Geeky international news on technology, business and culture.
TNW Weekly Briefing
1 February 2026 @ 3:13 pm
G2 acquires Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp from Gartner G2 has completed a major acquisition by purchasing three of the world’s most influential software discovery platforms from Gartner. The move significantly reshapes the global B2B software reviews market and strengthens G2’s position in how companies evaluate and buy software. Noora Saksaa appointed CEO of Slush Slush, one of Europe’s most influential tech and startup events, has named Noora Saksa as its new CEO. The leadership change signals a strategic shift toward expanding Slush beyond its annual event and building a year-round global founder platform. France moves public sector away from…Is G2 becoming too powerful for the software market?
1 February 2026 @ 1:52 pm
The software industry is increasingly questioning the growing influence of G2 following its agreement to acquire Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp from Gartner. The deal, announced in late January and expected to close in Q1 2026, consolidates several of the most influential B2B software discovery platforms under a single owner . How big is G2’s footprint after the acquisition? According to G2’s own disclosures, the combined group will host around 6 million verified software reviews and reach more than 200 million software buyers annually across thousands of categories. Individually, the platforms already commanded significant scale: G2 reports over 3 million…The rise of the always-on economy: subscriptions beyond streaming
31 January 2026 @ 3:37 pm
We are all familiar with the subscription economy, and it certainly works as a reminder of the COVID-19 pandemic, when we were all hooked on our TVs watching Netflix or listening to our favorite music artist on Spotify. Despite how modern it seems to be, the truth is that the subscription economy has been around for some time, surprisingly dating back to around 1800, with the first magazine subscriptions, or the subscriptions for fresh British milk, around 1860. Over the years, the of subscription-based companies has turned the subscription model into an ideal business strategy since it provides unique benefits.…Apple buys “Silent Speech” AI startup for $2B, because talking is so 2025
30 January 2026 @ 1:52 pm
Apple confirmed this week that it has acquired Israeli AI startup Q.ai in a deal valued at close to $2 billion, making it one of the company’s largest acquisitions ever, second only to the $3 billion purchase of Beats in 2014. But check your assumptions: this isn’t Beats 2.0. There’s no new headphone brand to flex. Instead, Apple is paying top dollar for tech that might let your devices understand you without you ever saying a word. These days we put our phones on silent so they won’t disturb us; soon the phone will put us on silent so it…G2 bold move to reshape software discovery with major acquisition from Gartner
29 January 2026 @ 5:21 pm
G2, the Chicago-based software insights platform, agreed today to acquire three prominent software review and discovery properties from Gartner: Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp. The deal brings four of the largest B2B review sites under a single roof and signals a shift toward unified, AI-driven software recommendation and buying experiences. According to the announcement, the combined business will include roughly six million verified customer reviews and tap into an audience of more than 200 million annual software buyers. G2 said it expects the transaction to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to standard regulatory and closing conditions. G2’s…AI isn’t coming for your job, it’s coming for your justification
29 January 2026 @ 12:47 pm
AI adoption is creating a clear divide among employees. Some see AI as a tool to increase their impact, while others see it as a threat to their role. So, where does the truth lie between these two mindsets? Let’s explore. AI doesn’t eliminate roles, it removes low-leverage work Over the past two years, we’ve seen a wave of layoffs often attributed to “AI replacing humans.” Among widely discussed cases, IBM openly stated that over 7,000 back-office roles may no longer need to be hired because AI can absorb the work. Many other tech players, including Microsoft, Amazon, and HP,…TNW Moves Its Flagship Conference to London
29 January 2026 @ 12:28 pm
The Next Web (TNW) is making a bold move: its flagship conference is relocating to London, placing TNW’s main annual event at the centre of one of the world’s most powerful technology and investment ecosystems. The move marks a significant moment for TNW and signals a broader evolution of the brand’s global events strategy. A new concept: TNW Gathering Alongside the move to London, TNW is introducing a new global event concept: TNW Gathering. Designed as an intimate, invite-only format, TNW Gathering is created for members of the TNW Council and a carefully selected group of founders, operators, and investors.…Beyond the click: How brands can influence visibility in AI-generated answers
29 January 2026 @ 11:24 am
The way people discover information online is quietly but fundamentally changing. Instead of scrolling through links and choosing which article to open, users are increasingly asking large language models to answer directly. Tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity don’t send people browsing; they synthesise information from multiple sources and deliver a ready-made response inside the interface. For brands and publishers, this creates a new problem: what does visibility mean when nobody clicks anymore? The decline of the click-based era For years, search optimization revolved around a familiar feedback loop: publish content, earn rankings, drive clicks, measure performance. Traffic, impressions, and engageBonjour Visio: France turns digital sovereignty into policy
28 January 2026 @ 12:35 pm
In a bold turn of phrase and deed, Paris has quietly told Silicon Valley “au revoir.” On January 26, 2026, France’s Ministry of Finance announced that by 2027, all public servants will switch from U.S. video apps like Microsoft Teams and Zoom to a homegrown platform called Visio. No more license renewals for Teams, Zoom, Webex, or Meet, just one unified, French-built solution. In one stroke, a long-discussed slogan “digital sovereignty” has leapt off the podium and into practice. This is not a press release; it’s a watershed moment: Europe’s second-biggest economy is wagering that, when it comes to critical…Early Results from the TNW Council Concierge Revealed
27 January 2026 @ 1:32 pm
Shortly after launch, TNW Council is already seeing clear, early signals from its concierge model, signals that underline a fundamental truth often overlooked in the startup ecosystem: founders operating at €1 to 10 million and leaders scaling companies between €10 to 100 million are solving entirely different problems. From the first concierge-led conversations, a consistent pattern emerged. Founders in the €1 to 10M range are primarily seeking: practical growth strategies clarity on positioning, channels, and prioritization hands-on experience that helps them avoid early-stage execution mistakes In contrast, leaders operating at €10 to 100M are no longer asking for growth playbooks.…
The facts are so damning that it’s unclear to me why moderate Democrats are being careful about their reaction to them. Renee Good was shot in the face. Alex Pretti was shot in the back. Their deaths were not accidental. They were not the result of poor or insufficient training. They were the result of intent.Why are moderates worried about seeming extreme when the context is murder by the st
Hours after the Republican Party suffered an upset defeat in a special election in a deep-red district in Texas, President Donald Trump falsely claimed he had nothing to do with the race.While speaking to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Sunday, Trump was asked what he made of the GOP losing a Texas state senate election in a district that he carried by 17 percentage points in 2024.“I’m not involved in that, that’s a local Texas race,” Trump replied.In fact, Trump endorsed losing Republican candidate Leigh Wambsganss on three separate occasions in just the last three days, including a Saturday 
In a survey released in March 2023, Pew Research Center examined Americans' views on different religious groups. Pew found that 27 percent of respondents had a "very" or "somewhat unfavorable" view of evangelicals, while only 10 percent had that view of Mainline Protestants and 6 percent felt that way about Jews.But the fact that evangelicals fared badly in Pew's survey doesn't mean that they are going away.In an 
Between a series of Democratic election victories in late 2025 and early 2026 and President Donald Trump's weak approval ratings in a long list of recent polls, Republican strategists are growing increasingly worried about this year's midterms —which are a little over nine months away.Never Trump conservative and New York Times columnist David French fears that Trump and his allies will use militarized U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raids
A bombshell Saturday report from the Wall Street Journal revealed that a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family secretly backed a massive $500 million investment into the Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture months before the Trump administration gave the United Arab Emirates access to highly sensitive artificial intelligence chip technology.According to the Journal’s sources, lieutenants of Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan signed a deal in early 2025 to buy a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial, the startup founded by members of the Trump family and the 
In today’s edition, I’m going to try something different. Instead of an essay or analysis or an interview, I’m going to offer diary-like entries. The reason is practical, but also artistic, if you will indulge the term. These diary entries reflect how my mind works – vestiges, observations, random thoughts – sometimes interconnected but more often not. I wrote them on Bluesky before they appeared here, but have expanded and modified nearly all of them in order to give the impression of a beginning, middle and end. Let me know what you think in the comments.Saturday, January 24, before Alex Pretti was murdered.I wish white Americans would connect the dots: between a cop
With the United States' 2026 midterms a little over nine months away, President Donald Trump's low approval ratings are a major source of anxiety for GOP strategists. And a series of Democratic election victories has them worried as well. The latest came on Saturday night, January 30 in a special election for a Texas State Senate seat in the Ft. Worth suburbs. Donald Trump carried that district by 17 percent in 2024, but on January 30, Democratic nominee Taylor Rehmet defeated Republican Leigh Wambsganss (who Trump endorsed) by 14 percent.B
MAGA Republican Steve Bannon, host of the "War Room" vodcast and former White House Chief strategist in the first Trump Administration, famously described the MAGA movement's strategy as "flood the zone with s---." The idea, according to Bannon, is to keeping opponents feeling overwhelmed by inundating them with nonsense."Real Time" host Bill Maher warned Democrats not to fall for it. Democrats, he stressed, need to pick their battles carefully with Trump and not "lose their s---" every time he says something offensive.In an opinion column published on February 1, the New York Times' Ezra Klein notes that the flood-the-zone strat
Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat — a history professor at New York University, author of the 2020 book "Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present," and a frequent guest on MS NOW — is known for her expertise on the history of fascism and authoritarianism. And she isn't shy about comparing President Donald Trump to authoritarian figures of the past.In an op-ed/essay published by the New York Times on February 1, Ben-Ghiat argues that Trump's overreach may backfire — which, she point
When Aztec emissaries arrived in 1520 to Tzintzuntzan, the capital of the Tarascan Kingdom in what is now the Mexican state of Michoacán, they carried a warning from the Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc.They cautioned that strange foreigners – the Spaniards – had invaded the land and posed a grave threat. The emissaries requested an audience with the Tarascan ruler, known as the Cazonci, King Zuanga. But Zuanga had recently died, most likely from smallpox brought by the Spaniards.Relations between the two empires had long been tense. They had clashed on the western frontier since 1476, fighting major battles an