business – Gloomberg News

3Mar

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Gaming

Square Enix CEO Who Constantly Pushed NFT Games To Be Replaced

Screenshot: Square Enix / KotakuSquare Enix is getting a new boss. Yosuke Matsuda has served as the Final Fantasy publisher’s CEO for 10 years, and spent the last couple of those hyping up NFTs and other blockchain scams. He’s now set to be replaced by a relative newcomer, pending shareholder approval in June.The company announced the organizational shakeup on Friday, claiming it was needed in order to chase more technological innovation. Takashi Kiryu, the new CEO, has only been at Square for a couple years, and prior to that was General Manager at the Dentsu Innovation Initiative, a business group exploring exciting opportunities in, among other things, the metaverse.Here’s the reason Square Enix gave for switching bosses:Under the rapid change of business environment surrounding the ent...

Learn How People in the Entertainment Industry Negotiate Their Contracts or Sign NDAs From Sheree Wright, the Founder of IBF Law Group

27Jan

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Entertainment

Learn How People in the Entertainment Industry Negotiate Their Contracts or Sign NDAs From Sheree Wright, the Founder of IBF Law Group

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 27, 2023 / IBF Law Group is composed of attorneys from diverse backgrounds. Many of them have firsthand experience navigating the complexities of the legal system, which makes them all the more eager and willing to help others in a similar situation."Some of the clients we represent include individuals in the entertainment industry such as athletes and artists, and also political candidates. We have represented clients during contract negotiations or the signing of non disclosure agreements, and more. Any of our staff members working with a client start by signing a Non Disclosure Agreement so that no one knows about the context of any case or the identification of the parties involved." Says Sheree Wright, the founder of IBF Law Group.When representing ...

China’s Ant Group Says Founder Jack Ma Will Give up Control

7Jan

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Business

China’s Ant Group Says Founder Jack Ma Will Give up Control

WASHINGTON (AP) — E-commerce billionaire Jack Ma will give up control of Ant Group, the leading Chinese financial technology provider he founded.In a statement posted Friday, Ant Group said that after an ownership restructuring, “no shareholder, alone or with other parties” will have “control over Ant Group.” The company is an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, which Ma also founded.The move follows other efforts over the years by the Chinese government to rein in Ma and the country's tech sector more broadly. Two years ago, the once high-profile Ma largely disappeared from view for 2 1/2 months after criticizing China's regulators.The government at the same time also forced Ant Group to call off a highly-anticipated IPO that would have raised over $3 billion, just days before it was t...

Microsoft Surface is nearly a $7 billion business after a decade

26Nov

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Business

Microsoft Surface is nearly a $7 billion business after a decade

Panos Panay, chief product officer of Microsoft Corp., displays the new Surface Laptop 3 computer during a Microsoft product event in New York on Oct. 2, 2019. Microsoft unveiled a dual-screen, foldable phone that will run on Google's Android operating system, jumping back into a market it exited years ago.Mark Kauzlarich | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMicrosoft made a splash in 2012 when it introduced the Surface, the first computer it had built in its 37 years of existence. The computers are still kicking 10 years later, with Microsoft issuing annual updates, but Surface's mega-growth is long in the past.Microsoft tried to reimagine tablets, which are made popular by the iPad, when it launched into the PC market. In 2012, the Surface with Windows RT, later named Surface RT, was more than just...

Citgo 6: How the US government brought seven Americans home

23Nov

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Politics

Citgo 6: How the US government brought seven Americans home

CNN — On October 1, five of the so-called Citgo 6 were woken up early in their Venezuelan prison by a guard telling them to “get dressed up properly.” The men put on their yellow prison suits – “We called it our ‘Minion’ suit,” Jose Pereira said – before they were instructed by the head of the prison to instead change into civilian clothes. “We said, ‘Why?’ and he said, ‘Well, because you’re going home,’” Pereira recounted to CNN. The day would mark the end to the “nightmare” that began nearly five years prior, when the six oil executives were lured to Venezuela for what they were told would be a business meeting right before Thanksgiving 2017. In addition to securing the ...

Malaysia’s 15th general election, explained: Floods, climate change and years of political instability

19Nov

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Politics

Malaysia’s 15th general election, explained: Floods, climate change and years of political instability

CNN — Malaysians will head to the polls on Saturday to vote for a new government following years of political turmoil. Three prime ministers have governed the Southeast Asian country since a febrile election with a record turnout was fought four years ago on the key issue of corruption. This time around, the economy – and the rising cost of living – is likely to be the key battleground. Meanwhile, climate change has become a potential disruptor following weeks of torrential downpours and flooding that has hindered campaigning across roughly half of the country. More heavy rain is predicted on polling day and could reduce voter turnout, but officials say the election will go on – rain ...

18Nov

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Gaming

Sonic Co-Creator Yuji Naka Arrested Over Dragon Quest Game

Over the past 24 hours a number of people in Japan—including a Square Enix employee—have been arrested on insider trading charges related to a Dragon Quest game announcement. Legendary Sega designer Yuji Naka is reportedly among them.The scandal centers around a studio called Aiming, which in 2020 was announced as the developer of a new Dragon Quest game, called Tact. Last night, it was first alleged that 38-year-old Square Enix employee Taisuke Sazaki, who has worked on Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games, knew of the deal before it was publicly announced, and along with a friend purchased a ton of shares in Aiming, hoping to profit when their share price (presumably) went up.Naka, 57, who is credited as one of the main creators of Sonic the Hedgehog and who has also worked on everythi...

Opinion: Inflation has driven US politics before

30Oct

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Politics

Opinion: Inflation has driven US politics before

Editor’s Note: Meg Jacobs teaches history at Princeton University. Follow her on Twitter @MegJacobs100. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. Read more opinion on CNN. CNN — President Joe Biden stands accused of playing politics with petroleum. His opponents say the reason he is releasing millions of barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is to bring prices at the pump down before the midterm elections. They might be right. As public opinion polls reveal, the economy appears to be the top issue for voters. As we approach the midterms, more and more candidates, especially in the GOP, are running on anti-inflati...

Brands have fled Kanye. What about his music career?

26Oct

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Business

Brands have fled Kanye. What about his music career?

New York CNN Business — Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — has lost partnerships with fashion brands including Gap, Balenciaga and Adidas following his antisemitic comments in recent weeks. Now, questions remain about the business that helped propel Ye onto the fashion scene in the first place: Music. Since 2004’s “The College Dropout” — his critically acclaimed and commercially successful debut album — Ye has been one of the most popular and notable artists in the world. He has had countless hits and 10 number-one albums, according to Billboard. But all of that could be at risk due to the performer’s recent behavior and comments. Over the past month, Ye has garnered an intense backla...

24Oct

By Gloomberg NewsNo Comments

Gaming

30 Million People Were Using Steam Today, A New All-Time Record

Image: SteamDBValve’s Steam platform launched all the way back in 2003, and for much of that time saw slow and steady growth as it grew from a place you could buy Half-Life games to the PC’s default gaming marketplace. What has happened over the last two years, though, has been incredible.In 2015, Steam set a record for concurrent users—the number of people logged into the service—at 10 million people. That was 12 years after the service launched.In 2017, we reported that Steam had set a new record, this time at 14 million. Not bad growth for just two years. In March 2020, that record had blown out to 20 million. March 2020 is an important point in this timeline; for most countries this is when the pandemic really kicked off, lockdowns began, and a lot more people started spending a lot m...