LATEST TECH NEWS: Jack Ma to resign as director. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, May 18, 2020

These 5 latest stories from the tech space will keep you updated with trends today.

1. Jack Ma to resign as director of SoftBank

SoftBank Group announced Monday, May 18 that Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group, will step down from its board after serving as a director for 13 years. According to a public statement from the organisation, Ma’s resignation would be effective on June 25, the date of SoftBank Group’s annual shareholder meeting.

Although, the company did not give a reason for the resignation, but over the past year, Ma has been pulling back from business roles to focus on philanthropy. Recall that in September 2019, he also resigned as Alibaba’s chairman. Ma has a long business relationship with Softbank Group chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son.

2. SA insurtech CompariSure lands investment

Cape Town-based insurtech startup CompariSure has secured venture capital (VC) funding from SA Umkhathi Wethu Ventures in partnership with Allan Gray. This deal comes off the back of CompariSure’s first external investment deal concluded in August last year with SA VC company 4Di Capital.

However, the details of the latest investment, as well as that of the 4Di Capital investment, were not disclosed. In a statement on Monday, May 18, Kloos explained that at the time that the original deal was concluded in August last year. CompariSure said it had recently begun licensing out its chatbot technology to insurance providers looking to enhance their own digital capabilities.

Tech Trivia:

What was the first FIFA World Cup to be fully filmed in 4K?

A. Russia 2018
B. Brazil 2014
C. Qatar 2022
D. Germany 2006

Answer: See end of post.

3. General Atlantic to invest $870M in Reliance Jio Platforms

Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms has agreed to sell its 1.34% stake to General Atlantic, the latest in a series of deals the top Indian telecom operator has secured in recent weeks. On Sunday, May 18, New York-headquartered private equity firm General Atlantic said it would invest $870 million in the Indian telecom operator, a subsidiary of India’s most valued firm (Reliance Industries).

Read also: LATEST TECH NEWS: 3 Nigerian tech startups secure funding from VC. 4 other things and a trivia you need to know today, May 15, 2020

This is the company joining fellow American investors Facebook, Silver Lake, and Vista Equity Partners that have also made sizeable bets on the three-and-a-half-year old Indian firm. General Atlantic’s investment values Jio Platforms at $65 billion — the same valuation implied by the Silver Lake and Vista deals and a 12.5% premium over Facebook’s deal, the Indian firm said.

4. China’s Oppo partners Vodafone to penetrate Europe

Chinese firm, Oppo, has announced a partnership with Vodafone to bring its smartphones to the mobile carrier’s European markets. According to media reports, the deal kicked off in May and will sell Oppo’s portfolio of advanced 5G handsets as well as value-for-money models into the U.K, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Romania and Turkey.

While Vodafone pulled Huawei phones from its U.K. 5G network last year following the U.S. export ban that stripped Huawei models of certain Android services, the British operator can now tap Oppo’s wide range of mobile products in a heated race to sign up 5G customers. The deal see the partners to jointly explore online sales channels as many parts of Europe’s physical premises remain closed due to the COVID-19.

5. Developers Tsitsi Marote and Tino Manhema win R100k

Developers Tsitsi Marote and Tino Manhema from Guardian Health have taken home R100 000 after last month winning a virtual hackathon. The hackathon was run by South African based messaging app Ayoba, together with the UCT Graduate School of Business’s Solution Space and Geekulcha.

The event introduced Ayoba as a platform for developers. Over the Hackathon period, startups were given preview access to a developer sandbox environment. Ayoba hackathon winners Tsitsi Marote and Tino Manhema walked away with a cash prize of R100k. The teams were set a challenge to make the most creative use of the Ayoba platform to build services and solutions that meet the daily needs of African consumers and businesses.

Tech Trivia Answer: Russia 2018

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will mark the first time all 64 matches will be recorded and produced in 4K UHD with High Dynamic Range. FIFA came out with all guns blazing for Russia 2018 where every match was covered by a whooping 37 cameras. The filming setup consisted of a hybrid UHD/HDR/1080p array with multiple choice of video formats (1080i, 1080p or UHD HDR) at the back of one single production chain.

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