Crossword Genius

Discontented hackers succeeded, capturing heartless tech giant -- unlucky (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hapless

'unlucky' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'discontented hackers succeeded capturing heartless tech giant' is the wordplay.
'discontented' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (the word's contents are removed).
'succeeded' becomes 's' (genealogical abbreviation).
'capturing' is an insertion indicator.
'heartless' means to remove the middle letters.
'tech giant' becomes 'Apple' (Apple is a technology company).
'hackers' with its middle removed is 'hs'.
'apple' with its centre removed is 'aple'.
'hs'+'s'='hss'
'hss' going around 'aple' is 'HAPLESS'.

(Other definitions for hapless that I've seen before include "Piteous" , "Unfortunate, wretched" , "Unlucky, unfortunate" , "Ill-starred" , "Pathetic" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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