Tech Stock in Trouble

Billions of dollars have been lost as stock value of companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are hit by the continued drop in Tech Stock.

This my not seem important to most, as people don’t actively participate in the Stock Market. But if you have a 401(K) or IRA, which is most North American citizens, then its likely you have investments in one or two popular companies.

This is important news as Tech companies (Facebook, Apple, Google and Microsoft) are positioned as top most popular mutual stock fund investment. Tech companies have gained increasing importance in relation to the US economy, which in turn makes it difficult to not want to invest in them.

Tech Stock has usually been viewed as a durable, long-term investment which will see continued growth in the long run, so people are quick to bet on companies like Facebook and Amazon and new markets they are opening. But because of this very reason, research into unknown an untested technologies ins VR, OS, storage, phones or game consoles can cause people to doubt a company and their directions.

This is worth considering as the start of drop can be linked to a selloff in Apple stock, closely after their WWDC and may be related to their new lineup of computers and laptops as well as OS.

 

Multi-million Dollar Loss for Uber

Following its last 3 months of 2016 and the financial loss of 991 million dollars, this recent quarter has resulted on a 702 million dollar loss and the departure of Gautam Gupta, their Finance Head. He is only the latest of executive to depart the company.

Uber has lost their Head of Communication and President among multiple other top level executives and has suffered its fair share of scandals involving sexual harassment and the Department of Justice looking into recent allegations of Uber undermining and trying to thwart authorities trying  to determine if they comply with regulations.

This is all negative news for the company, but at the moment they are siting safe with approximately 7.2 billion dollars saved up. It is up to Uber to improve their culture, management and leadership in its field and try to avoid acting or conducting themselves in ways that could lead to more lawsuits and allegations against them.

Extraditing Hackers

A Czech court ruling on a case involving the hacking of computers belonging to US companies states the alleged hacker can be extradited to Russia or USA.

The hacker, Yevgeniy Nikulin, was arrested by Czech police with the help of the FBI after Interpol issued the international warrant. Yevgeniy is sought after by the US because of his involvement in hacking Linkedin and Dropbox, among other companies. Russian had also been after him for a separate charge of Internet theft in 2009. Because of this, the Russians have been trying to prevent his extradition to the US and have him sent to Russia.

With the new ruling, both extradition request have been validated and currently Nikulin has only appealed his extradition to the United States. He has three days to decide if he will agree to being extradited to Russia.

This story could take a step deeper, if a statement of the accused is true.

The defense lawyers have rejected the US charges, stating the US has been looking to turn him into a political pawn; urging him to falsely testify that he cooperated in the hacking attack on the Democratic National Committee ordered by Russian authorities and in exchange, he would receive money and a life in the United States.

This is part of the US ongoing investigation and accusation of alleged Russian involvement in their presidential elections. An accusation Russia has vigorously denied that.