Apple's China pivot, Amazon's secret project, Google fires protesters

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Image for article titled Apple's China pivot, Amazon's secret project, Google fires protesters, and another IPO: Tech news roundup — Graphic: Images: Oliver Berg/Picture Alliance, Scott Olson, Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket, DUC KHANHDUC KHANH/AFP

This week was a positive sign for the tech IPO market, as Ibotta made a successful debut on the public market, and Microsoft-backed Rubrik announced it’s seeking up to $713 million in its IPO.

Still, big tech companies are grappling with setbacks. Microsoft is revamping security efforts after major cybersecurity failures over the last two years. Apple made international headlines as Tim Cook traveled the world in the midst of an iPhone sales plummet. Newly-public Reddit saw its shares hit their lowest price since its debut, though its stock price has begun to rise back up. Amazon was called out for operating a shell company to allegedly snoop on its competitors.

Quartz compiled the biggest tech stories of the week.

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Microsoft is ‘ground zero’ for foreign state-sponsored hackers, executive says

An international Microsoft office in North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne.

A top Microsoft executive said in a new interview that the tech giant is “ground zero” for foreign government-backed hackers.

Microsoft launched a security initiative called the “Secure Future Initiative” in November following a number of cybersecurity breaches with ties to foreign governments. Last May, hackers backed by China broke into customers’ emails. Then in the summer of 2023, Russia-linked group Anonymous Sudan stole 30 million customers’ data.

Apple iPhone sales had their biggest decline since the pandemic

Apple was the world’s second-largest smartphone seller between January and March 2024.

Apple just had its worst performance since the pandemic devastated supply chains in 2022, according to a new analysis of global smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2024.

The Cupertino, California-based company sold 50.1 million iPhones between January and March, a 9.6% decrease from the same time in 2023, according to preliminary data released by the International Data Corporation (IDC). Apple now controls 17.3% of the market, down from 20.7% last year.

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Reddit stock is recovering from a new low as Wall Street analysts say buy it

Reddit stock fell lower Monday than even the most modest price targets set by investment advisers at big banks and wealth management firms.

It’s now recovering. And despite the fall, Wall Street firms ranging from Deutsche Bank to Piper Sandler and Citizens JMP Securities gave Reddit buy ratings on Monday, anticipating the social media company’s share price will rise as high as $55. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs gave the stock neutral ratings, setting their price targets from $40 to $47.

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Apple is investing more in Vietnam as it moves away from China

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) shakes hands with Apple CEO Tim Cook (L) during a meeting at the Government Office in Hanoi on April 16, 2024.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple wants to invest more in suppliers in Vietnam during a meeting with Vietnamese prime minister Pham Minh Chinh, Bloomberg reported, citing state-owned media.

Apple has been on a steady campaign to diversify its supply chains outside of China for some time now — and it’s convinced allies to do so, too. Apple’s major iPhone supplier, Foxconn, began growing its investments in Vietnam last year with $300 million to expand production there. Today, its Vietnam factory spans 111 acres. And in December, the company was reportedly working with its major iPad assembler, China’s BYD, to move its production resources to Vietnam, another nod to the country’s growing significance to the tech giant.

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People are giving up on Amazon Prime Video shows because of catalog errors, report says

Amazon spent $19 billion on its video and and music expenses in 2023.

Image: Francis Mascarenhas (Reuters)

Catalog errors on Amazon’s video streaming service are so bad that they’ve kept some viewers from finishing shows on the platform, according to internal documents obtained by Business Insider.

The video streaming service is riddled with mistakes including missing episodes, inaccurate translations, and wrong titles, the outlet reported. In response, the e-commerce giant has launched an initiative this year to address these errors and reduce customer complaints.

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Apple might start making iPhones in Indonesia, CEO Tim Cook says

Tim Cook, center, smiling and waving, men on both sides of him are also waving — Apple CEO Tim Cook, center, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi, left, and Indonesia’s Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, right, after attending a meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Apple is looking to diversify its manufacturing beyond China, and it’s interested in the country’s neighbor to the south. Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Wednesday, telling reporters after the meeting that the iPhone maker will “look at” bringing manufacturing to the country.

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Ibotta went public. We spoke to its CEO about riding the tech IPO wave

Ibotta is a Colorado-based consumer rewards platform that went public Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. It’s one of several tech companies to launch IPOs after the successful debuts of Reddit and AI startup Astera Labs, following a two year lull in the IPO market.

CEO Bryan Leach spoke to Quartz ahead of the IPO.

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Amazon says ‘Project Curiosity’ wasn’t a secret operation to spy on rivals

The Amazon Lab126, a research and development company owned by Amazon.com, headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday published a report detailing how Amazon used a shell company, Big River Services International, to spy on its rivals including eBay, FedEx, and Walmart. Amazon told Quartz that it vehemently denies that claim.

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Amazon is offering retailers its smart cart that it insists doesn’t spy on people

Amazon launched Dash Carts in September 2020.

Amazon is confident other retailers want its smart shopping technology, and it insists it doesn’t spy on shoppers.

The company will soon start selling its Dash Cart to other retailers in an effort to expand the service to customers making large purchases, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

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Google fired 28 workers who protested the company’s Israel contract

Google sign on Google office — Google headquarters in New York, NY, January 9, 2024.

More than two dozen Google employees were fired Wednesday after a series of protests against the company’s cloud computing and AI services contract with the Israeli government and military.

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Walmart-backed Ibotta stock skyrocketed post-IPO

Shares of Ibotta — a Denver-based consumer rewards platform that counts major U.S. companies such as Walmart and Kroger as customers — surged in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. Ibotta’s stock price rose as much as 34% to a high of more than $117, ending the day up a still-impressive 17%.

Apple's China pivot, Amazon's secret project, Google fires protesters, and another IPO: Tech news roundup

Plus, Microsoft is "ground zero" for foreign state-sponsored hackers, Walmart-backed Ibotta stock skyrockets in IPO