Microsoft confirms its interest to buy TikTok, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos added billions to their bank accounts during the height of the pandemic, and NASA astronauts return home after a critical SpaceX mission.
 |
 |
 |
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. We hope everyone had a great long weekend or depending on where you’re listening from, a wonderful normal weekend. Welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Tuesday Aug. 4 and I”m your host, Alex Coop.
Exclusive: Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to clinch TikTok deal from technology
Following talks between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald Trump, Microsoft says it will continue discussing the acquisition of TikTok’s U.S. operations with its owner, Chinese technology company ByteDance. The U.S. tech giant announced in a blog post that it is seeking to conclude talks around a deal by Sept. 15, and that it’s “committed” to addressing the president’s concerns over the video-sharing platform. Trump had threatened to ban the app late last week, citing national security. It wasn’t that long ago that thousands of TikTok users purchased tickets to Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa Oklahoma, artificially inflating the number of people the campaign team had expected to attend the rally. Shortly after that, reports surfaced highlighting TikTok’s ongoing clipboard snooping tactics on the iOS platform. It’s been a wild ride for TikTok over the past couple months, to say the least.
Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos got $14 billion richer in a single day as Facebook and Amazon shrugged off the coronavirus recession from technology
Last week, some of the wealthiest executives added billions to their wealth, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. The news came after Facebook, Amazon, and Apple all blew past quarterly earnings expectations and largely walked away from the past couple of months unscathed, despite the widespread losses elsewhere in equity markets. When the dust settled from Friday’s trading session into Monday morning, Business Insider reported that Facebook had climbed 8.2% to a record high of $253.67, netting CEO Mark Zuckerberg $7 billion in the process. Amazon, meanwhile, closed up 3.7% at $3,164.68, increasing CEO Jeff Bezos’ wealth by a similar $7 billion.
NASA astronauts safely drop into sea after pioneering SpaceX mission to International Space Station from technology
And lastly, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley became the first American astronauts to splashdown in 45 years when they landed in the capsule made by Elon Musk’s space firm on Aug. 2. The mission began late May when the two men took part in the first launch of astronauts from US soil in nearly a decade. Musk’s SpaceX became the first private company to send humans to orbit with the launch of Behnken and Hurley, who will have spent more than two months on the space station upon returning. The successful mission opens the door further to more complicated space missions and commercial space flights.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing.I’m Alex Coop, thanks for listening.
