Dubai’s Property Finder raises $90M to fund BECO’s exit
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Dubai’s Property Finder raises $90M to fund BECO’s exit
Property Finder received a $90 million investment from US-based Private Equity firm Francisco Partners to acquire Beco Capital's stake. Beco Capital, Property Finder's initial investor, exited with a profitable return, as reported by Bloomberg.
The transaction marks Francisco Partners' first investment of its kind in the Emirates, signaling continued foreign investor interest in the UAE's real estate market.
Property Finder, currently valued at around $1 billion, making it one of the region's unicorns, is seeking to expand into Saudi Arabia and Turkey after having already expanded operations in Qatar, Bahrain, and Egypt
Google launches Astra, its comprehensive AI agent
Google plans to introduce a new system named Astra later this year, touting it as the most potent and sophisticated AI assistant it has ever released.
The existing generation of AI assistants, like ChatGPT, primarily excel at fetching information and providing responses, with limited capabilities beyond that. However, this year, Google is revamping its assistants, labeling them as advanced "agents," claiming they will demonstrate reasoning, planning, and memory abilities, along with the capacity to undertake multi-step task executions.
Astra will be accessible via smartphones and potentially desktops, with Google considering integration into smart glasses or other devices, according to Oriol Vinyals, VP of Research at Google DeepMind.
"We are in the very early stages of AI agent development," stated Google CEO Sundar Pichai on a call preceding Google's I/O conference.
Google's announcement follows OpenAI's unveiling of its own advanced AI assistant, GPT-4o.
Tech giants are engaged in intense competition for AI dominance, with AI agents being their latest endeavor to demonstrate their commitment to advancing technology. These agents also align with the narrative of many tech companies, such as OpenAI and Google DeepMind, who aspire to develop artificial general intelligence, a concept of highly advanced AI systems.
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Gaza Protesters Block Google Conference, Denouncing Israeli Contracts: "We Won't Stop Till Nimbus Gets Dropped"
Mountain View, California - Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, including members of the No Tech for Genocide coalition, disrupted the entrance to Google's annual developer conference, Google I/O, on Tuesday. Chaining themselves together, protesters redirected thousands of attendees to alternate entrances, highlighting Google's involvement in Israeli military projects.
Amid chants of "Google stop fueling genocide," activists condemned Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion venture backed by Google and Amazon, providing AI and cloud services to the Israeli government.
"What you will not be hearing from today's speakers is that right now, as I stand here before you, the state of Israel is using Google technology to execute history's first AI-powered genocide," voiced a protester addressing the crowd
Attendees, including current and former Google employees, faced the disruption as they awaited announcements on major product updates, particularly in AI. Demonstrators emphasized opposition to technology enabling violence, alleging its testing in Gaza foreshadows potential replication worldwide.
Dubai's Deyaar's Q1 2024 Net Profit Before Tax Jumps 38% to $21.1M
Deyaar reports a net profit before tax of $21.1 million in Q1 2024, marking a 38% increase compared to the previous year.
In Q1 2024, the net profit before tax reached about $20.93 million, significantly up from $15.29 million in Q1 2023.
Total assets grew by 7%, rising from around $1,684.80 million as of March 31, 2023, to about $1,809.08 million as of March 31, 2024.
Revenue for the three-month period ending in March 2024 stood at approximately $88.50 million, compared to about $84.38 million in March 2023, indicating a year-on-year increase.
Liquidity increased by approximately $122.58 million, driven by strong receivables and higher advances from customers, reflecting a positive market trend.
Earnings per share rose from approximately $0.35 in Q1 2023 to around $0.45 in Q1 2024.
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