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13H

Industrial VR/XR firm Varjo raises $54mn in Series C funding
Industrial-grade VR/XR hardware and software firm Varjo has raised $54 million in Series C funding. Tesi, NordicNinja, and Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank are among the new investors. There was also participation from existing investors including Lifeline Ventures, Atomico, EQT Ventures and Volvo Cars Tech Fund. In addition, it named its previous COO Timo Toikkanen as its new CEO.

SOURCES:

Varjo TechCrunch VentureBeat

TWEETS:

@varjodotcom @NordicNinjaVC @robhof

16H

Liberty Global to buy Sunrise for $7.4 billion
Liberty Global is to acquire Sunrise Communications in a deal worth $7.4 billion. Last year, Sunrise attempted to buy UPC Switzerland from Liberty but failed. This flipped deal will create a strong rival to market leader Swisscom, while also hastening the rollout of 5G in the country. "The real winners are Swiss consumers and businesses," said Liberty Global's CEO Mike Fries.

SOURCES:

Business Wire Telecoms.com Financial Times Hollywood Reporter

TWEETS:

@mobileworldlive @business @MarioGabelli @theedgemalaysia @totaltelecom @THR

16H

Microsoft cans Dataflex brand just weeks after unveiling
Microsoft has quietly removed all mention of Dataflex, the name of its low-code platform for Teams. In news first reported by ZDNet, Microsoft began deleting pages referring to Dataflex on August 10. The Dataflex trademark is held by Data Access Worldwide. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the move to ZDNet, saying: "We decided to select a new name and we will share it in the coming weeks."

SOURCES:

ZDNet SiliconAngle

TWEETS:

@jukkan @ChrisO_Brien @onmsft

16H

Nissan taps Oracle cloud for simulation workloads
Nissan is migrating its on-premises, high-performance computing workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Nissan is one of the first automotive OEMs to leverage GPU technology in Oracle Cloud for structural simulation and remote visualisation. By using Oracle's bare-metal hardware, Nissan reduces the cost and overhead of large data transfer, while ensuring data can be viewed in the cloud.

SOURCES:

Data Center Dynamics ZDNet PR Newswire

TWEETS:

@HPC_Guru @ZDNet @Oracle

20H

Google and Qualcomm back HMD Global in $230 million round
HMD Global has been backed to the tune of $230 million. Existing investors Google and Qualcomm were among those to have got involved in the Series A2 round. HMD hinted that there could be more cash to come. HMD designs and markets Nokia mobile phones. Nokia's consumer division also supported the round. Earlier this year HMD, a Finnish firm, unveiled its first 5G device.

SOURCES:

Venture Beat Tech Crunch CNBC Reuters Pymnts.com

TWEETS:

@Ryan_Browne_ @sarvikas @Pocketnow @technology @DBaptistaSilva @mehta_ajey

Coca-Cola signs multiyear hybrid cloud deal with IBM
Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has signed a multiyear cloud agreement with IBM. CCEP said the deal is expected to accelerate its transformation to an open hybrid cloud environment using Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The move is designed to reduce its operational expenses, increase IT resiliency and leverage analytics and AI in its daily operations, according to IBM.

SOURCES:

Computer Weekly Food Manufacture IBM

TWEETS:

@IBMEurope @IBMNews @FoodManufacture

SiFive gets $60 million for open-source chips
SiFive, a rival to Arm in the open-source semiconductor space, has raised $60 million in fresh funding. Intel and Qualcomm are among the high-profile companies to have provided investment. SiFive builds chips based on the RISC-V architecture. “SiFive is well-positioned to grow," said the VP of strategy for SK Hynix, another investor. Arm is rumoured to be in talks over a sale to NVIDIA.

SOURCES:

Reuters Electronics Weekly New York Times

TWEETS:

@cavemanjim @PaulyAlcorn @TechPowerUp @DaraWehmeyer

Ed Walsh departs as IBM's storage head to take over at ChaosSearch
Ed Walsh is leaving IBM as its GM, Storage, to take up the position of CEO at log data analytics startup ChaosSearch. Walsh joined IBM four years ago from Catalogic Software, where he had served as CEO. “The decision to leave IBM was extremely difficult for me, but the decision to join ChaosSearch was very easy,” said Walsh. Walsh has successfully led and sold four high-growth starts-ups as CEO.

SOURCES:

Silicon Angle Blocks & Files Business Wire

TWEETS:

@ChaosSearch @stu @CombinaMaster

DoD asks for another month to consider $10bn JEDI ruling
The U.S.'s Department of Defense (DoD) has asked for more time to consider the dispute over its $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project. It has requested a month's extension to make its final ruling, pushing it back to September 16. Neither Amazon Web Services or Microsoft - the two parties fighting over the high-profile contract - are expected to challenge the request.

SOURCES:

GeekWire SiliconAngle FedScoop

TWEETS:

@lewisshepherd @fedscoop @robhof

U.S. boosts 5G plans
The White House has announced plans to release more spectrum as it steps up its 5G ambitions. 100 megahertz of spectrum, previously set aside for military use, will be made commercially available from 2022. Officials emphasised that this decision "does not compromise" national security. “This is a key milestone in securing United States leadership in 5G,” said FCC chairman Ajit Pai.

SOURCES:

CNET Fierce Wireless White House Reuters Wired Wall Street Journal Tech Crunch

TWEETS:

@GeoTechive @LJT_is_me @worldvoipcenter @fortechnite @ForumLucca @divhmishra

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