1. Uber Has One of the Biggest IPOs
Uber has finally joined the big boys on Wall Street as they went public today, trading under the ticker symbol “UBER”, making this feat one of the largest IPOs in US history. This is the biggest tech IPO since Facebook in 2012. Uber has an initial valuation of $75.5B and priced its IPO at $45 a share. However, it hasn’t been the best week for the debut. Earlier this week, Uber and Lyft drivers went on strike; President Trump threatened to impose higher tariffs on China, fueling ongoing market concerns over the US and China trade war; and Lyft released its first earnings report since going public, which revealed more than $1B in losses during the first three months of this year. Coining themselves the “Amazon for transportation”, Uber is still valued almost 5X as much as Lyft. It’s too close to call on whether Uber will cruise onto Amazon’s successful path or crash like Lyft.
(Source: Business Insider, CNN Business)
2. Hackers Steal from Amazon Sellers
Amazon announced that they are victims of a “serious” attack by hackers who stole funds from sellers over a six-month period. From May to October of 2018, hackers directed cash from sales into their bank accounts. Amazon believes the hackers changed account details on the Seller Central platform to Barclays Plc and Prepay Technologies Ltd. Hackers used phishing to con sellers into revealing private login credentials. How much did they steal? Amazon issued $1B in loans to sellers in 2018 but does not know exactly how much the hackers stole. As the globe’s biggest online retailer, Amazon faces unique challenges. The automated nature of the work makes attacks easy and hard to track.
3. Baby Archie: Welcome to the Royal Fam
The son of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was born on Wednesday. They named him Archie; not Prince Archie; not Archie, Earl of Dumbarton… just Archie. Technically, Archie is first in line as his father’s royal heir, but his parents want to give him a “normal” life. In fact, they have chosen to keep all the details surrounding the baby’s birth private and only plan to share the exciting news with everyone “once they have had an opportunity to celebrate privately as a new family.” Prince Harry told Newsweek in 2017, “I am determined to have a relatively normal life, and if I am lucky enough to have children, they can have one too.” But the TV series Riverdale is getting a kick out of the fact that its main character is named Archie. Are the royals Riverdale fans? We don’t know for sure, but Riverdale is sure having fun with it.
“Proud to be Archie,” they tweeted.
Proud to be Archie. 👶👑 #Riverdale is new TONIGHT at 8/7c on The CW! pic.twitter.com/2G1hXB4c6d
— Riverdale (@CW_Riverdale) May 8, 2019
Better yet, series creator, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, photoshopped an image of actor KJ Apa (Riverdale’s “Archie”) onto royal baby Archie’s head in a tweet. S’cute.
A new Archie–er, #Riverdale in ten minutes!!! 👶🏻🍼👶🏻🍼❤️🏆💎 pic.twitter.com/JXyhAIV9g6
— RobertoAguirreSacasa (@WriterRAS) May 8, 2019
