In today’s top stories from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, representatives of the European Parliament travel to Silicon Valley for a week-long meeting with companies such as Apple, Meta and Google.
Also, German delivery service Gorillas cuts jobs as it works to reach profitability, and the European Central Bank warns that cryptocurrency could threaten the financial system.
EU Parliament Meets Big Tech in Silicon Valley
A delegation of the European Parliament is meeting in Silicon Valley this week with executives from a number of BigTech companies to discuss the digital market advances, while also getting a closer look at U.S. legislative work on eCommerce and platforms.
The meeting, which began Monday (May 23) and runs all week, will include companies such as Google, Meta, Apple, Airbnb, eBay, PayPal, and Uber as well as authorities and academics. The visit is led by Andreas Schwab, the key proponent the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a new EU law that will place restrictions on Big Tech firms to foster competition in digital markets.
German Delivery Service Gorillas Cuts 300 Jobs
German grocery delivery app Gorillas said it will lay off 300 administrative employees as it moves its focus from expansion to profitability.
In an interview with Reuters, Chief Executive Kagan Sumer said the company had tripled in size since October when it raised $921 million, but has not achieved profitability.
“Risk has become irritating for investors, and nobody wants uncertainty right now. That makes it pretty hard to raise money right now,” Sumer said. “When we go public, we want to do it as a profitable company.”
ECB: Crypto Could Shake Financial Stability
Financial stability is at risk as crypto-assets become more intertwined with mainstream markets, the European Central Bank (ECB) said in its financial stability review.
The ECB cited recent crashes of stablecoins Terra and Tether, saying they were not as “stable as their name suggests and cannot guarantee their peg at all times.”
Tether, the world’s biggest stablecoin, fell an estimated 9% in value since May 12, shedding more than $7 billion as investors withdrew amid a wider cryptocurrency selloff. Terra, meanwhile, has been de-pegged from the U.S. dollar since May 9.
FinTech Gibobs Gets Backing from Global PayTech Ventures
Global PayTech Ventures (GPT) has invested in European FinTech platform Gibobs Allbanks to help users access financial services.
The Gibobs Allbanks platform provides personal financial analysts to negotiate for each of its customers to get the most competitive offers for their home financing products.
Gibobs is debuting in Spain, where there are about 400,000 mortgages every year, with plans to expand across Europe, offer new services, and roll out a version of its platform for small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).