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Miovision acquires Winnipeg’s MicroTraffic to better predict traffic collisions (BETAKIT)
With the use of machine learning and predictive modelling, MicroTraffic analyzes traffic data to help road safety engineers recommend plans for safer intersections. According to the company, its tech can result in an up to 80 percent reduction in risk.
MicroTaffic marks Miovision’s third acquisition to date.
At Marc Benioff’s Salesforce, it’s one big family—until trouble hits (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
Through the sky’s-the-limit boom years, Marc Benioff, the co-founder and chief executive of Salesforce Inc., told employees they were bound together like family. In today’s leaner times, he is laying off thousands of them.
Paper acquires MajorClarity to add post-secondary planning into its K-12 platform(BETAKIT)
Montréal-based Paper has acquired MajorClarity with the goal of integrating its career and college readiness tool into Paper’s online tutoring platform. MajorClarity offers post-secondary planning for students, including those taking alternate routes to university or college.
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Lidiane Jones, Slack’s new CEO, is the glue between it and Salesforce (FAST COMPANY)
When Jones entered the running (for CEO), she was an intriguing but somewhat mysterious figure at Slack. “I remember Bret told me very early on after the Slack acquisition, ‘Lidiane, she’s one of the really special ones here—you should get to know her,” says Noah Weiss, Slack's chief product officer.
How to build a diverse talent ecosystem for Canada (BETAKIT)
In an Op-Ed, Palette Skills Chief Strategy Officer AJ Tibando says Canada seems well placed when it comes to talent acquisition, particularly in tech and innovation.
However, Tibando argues that firms still struggle to recruit workers and an educated workforce alone is not enough to solve Canada's talent crunch.
Canada bans TikTok on all government devices. Here’s what you need to know(THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
Following the launch of an investigation by Canadian privacy commissioners, TikTok has been banned on government phones amid increasing cybersecurity concerns surrounding TikTok’s parent company ByteDance.
Hootsuite follows Twitter lead as company ditches free plans(BETAKIT)
The decision came weeks after Twitter first announced that it is ending free access to its application programming interface (API) service.
The news of Twitter’s decision was met with concern that cutting off free access to APIs for developers would lead to the shutdown of a number of third-party apps.
Cloud security startup Wiz, now valued at $10B, raises $300M(TECHCRUNCH)
While a decline from the previous year, venture capital funding in the cybersecurity sector totaled $18.5 billion in 2022, according to Momentum Cyber.
The popularity comes in part from the rise in cyberattacks. Check Point Research reports that global cyberattacks increased by 38% in 2022 compared to 2021, and nearly nine in 10 company boards told Gartner in a recent survey that they view cybersecurity as a “business risk” rather than solely a technical or IT issue.
LastPass says employee’s home computer was hacked and corporate vault taken(ARSTECHNICA)
Already reeling from a breach that put partially encrypted login data into a threat actor’s hands, 1Password competitor LastPass announced that the same attacker hacked an employee’s home computer and obtained a decrypted vault available to only a handful of company developers.
Canada’s small businesses want open banking, too (BETAKIT)
According to a recent survey by Mastercard, over the past two years 90 percent of small business owners with disabilities, 79 percent of Indigenous small business owners, and 71 percent of women small business owners have sought out new digital tools to manage their businesses.
‘Sometimes things break’: Twitter outages are on the rise (THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Twitter’s reliability has deteriorated as Elon Musk has repeatedly slashed the company’s work force. After another round of layoffs on Saturday, Twitter has fewer than 2,000 employees, down from 7,500 when Musk took over in October. The latest cuts affected dozens of engineers responsible for keeping the site online, three current and former employees said.
Latest Alberta, BC budgets target talent shortage with otherwise minimal new tech investment (BETAKIT)
Though British Columbia and Alberta’s latest budgets allocate some funding towards each province’s innovation sector, the promises for tech were minimal, with industry stakeholders hoping to see more for the sector and small-to-medium-sized businesses.
Thoughtworks lays off around 500 employees amid ongoing slowdowns(TECHCRUNCH)
Earlier this week, Thoughtworks reported an 8.3% year-over-year surge in quarterly revenue compared to the same period last year, totaling more than $310 million. This revenue growth also contributed to the company’s net income of $16.1 million in the fourth quarter, an improvement from its loss of almost $17 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Government of Canada to launch $250 million initiative to train skilled workers(BETAKIT)
The Upskilling for Industry Initiative was first announced by the Government of Canada in Budget 2021 with $250 million CAD in funding over three years. The program will be delivered in partnership with Toronto-based nonprofit Palette Skills.
The Government of Canada’s Upskilling for Industry Initiative aims to support firms that fit this bill in sectors like digital technology, cybersecurity, AgTech, advanced manufacturing, cleantech, and biomanufacturing.