Facebook is responding to the challenge from <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/SNAP" target="_self" data-gdsid="163704" data-inline-quote-symbol="SNAP">Snap</a> in the classic way that tech companies try to face new competitors — by <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/28/facebook-camera-stories-disappearing-messages-ape-snapchat.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/28/facebook-camera-stories-disappearing-messages-ape-snapchat.html" target="_self">duplicating every core feature</a> that made Snap popular, and then trying to crush it with distribution and marketing.
According to a story published Tuesday in <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.theinformation.com/inside-the-war-between-facebook-and-snap" href="https://www.theinformation.com/inside-the-war-between-facebook-and-snap" target="_self">The Information</a> (subscription required), Facebook created a &#8220;Teens Team&#8221; to figure out how to grab teenagers back from Snapchat, and has been up front about its tactics within the company: The internal mantra among some groups is &#8220;don&#8217;t be too proud to copy.&#8221;
Unfortunately for <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/FB" target="_self" data-gdsid="139619" data-inline-quote-symbol="FB">Facebook</a>, the track record for this strategy is poor.
<div id="inline_movable_ad"></div>
Flash back to the early 2000s, when <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/MSFT" target="_self" data-gdsid="25619" data-inline-quote-symbol="MSFT">Microsoft</a> was the undisputed king of the tech industry, with two unassailable monopolies — operating systems and productivity apps for personal computers.
It faced a lot of competitors, but the one that scared it the most was <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_self" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Google</a>, which was in a completely different business.
Google didn&#8217;t start by creating alternatives to Windows and Office, although it did so later. Instead, it created a suite of online services — first search, followed by email and maps — that threatened the entire purpose of a personal computer. Why rely on Microsoft software running locally when you could get so much done with web apps?
Microsoft&#8217;s response? Trying to build the exact same service that made Google famous — a search engine, first known as MSN Search, later rebranded to Bing.
Eleven years later, Bing is a small minority player in search, with less than 10 percent market share on the desktop and less than 1 percent in mobile, according to <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.netmarketshare.com/" href="https://www.netmarketshare.com/" target="_self">NetMarketShare</a>. Google dominates with almost 80 percent share on the desktop and well over 90 percent in mobile. &#8220;Google&#8221; has become a verb. Nobody &#8220;Bings&#8221; anything.
Bolstered by the massive margins in search advertising, Google has moved farther and farther into Microsoft&#8217;s core territory, adding a massively successful mobile operating system (Android), web browser (Chrome), online productivity apps (Google for Work) and an increasingly robust cloud computing business. It also surpassed Microsoft in market cap for the first time <a class="inline_asset" title="http://mashable.com/2012/10/01/google-market-cap-passes-microsoft/" href="http://mashable.com/2012/10/01/google-market-cap-passes-microsoft/" target="_self">in 2012</a>, and remains ahead today.
Google faced its own Bing moment in 2011, when it faced a challenge from then-upstart Facebook. The social network didn&#8217;t threaten Google by building a better search engine. It did so by creating an entirely different online service, based around social networking and real identities, that drew people&#8217;s attention away from search and other Google properties. As people spent more and more time on Facebook, advertisers followed.
Google&#8217;s response? To launch a competing social network based on real identities called Google+. It was just as successful as Bing — which is to say, not successful at all.
Facebook may still win. After all, Microsoft used this playbook very effectively in the 1990s to eliminate the threat posed by Netscape Navigator — it built a better browser, then shipped it with Windows. It dominated web browsing for almost a decade (until Google came along with Chrome and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple</a>&#8216;s iPhone introduced the concept of effective mobile web browsing).
But Microsoft in the 1990s had an effective monopoly on personal computing platforms with Windows. If you wanted to go online, you had to go out of your way not to use Windows. The same is not true for Facebook — there are many ways to communicate and share information in real time with friends, including text messaging platforms like SMS and Apple&#8217;s iMessage, and competing social networks like Twitter and — yes — Snapchat.
Facebook will have to do more to regain teens&#8217; attention than simply duplicating every feature that made Snapchat popular.
Disclsoure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap.

Facebook has reached its Microsoft Bing moment, and history shows the results won’t be pretty

Jessica Wa&#8217;u | CNBC
A new report from UBS estimates that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies could create an economic value of about $1.8 trillion to $3 trillion in Asia by 2030. But that value comes at a cost, with an estimated 30 million to 50 million jobs in Asia at risk of displacement in the medium to long term.
Financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and transportation, are the sectors likely to bear the brunt of job losses, according to UBS Global IT Analyst Sundeep Gantori. Speaking with CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Street Signs,&#8221; he said jobs in traditional sectors that are predictive and routine in nature will be affected.
So in preparation for the future, he advised that job seekers target roles requiring personalization or creativity.
<blockquote>&#8220;Focus on creativity jobs&#8230; entrepreneurship jobs, arts&#8230; and maybe sports,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We have to go back to those old days where arts are valued. So maybe that&#8217;s the future.&#8221;</blockquote>
While some jobs may become irrelevant, AI will also create new categories of jobs elsewhere, Gantori said. Data scientists are expected to get a leg up in the future, with UBS describing data as the &#8220;fuel&#8221; that powers the AI engine.
The firm also recommended investing in research and development-intensive companies related to AI, such as healthcare and advanced engineering.
The report pointed to Asia being a late entrant in the AI world, lagging behind a solid ecosystem in the U.S. But expect that gap to narrow as governments put more money into data sciences and machine learning, he said. Capital flows into AI-based start-ups are also expected to increase as the relevant talent pool in Asia grows.
Gantori said, &#8220;By 2025, we think that the talent in India and China together will exceed what we&#8217;ll have in the U.S. At the same time, the region generates a lot of data, which is very handy in AI.&#8221;

How to keep a job in a world of AI? Get creative

Broad-based multinational internet and media group, Naspers will invest R960 million or $70m in Takealot Online. This follows earlier investments from both Tiger Global and Naspers in 2015.
In a statement Takealot says it &#8220;has continued its robust growth since its merger with Kalahari in 2014, and boasts a stable of businesses including takealot.com, South Africa’s leading general etailer, Superbalist.com, the fashion etailer, Mr D Food, South Africa’s largest restaurant food delivery service, and Mr D Courier, its point to point courier services.
&#8220;Retail remains a highly competitive market in South Africa, and online retail accounts for less than 2% of the non-grocery retail market and less than 1% of the total retail market. With online retail penetration, according to Euromonitor, in the teens in the US and UK retail markets, and at 17% in China, the potential in South Africa is clear to see&#8221;.
“We are super excited about this latest investment as it will allow us to continue to grow the business in a market with huge potential. Naspers has been a wonderful supporter of our business and we are grateful for their ongoing commitment and show of confidence in both the business and the market. This is great news for our customers and employees alike.” said Takealot Founder and CEO Kim Reid.
Takealot says it has filed a large merger notification with the &#8220;South African Competition Commission in anticipation of finalising the investment from Naspers, which would make Naspers the majority shareholder in Takealot&#8221;.

Naspers has just invested close to $70m in this SA company

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/todd-haselton/" rel="author">Todd Haselton</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/@robotodd">@robotodd</a>
If you&#8217;re looking for a good alternative to the <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/29/dont-buy-a-new-ipad-pro.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/29/dont-buy-a-new-ipad-pro.html" target="_self">iPad Pro</a>, and don&#8217;t want the <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/21/new-apple-products.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/21/new-apple-products.html" target="_self">new iPad</a>, the <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/26/samsung-launches-galaxy-book-tab-s3-with-keyboard-and-stylus.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/26/samsung-launches-galaxy-book-tab-s3-with-keyboard-and-stylus.html" target="_self">Samsung Galaxy Tab S3</a> is your next best bet.
Samsung makes a bunch of tablets, but its &#8220;S&#8221; models are always the best. The Galaxy Tab S3 follows last year&#8217;s Galaxy Tab S2, which seemed to pass under most people&#8217;s radars even though it was a solid slate.
This year&#8217;s model kicks butt, and it&#8217;s easily one of the best tablets you can buy right now. It even outclasses the iPad Pro 9.7 in a few important areas, though there are some other aspects that aren&#8217;t as good.
We&#8217;ll walk you through everything.
It&#8217;s similar to the iPad Pro 9.7&#8230;
<div id="attachment_118823" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118823" class="wp-image-118823 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/1-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
First, the Galaxy Tab S3 has the same size 9.7-inch display as the smaller iPad Pro, and it&#8217;s the same resolution, which means text and images are going to look just as sharp. It uses Samsung&#8217;s high-end AMOLED panel, though, so you&#8217;ll get much brighter colors. Your eyes sink right into the screen when viewing back really colorful images and movies. Like the iPad, the Galaxy Tab S3 is ideal not only for viewing content, but for creating it.
<div id="attachment_118826" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118826" class="size-full wp-image-118826" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
Samsung includes an S-Pen stylus that works really well and compares similarly to the Apple Pencil (which isn&#8217;t included with the iPad Pro.) The S Pen can be used for drawing, painting and jotting down quick notes. There&#8217;s even a feature that lets you jot down a quick note without having to unlock the tablet, which is super convenient.
<div id="attachment_118827" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118827" class="size-full wp-image-118827" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/3-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
The Tab S3 also supports a keyboard — a $129.99 accessory — and, like the iPad Pro, there&#8217;s a smart connector on one side of the tablet that allows you to connect it without any sort of Bluetooth pairing. It just snaps right into place and starts working.
Four stereo speakers sit on each corner of the device, as they also do on the iPad Pro. The Tab S3&#8217;s speakers got nice and loud when I put the tablet on my coffee table and played a 60s playlist on Spotify while tidying up the living room one Saturday, and I really liked the clear audio while watching &#8220;Caddy Shack&#8221; from the couch.
The similarities end there
The Galaxy Tab S3 runs Android Nougat, the latest version of Google&#8217;s software. It allows you to run apps side-by-side, similar to what Apple allows on its iPad Pro products, and even pop-out video for picture-in-picture viewing while performing other tasks.
I&#8217;m worried about Android on tablets, though. Google frequently talks about Android for smartphones, but hasn&#8217;t really discussed the OS for tablets recently. That makes me wonder how serious the future of Android tablets really is, and whether or not Google is putting its eggs into Chrome OS instead. Also, Samsung&#8217;s updates are typically slow, so you might not get the latest version of Android for many months after it releases, if ever. Conversely, Apple updates its iPads frequently, and often supports individual models for many years. That&#8217;s something to keep in mind.
<div id="attachment_118830" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118830" class="size-full wp-image-118830" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/4-Devin.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
Also, while developers have spent plenty of time optimizing applications for Apple&#8217;s iPad — since they sell millions of units a quarter — developers aren&#8217;t doing the same for Android tablets. Don&#8217;t expect to find a ton of applications that support Android tablets or larger screens, for example. Instead, you&#8217;ll mostly be using regular smartphone apps that are just blown up to take up the whole screen.
That stinks.
Those qualms about Android aside, the Tab S3 experience is really solid.
Samsung includes one of Qualcomm&#8217;s new processors under the hood, and it&#8217;s nice and fast, allowing you to run multiple apps at once without running into hiccups. You can even upgrade the storage for more movies and apps, something Apple doesn&#8217;t let you do with the iPad.
<div id="attachment_118832" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118832" class="size-full wp-image-118832" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/5-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
Speaking of movies, the Galaxy Tab S3&#8217;s display supports full HDR viewing. HDR, if you&#8217;re unfamiliar, is otherwise known as high dynamic range. The gist is that the image you&#8217;re viewing is supposed to look more accurate, as Hollywood originally intended, thanks to a balance between the darkest colors on the screen and the brightest. There are a limited number of sources to actually view that content now – Amazon lets you stream HDR content for some of its shows &#8211; so that&#8217;s not exactly a huge win over the iPad. You don&#8217;t need to worry about movies hogging battery life, either.
<div id="attachment_118834" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-118834" class="size-full wp-image-118834" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/6-Devin.png" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Devin Hance | CNBC</div>
Samsung promises up to 12 hours of video playback. That&#8217;s enough for two cross-country flights. In my tests, I was easily able to make it through a weekend using the tablet for surfing the net, watching movies and playing some games. You&#8217;ll want to keep the display brightness down, though, since it can really chug your battery&#8217;s juice when it&#8217;s up high.
Worth considering
Most people should just buy an iPad Pro 9.7. I understand iPads aren&#8217;t for everyone, however, and that some consumers still really like Android on tablets. If you&#8217;re in that group of consumers, the Galaxy Tab S3 is the best tablet you can buy.
http://cnbc.africa/zdnl-mc/2017/03/22/apple-new-products/

This is the best iPad Pro alternative that you can buy

By Stanley Carvalho and Chijioke Ohuocha
The Nigerian arm of Abu Dhabi telecom group Etisalat is yet to agree a deal on restructuring a $1.2 billion loan with local banks after it missed a payment, a company source told Reuters.
Etisalat Nigeria told Reuters last month that it was in talks with lenders to restructure the loan.
The source, who is not authorised to speak to media, said that Etisalat and the group of 13 Nigerian lenders were yet to agree on a debt restructuring proposal.
The source was speaking on the sidelines of Etisalat&#8217;s annual general meeting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, where Chief Executive Saleh Al Abdooli declined to comment on the debt talks when asked by Reuters.
Etisalat did not respond to a request for comment.
Nigerian regulators agreed with local banks in March to pursue a default deal rather than a receivership for Etisalat Nigeria so as not to deter investors and to avoid a wider debt crisis.
Sources have said that Etisalat would consider selling its stake in the Nigerian entity after the debt deal is agreed.
(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Etisalat Nigeria yet to agree debt deal with lenders: source

 The World Economic Forum launches its second annual search to identify Africa’s next generation of top female technology innovators and entrepreneurs 
 The top five entrepreneurs selected by the Forum’s judging panel will be invited to participate in the World Economic Forum on Africa on 3-5 May in Durban, South Africa 
 The meeting will convene leaders from business, government and civil society to explore regional solutions 
 To enter the challenge, visit: http://wef.ch/womeninnovators
Building on the success of last year’s inaugural search, the World Economic Forum has started the process to select the top female tech innovators in Africa, who will be invited to share their experience and engage with leaders at the Forum’s regional meeting this spring.
The search is open to any female entrepreneur whose business is less than three years old, uses innovative technology or business models, and has at least one year of revenue generation. The business must also be able to demonstrate social and economic potential.
“Africa’s best prospects for inclusive growth lie in its ability to tap into its vast pool of entrepreneurial talent,” said Elsie Kanza, Head of Africa at the World Economic Forum. “We want Africa’s top female tech entrepreneurs to join us so we can celebrate them as role models and so they can help governments and policymakers create conditions for others to flourish.”
The 2017 World Economic Forum on Africa will convene on 3-5 May in Durban, South Africa, under the theme Achieving Inclusive Growth. The meeting will convene regional and global leaders from business, government and civil society to explore solutions to create economic opportunities for all. It will provide insight from leading experts on how Africa will be affected by the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly in terms of safeguarding the region’s economies from negative disruption and exploiting opportunities for further growth and development. 
The application for the 2017 search for Africa’s top female innovators can be found here. The closing date for submission is Monday 17 April. Prior to the World Economic Forum on Africa, a panel of experts will select the five top entrepreneurs to participate in the meeting.
The co-chairs of the 2017 World Economic on Africa are: Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, Oxfam International, United Kingdom; Siyabonga Gama, Group Chief Executive Officer, Transnet, South Africa; Frédéric Lemoine, Chairman of the Executive Board, Wendel, France; Rich Lesser, Global Chief Executive Officer and President, Boston Consulting Group, USA; and Ulrich Spiesshofer, President and Chief Executive Officer, ABB, Switzerland.

World Economic Forum on the search for Africa’s Top Female Innovators

A big chunk of those &#8220;likes,&#8221; &#8220;retweets,&#8221; and &#8220;followers&#8221; lighting up your <a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/TWTR">Twitter </a>account may not be coming from human hands. According to <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.03107.pdf">new research from the University of Southern California and Indiana University</a>, up to 15 percent of Twitter accounts are in fact bots rather than people.
The research could be troubling news for Twitter, which has struggled to grow its user base in the face of growing competition from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and others.
Researchers at USC used more than one thousand features to identify bot accounts on Twitter, in categories including friends, tweet content and sentiment, and time between tweets. Using that framework, researchers wrote that &#8220;our estimates suggest that between 9% and 15% of active Twitter accounts are bots.&#8221;
Since Twitter currently has 319 million monthly active users, that translates to nearly 48 million bot accounts, using USC&#8217;s high-end estimate.
The report goes on to say that complex bots could have shown up as humans in their model, &#8220;making even the 15% figure a conservative estimate.&#8221;
At 15 percent, the evaluation is far greater than Twitter&#8217;s own estimates. In a filing with the SEC last month, Twitter said that up to 8.5 percent of all active accounts contacted Twitter&#8217;s servers &#8220;…without any discernible additional user-initiated action.&#8221;
Since that equates to roughly 20 million more bot accounts than Twitter&#8217;s own assessment, that could be an issue in light of analyst concerns about user growth. In a recent research report, Nomura Instinet analysts wrote that &#8220;Twitter&#8217;s revenue growth has slowed to the mid-single digits, as the platform has struggled to attract new users over the past year…&#8221;
A Twitter spokesperson said that while bots often have negative connotations, &#8220;many bot accounts are extremely beneficial, like those that automatically alert people of natural disasters…or from customer service points of view.&#8221;
USC&#8217;s researchers also highlight the benefits of some bots, writing, &#8220;many social bots perform useful functions, such as dissemination of news and publications…&#8221;
But the USC report also points to the downside of bots, saying, &#8220;there is a growing record of malicious applications of social bots. Some emulate human behaviour to manufacture fake grassroots political support… [and] promote terrorist propaganda and recruitment.&#8221;
Twitter currently has a number of ways to report violations, including impersonation accounts and spam. A number of services also exist which claim to be able to audit followers and identify fake accounts.

As many as 48 million Twitter accounts aren’t people, says study

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/anita-balakrishnan/" rel="author">Anita Balakrishnan</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/@MsABalakrishnan">@MsABalakrishnan</a>
<div class="group-container ">
<div class="group">
Bill Gurley&#8217;s investment firm, Benchmark, has made some big bets that paid off. The firm was an early investor in Instagram, Quora, Snap, Uber, Grubhub and Glassdoor, just <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/benchmark/investments" href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/benchmark/investments" target="_self">to name a few</a>.
He also reads two books a month and writes prolifically, and might someday even pen a book of his own. The key to success is often information gathering, Gurley said on Thursday from the LAUNCH Festival in San Francisco.
Gurley&#8217;s not alone: Another successful investor, Warren Buffett, has said he spends <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/16/warren-buffetts-reading-routine-could-make-you-smarter-suggests-science.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/16/warren-buffetts-reading-routine-could-make-you-smarter-suggests-science.html" target="_self">as much as 80 percent of his day reading.</a> Gurley said that for any entrepreneur, storytelling is a big component of their job — so he has a set of books he recommended:
<div id="inline_movable_ad"></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="group-container ">
<h4 class="subtitle">1. &#8220;Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors,&#8221;  by</h4>
<div class="group">
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Industries-Competitors/dp/0684841487" href="https://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Industries-Competitors/dp/0684841487" target="_self">Michael Porter</a>
&#8220;All entrepreneurs have been taught to vilify the MBA,&#8221; Gurley said, speaking of the graduate business degree. &#8220;This is a strategic error — to think that understanding business is a bad idea. And so &#8216;Competitive Strategy&#8217; is the most efficient short-form MBA that you can get.&#8221;
2. &#8220;Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers,&#8221; by <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mainstream/dp/0060517123" href="https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-High-Tech-Mainstream/dp/0060517123" target="_self">Geoffrey Moore</a>
It&#8217;s especially good for enterprise companies, Gurley said.
</div>
</div>
<div class="group-container ">
<h4 class="subtitle">3. &#8220;The Innovator&#8217;s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail,&#8221; by</h4>
<div class="group">
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=7CQKB4J55NDBP216PF6H" href="https://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Technologies-Management-Innovation/dp/1633691780/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=7CQKB4J55NDBP216PF6H" target="_self">Clay Christensen</a>
&#8220;It&#8217;s fantastic,&#8221; Gurley said. &#8220;It&#8217;s really the core essence of why start-ups have an advantage. Products that are able to be disruptive get over-designed. They get feature-rich, they get complex, they get heavy.
He added that &#8220;if you can design a product that exploits a desire of a subset of the customer base that doesn&#8217;t want that complexity, but wants this feature, you can bust in. I&#8217;ve seen that over, and over, and over.&#8221;
</div>
</div>
<div class="group-container ">
<h4 class="subtitle">4. &#8220;Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure,&#8221; by</h4>
<div class="group">
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L0M749M/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L0M749M/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" target="_self">Jerry Kaplan</a>
The book is about &#8220;a massive failure in Silicon Valley,&#8221; that had &#8220;all the best investors&#8221; and &#8220;all the best executives,&#8221; Gurley said.
&#8220;And it&#8217;s just spectacular, because on the way home from work every day he had a tape recorder and he left himself notes, so it&#8217;s remarkably detailed,&#8221; Gurley said. &#8220;We spend so much time analyzing success, and sometimes it&#8217;s just good to read how hard it can be. And why it can be so hard. So that one&#8217;s a real world account that I love.&#8221;
</div>
</div>
<div class="group-container last">
<h4 class="subtitle">5. &#8220;Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike,&#8221;  by</h4>
<div class="group">
<a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0176M1A44/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0176M1A44/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&amp;btkr=1" target="_self">Phil Knight</a>
&#8220;[The book] is just fantastic,&#8221; Gurley said. &#8220;It just shows how much grit matters, how much you just got to leave it out there on the field. How tough it is, even for the successful companies. You shouldn&#8217;t head out into entrepreneurialism thinking it is a hay ride. It&#8217;s hard.&#8221;
</div>
</div>

Want to found a start-up? These are the books you should read first, a top VC says

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/jon-fortt/" rel="author">Jon Fortt</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/@jonfortt">@jonfortt</a>
Among the many business lessons Jeff Lawson has learned, there&#8217;s this: Don&#8217;t expect to get things done if you wait until you&#8217;re perfectly prepared.
Lawson is co-founder and CEO of <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/TWLO" target="_self" data-gdsid="160228" data-inline-quote-symbol="TWLO">Twilio</a>, a company that makes it easy for apps to contact you. (Ever wonder how you can send a text to your Uber driver in the app, or get one in OpenTable when your seat is ready? Twilio does that.)
Twilio went public last summer at the New York Stock Exchange, and is now worth about $2.5 billion. As it pushes to make apps communicate better, the scrappy San Francisco company has developed a culture that favors boldness and taking initiative, and frowns on perfectionism.
Fortt Knox caught up with Twilio&#8217;s CEO at a tech conference in Barcelona, Spain to talk about his journey from curious kid in the Detroit suburbs to CEO of a public tech company. Among the things our podcast loves about Lawson&#8217;s story?
It&#8217;s about the setbacks as much as the successes, and learning along the way.
Here&#8217;s some of what he shared on the latest episode:
https://soundcloud.com/forttknox/lawson
Ask for the Keys
Lawson likes to tell a story about his grandfather, who worked in a factory and needed to earn more money.
&#8220;He went to the owner and he said, &#8216;I need to make more money, how do I do that,'&#8221; Lawson said. &#8220;The guy said &#8216;I don&#8217;t have any other jobs. The only job I have is driving the truck. Do you know how to drive the truck?&#8217; My grandfather&#8217;s answer was, &#8216;Give me the keys.'&#8221;
What his grandfather didn&#8217;t mention was that he&#8217;d never driven a truck before in his life. But he got the job, figured it out, made more money.
Chalk it up to genetics or coincidence, but in middle school Lawson started a company shooting video footage of weddings. Then, he used the proceeds to buy more sophisticated equipment.
&#8220;The best way to learn something new,&#8221; he said, &#8220;is to commit yourself to doing it.&#8221;
You&#8217;ve Got to Love It
There were some false starts. In college during the dotcom boom, Lawson learned software development and started a company that sold for millions of dollars … in stock. He thought he&#8217;d made it big, but when the bubble popped, his windfall vanished.
Later, he got the opportunity to be founding chief technology officer of StubHub, a ticket sales company that would later sell to eBay for $310 million. But Lawson didn&#8217;t stick around for the payoff.
&#8220;It was a fine business, but I wasn&#8217;t the customer and I didn&#8217;t feel passionately that the world needed the product we were building.&#8221; He wasn&#8217;t a concert goer, so he didn&#8217;t feel inspired to keep working on it. &#8220;As an entrepreneur, I think you need that.&#8221;
Hindsight being what it is, it&#8217;s easy to fault Lawson for missing his share of a nine-figure payday. But remember, he&#8217;s got a share of a 10-figure payday in Twilio.
Knowledge and Reputation
So how did Lawson do it? How did he rebound from a missed nine-figure payday cleanly enough to do himself one better? First he made another valuable mistake or two, which you&#8217;ll learn about listening to this Fortt Knox episode.
More important though, he was able to focus on the two most important assets he was building in each of these experiences.
&#8220;The best thing that we have as we go through our careers is our knowledge and our word – our reputation,&#8221; Lawson says. &#8220;If you&#8217;re constantly building those two things, I think generally speaking, good things end up happening to people.&#8221;
http://cnbc.africa/news/international/2017/03/17/warren-buffetts-20-slot-rule-will-make-insanely-successful-wealthy/

First get started, then get smarter – Founder-CEO’s secret to success

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/saheli-roy-choudhury/" rel="author">Saheli Roy Choudhury</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/sahelirc">@sahelirc</a>
As governments create smarter cities, they need cybersecurity measures built from the ground up — or they risk costly data breaches which could compromise the privacy of their citizens.
In 2016 alone, cyber-crime cost the global economy more than $450 billion and over two billion personal records were stolen, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/07/cybercrime-costs-the-global-economy-450-billion-ceo.html" target="_self">according to</a> the chief executive of specialist insurer Hiscox.
Cities around the world are using various technologies — smart devices, apps, sensors, big data analytics and Internet of Things applications — to <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/09/how-smart-cities-are-building-the-future.html" target="_self">improve the lives of their citizens</a>. This results in massive amounts of valuable data that interest cyber-criminals.
Etay Maor, an executive security advisor at IBM Security told CNBC if there is a way for hackers to monetize any type of stolen data, they will attack it. Traditionally, the kinds of information that drew attention were bank credentials, personal identity information and credit card details, but Maor said anything from airline miles <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/dark-web-is-fertile-ground-for-stolen-medical-records.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/dark-web-is-fertile-ground-for-stolen-medical-records.html" target="_self">to medical records</a> are now targeted.
<blockquote>&#8220;Now we have nations that are connecting (various services to the internet),&#8221; Maor said. &#8220;It&#8217;s critical that when these things are designed, when you&#8217;re talking about smart nations, security should be a top priority.&#8221;</blockquote>
The digitization of critical infrastructure, such as power plants, water supply and electricity distribution also creates vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks.
Many governments appear to realize that slapping on a layer of security at a later stage of smart city projects is no longer an option. Singapore already has a cybersecurity agency and last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.csa.gov.sg/news/press-releases/pm-launches-singapore-cybersecurity-strategy" href="https://www.csa.gov.sg/news/press-releases/pm-launches-singapore-cybersecurity-strategy" target="_self">outlined</a> the city-state&#8217;s comprehensive strategy to tackle online threats.
Jordi Puigneró, secretary for telecommunications, cybersecurity and digital society for the government of Catalonia said cybersecurity needs the same kind of emphasis as security in the physical world. If governments fail to adequately secure their smart cities, people will not trust the services, he said.
&#8220;If they don&#8217;t trust it, they won&#8217;t use it. If they don&#8217;t use it, we will not be competitive in this digital world,&#8221; Puigneró, who leads the Catalan government&#8217;s SmartCATalonia efforts, told CNBC last month at the sidelines of the IoT Asia 2017 conference in Singapore.
http://cnbc.africa/news/special-report/2017/02/14/op-ed-artificial-intelligence-is-the-key-to-outsmarting-cybercrime/
Catalonia is awaiting parliamentary approval for a cybersecurity agency, whose mandate will include the creation of a computer emergency response team, building up cyber-resilience, tackling cyber-crimes and developing competencies for cyber-defense, Puigneró said.
Cyber-criminals could theoretically hijack systems to launch powerful distributed denial of service attacks or hold an entire city for ransom in extortion attacks, according to an <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.controlrisks.com/en/our-thinking/analysis/smart-cities-and-cyber-threats" href="https://www.controlrisks.com/en/our-thinking/analysis/smart-cities-and-cyber-threats" target="_self">analysis</a> by Nicolas Reys, a consultant for cybersecurity services at Control Risks. He noted that attacks &#8220;could be designed to encrypt and cripple an entire city&#8217;s grid, with ransom demands likely to be considerable in such a scenario.&#8221;
Such tactics, Reys added, could be &#8220;highly profitable for cyber-criminals and represent a natural evolution of trends that we have observed in the current cyber-criminal community.&#8221;
Criminals have already gone after critical infrastructure around the world: a <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/27/cyber-attackers-hack-german-nuclear-plant/" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/27/cyber-attackers-hack-german-nuclear-plant/" target="_self">nuclear power plant</a> in Germany, a <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.wsj.com/articles/iranian-hackers-infiltrated-new-york-dam-in-2013-1450662559" href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/iranian-hackers-infiltrated-new-york-dam-in-2013-1450662559" target="_self">small dam in New York</a> and a <a class="inline_asset" title="https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/" href="https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/" target="_self">power grid</a> in Ukraine.
The growing complexity of cyber-attacks and the increasing number of people and devices connecting to the internet means there&#8217;s almost a near-certain possibility that hackers may be able to breach a system, experts say.
The consensus is that securing smart city projects from digital threats requires multi-layered strategies and should tap into fields such as machine learning, cryptography and artificial intelligence.
Machine learning, where a system is taught to identify anomalies within a network, is promoted by companies like U.K.-based security firm Darktrace. With every interaction, these machines learn and become better at proactively stopping threats.
Maor added that machines can also analyze and interpret huge volumes of internet data to help governments respond to breaches faster. Timing, he said, is critical in limiting the damage.
&nbsp;
Others point to the potential benefits of building smart city applications using blockchain technology, particularly the Ethereum open source platform. That system can be used to deploy <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/13/forget-currency-bitcoin-tech-could-disrupt-massively.html" href="http://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/13/forget-currency-bitcoin-tech-could-disrupt-massively.html" target="_self">decentralized applications</a>, according to John Lilic, a director at blockchain software company ConsenSys.
He pointed to personal identity on social networks as an example: &#8220;Your identity lives in a bunch of different boxes all over the internet, that&#8217;s why you have usernames and passwords. Because you&#8217;re logging into a database that somebody else owns.&#8221;
&#8220;With Ethereum, we can flip that upside down on its head,&#8221; Lilic told CNBC.
Building an application on Ethereum could mean the data will not be owned by any single corporate entity and could be accessed from anywhere in the world, Lilic explained. And since blockchain uses corresponding public and private keys to access encrypted data, a breach would not reveal the information without each user&#8217;s private key.
A key issue that many experts talk about is the need for more cybersecurity professionals. 
&#8220;There&#8217;s a huge lack of people in this space. You&#8217;re talking about smart nations — one of the smart things to do is to get your colleges and universities to train people about security,&#8221; said IBM&#8217;s Maor.
In Barcelona, <a class="inline_asset" title="http://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/estudis/oferta_formativa/masters_propis/fitxa/M/201511757/index.html" href="http://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/estudis/oferta_formativa/masters_propis/fitxa/M/201511757/index.html" target="_self">some universities</a> were starting to offer a Masters&#8217; degree in cybersecurity in the hope of bringing more professionals into the industry, Pugineró said.
&#8220;Without professionals, it is very difficult to create a (cybersecurity) industry … for that to happen, it means that our academies need to start having degrees and masters in cybersecurity so we can produce talent,&#8221; he added.

As cities get smarter, hackers become more dangerous: This could stop them

South Africa&#8217;s tender for the estimated 1 trillion-rand ($72 billion) expansion of its nuclear power plants will begin in June when state utility Eskom requests proposals from companies bidding for the project, City Press newspaper reported on Sunday.
South Africa, which has Africa&#8217;s only nuclear power station, wants nuclear power to play the leading role in expanded power generation, easing the country&#8217;s reliance on an ageing fleet of coal-fired plants. It has asked Eskom to procure an additional 9,600 megawatts (MW) of capacity.
<blockquote>Rebutting the report, National Treasury head of communication Yolisa Tyantsi said a meeting or presentation with Eskom on March 28 &#8220;was not on the state of readiness to procure&#8221; more nuclear power.
&#8220;National Treasury is not in a position to publicly disclose the discussions,&#8221; she said.</blockquote>
The City Press reported that an internal Eskom document indicates that the country&#8217;s nuclear programme will get underway.
According to the document, Eskom will issue requests for proposals in June, set the deadline for bids in September and for evaluation in December. The winning bidder will be decided in March 2018, the newspaper said, and the contract will be signed between December 2018 and March 2019.
Eskom&#8217;s spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe said &#8220;nothing at this stage has been decided on, those dates were suggestive dates.&#8221;
&#8220;If everything goes well, we will issue a request for proposals around June,&#8221; said Phasiwe, adding that the national treasury, department of energy and the department of public enterprises still have to make their own findings.
In February, 27 companies showed preliminary interest in the country&#8217;s plans to build more nuclear reactors after Eskom in December asked them to provide information on nuclear power costs and financing options. Companies have until April 28 to provide their information.
http://cnbc.africa/news/2016/11/09/edf-ready-to-take-part-in-tender-for-south-africa-nuclear-reactors/
<blockquote>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see it starting to happen in June. There are steps that need to happen and there is a determination that treasury has to make about affordability, and we are not near that right now,&#8221; said National Treasury spokesperson Mayihlome Tshwete.</blockquote>
Critics of the plan have raised questions about environmental risks and costs.
<blockquote>&#8220;The undeniable fact is that South Africa cannot afford, and does not need, the nuclear deal,&#8221; Natasha Mazzone, the opposition Democratic Alliance&#8217;s shadow minister of public enterprises, said in a statement.
&#8220;Indeed, international ratings agencies agree and this deal has been repeatedly cited as a cause for great concern and a key factor in downgrades not only for Eskom, but the country as a whole.&#8221;</blockquote>
Fitch on Friday followed S&amp;P Global Ratings and downgraded South Africa to &#8220;junk&#8221;, citing among other factors differences over the country&#8217;s nuclear programme, along with President Jacob Zuma&#8217;s decision to sack Pravin Gordhan as finance minister.
http://cnbc.africa/news/southern-africa/2016/11/03/nuclear-energy-not-for-south-africa/
($1 = 13.7525 rand)
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla,; Editing by Larry King and Stephen Powell)
&nbsp;

South Africa’s $72 billion nuclear project to move in June, newspaper reports

<div class="group-container ">
<div class="group">
<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/arjun-kharpal/" rel="author">Arjun Kharpal</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/ArjunKharpal">@ArjunKharpal</a>
Flying taxis could be whizzing over your head as early as next year.
German start-up E-Volo showed off its Volocopter 2X this week and said it&#8217;s aiming to test the flying machine in taxi pilot projects in 2018.
</div>
</div>
<div class="group-container ">
<div class="embed-container image"></div>
<div class="group">
The Volocopter is an 18-rotor electric cross between a drone and helicopter. It has two seats and a joystick controlled by a pilot. The batteries in the aircraft are rechargeable and can be replaced.
<div id="inline_movable_ad"> E-Volo said the Volocopter 2X has been developed for approval by German authorities and anyone with a particular license will be able to fly one. By 2018, the first Volocopter 2X models with a &#8220;special permit&#8221; are set to be used as flying taxis in pilot projects, E-Volo claimed in a press release without giving further details.</div>
The company has not responded to a request for further details when contacted by CNBC.
E-Volo is attempting to obtain a commercial registration for its aircraft to allow the transportation of passengers. The company said that developing a 4-seater Volocopter with the hope of getting it approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority and the European Aviation Safety Agency.
</div>
</div>
<div class="group-container last">
<div class="embed-container image">
<div style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2017/04/06/104388387-Volocopter_interior.530x298.jpg?v=1491479666" alt="The interior of the E-Volo Volocopter 2X" width="530" height="298" />E-Volo | The interior of the E-Volo Volocopter 2X</div>
<div class="attribution"></div>
</div>
<div class="group">
Last year, Pang Kin Keong, permanent secretary at Singapore&#8217;s Ministry of Transport, said the country would have flying taxis by 2030 and that it was in talks with several firms about doing this. E-Volo&#8217;s Volocopter was one of the potential solutions flagged.
Vehicles like the Volocopter are key because of their vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities meaning they can take to the skies and land again in a small space, which would be useful in busy cities.
E-Volo is not the only company developing flying VTOL taxis. China&#8217;s Ehang has developed a quadcopter that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government said would be flying around Dubai this year. <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/17/airbus-to-test-driverless-flying-taxis-in-2017.html" target="_self">Airbus is also developing a driverless flying taxi</a> that could be tested this year, while other firms such as Uber are also looking into the technology.
</div>
</div>

An 18-rotor flying taxi could take to the skies in 2018

<a href="http://www.cnbc.com/matt-clinch/" rel="author">Matt Clinch</a> | <a href="http://twitter.com/mattclinch81">@mattclinch81</a> 
Streaming Music
The late, great David Bowie got it spot on back in 2002. Telling the <a class="inline_asset" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/arts/david-bowie-21st-century-entrepreneur.html" target="_self">New York Times</a> that music is going to become like &#8220;running water or electricity,&#8221; the &#8220;Starman&#8221; singer predicted the meteoric rise of the streaming subscription that last week confirmed its place in the upper echelons of the industry.
The fragile U.S. music industry saw retail revenues from recorded music grow 11.4 percent in 2016 to $7.7 billion, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). This was thanks, in no small part, to a doubling of paid streaming music subscriptions which helped the American music business experience its biggest gain since 1998.
&#8220;For the first time ever, streaming music platforms generated the majority of the U.S. music industry&#8217;s revenues &#8230; Streaming grew from just 9 percent of the market in 2011 to 51 percent of total industry revenues in 2016.&#8221; The RIAA confirmed, namechecking such services as Spotify, TIDAL and <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple</a> Music.
It&#8217;s an impressive rise but the new technology has yet to truly capture any of my cash. I&#8217;ve dabbled in the &#8220;freemium&#8221; models for some services and I&#8217;ve purchased a few weeks&#8217; worth of access to one particular streaming subscription. But that&#8217;s it. I&#8217;ve so far resisted, clinging on desperately to my vinyl collection and any CDs I still have from the 1990s that aren&#8217;t scratched beyond playability. That is, until now.
With the upcoming launch of <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/GOOGL" target="_self" data-gdsid="19004" data-inline-quote-symbol="GOOGL">Google</a> Home in the U.K. and the advertising onslaught that <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AMZN" target="_self" data-gdsid="9399" data-inline-quote-symbol="AMZN">Amazon</a> is currently undertaking with its own smart assistant Alexa, it won&#8217;t be long before there&#8217;s a talking robot nestled between the books on my dining room shelf.
And there lies the major selling point for me. Call me lazy, but who wouldn&#8217;t want to shout &#8220;play Roy Orbison&#8217;s &#8216;Crying'&#8221; at a voice-controlled speaker when you&#8217;re about to embark on the chopping of an onion?
http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2017/01/04/amazon-is-selling-tvs-that-you-can-talk-to/
The British Phonographic Industry is already notably excited at the prospect, highlighting in a report that these assistants &#8220;are likely to evolve into our de facto musical concierges around the home and in the car.&#8221;
And it&#8217;s the list of smart commands that&#8217;s a real deal breaker. Amazon&#8217;s official list of voice commands for Alexa include some very vague human interactions that are likely to get some very interesting results. Think of how much fun you could have after demanding it to &#8220;play the top rock songs from 1988?&#8221;. Or maybe even: &#8220;Play that song with the lyrics &#8220;De do do do de da da da, is all I want to say to you.&#8221;
It&#8217;ll be a party gimmick, the excitement will wear off after a few weeks &#8211; but ultimately it&#8217;s an enabler and will help me listen to even more music. Mr. Bowie would have approved.

Streaming has now taken over the music industry and A.I. will push it into the stratosphere

Unit five of the Medupi power station in South Africa&#8217;s northern Limpopo province began commercial operations on Monday, adding 800 megawatts (MW) to the national grid, after it was completed one year ahead of schedule.
South African power utility Eskom, which has in the past been forced to impose power cuts due to insufficient supply, is scrambling to revamp its ageing plants. The unit was expected to become commercially operational by March 2018.
Other Eskom projects include the Ingula hydro-powered plant in the northeast of KwaZulu-Natal, and the Kusile coal-fired plant in eastern Mpumalanga province, which have a combined capacity of about 6,132 MW.
RELATED:
http://cnbc.africa/news/2016/12/28/south-africa-boosts-power-capacity-as-new-unit-linked-to-grid/
(Reporting by Olwethu Boso; Editing by Mark Potter)

Eskom’s Medupi power station unit online a year ahead of schedule

Shares in Imagination Tech crashed 69 percent on Monday after its biggest customer <a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple</a> said it would stop using the British firm&#8217;s graphics technology in the iPhone and other products in up to two years&#8217; time.
Shares in Imagination, in which Apple holds an 8 percent stake, plunged to a seven and a half-year low.
Imagination said Apple, its biggest customer, was developing its own independent graphics processing chips, which would reduce its reliance on the company.
The technology group licenses its processing designs to Apple and receives a small royalty on every graphics chip used in a iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Imagination, however, said it doubted that Apple could go it alone without violating Imagination&#8217; patents, intellectual property and confidential information.
http://cnbc.africa/news/technology/2017/03/08/apple-iphone8/
&#8220;This evidence has been requested by Imagination but Apple has declined to provide it,&#8221; it said on Monday.
It said that Apple&#8217;s notification had triggered talks on alternative commercial arrangements for the current license and royalty agreement.
Apple paid Imagination license fees and royalties totaling 60.7 million pounds for the year to end-April 2016, half of its total revenue, and is expected to pay about 65 million pounds for this year, Imagination said.

Imagination Tech shares plunge 69 percent as Apple abandons British firm

<div class="carousel-player">
By <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/annie-pei/">Annie Pei</a>
<a class="inline_quotes" href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/AAPL" target="_self" data-gdsid="8016" data-inline-quote-symbol="AAPL">Apple</a> shares are at all-time highs, but if you missed out on the rally there might be a way to play the mega-cap tech name for less.
On <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/fast-money/" target="_self">CNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Fast Money&#8221;</a> on Tuesday, Dan Nathan of RiskReversal.com offered a stock replacement strategy on the stock. &#8220;You may want to consider a defined risk strategy, and that&#8217;s buying a call. Options prices are relatively cheap in Apple right now,&#8221; he said.
In other words, Nathan is suggesting that investors may not want to buy the stock outright, but turn to buying options calls instead that would take them through Apple&#8217;s earnings and define their risk.
One trade Nathan said investors can do is buy the May 145-strike call for a total of $3.75, expiring May 19. The trade&#8217;s breakeven point is at $148.75, meaning that if Apple were to close over 3 percent from Wednesday&#8217;s levels, the trade would see a profit.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-115690" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Apple-CNBC.png" alt="" width="960" height="549" />
&#8220;This is a stock that on earnings over the last few years has moved about 5 percent in either direction,&#8221; added Nathan. &#8220;So this is one way to continue to play the momentum, define your risk to the downside.&#8221;
Apple has rallied about 24 percent year to date.
<div id="player_0_104372015_0" class="asset cnbcvideo imgasset desc_size600_400 featuredPromo theplatform-video__docked" data-autoplay="1" data-dockable="1"></div>
</div>
<div class="group"></div>

Here’s how you can buy Apple for less

By Harriet Taylor
<div id="attachment_115670" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115670" class="wp-image-115670 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-1.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Darius Monsef with his family on their farm in Hawaii.</div>
<div class="group-container ">
<div class="group">
Darius Monsef moved from San Francisco to Hawaii — with a pit stop in Los Angeles — and his employer Zapier wants other employees to follow suit.
Start-up Zapier, which sells software that integrates with apps from Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others to automate repetitive tasks, <a class="inline_asset" title="https://zapier.com/blog/move-away-from-sf-get-remote-job/" href="https://zapier.com/blog/move-away-from-sf-get-remote-job/" target="_self">is offering $10,000</a> to help relocate new hires outside the San Francisco Bay Area.
The 85-person company, in which all employees work remotely, has received over a thousand applications since launching its &#8220;De-Location Package&#8221; March 17, said CEO Wade Foster. That&#8217;s an increase of about 33% over normal.
<div id="inline_movable_ad">
<div id="attachment_115672" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115672" class="size-full wp-image-115672" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-2.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Zapier CEO Wade Foster</div>
<div class="group-container ">
<div class="group">
Even he was surprised.
&#8220;I thought it would be popular, I just didn&#8217;t think it would be as popular as it has been,&#8221; Foster said.
While Foster lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company has unusual flexibility in hiring because it has no offices, and instead hands out portable Mifi devices to allow workers to work from anywhere. This allows the company to hire the very best talent from around the world, while saving as much as $2 million a year on pricey Silicon Valley office rental costs. It also helps with employee retention, said Foster.
&#8220;People are able to work where their families are, where their lifestyle suits them,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That ingrains a lot of loyalty towards an organization that allows them to kind of live that type of lifestyle that they deserve or that they want.&#8221;
And that increasingly means a lifestyle outside of the tech hotbed of Silicon Valley. Even though Zapier pays &#8220;competitive salaries,&#8221; high housing costs have made the Bay Area &#8220;unsustainable&#8221; for many people, said Foster.
</div>
</div>
<div class="group-container ">
<h4 class="subtitle">Working from a ranch in Hawaii</h4>
<div class="group">
Foster recruited Monsef — a fellow alum of the Y Combinator start-up incubator — to be Zapier&#8217;s head of growth six months ago. 
&#8220;Although the timing was not an exact match for a &#8216;De-Location Package,&#8217; I was on my own in the Bay Area, doing all of the Bay Area startup grind stuff, and made the decision to move home to raise my family somewhere else,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;I found a company that did not default to stigmatizing people that don&#8217;t work in an office.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_115675" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115675" class="size-full wp-image-115675" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-3.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Monsef on his farm in Waimea on Hawaii&#8217;s Big Island</div>
For Monsef, home was Waimea, HI — a small rural town on Hawaii&#8217;s Big Island with more cows than people — which he likens to &#8220;Middle America,&#8221; but on the most isolated island chain in the world. Zapier was the perfect fit, he said, allowing him to pursue an exciting career while creating the lifestyle he wants with his wife Kaili, who&#8217;s pregnant with their third child, and two children, Waialea and Spencer.
In between Zoom video conference calls and Slack messaging with colleagues — spread across 22 U.S. states and 13 countries — Monsef is building his dream home.
&#8220;The goal for us is to live on a modern homestead. I like the idea of being fully self-sustained,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re fully off-grid for solar, we will be for water, I want to grow the majority of our own food.&#8221;
The ranch sits 2,800 feet above sea level on 43 acres of land among flowing green hills in the shadow of snow capped mountains. Hawaii offers far more than the stereotypical beach shots people associate with it, he said.
<div id="attachment_115677" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115677" class="size-full wp-image-115677" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-4.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Darius Monsef&#8217;s family on their ranch in Waimea, HI</div>
He has four cows, some sheep arriving next week, is building raised garden beds and spends his early mornings, evenings and weekends chipping away at his many projects, including building — and mending — hundreds of feet of fencing.
&#8220;Cattle and other animals just like to push on fence, so even when you are finished with the fence you have to constantly go check the fence,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But I actually really enjoy that work — I have spent decades having really nice computer hands and just doing something with my hands and being offline is a really nice balance for me right now.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_115682" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115682" class="size-full wp-image-115682" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-5.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Monsef on his farm in Waimea on Hawaii&#8217;s Big Island</div>
<h4 class="subtitle">Tips on managing a team of remote workers</h4>
<div class="group">
So how has Zapier managed to keep a team of 85 workers from all around the world on the same page?
The hardest part about managing a team of remote workers is working across different time zones, he said. This means being organized enough to ensure people have the resources and direction they need to work independently so they aren&#8217;t waiting around for him to wake up, he said.
&#8220;You just have to be a little bit more on top of your planning and scheduling,&#8221; he said.
The best remote workers are energetic self-starters who are also empathetic, and so less likely to misinterpret emails or messages and assume the worst, said Monsef.
&#8220;Sometimes context and tone doesn&#8217;t come through in text, so somebody that defaults to assuming good intentions from others makes it easier to understand where people are coming from and to not misinterpret text,&#8221; he said.
Twice a year Zapier flies all its employees to a central location for a week-long retreat where employees get to know one another.
&#8220;That gets a lot of face time and kind of builds a lot of that camaraderie that you get from a local office,&#8221; said Foster.
<div id="attachment_115684" style="width: 540px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115684" class="size-full wp-image-115684" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Zapier-6.jpg" alt="" width="530" height="298" />Source: Zapier Zapier team</div>
Zapier also pairs up employees for weekly &#8220;buddy chats&#8221; — the remote worker version of a water-cooler conversation — which have no set agenda and bring together teammates across the organization, said Foster.
&#8220;A lot of times people just talk about hobbies, families, whatever that kind of suits their interests,&#8221; he said.
There is one way in which Zapier sticks to traditional geographic norms. While the interview process is done remotely, all new hires are flown out to San Francisco once they start. There they meet the founders, their manager and a teammate, and get to know the company culture, said Foster.
&#8220;We call it Airb-n-onboarding because we often rent an Airbnb,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It provides a little bit more of a comfort level that first time you pop into Slack. These people aren&#8217;t total strangers, instead you&#8217;ve met a handful of them.&#8221;
Foster would not disclose the company&#8217;s financials since it is privately held, but said it has been profitable since 2014 and is growing. The company has been largely boot-strapped, though it did raise $1.3 million in seed funding from Bessemer Ventures and Y Combinator in 2012.
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Technology

Facebook has reached its Microsoft Bing moment, and history shows the results won’t be pretty

How to keep a job in a world of AI? Get creative

Naspers has just invested close to $70m in this SA company

This is the best iPad Pro alternative that you can buy

Etisalat Nigeria yet to agree debt deal with lenders: source

World Economic Forum on the search for Africa’s Top Female Innovators

As many as 48 million Twitter accounts aren’t people, says study

Want to found a start-up? These are the books you should read first, a top VC says

First get started, then get smarter – Founder-CEO’s secret to success

As cities get smarter, hackers become more dangerous: This could stop them

South Africa’s $72 billion nuclear project to move in June, newspaper reports

An 18-rotor flying taxi could take to the skies in 2018

Streaming has now taken over the music industry and A.I. will push it into the stratosphere

Eskom’s Medupi power station unit online a year ahead of schedule

Imagination Tech shares plunge 69 percent as Apple abandons British firm

Here’s how you can buy Apple for less

This tech worker is living the dream in Hawaii, and his company is paying others $10K to follow

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Technology

Facebook has reached its Microsoft Bing moment, and history shows the results won’t be pretty

How to keep a job in a world of AI? Get creative

Naspers has just invested close to $70m in this SA company

This is the best iPad Pro alternative that you can buy

Etisalat Nigeria yet to agree debt deal with lenders: source

World Economic Forum on the search for Africa’s Top Female Innovators

As many as 48 million Twitter accounts aren’t people, says study

Want to found a start-up? These are the books you should read first, a top VC says

First get started, then get smarter – Founder-CEO’s secret to success

As cities get smarter, hackers become more dangerous: This could stop them

South Africa’s $72 billion nuclear project to move in June, newspaper reports

An 18-rotor flying taxi could take to the skies in 2018

Streaming has now taken over the music industry and A.I. will push it into the stratosphere

Eskom’s Medupi power station unit online a year ahead of schedule

Imagination Tech shares plunge 69 percent as Apple abandons British firm

Here’s how you can buy Apple for less

This tech worker is living the dream in Hawaii, and his company is paying others $10K to follow

News Tips

Advertise With Us

Newsletters