Bumble is set to go private in a $1.3 billion deal with Ithaca Holdings after struggling for years to revive growth, as a prolonged decline in users and shifting Gen Z dating habits batter the online dating industry. Shares of the company soared 56% to $5.95 in early trading on Tuesday, after surging 50% on Monday following on the Ithaca deal. Bumble and larger rival Match, which owns Tinder and Hinge, have been battling declining user engagement, as younger users increasingly grow tired of swiping endlessly on apps and seek more organic ways to build connections. Reuters
Smartphone sales have fallen to their lowest level for more than a decade as the AI boom sends prices to record highs and pushes the industry into crisis. Analysts at International Data Corporation (IDC) said sales had dropped by 22pc in the three months to September, the biggest ever decline. Manufacturers sold 255 million phones – the worst quarter since 2013. Samsung and Apple, the two biggest manufacturers, suffered sales declines of 5.8pc and 4pc respectively, while producers whose cheaper devices are popular in developing countries suffered much steeper sales drops. Telegraph
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Anthropic has been drumming up support for its expected stock market listing as it seeks to reassure investors of its profit-making potential. Anthropic revenue surged by 45% to $16.8bn (£12.7bn) in the three months to the end of September, the BBC understands. In common with other AI firms, it is seeking to position itself as being able to generate huge profits despite spending billions on tech. It also emphasised safety at its event after warnings by current and former researchers of serious and even existential risks to humanity posed by AI. Anthropic’s revenue has risen in successive quarters this year, from $4.7bn in the first three months to $11.6bn the following period. BBC
An Israeli advertising agency has been serving millions of online adverts that allow “zero-click” spyware to be used against targets, researchers at a Canadian university have said. Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency. The Guardian
A YouTuber who’s gained a following for brought his own computing companion to an interview with him. As chaos ensued, viewers learned that having an AI as your interview agent isn’t a good idea. Graham Dot Zip is a comedian whose YouTube channel has blown up recently thanks to videos of him demonstrating the absurdity of AI bots used to conduct early-stage interviews with job candidates. AI interviewers have become quite the phenomenon in recent months, and not one that job seekers are fond of, with plenty of videos and social media posts documenting hate for them. The Register
U.K. culture minister Lisa Nandy has signalled she is “minded to intervene” in Sky’s proposed $2 billion takeover of ITV, citing concerns about maintaining media plurality, particularly with regard to news. Nandy confirmed in a statement she may intervene if she has “reasonable grounds to suspect” that public interest considerations are at play. These include the “need for free expression of opinion in news media,” “a sufficient plurality of views in news media” and “a sufficient plurality of persons with control of the media enterprises” serving a variety of areas around the U.K. (in effect, local news). Variety
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