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First, we learned that Elon Musk had purchased enough shares of Twitter to become its largest individual shareholder. The company announced Musk would take a seat on its board of directors, but within the space of a week, that plan unraveled, and Musk informed the board he would not accept the position.   Elon’s next move came in the form of an unsolicited offer to buy 100 percent of Twitter’s shares for $54.20 each, or about $44 billion. Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $44 billion. Elon Musk was acquiring Twitter! Twitter then sued Musk in an effort to force him to finish the deal, and the fight is now headed to trial in Delaware’s Chancery Court in October. That is, of course, unless the two sides settle. With Elon Musk, you never know. On July 8th, after prolonged posturing and many, many tweets, Musk sent a letter to Twitter saying he plans on terminating their merger agreement, claiming the company is in material breach of the deal and accusing T...

As always, there is a lot to discuss. As the head of both Google and its parent company Alphabet, Pichai oversees one of the most expansive companies in the world. Google is a player in nearly every area of tech, from consumer hardware to driverless cars and the cloud. There is also, of course, its core search business, which remains as wildly profitable as ever but is seeing growing competition from TikTok and startups like Neeva.   Pichai is also in the middle of navigating another challenge: his own employees. He recently told them that they need to operate with “greater urgency” and that “we need to simplify the company and manage the complexity as we scale.” Even as governments are looking to crack down on Google’s dominance, Pichai has to also manage the challenge of leading one of the world’s most important companies through a fast-changing, uncertain economy.

Google has started sending out invites for its fall hardware event, which is set to take place on Thursday, October 6th, at 10AM ET. The event will launch the upcoming Pixel 7 phones, as well as the Pixel Watch — the company showed off both devices at its I/O event earlier this year, announcing they’re coming in the fall. Google also says it’ll use the event to announce new additions to the Nest smart home portfolio.   Google’s announcement comes just one day before Apple’s Far Out event, where it will reveal the iPhone 14 — you can follow all the news about those announcements here. Since Google’s last event, purported leaks have revealed even more about the devices, with both the Watch and phones seemingly making their way into people’s hands. As 9to5Google points out, the company itself is now revealing a little more information about the devices, with the Pixel 7’s product page saying that it’ll be powered by a next-gen chip called the Tensor G2. The Pixel 7 seems like it’ll be...

Google is rolling out patches to fix some Pixel bugs after the phones received the latest Android 13 update last month. The September 2022 monthly update is being delivered throughout the week to most devices, addressing issues like unexpected battery drain and disabled wireless charging.   The patch won’t arrive on Google’s newest phone, the Pixel 6A, until later this month. The Pixel 6A has one fix specifically included in the list, addressing its fingerprint scanner’s recognition “in certain conditions.” As noted by Consumer Reports, some owners of the new phone have found it will unlock using a finger they hadn’t registered or for the fingerprint of an entirely different person. https://twitter.com/madebygoogle/status/1567231278684033024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1567231278684033024%7Ctwgr%5E96f46e50974e2813aff43dad45bd69170ebb1aff%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2022%2F9%2F6%2F23339733%2Fgoogle-pixel-android-13-update-wirel...

The e-commerce firm operating with a focus on Africa, Jumia, has partnered with Zipline a drone-based logistics startup, to commence drone pick-up and delivery services in remote areas in Ghana.   Jumia's distribution networks and Zipline's automated delivery services will be integrated to provide drone logistics services in remote and rural areas in Ghana, to enable dwellers to order and receive electronics, cosmetics, fashion, and other needed items. As the first Africa-focused tech startup listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019, Jumia is an online marketplace for vendors and sellers and the platform is payment and logistics enabled. Zipline provides instant logistics services. It uses its technology stack, robotics, and autonomy to design, manufacture, and operate automated delivery systems. It currently provides drone delivery of blood, vaccines, and other medical equipment in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, and the US, including its recent expansion to Japan. The combined d...

The Brazilian government isn’t happy about Apple’s decision to stop including chargers starting with the launch of the iPhone 12 and has responded by suspending local sales of iPhones that don’t come packaged with chargers. In addition to halting some iPhone sales, Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security also ordered Apple to pay a fine of R$12,275,500 (about $2.3 million USD) and canceled the iPhone 12’s registration with Anatel, Brazil’s telecommunications agency that is similar to the FCC.   Apple said it would appeal the decision in a statement issued to Reuters. “We have already won several court rulings in Brazil on this matter and we are confident that our customers are aware of the various options for charging and connecting their devices,” said Apple. Brazil’s consumer protection agency, Senacon, argues that Apple’s decision to ditch the charger is a “burden” to customers and that Apple could find other ways to reduce its environmental impact — such as switching t...

Emonovo, formerly MARJ3, an edtech operating in the MENA region has raised a bridge round from angel investors in Europe and the US, and a follow-on investment from Flat6Labs, to improve its educational content offerings.   Founded in 2016, Emonovo is an edtech platform that evolved from a database for students to access global educational opportunities to a platform that uses data and technology to match students to high-ranking universities globally. It raised a pre-seed round in 2017 from Flat6Labs' FAC Egypt Fund which enabled it to grow and reach a wider audience in the Middle East, including attracting two million visitors to its website. The edtech startup secured a new round of investment from Dojo, a US-based expert, with which it launched Marj3 educational services to help students in the MENA region find suited universities. It is in partnership with 300 universities worldwide offering varying courses and is now focused on matching students and universities as its new ve...

Egypt-based tech startup, el-dokan, has raised $550 thousand in its pre-Seed funding round from local and regional investors including EFG EV, Flat6Labs, 500 Global, and Hala Ventures, to scale its e-commerce solutions offering.   Founded in 2020, el-dokan offers large retailers and retail stores e-commerce solutions to expand their market share, increase sales, and access operation automation. It also offers 300+ APIs that software companies and developers can leverage to develop e-commerce stores faster and more efficiently. The e-commerce-focused startup provides a technology infrastructure that enables tech teams to build highly customizable e-commerce with maximum flexibility to improve e-commerce business responsiveness and operations. el-dokan claims its API offering alongside its partners not only enables developers and businesses to set up e-commerce outlets but also cheaper, seamlessly, and drives growth and sales. Its technology infrastructure can be integrated with thir...

  The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) has announced its plans to create a free virtual zone area, in partnership with Binance Crypto Exchange and Talent City, to further create enabling environments for businesses and investments in the West African country. The NEPZA boss further indicated the virtual zone would be like the Dubai Virtual Free Zone which is currently operational. The Dubai Virtual Commercial City is a project by the Dubai government to be a hub for trade, innovation, and e-commerce. The virtual free zone idea for Nigeria is based on the successful implementation of its digital currency, eNaira, with which over N4 billion ($9.2 million) transactions have been completed since it launched in 2021. The Free Virtual Zone in Nigeria is targeted at expanding the frontiers of innovations in the operations. The Dubai virtual area allows companies to operate from anywhere in the world with full control over the businesses. The zone is also tax, tariff,...