A corporate giant is eyeing to scoop up TikTok, Uber and Lyft may not shut down in California after all, and Apple is a valuable company, didja know?
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Friday, August 21, and I’m your host Alex Coop.
An expected entrant in the TikTok sweepstakes has made itself known. The software maker is joining the race to acquire the video-sharing app, The Financial Times reports, citing anonymous sources. President Donald Trump has expressed support for Oracle to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations from Chinese owner ByteDance, calling it a “great company.” The White House has given ByteDance a fall deadline to sell the app to a U.S. company or face a national ban. Microsoft says it was in negotiations over the business. Twitter is also in the mix and is pondering an offer.
Uber and Lyft did not shut down at midnight Thursday as originally planned after being granted an emergency stay in their appeal of a court ruling that said drivers must be classified as employees, not contractors. And while the decision to stay open is big news, the chatter on social media is dominated by the fact Lyft and its competitor Uber were planning to temporarily exit California after a judge ruled that the companies must classify drivers as employees. If drivers were to be identified as employees, they would be guaranteed minimum wage, benefits, and protections associated with employee status.
And lastly, there’s still a bunch of buzz about how Apple is now the first U.S. company to top US$2 trillion in market value after its shares rose above US$467.77 Wednesday. The iPhone maker has seen its stock double since the start of the pandemic six months ago, as people rely more heavily on technology to work from home. That work from home trend is lifting internet companies far above other industries in value, as investors search for growth amid a stagnant economy.
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.