Salesforce says it’s acquiring Slack, space debris removal with the help of a giant claw starts in 2025, and Shopify sales skyrocket.
It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Thursday, December 3, and I’m your host Baneet Braich.
=====
Salesforce is set to acquire the workplace chat app Slack for $27.7 billion. This marks one of the largest tech acquisitions – and one of the largest software acquisitions – of all time. Other large ones have been Facebook purchasing Whatsapp for $19 billion in 2014, Microsoft acquiring Linkedin for $26 billion, and AMD acquiring Xilinx for $35 billion this year. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told the verge, that “this is a match made in heaven.” With the acquisition, Slack will become the new interface for Salesforce Customer 360.
=====
Space junk. That is the next priority for the European Space Agency and Swiss start-up ClearSpace SA. They will be using a giant claw for a space debris removal mission from 2025. In October 2019, the US Space Surveillance Network reported nearly 20,000 artificial objects orbiting Earth, including over 2,200 operational satellites. Now, this claw will help clean up debris just waiting to crash into spacecraft and, “enhance the long-term sustainability of spaceflight,” according to an ESA press release. ESA also noted that a critical milestone for establishing a new commercial sector in space will be achieved.
=====
Lastly, Shopify merchants are experiencing record sales. More than US$5.1 billion in sales were generated worldwide during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. This is a 76 per cent increase from the $ 2.9 billion generated during the same period in 2019 and a record set since Shopify launched in 2006. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver posted the highest number of transactions. Shopify has not mentioned the impact of the pandemic in its reports however, it’s important to consider that in Toronto residents cannot visit non-essential stores which can increase e-commerce. Clothing was the most popular followed by beauty products.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Baneet Braich, thanks for listening.