CYBERSECURITY
Threat Stack raises $45m in new funding
Threat Stack, a Boston-based cybersecurity company focused on protecting cloud-based data from intrusions, said Tuesday that it has raised $45 million in new funding as it looks to expand its global presence. The funding round was led by F-Prime Capital Partners, an affiliate of Fidelity Investments, and it increases the total amount raised by the company to more than $70 million. “Building on strong customer adoption and robust organic growth, we have set our sights on growing opportunities in existing markets and expanding into new ones. Further investment in innovation will drive Threat Stack’s continued leadership in the cybersecurity market,’’ Threat Stack chairman and chief executive Brian M. Ahern said in a statement. — ANDY ROSEN
TECHNOLOGY
Amazon unveils new tablet with voice control
How to revive a stagnant tablet market? Make the gadgets more like those fast-selling, voice controlled speakers. That looks like Amazon.com Inc.’s strategy with the launch of its latest flagship tablet. The company debuted a new version of its Fire HD 10 tablet on Tuesday that has a high-definition screen for watching video, up to 64 GB of storage, a lower price, and a processor that runs 30 percent faster, Amazon said. The most significant new feature is hands-free voice control, which lets users ask questions and do other things like play music and listen to the news by saying “Alexa’’ without touching the device. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
RETAIL
Kohl’s to accept Amazon returns in Los Angeles, Chicago
Kohl’s, which is opening some in-store Amazon shops, will start accepting returns for the online retailer at some of its stores in Los Angeles and Chicago starting next month. Kohl’s Corp. said Tuesday it will pack and ship eligible Amazon return items for free at the 82 stores offering the service. There will be designated parking spots near the Kohl’s store entrances for those doing Amazon returns. While the service will allow Kohl’s customers to skip their local post office for Amazon returns, it also gets them into Kohl’s stores — where they might then shop. The department store had previously announced plans to open 1,000-square-foot Amazon areas in 10 of its stores in Chicago and Los Angeles that will sell Amazon Echos, Fire tablets, and other gadgets. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUTOMOBILES
Volvo to expand its first US factory
Volvo Cars is so eager for growth, it’s planning to expand its first US factory — and it hasn’t even finished building it yet. The Chinese-owned Swedish automaker is set to double the investment in its assembly plant near Charleston, S.C., to a total of $1 billion, said a person familiar with the plans. The added spending will support an additional 1,900 jobs in addition to the 2,000 originally planned, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private. Volvo is rapidly expanding its product lineup and manufacturing base as it aims for 800,000 global light-vehicle sales by 2020 — 50 percent more than last year’s record total. Global sales through August this year rose 8.7 percent to 359,798, even as US deliveries slipped 7.3 percent — a shortfall that the automaker said will be made up by the end of the year. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter suspends nearly 300,000 accounts linked to terrorism
Twitter Inc., under pressure from governments around the world to combat online extremism, said in a new report that improving automation tools are helping block accounts that promote terrorism and violence. In the first half of the year, Twitter said it suspended nearly 300,000 accounts globally linked to terrorism. Of those, roughly 95 percent were identified by the company’s spam-fighting automation tools. Meanwhile, Twitter said government data requests continued to increase, and that it provided authorities with data on roughly 3,900 accounts from January to June. The increasing role of machines in fighting extremism is a function of necessity, with manually identifying violent material within the millions of messages sent every day an impossible task. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
GAMES
Words with Friends now has 50,000 more words
Tell your bae or your bestie: The mobile game Words With Friends is adding thousands of pop culture words as part of its largest dictionary update in the game’s eight-year history. Game developer Zynga said Tuesday that it is adding 50,000 Internet slang words, including BFF, fitspo, delish, FOMO, hangry, kween, smize, TFW, turnt, werk, yas — as well as bae and bestie. Gurpreet Singh, director of product for the Scrabble-esque game, said Words With Friends players are constantly reaching out — on social media and in the game itself, which has a submission feature — with words they’d like added to the dictionary. He said Zynga gets 5,000 suggestions a day, which formed the basis of the update. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHARMACIES
Walgreens wins approval for slimmed-down Rite Aid deal
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. clinched regulatory approval for a deal to buy Rite Aid Corp. stores after a last-minute reduction of the number of stores and price, a hard-fought victory following two years of failed attempts. The drugstore chain gained clearance from the US Federal Trade Commission on its fourth try, but still drew criticism from one of the two commissioners currently on the short-staffed agency, who raised concerns that the deal will reduce competition and lead to rising prices for generic drugs. Under the new agreement, announced Tuesday, Walgreens will buy 1,932 Rite Aid stores for $4.38 billion, becoming a bigger competitor to CVS Health Corp. That’s about 250 fewer stores than under a previous proposal, which totaled $5.18 billion. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
RETAIL
Crocs make a comeback
Crocs, perhaps the most polarizing shoe of our time, is making a comeback. The company’s signature foam clog fell out of favor a decade ago, but now it is a star reborn on Twitter and beyond: On the runway, in the pages of Vogue and on feet of people who feel a little funny about it but can no longer resist. The turnaround is no accident, analysts say, but rather the result of four years of strategic changes, following a $200 million investment by private-equity giant Blackstone Group in 2013. Since then, Crocs has closed hundreds of under performing stores, done away with unpopular styles, and shifted its focus back to its classic foam clog, which sells for about $35 and accounts for nearly half of the company’s sales. Annual sales have exceeded $1 billion for six consecutive years, and profits rose 54 percent in the most recent quarter. — WASHINGTON POST
WAGE EQUITY
PwC’s non-white employees are paid 13 percent less than whites in Britain
PwC, the global consulting firm, released data on Monday about how it compensates people of color relative to whites in its British workforce, becoming one of the first companies to do so. On average, PwC’s non-white employees in the United Kingdom are paid almost 13 percent less than their white peers, the firm said. They received bonuses that were roughly a third smaller. Among the more than 17,000 PwC employees in the United Kingdom, almost 4,000 identify themselves as black, Asian, or what in Britain is referred to as “minority ethnic.’’ PwC chairman Kevin Ellis said in a statement that the firm’s UK operation will aim to better retain and promote minorities “through stronger accountability across our business.’’ — BLOOMBERG NEWS
