500M

Swedish gaming company Embracer Group has sold a big chunk of one of its biggest subsidiaries, US-headquartered Saber Interactive, in a deal totalling $500mn.  The buyer is Beacon Interactive, a holding company recently formed by none other than Saber’s own co-founder Matthew Karch. In a letter shared with Bloomberg, Karch said he was buying back the rights to his company and many of its studios because “they represent the best of what Saber is and can be.”  Saber Interactive is currently…

Deel is on an acquisition march. On Tuesday, the HR startup announced it is acquiring African-based payroll and HR software and services company PaySpace in a deal that marks its largest acquisition to date. The move comes less than one week after Deel announced it had picked up Munich-based Zavvy, an AI-based “people development” startup building tools for personalized career progression, training and performance management. Financial terms of the PaySpace acquisition were not disclosed.  Johannesburg-based PaySpace…

A French startup acclaimed for a Barbie selfie generator has raised $43mn round at a $500mn valuation in a showcase for meme magic. Paris-based Photoroom raised the eye-popping sums in a Series B round led by Balderton Capital and French VC Aglaé Ventures. Y-Combinator also contributed to the cash injection, which brings Photoroom’s total funding to a cool $64mn. The startup claims to have developed the world’s most popular AI photo editor. Since launching in 2019, the app has been downloaded…

The parent company of Amsterdam-based Booking.com faces a record fine from Spain’s antitrust watchdog, as Europe steps up its efforts to crack down on tech giants and create breathing room for smaller companies. Following a probe launched in 2022, Spain’s National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has found Booking Holdings guilty of anti-competitive practices, the online travel giant said in a statement on Thursday.  The alleged infringements include preventing local hotel groups from…

The European Union is set to fine Apple €500mn for allegedly elbowing out competitors to its music streaming business, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing unmanned sources familiar with the matter.   EU officials first started investigating the matter in 2019, following a complaint for Spotify. The Swedish company claimed it was made to ramp up its monthly subscription to cover the 30% fee Apple charges to operate on its App Store. This would force it to charge more for its service…

Apple has been accused of breaking EU law over access to music streaming services on its platforms, and will be hit with a €500 million fine from the European Commission.The news comes via a report from the Financial Times (paywall), which has spoken to five sources with direct knowledge of the ongoing case.While the verdict isn't public until its announcement "early next month", the report suggests Apple unfairly prevented apps from suggesting payment methods outside of the App Store.Spotify brought the initial…

Pinterest announced a new ad deal with Google as the company aims to ramp up its ad revenue. Google is the social platform’s second third-party ad partner after Amazon signed a multiyear deal with Pinterest last year. The company talked about the Google partnership during the earnings call for Q4 2023, where it posted results below analyst expectations. Pinterest’s revenue for the period was $981 million with 12% year-on-year growth. While monthly active users jumped to 498 million with 11%…

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, February 5th, 2024, ChainwireAfter Sui’s TVL surged more than 1500% over the last five months of 2023, its TVL has more than doubled since the start of 2024Sui, one of the fastest-growing Layer 1 blockchains, continued its impressive DeFi growth, surpassing $500M in Total Value Locked (TVL) and solidifying itself in the top 10 of DeFi ecosystems. Alongside this torrid ascent of TVL, on-chain activity has exploded as well. Weekly DeFi volume is up 63 percent over the previous…

It’s no secret that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been engaged in multiple legal disputes over the past few years. The couple – who split in 2016 – found themselves entangled in divorce proceedings that raged on for several years. And, for nearly two years now, they’ve been engaged in another court battle since Pitt filed suit against Jolie in February 2022 over the $500 million winery they once owned together. Now, it would seem that the Troy star has seen a legal victory in the back-and-forth as of late. In the…

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday said it injected an additional $500 million into the foreign exchange market. This comes barely a week after it announced that it had so far disbursed approximately $2 billion across pivotal sectors like manufacturing, aviation, and petroleum. A statement signed by the Acting Director of the Corporate Communications Department at the CBN, Hakama Ali, said the management of the CBN is committed to settling all legitimate foreign exchange backlogs within a short time…