Technology
When Tech Giants Go Shopping
When Tech Giants Go Shopping
So far, 2014 has been a big year for the tech industry in regards to acquisitions. But if you think that Facebook’s $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp was the largest, you’d be mistaken.
Acquisitions are a huge part of driving the tech industry forward. They bring in new ideas, fresh talent, proprietary technologies, and much more. For investors, an acquisition can mean big money, on both ends of a buyout. Take for example Comcast’s bid for taking over Time Warner Cable earlier this year, investors in Time Warner enjoyed a 6.8% jump in their stock value. These types of deals aren’t rare; just last year, there were 2,710 mergers and acquisitions in the tech industry.
The Big 4 of the tech world (Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Google) all have made very important acquisitions, and some may even change the world. Take for example Google’s buyout of YouTube back in 2006. The video streaming site was purchased for $1.6 billion in stock. YouTube has come a long way from being famous for its entertaining gag videos like “Charlie Bit My Finger.” The platform has become a worldwide visual communication tool. It even played a role in liberating parts of the Arab world in the Arab Spring. Today, YouTube is estimated to be valued at $15 billion.
Perhaps the next big game changing acquisition will be one that wasn’t mentioned in the infographic: Apple’s purchase of Beats Electronics. Apple acquired Beats for a reported $3 billion. Some speculate it wasn’t to offer superior headphones to Apple’s clientele; rather, it was for Beats’ streaming service. There may be a shift in how modern music listeners enjoys their music. Apple’s iTunes’ sales have been slowly dwindling as of late, album sales are down 15% this year. The future may lie in subscription based streaming services, something Beats has a head start in.
We’re only half way through 2014 and we have already seen major players shake up the tech industry through mergers and acquisitions. I am sure that I’m not alone when I say I’m excited to see what’s in store for the remainder of the year.
Original infographic from: FinancesOnline.com
Technology
Every Mission to Mars in One Visualization
This graphic shows a timeline of every mission to Mars since 1960, highlighting which ones have been successful and which ones haven’t.

Timeline: A Historical Look at Every Mission to Mars
Within our Solar System, Mars is one of the most similar planets to Earth—both have rocky landscapes, solid outer crusts, and cores made of molten rock.
Because of its similarities to Earth and proximity, humanity has been fascinated by Mars for centuries. In fact, it’s one of the most explored objects in our Solar System.
But just how many missions to Mars have we embarked on, and which of these journeys have been successful? This graphic by Jonathan Letourneau shows a timeline of every mission to Mars since 1960 using NASA’s historical data.
A Timeline of Mars Explorations
According to a historical log from NASA, there have been 48 missions to Mars over the last 60 years. Here’s a breakdown of each mission, and whether or not they were successful:
# | Launch | Name | Country | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1960 | Korabl 4 | USSR (flyby) | Failure |
2 | 1960 | Korabl 5 | USSR (flyby) | Failure |
3 | 1962 | Korabl 11 | USSR (flyby) | Failure |
4 | 1962 | Mars 1 | USSR (flyby) | Failure |
5 | 1962 | Korabl 13 | USSR (flyby) | Failure |
6 | 1964 | Mariner 3 | US (flyby) | Failure |
7 | 1964 | Mariner 4 | US (flyby) | Success |
8 | 1964 | Zond 2 | USSR (flyby) | Failure |
9 | 1969 | Mars 1969A | USSR | Failure |
10 | 1969 | Mars 1969B | USSR | Failure |
11 | 1969 | Mariner 6 | US (flyby) | Success |
12 | 1969 | Mariner 7 | US (flyby) | Success |
13 | 1971 | Mariner 8 | US | Failure |
14 | 1971 | Kosmos 419 | USSR | Failure |
15 | 1971 | Mars 2 Orbiter/Lander | USSR | Failure |
16 | 1971 | Mars 3 Orbiter/Lander | USSR | Success/Failure |
17 | 1971 | Mariner 9 | US | Success |
18 | 1973 | Mars 4 | USSR | Failure |
19 | 1973 | Mars 5 | USSR | Success |
20 | 1973 | Mars 6 Orbiter/Lander | USSR | Success/Failure |
21 | 1973 | Mars 7 Lander | USSR | Failure |
22 | 1975 | Viking 1 Orbiter/Lander | US | Success |
23 | 1975 | Viking 2 Orbiter/Lander | US | Success |
24 | 1988 | Phobos 1 Orbiter | USSR | Failure |
25 | 1988 | Phobos 2 Orbiter/Lander | USSR | Failure |
26 | 1992 | Mars Observer | US | Failure |
27 | 1996 | Mars Global Surveyor | US | Success |
28 | 1996 | Mars 96 | Russia | Failure |
29 | 1996 | Mars Pathfinder | US | Success |
30 | 1998 | Nozomi | Japan | Failure |
31 | 1998 | Mars Climate Orbiter | US | Failure |
32 | 1999 | Mars Polar Lander | US | Failure |
33 | 1999 | Deep Space 2 Probes (2) | US | Failure |
34 | 2001 | Mars Odyssey | US | Success |
35 | 2003 | Mars Express Orbiter/Beagle 2 Lander | ESA | Success/Failure |
36 | 2003 | Mars Exploration Rover - Spirit | US | Success |
37 | 2003 | Mars Exploration Rover - Opportunity | US | Success |
38 | 2005 | Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter | US | Success |
39 | 2007 | Phoenix Mars Lander | US | Success |
40 | 2011 | Mars Science Laboratory | US | Success |
41 | 2011 | Phobos-Grunt/Yinghuo-1 | Russia/China | Failure |
42 | 2013 | Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution | US | Success |
43 | 2013 | Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) | India | Success |
44 | 2016 | ExoMars Orbiter/Schiaparelli EDL Demo Lander | ESA/Russia | Success/Failure |
45 | 2018 | Mars InSight Lander | US | Success |
46 | 2020 | Hope Orbiter | UAE | Success |
47 | 2020 | Tianwen-1 Orbiter/Zhurong Rover | China | Success |
48 | 2020 | Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover | US | Success |
The first mission to Mars was attempted by the Soviets in 1960, with the launch of Korabl 4, also known as Mars 1960A.
As the table above shows, the voyage was unsuccessful. The spacecraft made it 120 km into the air, but its third-stage pumps didn’t generate enough momentum for it to stay in Earth’s orbit.
For the next few years, several more unsuccessful Mars missions were attempted by the USSR and then NASA. Then, in 1964, history was made when NASA launched the Mariner 4 and completed the first-ever successful trip to Mars.
The Mariner 4 didn’t actually land on the planet, but the spacecraft flew by Mars and was able to capture photos, which gave us an up-close glimpse at the planet’s rocky surface.
Then on July 20, 1976, NASA made history again when its spacecraft called Viking 1 touched down on Mars’ surface, making it the first space agency to complete a successful Mars landing. Viking 1 captured panoramic images of the planet’s terrain, and also enabled scientists to monitor the planet’s weather.
Vacation to Mars, Anyone?
To date, all Mars landings have been done without crews, but NASA is planning to send humans to Mars by the late 2030s.
And it’s not just government agencies that are planning missions to Mars—a number of private companies are getting involved, too. Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX has a long-term plan to build an entire city on Mars.
Two other aerospace startups, Impulse and Relativity, also announced an unmanned joint mission to Mars in July 2022, with hopes it could be ready as soon as 2024.
As more players are added to the mix, the pressure is on to be the first company or agency to truly make it to Mars. If (or when) we reach that point, what’s next is anyone’s guess.
Technology
Thematic Investing: 3 Key Trends in Cybersecurity
Cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated. Here’s what investors need to know about the future of cybersecurity.


Thematic Investing: 3 Key Trends in Cybersecurity
In 2020, the global cost of cybercrime was estimated to be around $945 billion, according to McAfee.
It’s likely even higher today, as multiple sources have recorded an increase in the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks during the pandemic.
In this infographic from Global X ETFs, we highlight three major trends that are shaping the future of the cybersecurity industry that investors need to know.
Trend 1: Increasing Costs
Research from IBM determined that the average data breach cost businesses $4.2 million in 2021, up from $3.6 million in 2017. The following table breaks this figure into four components:
Cost Component | Value ($) |
---|---|
Cost of lost business | $1.6M |
Detection and escalation | $1.2M |
Post breach response | $1.1M |
Notification | $0.3M |
Total | $4.2M |
The greatest cost of a data breach is lost business, which results from system downtimes, reputational losses, and lost customers. Second is detection and escalation, including investigative activities, audit services, and communications to stakeholders.
Post breach response includes costs such as legal expenditures, issuing new accounts or credit cards (in the case of financial institutions), and other monitoring services. Lastly, notification refers to the cost of notifying regulators, stakeholders, and other third parties.
To stay ahead of these rising costs, businesses are placing more emphasis on cybersecurity. For example, Microsoft announced in September 2021 that it would quadruple its cybersecurity investments to $20 billion over the next five years.
Trend 2: Remote Work Opens New Vulnerabilities
According to IBM, companies that rely more on remote work experience greater losses from data breaches. For companies where 81 to 100% of employees were remote, the average cost of a data breach was $5.5 million (2021). This dropped to $3.7 million for companies that had under 10% of employees working from home.
A major reason for this gap is that work-from-home setups are typically less secure. Phishing attacks surged in 2021, taking advantage of the fact that many employees access corporate systems through their personal devices.
Type of Attack | Number of attacks in 2020 | Number of attacks in 2021 | Growth (%) |
---|---|---|---|
Spam phishing | 1.5M | 10.1M | +573% |
Credential phishing | 5.5M | 6.2M | +13% |
As detected by Trend Micro’s Cloud App Security.
Spam phishing refers to “fake” emails that trick users by impersonating company management. They can include malicious links that download ransomware onto the users device. Credential phishing is similar in concept, though the goal is to steal a person’s account credentials.
A tactic you may have seen before is the Amazon scam, where senders impersonate Amazon and convince users to update their payment methods. This strategy could also be used to gain access to a company’s internal systems.
Trend 3: AI Can Reduce the Cost of a Data Breach
AI-based cybersecurity can detect and respond to cyberattacks without any human intervention. When fully deployed, IBM measured a 20% reduction in the time it takes to identify and contain a breach. It also resulted in cost savings upwards of 60%.
A prominent user of AI-based cybersecurity is Google, which uses machine learning to detect phishing attacks within Gmail.
Machine learning helps Gmail block spam and phishing messages from showing up in your inbox with over 99.9% accuracy. This is huge, given that 50-70% of messages that Gmail receives are spam.
– Andy Wen, Google
As cybercrime escalates, Acumen Research and Consulting believes the market for AI-based security solutions will reach $134 billion by 2030, up from $15 billion in 2021.
Introducing the Global X Cybersecurity ETF
The Global X Cybersecurity ETF (Ticker: BUG) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Indxx Cybersecurity Index. See below for industry and country-level breakdowns, as of June 2022.
Sector (By security type) | Weight |
---|---|
Cloud | 28.0% |
Network | 25.1% |
Identity | 17.7% |
Internet | 15.0% |
Endpoint | 12.8% |
Country | Weight |
---|---|
🇺🇸 U.S. | 71.6% |
🇮🇱 Israel | 13.2% |
🇬🇧 UK | 8.2% |
🇯🇵 Japan | 5.5% |
🇰🇷 South Korea | 0.9% |
🇨🇦 Canada | 0.6% |
Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding.
Investors can use this passively managed solution to gain exposure to the rising adoption of cybersecurity technologies.

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