7 July 2020
Your daily dose of nonsense to start the day with
Tech news (I)
TransferWise, the fintech startup on international payments, has reached a valuation of $5bn. There would be a $300m secondary share sale at a 30% premium to a similar transaction a year ago.
I suspect that their business model is essentially what many family-owned money changers have been doing - set up legal entities in each country so that when you want to transfer money from A to B, you are paying into their network (or in the case of family-owned money changers, the family), and because of that, you have mitigated transaction costs that banks would charge for third-party transfers - but now done online.
I like their customer service. Quick turnaround.
Tech news (II)
Palantir, the data science startup founded by Peter Thiel, has confidentiality filed for public listing with the SEC. Many software devs dream of getting a job here, admittedly for reasons I have yet to fully comprehend. Many people have raved about this company. They do have a nice yet aggressive recruitment team, though, from my experience. Here's the press release.
Tech news (III)
TikTok is to pull out of Hong Kong. It's owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. It has said that it is adamant in not sharing data with China's authorities. The slightly cynical part of me is saying that this is because they don't want to lose out on the US market, after Mike Pompeo was considering banning Chinese social media apps. Good, cos TikTok videos are just so addictive.
Accountancy firms
The Financial Reporting Council, the body that regulates financial auditors in the UK, have told firms to separate (or "ring-fence") their audit practices from their other departments, e.g. tech consulting, etc. by "30 June 2024 at the latest". Also, "revenues from statutory audit work should make up the majority of the revenue of the audit practice." I guess the pendulum has swung back to the moment right after Enron.
Here's the FRC's press release.
Elon Musk's daily activities
Just another normal day in the life of Elon Musk. I don't even need to write anything about it - it just writes itself.
And making fun of Tesla short sellers by selling shorts on the Tesla store. The listed price? The internet's two favourite numbers. It sold out.
