10 things in tech you need to know today, August 8

Elon
Musk.
AP

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this
Wednesday.

1.
Snap’s stock price soared after beating Wall Street expectations
— then plummeted on signs of weakness to come. The
company reported its first ever decline in daily active users,
but beat expectations on revenue for its second quarter earnings.

2. Snap received a
fresh cash injection from the Saudi royal family, but at a steep
discount. Prince Al-Waleed Talal said he had
invested $250 million in exchange for a 2.3% stake, giving Snap a
$10.8 billion valuation, according to TechCrunch.

3.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that he wants to take Tesla
private at $420 per share. He said the pressures of
being a public company created distractions and promoted
short-term thinking that may not produce the best decisions in
the long-term.

4.
Emails obtained by Business Insider show how two US scooter
startups, Lime and Bird, are lobbying to bring electric scooters
to the UK, even though they are illegal. Bird in
particular has said it’s interested in trying to change current
legislation, which means electric scooters are forbidden on
public streets and pavements.

5.
Indian cab-hailing giant Ola will launch in the UK to challenge
Uber. The launch means a major investor in both Ola
and Uber, SoftBank, is effectively going to war with itself.

6.
Heather Schuster, head of unscripted TV at Amazon Studios, is
leaving following an internal investigation into alleged comments
she made in a meeting. According to media reports,
Schuster engaged in “verbally abusive” behaviour.

7.
A state-backed Chinese publication ran a comment piece on Monday
welcoming Google back to China, but then deleted all traces of
the post. The People’s Daily wrote on Monday that
Google could return to China if it played by the rules, but then
deleted the comment piece.

8. 
Samsung will invest around $160 billion in key research and
development areas to help it remain future-proof.
The company plans to spend the money in memory chips, artificial
intelligence, and 5G wireless networks, according to Bloomberg.

9.
Chinese state media warned that Apple could be used as a
‘bargaining chip’ in any trade dispute with the US.
The People’s Daily said Apple had benefited from cheap labour and
parts in China to reach its $1 trillion valuation.

10. Slack is
reportedly raising $400 million in new funding at a possible
valuation of $7 billion, according to TechCrunch.
The round is thought to be led by a new investor, General
Atlantic.

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