
MUMBAI Indian e-commerce firms are offering funding help and tech support to woo small retailers, emulating a strategy used by Chinese online retail giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd to expand into the towns and villages home to the majority of consumers. India’s biggest e-tailers such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and the local arm of Amazon.com Inc are online marketplaces, with commission from sellers accounting for the bulk of […]
