10 things in tech you need to know today
Good morning! Here's the tech news you need to know this Tuesday.
1. Activision Blizzard is buying Candy Crush maker King Digital Entertainment for $5.9 billion (£3.8 billion). The wildly popular Candy Crush app currently accounts for a third of King's revenues.
2. After 30 years (and the arrival of Uber), a school that teaches London cab drivers 'The Knowledge' is closing down. The Knowledge is the exhaustive training regimen in which taxi drivers are required to learn, by heart, every single one of London's streets.
3. Protesters in San Francisco occupied Airbnb's headquarters ahead of a vote on housing affordability. Dozens of activists forced their way into the HQ with megaphones and drums to protest home-sharing.
4. Evan Spiegel's company published a blog post denying that it is storing users' private photos indefinitely after a change to its privacy policy last week caused people to freak out over its alleged implications.
5. The world just got closer to a 'hypersonic space plane' that will transform 'the economics of space'. BAE Systems, the globetrotting defence and aeronautics giant, just bought 20% of Reaction Engines, and it's making a major investment in the company's most promising ideas.
6. Larry Page has used a rare public talk to reveal that Google's China plans are no longer his decision. Page has handed off the responsibility to Sundar Pichai, the newly-appointed CEO of Google.
7. Amazon workers finally get something Google, Netflix, and Microsoft have: paid paternity leave. All new parents will now get 6 weeks of paid leave. This is the first time Amazon has given new fathers paid time off. New mothers will get 20 weeks of paid maternity leave.
8. Web Summit's move to Portugal will dent Dublin's image as a tech hub, according to Bloomberg. The Irish government's "uncoordinated and disorganised approach" hampered the summit, which draws about 30,000 attendees each year, according to event founder Paddy Cosgrave.
9. Slack CEO and co-founder Stewart Butterfield admits that valuations are high but denies there is a bubble. Many question whether the private tech market is too inflated, with VCs like Mark Suster, sounding the alarm. Slack itself is valued at $2.8 billion (£1.8 billion).
10. Google has reportedly abandoned plans for its first retail store. The store was expected to be built in New York City and showcase products running on its Android operating system, including Chromebooks and the newly-refreshed line of Nexus smartphones.