The New York Times Company reached its goal of 10 million subscriptions ahead of schedule, aided substantially by the 1.2 million it gained by buying the sports news website The Athletic. The $550 million deal for The Athletic was completed on Tuesday, adding 375,000 digital subscriptions in the final three months of 2021.
The International Olympic Committee is launching a mobile game based on the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, incorporating NFTs to represent virtual properties. The app will allow users to buy digital version of the Olympic pins, which are licensed by the IOC. The move comes a day after the Chinese government announced that it will stamp out crypto-related activities.
Alberta is looking to become an international destination for the cryptocurrency industry. The province is placing itself on a path to host all aspects of the crypto world including digital token mining and data centres. A number of crypto-related firms have already made Alberta their home base including Terraform and Bitcoin Well.
Shares in Sony Group Corp slid as much as 8.8% in early trade in Tokyo on Thursday. Concerns about its gaming business re-emerge amid component shortages and competition from rivals. Sony fell almost 13% last month after rival Microsoft announced it was buying Activision Blizzard.
IBM is deploying the quantum computer known as IBM Quantum System One in Canada for the first time. The partnership with Quebec would integrate quantum computing with cloud technologies, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle broader challenges like the environment. The quantum computer is expected to be available for use at its facility in Bromont, Quebec by early 2023.
IT systems disrupted at Oiltanking, SEA-Invest and Evos in the Netherlands. Dozens of terminals with oil storage and transport around the world affected. Experts caution against assuming this is a co-ordinated attack. Belgian prosecutors say they are investigating the cyber-attack.
Benyamin Ahmed, 12, is a London eighth grader with a knack for coming up with original images. He has turned his skill into a massive crypto wallet worth about $1 million. His signature collection of 3,350 pixelated images features whales wearing baseball caps or sweatbands.
Google is adding a new version of its productivity service to Workspace. The new Google Workspace Essentials plan is free for users with a non-Google email address. The company wants to bring more business users onto the platform by offering the basic tools. There's no Gmail included in this edition, but you can still use the standard productivity tools.
Netflix has released a teaser for its upcoming slate of films. The three-minute sizzle reel is packed with footage from upcoming films. There are more than 70 films on the docket for this year. The company will release at least one movie a week in 2022.
GameStop is launching a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) The company is also co-creating an $100 million fund for game developers who use it. The new marketplace is supposed to launch later this year. It's built on Immutable X, a platform based on the popular cryptocurrency blockchain.
Nasdaq and S&P 500 tumbled 2.5% and 1.5%, respectively. Facebook's shares vaporised $200 billion of its market value in early trading. Europe's main bourses fell 1.3%, having already been sapped by the Bank of England’s second rate hike in three months.