10 things in tech you need to know today, August 15

Reuters

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this
Wednesday.

1.
Tinder’s founders have filed a bombshell $2 billion lawsuit
claiming the former CEO ‘groped and sexually harassed’ an
executive at a company party. The lawsuit
alleges that the former Tinder CEO and IAC Chairman Greg Blatt
harassed Rosette Pambakian, Tinder’s vice president of marketing.

2.
Tesla has been hit with a third securities fraud lawsuit in the
wake of CEO Elon Musk’s ‘funding secured’ tweet. A
complaint filed alleges that some investors purchased Tesla stock
“at artificially inflated prices and suffered significant losses
and damages once the truth emerged” that Musk had not secured the
funding necessary to convert Tesla into a private company.

3.
The world’s biggest tech companies are at serious risk of losing
out on the $32 billion market Indian ecommerce
market. India’s government is drawing up new
policies that would favour domestic ecommerce startups over
foreign competitors such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

4.
Some members of Tesla’s board are hiring lawyers to protect
themselves in the ongoing fallout from CEO Elon Musk’s public
declarations about taking the company private.
Fellow board members are also urging Musk to cool it with the
social media posts about a go-private deal.

5.
MoviePass has less than three months left before it runs out of
cash. The company burned through more than $219
million in the first six months of the year, and said it now has
$26 million in cash on hand, and another $25.4 million on deposit
at its merchant bank.

6.
Apple could launch smart glasses in 2020 and an Apple Car in
2023, according to an analyst with strong track
record. Respected TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo
suggested the new services could take Apple’s valuation to $2
trillion.

7.
Tinder and Match Group were a poor match from the beginning,
according to the lawsuit filed by the dating app’s
founders. As well as harassment, the lawsuit alleges
that the management of Match Group and its corporate parent IAC
repeatedly reneged on formal agreements and shorted the founders
of money and ownership.

8.
Apple is reportedly arguing that buildings at its headquarters
are worth just $200 so that it can reduce its tax
bill. In a 2015 appeal, Apple claimed that a
“cluster of properties” around Apple Park was worth $200, rather
than the $1 billion figure alighted on by Santa Clara County’s
tax assessor.

9.
A Twitter engineer has said he’s deleting the app from his own
phone in a protest of CEO Jack Dorsey’s policies.
Jared Gaut criticised leadership’s attempts to remain neutral —
an apparent reference to Twitter’s decision not to ban conspiracy
theorist Alex Jones.

10.
Twitter has suspended Alex Jones’ ability to tweet, but not from
the platform altogether. Jones can read his posts
but can’t interact with any other users or post.

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