Today in the Connected Economy: Is a Porsche/Apple Team-Up in the Works?

Today in the connected economy, Porsche’s CEO reveals the car maker and Apple had held talks about possible joint projects, including an expansion on Apple CarPlay.

Also, Universal Music Group’s 10:22PM label makes landmark NFT purchase, and B2B payment service PayTrace becomes part of the North American Bancard family.

Porsche, Apple Talking About Potential Partnerships

Sports car company Porsche and tech giant Apple Inc. held talks in 2021 about potential collaborations, the automaker’s Chief Executive Oliver Blume said during the company’s annual earnings call.

Blume told investors executives from Porsche came to the U.S. late last year for meetings with Apple and other tech firms about possible joint efforts.

“We already have Apple CarPlay,” he said of the software that connects iPhones to most new cars. “We will expand on that. We discussed a range of exciting projects with the Apple.”

UMG’s 10:22PM Buys Bored Ape #5537, Debuts KINGSHIP Website

Universal Music Group’s next-generation label 10:22PM, a Web3 brand that develops new musical discoveries, has purchased NFT Bored Ape #5537 for an undisclosed amount.

The Web3 movement aims to overhaul the internet and would move online services to decentralized technologies like the blockchain.

With this purchase purchase, 10:22PM becomes the first label at a major music label to own one of the popular Bored Ape non-fungible token (NFT) characters and join the Bored Ape Yacht Club Community, a collection of 10,000 unique Bored Ape NFTs.

North American Bancard Acquires B2B Payments Firm PayTrace

B2B payments company PayTrace says it is now one of several companies own by North American Bancard (NAB) after being acquired by Michigan-based credit card processing firm.

“PayTrace is becoming their preferred gateway solution for all merchant types,” PayTrace wrote in a recent blog post.

As part of the acquisition, PayTrace has become certified on the Electronic Payment Exchange (EPX), which is NAB’s wholly owned payment processor, designed to offer simplified shopping with added data security.