The AMCU allowed «Kiyvstar» to buy Uklon: what will it bring to each company?
At the end of December 2024, mobile operator «Kyivstar» submitted an application to the AMCU for the acquisition of the Uklon taxi service. On February 6, the regulator approved the acquisition. Thus, «Kyivstar» received permission to acquire control over «UKLON LTD» and LLC «Tech Uklon», «Uklon Corporation», «Uklon Ukraine». This is…
Volia and lifecell owner announces layoffs of IT specialists – consequences of merger and optimization
DVL Group, which last year acquired telecom operators «Datagroup-Vola» and lifecell, will conduct a massive reduction of IT specialists in the merged company. About 15% of the IT staff will be laid off.
Odesa resident pretended to be an IT and crypto specialist — defrauded 14 acquaintances of UAH 760 thousand
A resident of Odesa district introduced himself as head of an IT company, a cryptocurrency specialist and other experienced professionals, and demanded money for services that he was not going to perform.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has created an artificial intelligence unit. Plans include the launch of a «national LLM»
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has launched a separate unit for artificial intelligence — primarily aimed at «comprehensive integration of» AI solutions into the state, but with plans to create competitors to DeepSeek and OpenAI (in the future).
«Let them blame Trump»: Starlink loses $100 million contract with Canada due to US tariffs
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has canceled a 100 million Canadian dollar ($68 million) contract with Starlink. He also banned contracts with the US in the province.
Consequences of Dragon Age: The Veilguard – BioWare studio reduced to less than 100 employees and transferred to Mass Effect development
It has become known that after a wave of layoffs, transfers, and dismissals, BioWare has less than 100 employees left. This happened after the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the studio’s restructuring aimed at developing the next Mass Effect installment.
Record quarter for Apple: $124.3 billion in revenue despite declining iPhone sales
The holiday quarter is traditionally the most successful for Apple in terms of revenue. The past three-month period ended December 28, 2024 (the first quarter of Apple’s fiscal 2025) was a historic one for the company.
Google launches «voluntary release» program for Pixel, Chrome and Android developers
Google is offering voluntary resignations to employees of the Platforms & Devices division, which was formed last year, by combining the Pixel, Chrome and Android teams.
Tesla’s profits fell by 70%: what went wrong?
Tesla has published its financial report for Q4 2024, and it doesn’t look good. Despite the fact that the company recorded a 1.9% year-on-year increase in revenues from $25.2 billion to $25.7 billion, net profit fell by a staggering 70%. According to the results of Q4 2024, the amount of profit amounted to $2.3 billion.
«Intel doesn’t know how to be a factory», — Apple CEO Tim Cook told TSMC founder when he negotiated the chip production deal
Before signing a deal with TSMC, Apple tried to establish a manufacturing relationship with Intel, but something went wrong. TSMC founder Morris Chang recalls the details of this story.
Sony changes its key bosses: Hiroki Totoki will take over as CEO and Hideaki Nishino will be in charge of the gaming division
According to Sony’s statement, CFO Hiroki Totomi will replace Kenichiro Yoshida as CEO starting in April. Instead, Lin Tao, Senior Vice President of Finance, Corporate Development and Strategy, will be promoted to CFO.
EU to ban resale of PlayStation and Xbox to Russians, — Financial Times
The EU plans to include game consoles in a new package of sanctions, given that Russia’s armed forces can use them to control drones and disassemble them for weapons, reports Financial Times.
«Really insane»: Bill Gates criticizes Elon Musk’s remarks on foreign policy
Bill Gates talked about his three-hour dinner with Donald Trump in December 2024 and called Elon Musk’s foreign policy statements insane.
«Kyivstar» buys Uklon. Why does the telecom operator need it?
Mobile operator «Kyivstar» has filed an application with the AMCU to acquire Uklon: Ukrainian LLC «Tech Uklon», «Uklon Corporation», «Uklon Ukraine» and Cyprus-based UKLON LTD. At the end of last year, the AMC received an application for permission from «Kyivstar» to acquire control (through «Uklon Corporation») over the assets of…
Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed in sales – only 50% of EA’s expectations
Electronic Arts shares plummeted by 18%, the biggest drop since 2008. This huge drop came after the company warned that its financial results would be lower than expected due to poor sales results of two games.
One in Ten Game Developers Lost Their Jobs in 2024 – Survey
Approximately 10% of game developers lost their jobs in 2024. This is according to the results of the annual survey of the video game industry conducted at the Game Developers Conference. More than 3000 developers took part in the survey, and it covered a number of topics, including layoffs in the industry and what games developers are working on.
BES and State Tax Service to check Apple sellers, — decision of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee on de-shadowing of the electronics market
The Committee of the Verkhovna Rada on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy has recognized the actions of law enforcement agencies in the “de-shadowing” of the electronics market as ineffective. In particular, this concerns the sales of Apple equipment.
Samsung fears and closely monitors Xiaomi — competitor makes its debut in South Korea
South Korean users are loyal to Samsung and Apple, but Xiaomi has recently entered the country’s market. Industry insiders say that Samsung is closely monitoring the competitor.
Elon Musk wants to buy Intel, — SemiAnalysis
According to rumors, Elon Musk is interested in acquiring Intel. It is also said that Qualcomm and Global Foundries are somehow involved in the deal.
Triumph of PC gaming: player spending has been growing for 13 years in a row, 40% higher than on consoles
Contrary to many opinions, PCs feel quite confident in gaming. A large-scale study of PC games and more indicates growth amidst the stagnation of consoles.
Meta is laying off about 3,500 employees whom Zuckerberg has identified as «inefficient»
Meta announced the first round of layoffs in 2025, in which 5% of the workforce will be reduced. According to the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the layoffs will primarily target people with “low efficiency.”
Lenovo led the PC market in 2024 — Apple sold three times less and took fourth place
Lenovo ranked first in PC shipments in 2024 with 61.8 million devices and a share of 23.5%. Following are HP and Dell, with Apple in fourth place with significantly lower figures.
Xiaomi showed the fastest growth in the smartphone market in 2024 — Samsung and Apple’s share fell
According to Counterpoint, Xiaomi has increased its presence in the smartphone market by 1%, while Samsung and Apple showed a slight decrease. Overall, the market grew by 4% in 2024.
Zuckerberg on Apple: «Steve Jobs invented the iPhone, and they’ve been sitting on it for 20 years»
In Joe Rogan’s podcast, Mark Zuckerberg made several interesting statements, among other things, paying great attention to Apple.
Meta cancels diversity programs due to «changing political landscape»
Meta has joined the list of American companies that have abandoned internal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Pentagon adds Tencent and CATL to «blacklist» for helping Chinese army
The US Department of Defense has updated its blacklist of companies linked to the Chinese military, adding gaming giant Tencent, the world’s largest manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles CATL, as well as companies such as HangXin Memory Technologies, Quectel Wireless, and drone maker Autel Robotics.
The price of failure: Lionsgate is considering a sale
How many flops is too many? That’s the question on everyone’s mind over at Lionsgate. 2024 turned out to be a year filled with cinematic disasters for the studio, featuring films like “The Crow”, “Borderlands”, “Megalopolis”, “Never Let Go”, and “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly…
OpenAI officially becomes a commercial company
OpenAI has announced its decision to become a commercial company. In the official blog, its board declared a structural change that will transfer management to the commercial department.
Volkswagen to cut 35,000 jobs but keep plants in Germany
Volkswagen has announced a «Christmas miracle», introducing major changes to its German operations that will avoid immediate plant closures, layoffs or salary cuts. However, it is planned to cut about 35 thousand jobs in the near future, although the plants will continue to operate.
TOP-5 Ukrainian IT companies that hired juniors most often in 2024 (DOU survey)
In 2024, over 30 Ukrainian IT companies, surveyed by the DOU site, hired 2,970 juniors in the field — for comparison, back in 2022 the figure was a thousand higher, but about 40 enterprises participated in the survey then.
Almost a third of sole proprietors plan to close their business in the near future – the consequences of tax increases
Opendatabot has conducted the largest study of the status and plans of Ukrainian private entrepreneurs. Almost 32 thousand private entrepreneurs took part in the survey. As it turned out, a fairly large proportion of the survey participants plan to close their businesses. Among the surveyed entrepreneurs, most of them work in retail (24.6%) and IT…
Microsoft is secretly looking for third-party AI providers to reduce dependence on OpenAI and save money, — Reuters
Microsoft plans to add third-party AI models to products with Microsoft 365 Copilot—not just to diversify the lineup, but also to reduce dependence on ChatGPT and OpenAI, reports Reuters citing sources within the company.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Black Myth Wukong, Helldivers 2: Steam Names the Most Successful Games in 2024
Steam has published a rating the most profitable video games in 2024, categorizing them according to gross revenue.
12% of IT professionals in Ukraine work two jobs, — DOU survey
About 12% of Ukrainian IT pros (out of 13,000 surveyed by DOU website) have a side gig — and that number has significantly increased compared to last year.
EA Sports FC 25 conquers the charts, mobile projects generate 50% of revenue — gaming industry in 2024 in numbers
Analytical publication GamesIndustry.biz published its annual report on the state of the video game industry in 2024. Leading research companies, including Newzoo, Circana, Nielsen GfK, Sensor Tower, and Famitsu, contributed to the report.
Intel shareholders sue Pat Helsinger for mismanagement — demand three years of salary back pay
Intel shareholders from LR Trust are suing former and current Intel executives over the management policy of Intel Foundry and are aiming to reclaim hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nintendo Switch surpasses PlayStation 2 in console sales in the US
Circana CEO and video game industry analyst Matthew Piscatella reported on the BlueSky social network about the new Nintendo Switch record in the US.
Ukrainian IT professionals have chosen 25 most desirable companies to work for: Grammarly leads among seniors, while juniors choose mono
DOU website surveyed Ukrainian IT professionals and found out which companies they would most like to work for.
Google Play will stop monetization for apps from russia on December 26
Google has announced a complete cessation of financial cooperation with developers from russia in the Google Play store starting December 26, 2024.
Tax authorities are massively checking online sellers: almost UAH 50 million in fines in a month – Hetmantsev
The State Tax Service (STS) is tightening its control over online sales, including conducting test purchases and fining those who do not issue cash receipts. This was reported in the Telegram channel reported Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy («Servant of the People») Danylo Hetmantsev.
Elon Musk is the first in the world to get rich up to $400 billion — wealth increased by 77% after Trump’s victory
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become the first person in the world whose fortune has exceeded $440 billion.
Financial control is tightening: banks want to receive information about clients’ income and court cases through «Action»
As well as predicted earlierIn addition, some banks have signed a memorandum to tighten control over the payments of Ukrainians, both individuals and individual entrepreneurs. It will become more difficult to use banking services for those people who do not have confirmed legal income. But the innovations will also affect law-abiding citizens.
Time Magazine names AMD’s Lisa Su as CEO of the Year
AMD shares soared by 3700% since Lisa Su took over in 2014. By 2024, the company surpassed the value of its main competitor, and its processors became the most popular in the market.
Intel is among the top five «best-managed» companies in the US — despite losing 50% of its value and firing its CEO
The Drucker Institute and The Wall Street Journal have published their annual ranking of the 250 best-managed US companies — and, surprisingly, Intel made the list despite currently going through what might be the biggest crisis in its history.
No more than UAH 100,000 of card transfers, limitation of the number of accounts and checks for individual entrepreneurs – new restrictions
In the near future, 7 major Ukrainian banks intend to sign a memorandum to tighten restrictions on card transfers to individuals. It is also planned to limit the number of accounts in one currency. In addition, banks plan to strengthen financial monitoring of individual entrepreneurs. This is reported by Forbes Ukraine, citing the text of the…
Apple is sued for $1.2 billion for unfulfilled promises
Apple was sued for failing to implement tools to detect child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) in iCloud. The company had announced plans to scan iCloud for CSAM materials, but later abandoned them.
The average salary in Ukraine «increased» to ₴21,946. The largest increase is in IT (+37,7%), while the education sector lags behind
According to State Statistics Service, the average salary of full-time employees in Ukraine in the third quarter of 2024 increased by 22.3% to ₴21,946.
«Nova Poshta» in the United Kingdom: delivery and dispatch of parcels through the network to more than 7000 InPost post offices
“Nova Poshta” shared updates on the operation and expansion of its network in the United Kingdom. It is noted that there are currently more than 7000 InPost parcel lockers across the country.
China bans exports to the US of gallium, germanium, antimony, important for the production of electronics and weapons
Also, it is forbidden to export ultra-hard materials (diamonds) to the USA. Additionally, China has implemented enhanced end-use control of graphite products.
It didn’t work: the court blocked $56 billion in payments to Elon Musk from Tesla. Again!
It looks like Elon Musk will still be left without a $56 billion compensation package from Tesla. The court has blocked these payments. Again.
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