Channel Daily News

Hashtag Trending – Apple to host a special event; Will Lyft take over Uber in its IPO?; Google and Mastercard partner to track offline purchases


First up, trending on LinkedIn, rumour has it that Apple is going to be hosting a special event on Sept. 12 at its main campus in San Francisco. Some early predictions point to the tech giant unveiling three new iPhones including an iPhone X Plus with a 6.5-inch screen. CNET reports it’s possible that the Apple Watch series 4 will be unveiled. Other predictions include a new MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and upgraded iPads. The event on the 12th will begin at 10 a.m. PT.

Also trending on LinkedIn is news of ride-hailing company Lyft looking to surpass Uber by jumping ahead and making an initial public offering next year. According to a Bloomberg article, Lyft has already hired an IPO adviser to help the company prepare itself for a listing next year in March or April. Experts say the move from Lyft could upstage its larger rival and gain IPO bankers that can’t work on Uber’s listing because of a conflict of interest. But, experts also warn Lyft could lose out on other investors waiting on Uber.

Finally trending on Flipboard is news that Google and Mastercard have signed a secret deal so that Google can track retail sales using Mastercard. Google advertisers have had access for the past year to a new tool that tracks whether ads have led to a sale at a physical store in the U.S, according to reporting from Bloomberg. It turns out Google and Mastercard had been working together to broker this partnership for four years, allowing Google to analyze how purchases are made so it can strengthen its business against other tech giants like Amazon. As of this recording, Google and Mastercard have remained silent on the partnership.