Reliance’s $3.4 billion deal to buy Future Group is not happening
Reliance Industries has decided to call off its $3.4 billion deal to acquire a steak in Future Group after the latter’s secured creditors rejected the offer, TechCrunch reported. Future Group has been at the centre of a two-year-long battle between Reliance and e-commerce giant Amazon, which had sought to block the deal, TechCrunch added.
Twitter is seriously considering Elon Musk’s proposal to take it private
Twitter is nearing a deal to sell itself to Elon Musk, The New York Times reported. Twitter’s board was negotiating with Mr. Musk into the early hours of Monday over his unsolicited bid to buy the company, after he began lining up $46.5 billion in financing for the offer last week, the report added.
Ola Electric recalls 1,441 units of its electric scooters
Ola Electric has recalled 1,441 electric scooters for inspection after an incident last month in Pune where one of its vehicles caught fire, Economic Times said in its report. THe company has termed the move as a pre-emptive measure to conduct a detailed diagnostics and health check of the scooters in that specific batch, the report explained.
Twitter pilots cryptocurrency payments for creators
Twitter and Stripe— a digital payments processor— will pilot cryptocurrency payouts for select users of the social media site’s content monetisation products, as per a Reuters report. The companies announced that eligible users of Twitter’s Ticketed Spaces and Super Follows programs will be able to receive their earnings from the company in USD coin, a stablecoin whose value is pegged to the U.S. dollar, the report said.
Google announces a ban on third-party call-recording apps from Play Store
Google has decided to end its call recording feature by default with Android 10, GSMArena reported. The company is implementing new Google Play Store policies from May 11 which will prevent third-party apps from using the Accessibility API for recording the call audio stream, the report stated.
India records digital transactions worth Rs 20,000 cr daily: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed that digital transactions worth Rs 20,000 crore were taking place daily in his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast, Business Standard said. Modi said small online payments are helping build a big digital economy and many new fintech start-ups are coming up, the report added.
Apple’s crypto rules raise ‘potential antitrust issues’: Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong
Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, has charged that Apple’s attitude raises potential antitrust issues, according to a report in The Indian Express. The comments were in response to Apple banning certain features from the Coinbase app and hampering the company’s product roadmap.
SpaceX to soon provide Starlink internet service on planes
SpaceX has inked its first deal to provide in-flight internet service on airplanes using its Starlink satellite constellation, according to Euronews. The deal is with semi-private jet service JSX and involves equipping 100 airplanes with Starlink terminals, the company said.
Indian banks want clarity from NPCI over crypto UPI curbs
Several Indian banks have questioned the shadow ban on cryptocurrencies and asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to clarify the restrictions on the use of the ‘Unified Payment Interface’ to buy and sell the virtual digital assets (VDAs), Economic Times reported. Many of these banks had blocked UPI for trading of cryptos following “verbal instructions” from the NPCI, the report disclosed.
Twitter bans ‘misleading’ ads about climate change
Twitter imposed a ban on “misleading” advertisements “that contradict the scientific consensus on climate change”, The Verge reported. The company reasoned that climate denialism shouldn’t be monetized on Twitter, and that “misrepresentative ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis”, The Verge added.
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I cover several beats such as Crypto, Telecom, and OTT at MediaNama. I can be found loitering at my local theatre when I am off work consuming movies by the dozen.
