Author: Gugu Lourie

Microsoft today announced the third phase of its long-term partnership with with OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT. “Today, we are announcing the third phase of our long-term partnership with OpenAI through a multiyear, multibillion dollar investment to accelerate AI breakthroughs to ensure these benefits are broadly shared with the world,” said Microsoft in a blog post. This agreement follows our previous investments in 2019 and 2021. It extends our ongoing collaboration across AI supercomputing and research and enables each of us to independently commercialize the resulting advanced AI technologies. “We formed our partnership with OpenAI around a shared ambition to responsibly advance…

Music streaming service Spotify announced today that it will be restructuring the company affecting 600 employees. The music streaming services said the following will apply to all impacted employees: Severance pay: We will start with a baseline for all employees with the average employee receiving approximately 5 months of severance. This will be calculated based on local notice period requirements and employee tenure. PTO: All accrued and unused vacation will be paid out to any departing employee. Healthcare: We will continue to cover healthcare for employees during their severance period. Immigration support: For employees whose immigration status is connected with their employment, HRBPs are…

Eskom announced today that evening loadshedding will be maintained at Stage 4 daily at 16:00 – 05:00 while Stage 3 loadshedding will be implemented daily at 05:00 – 16:00 until further notice. A further update will be published as soon as any significant changes occur, said Eskom. “Over the past 24 hours two generating units at Tutuka Power Station were taken offline for repairs while two units at the Arnot Power were returned to service,” the power utility added. “Planned maintenance to 6 018MW while breakdowns currently amount to 15 797MW of generating capacity. “Eskom requests members of the public…

Mercedes-Benz is funding a global fellowship that will provide training and scholarships to thousands of young people from around the world to implement their projects in the areas of environmental sustainability and decarbonization. To provide the seed money for the fellowship, Mercedes-Benz auctioned the world’s most valuable car, a 1955 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé, for a record price of €135 million or R2.5 billion. Mercedes-Benz will donate proceeds from the auction of a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé to fund beVisioneers: The Mercedes-Benz Fellowship The global fellowship programme will aim to scale up to support up to 1,000 young people per…

Bitwarden, open source password manager trusted by millions, today announced the acquisition of Passwordless.dev, a European-based open source startup that enables developers to create passkeys and other forms of WebAuthn passwordless experiences quickly. A core part of the FIDO2 specification, WebAuthn is a modern open authentication standard supported by browsers and technology giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple. “Most companies want to invest in passwordless solutions such as Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello, and other forms of web authentication to create better user experiences and stronger security” Tweet this This acquisition comes on the heels of a $100M…

The DA has been reliably informed that the South African Post Office (SAPO) aims to cut staff salaries by 40% as of next month – while their looting of staff medical aid and pension contributions is ongoing. Medical Aid benefits have once again been withdrawn from both staff and pensioners because of non-payment – despite the fact that the staff lose that amount from their salaries and pensions each month. This is despite management assurances to the Communications Portfolio Committee that they would turn things around. “We have also learnt that the current CEO today earns nearly R4 million per…

JSE and Nasdaq-listed fintech group Lesaka Technologies, formerly known as Net1, today announced the resignation of its chief accounting officer, Alex Smith. The resignation of Smith is effective 1 March 2023. Lesaka said Smith is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities. The company added that Smith will assist in consolidating the roles and responsibilities of Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) into the ambit of Lesaka’s highly experienced Finance team. “The past 18 months have been a time of significant transformation for Lesaka,” said Chris Meyer: Group CEO. “While it has been challenging, our focus on execution has resulted in substantial strides…

South African payments platform Payfast is looking to continue its acquisition spree. In 2021, DPO Group, of which Payfast is a part, was acquired by Network International, a globally renowned digital commerce provider in the Middle East and Africa. The company is now known as DPO by Network. “We are currently exploring a number of partnerships,” said Brendon Williamson, managing director at Payfast, without giving further details. “Even though we have gone through an acquisition phase as DPO Group and now DPO by Network, we will continue that acquisition phase as Payfast supported by Networks. “So there are potential acquisitions…

Bidorbuy, one of South Africa’s largest online shopping and auction marketplaces, will soon be officially known as Bob Shop. In August 2022, Bidorbuy concluded a merger with shipping and fulfilment specialists uAfrica, the new combined company is called Bob Group. “Bob” speaks to our heritage as bidorbuy; Group refers to the fact that the new company offers so much more in terms of service, functionality and user experience for both merchants and consumers.,” the company said in its blog. The aim of the collaboration is to compete with Takealot and Amazon. Bob Group is a one-stop shop for everything ecommerce…

South Africa’s Telkom and data-only network operator Rain have terminated merger talks. Telkom informed investors on Wednesday that after initial discussions, but prior to any due diligence, the parties have decided that a suitable transaction is not possible at this time. “Telkom continues to execute its strategy to unlock value for shareholders and will provide an update on progress in this regard in due course,” said the company. Also read: GUGU LOURIE: MTN’s battle for Telkom is actually no contest Telkom shares were trading 10% higher at R35.68 by 14h20 today, maybe signalling a relief from the market that the deal…