iWorld
NBL signs five-year deal with VEQTA
MUMBAI: The National Basketball League (NBL) has signed a five-year deal with the Indian digital sports network VEQTA to increase its international footprint.
VEQTA is a digital platform dedicated to streaming live sport and providing video-on-demand sports content on smartphones. The long-term agreement sees VEQTA gain exclusive rights to stream all NBL games in India up until the 2020-21 season.
NBL general manager Jeremy Loeliger said, “They are a young ambitious digital company that is taking an innovative approach to digital sports broadcasting. They also have a pedigree of amazing success in this space.”
“Just like Australia, India is a sports mad country and by partnering with VEQTA we have a fantastic opportunity to take the NBL to yet another one of the biggest sports markets in the world.”
Loeliger also said that in addition to loving their sport, Indians love their technology. “There are currently in excess of 300 million smartphone users in India and, by 2020, this figure is set to grow a staggering 260 per cent to 800 million users. The opportunity to engage with India’s large, knowledgeable sports loving public is something the NBL is very excited about,” he said.
VEQTA co-founder and director, Gaurav Gill, is similarly enthusiastic about how digital technologies can foster a better viewing experience and allow sports like the NBL to grow a substantial following in India.
“Basketball is the number one school sport in tier 1 & 2 cities in India and has a very strong following in the young urban audience. National Basketball League (NBL) is one of the most popular and well known brands in the world of basketball and we are delighted to be partnering with them to bring NBL action to the growing base of basketball fans in India,” he said.
“Indian sports fans have a growing appetite for high quality global sports content and VEQTA is committed to bringing them the best content from around the world.”
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
