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Was Katherine Maher's sudden resignation as chief executive of Web Summit a surprise? Yes or no. Could it lead to Paddy Cosgrave's return to the spotlight? It would be crazy to rule it out. Read our analysis on yet another installment of our Web Summit journey.
Separately, there's no getting away from the fact that this week has been a tough month for layoffs in the tech industry, with a flurry of new announcements. Ebay, Microsoft, and Riot Games are among the companies joining Amazon and Google to cut jobs through Layoffs.fyi. About 72 companies around the world are estimated to have cut more than 130,000 jobs this month, according to a site that tracks layoffs.
TikTok also announced a small number of layoffs, with Irish employees affected. However, the video sharing platform still has more than 150 job openings in Dublin.
As if reporting news like this wasn't depressing enough, we have revealed with a heavy heart that Wardax, the highly respected gaming company led by Nikki Rannen, has gone bankrupt. On the bright side, I can't wait to see what Nikki does next.
While layoffs have been in the spotlight this week, it's also worth noting that some companies are still hiring. Belfast is set to benefit from US fintech company DailyPay's decision to increase its workforce, with an additional 200 jobs created in the city. The company opened an office in NI last year and already employs 100 people locally.
Continuing the positive news, around 20 start-ups have been established as a result of Ireland’s first tech talent accelerator, eight of which have already secured funding of €100,000 each.
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It's been a good week for Netflix, which surprised Wall Street with the number of new subscribers it acquired late last year. It's even better for Microsoft, which has reached a market capitalization of $3 trillion on the back of its leading position in AI.
Meanwhile, the rise of AI is currently classified by the Treasury as a serious risk to the Irish economy. business post It was exclusively revealed earlier this week.
Elsewhere, Klarna, the buy now, pay later company that was one of the first European companies to acknowledge the difficulties arising from the backlash to the high-tech industry two years ago, is considering a U.S. listing. There is.
The ongoing standoff between Eir and ComReg took a new turn this week after the regulator announced that the telcos will be able to offer discounted prices on wholesale fiber broadband services.
As e-commerce continues to grow, I had the pleasure of sitting down and having a long chat with John Tuohy, founder of OOHPod and before that most recently founding Nightline and Parcel Motel. This interview will be published in the print edition of Sunday's Business Post, but is currently available to online subscribers.
Connected magazine returns to print this weekend with more of our best technology features to keep you entertained. Among the topics we cover in the latest issue are closing the gender gap in technology, e-waste, and how 5G has failed to catch on. Online subscribers can currently read He Connected, but it looks gorgeous, so be sure to pick up the print version as well.
Finally, while you may have thought Temu was only for young people, it turns out that baby boomers and Gen Xers are the ones who embrace it the most.
all the best,
charlie
Replacing humans with AI will be expensive, says MIT (Quartz)
Pastor accused of obtaining $1.3 million in cryptocurrency fraud says the Lord encouraged him to use the funds to renovate his home (Business Insider)