Wesam Nafaa - ShortNews in English

 GameStop Corp (GME.N) announced on Thursday that it had terminated the hiring of Chief Financial Officer Michael Recupero. The news sent shares of the video game retailer down 8 percent in after-hours trading. Axios, which first reported the exit, also cited a memo saying it was laying off an undisclosed number of employees. Shares closed up about 15% in regular trading after the company announced a 4-for-1 stock split late Wednesday. Recupero, who previously served as chief financial officer of Amazon's North American consumer business (AMZN.O), will be succeeded by chief accounting officer Diana Saadeh-Jajeh. The company also launched a digital asset wallet in May for storing, sending, receiving and using cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens. GameStop is at the heart of a stock-trading phenomenon in 2021, as retail investors banded together on social media forums to punish hedge funds that shorted stocks. The company also launched a digital asset wallet in May for storing, s...

 Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) is changing the way users log into its virtual reality headsets. The company is returning to a previous change of opening an account from the company's flagship Facebook app device while maintaining social connections there the link to the virtual world. The company will roll out new \'meta accounts\' starting in August, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post on Thursday. The social media giant announced plans last year to drop the Facebook login requirement after a backlash from users who previously had separate accounts with Oculus. With a new login structure, Meta accounts control device-level access and manage app purchases. People can also connect their profiles in a unified Meta Accounts Center that integrates existing social connections from Facebook, Instagram or Messenger into their virtual reality experience. For accounts not added to Accounts Center, the company will only combine user data across apps to count users and enforce s...

 Sam Bankman-Fried, head of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, said he and his company still have \'billions\' on hand to back what could further disrupt the digital asset industry. Bitcoin is down about 70% from its all-time high of nearly $69,000 in November. Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research has extended a $200 million cash and stablecoin revolving credit line and a bitcoin line to cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital (VOYG.TO) Voyager filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday. The firm suffers from cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows loss of capital. FTX extended a $250 million revolving line of credit to U.S. cryptocurrency lender BlockFi in June. The goal of the bailout is to protect customers' assets and prevent contagion from bouncing back through the system. In January, FTX launched FTX Ventures, a $2 billion venture capital fund focused on investing in digital assets. Bankman-Fried has made billions arbitraging ...

 Apple plans to release a new feature this fall called \\'Lockdown Mode\\' aimed at helping human rights defenders, dissidents and others. The move comes after at least two Israeli companies exploited a flaw in Apple's software to remotely hack into iPhones. NSO Group, the maker of \\'Pegasus\\' software that can perform such attacks, has been sued by Apple. Locked Mode will block most attachments sent to the iPhone's Messages app when turned on. Security researchers believe NSO Group exploited a vulnerability in Apple's handling of email attachments. Apple officials said they believe the sophisticated attacks the new feature is designed to combat are still relatively rare, and most users won't need to enable it. Spyware companies argue that they sell powerful technology to help governments thwart national security threats. Human rights groups and journalists have repeatedly documented the use of spyware to target civil society, disrupt political opposit...

 U.K. antitrust regulators said on Wednesday they were opening up a bid by Microsoft to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard. Britain's Competition and Markets Authority said it had until September 1 to make a first-stage decision on whether a deal between the US tech firm and video game maker Activision would reduce competition in the UK. Lisa Tanzi, Microsoft's corporate vice president and general counsel, said in an interview with Reuters: \\'We are committed to answering the questions raised by regulators and ultimately believe that a thorough scrutiny will help close the deal with broad confidence and have an impact on competition' Activision did not immediately respond to a request for comment. UK regulators are investigating Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal with Activision. In January, Microsoft announced it would acquire Activision Blizzard, the largest deal in the history of the gaming industry. The CMA's Phase 1 investigation will lead to either approv...

 U.S. cryptocurrency lender Voyager Digital (VOYG.TO) announced on Wednesday that it has filed for bankruptcy. Cryptocurrency lenders like Voyager have thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, attracting savers with high interest rates and easy access to credit rarely offered by traditional banks. New Jersey-based Celsius froze withdrawals in June and hired advisers who could file for bankruptcy protection. Voyager froze withdrawals this month, as did Singapore-based Vault, another bank. Last week, Voyager announced that it had issued a formal notice of default to Three Arrows Capital (3AC) for defaulting on crypto loans totaling more than $650 million. 'Continued volatility and contagion in the crypto market over the past few months, as well as Three Arrows Capital’s default on loans,' said Voyager CEO Stephen Ehrlich. New Jersey-based but Toronto-listed Voyager estimated it had more than 100,000 creditors with between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets and the same value in li...

 Facebook has asked a U.S. court for eight documents prepared by the FTC. The documents are part of its review of the company's purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC is asking the court to quash the two deals. Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014. The FTC sued Metas Facebook in 2020 during the Trump administration, accusing the company of unlawful conduct. Facebook is battling the lawsuit and wants the material to be part of that fight. The company argued that the FTC turned over the documents to the House Judiciary Committee as it probes tech giants. The FTC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filing. The requested documents include memos written for commissioners by the FTC’s Bureau of Competition and Economics on whether to allow the Instagram deal to pass. Meta also asked Competition Bureau staff to provide clarification about the WhatsApp transaction. The requested documents include memos written f...