AnalytixInsight

Toronto’s tech sector once again swept venture funding records away in the first quarter of 2022, according to a new report from briefed.in. Despite a seemingly favourable start to the year, there are signs Toronto’s roaring tech sector may cool off in the coming quarters. The city’s previous venture funding record, which totalled $1.7 billion, was set in Q2 2021. Shopify is in talks to buy tech startup Deliverr in a deal, which could value San Francisco-based Deliverr at more than US$2 billion. At the same time, Amazon announced a new program will allow Prime members to buy products on platforms that aren’t Amazon.com, but using their Amazon account details. Importantly, those products will then be delivered like Amazon products, with a commitment to two-day delivery. The move will put Amazon at odds with the likes of Shopify, which provides software to merchants to run online stories, and delivery companies like FedEx and UPS. Shares of Didi Global dropped 17% in premarket trading on Monday, after the China ride-share group over the weekend announced a 12% drop in fourth-quarter revenue from a year earlier and plans to vote on a delisting from the New York Stock Exchange. Walt Disney stock heads for 17-month low as Florida, streaming troubles weigh. Netflix stock slid 27% premarket and dragged down Disney, Roku, and Warner Bros, after the Company’s first subscriber decline in years. Snap reported a jump in users for the first three months of the year but warned global problems such the war in Ukraine weighed on demand for its digital advertising, and it forecast a weaker second quarter than expected. Shares fell 10% in after-hours trading. Musk to explore potential tender offer for Twitter, has US$46.5 billion in committed financing for deal. Crypto stocks perform worse than cryptocurrencies, according to data from CoinMarketCap FactSet.

Viral Nation, announced an initial funding round of $250 million led by Eldridge, with participation from Maverix Private Equity, to fuel the company’s technology and market growth strategies. Founded as an influencer marketing agency in 2014, Viral Nation has evolved to meet the needs of an impressive roster of Global 500 clients. Bigg Digital Assets Inc. is reporting that its subsidiary, Netcoins, experienced a security breach that allegedly allowed a customer to fraudulently withdraw an estimated $1.58 million. The startup reported the software vulnerability was fixed within an hour. Canada has lost $154 million in cryptocurrency through three breaches and one fraud between 2011 and 2021, according to a report from Crystablockchain.com. As the Twitter – Elon Musk drama unfolds, including Elon Musk now being sued by former Twitter shareholders; Twitter Inc. announced on Friday that the company has adopted a shareholder rights plan, or “poison pill,” that will reduce the chances that a person or group will take control of the company. The announcement comes after Elon Musk’s offer of US$54.20 per share was made public on Thursday. Bucking the gloom of other tech equities, shares of Indonesian ride-hailing and e-commerce company GoTo rose as much as 23% after it raised US$1.1 billion in its domestic stock market debut. Oracle-backed server processor startup Ampere Computing said Monday that it plans to go public, filing initial confidential paperwork with the SEC. Epic Games said on Monday it had raised US$2 billion from Sony Group Corp and the family owned holding company behind the Lego Group, valuing the “Fortnite” creator at US$31.5 billion. Charlie Munger’s Daily Journal halved its Alibaba stake to 300,000 shares last quarter. The newspaper publisher nearly quadrupled its Alibaba holdings during the second half of 2021. Amazon is hitting its sellers with a 5% fee due to inflation and increased fuel costs, and there’s a good chance products will get more expensive as a result.