French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has become the latest high profile European politician to threaten U.S. tech companies over their use of end-to-end encryption, and for how digital platforms enable the spread of terrorist propaganda online. Read More
Harland Clarke, a payment and marketing services firm, will acquire online coupon site RetailMeNot in a deal worth $630 million in equity. Harland Clarke will pay $11.60 per share in cash, which is about 50% higher than the stock’s closing price of $7.75 on April 7. Read More
Apple filed a billion-dollar royalty lawsuit against Qualcomm in January and today the chipmaker hit back with a legal case of its own against the iPhone maker which, it claims, has refused to acknowledge the value of its technology. In the original suit, Apple claimed that Qualcomm — which makes money from licensing its patents to technology makers — was charging it for… Read More
Netflix reaches 75% of U.S. streaming viewers, LeEco scraps its plan to acquire Vizio, Uber isn’t welcome in Italy anymore and Cadillac is launching an autonomous driving system. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
A team of researchers at Newcastle University in the UK has published a paper highlighting some troubling findings linking on-board sensors with privacy issues. Using data collected by mobile device’s hardware tracking systems, the team was able to crack four digit PINs with 70-percent accuracy on the first try, with 100-percent accuracy by try number five. While some applications… Read More
How can Popular Pays stand out in the influencer marketing crowd? The key, according to co-founder Corbett Drummey, is to focus on content. The approach seems to have convinced investors, with Popular Pays announcing that it has raised an additional $3.1 million, which it rolled up with the $2 million it raised after participating in Y Combinator into a $5.2 million Series A. Read More
On-demand food delivery startup DoorDash has reached an agreement with workers’ rights lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan regarding a class-action lawsuit that alleged DoorDash misclassified its delivery workers as independent contractors. Read More
Libratus, Carnegie Mellon’s poker-playing AI, is damn good. It easily routed four of the world’s best poker players back in January over 120,000 hands of No-Limit Texas Hold-um. So it comes as no surprise that a team of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and engineers playing against Lengpudashi, Libratus’ bigger, badder brother, would face a similar fate. Read More
Branch, a startup making tools to enable developers to provide links between websites and apps, has raised a $60 million Series C round of funding from Andy Rubin’s Playground Ventures, according to sources. Read More
We’re in town for a few days and we’re excited to meet all of you at the Pittsburgh Micro-Meetup tomorrow. In preparation for Disrupt New York and our upcoming TC Sessions series on robotics, John Biggs and I are in Pittsburgh to talk to some startups. Read More
Scientists in collaboration with tech billionaire Sean Parker’s Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy may have found a way to predict whether melanoma patients will respond to treatments that target the PD-1 (programmed cell death protein) pathway in tumors through a simple blood test, according to a paper in the scientific journal Nature. Read More
The Federal Communications Commission doesn’t want to hear you gabbing on your smartphone while on commercial flights. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants some quiet time while hurtling through the air in a metal tube, and he thinks the majority of America likely agrees, so today he sent out an order ending the proceeding begun in 2013 that would see rules around cellphone use in-air relaxed. To… Read More
AMD has acquired Nitero, a company that builds wireless chips for streaming virtual reality content from desktop computers to headsets, Forbes reports. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Read More
Self-driving still seems to be a ways off from active public use on regular roads, but once it arrives, it could ramp very quickly, according to a new study by the Boston Consulting Group. The study found that by 2030, up to a quarter of driving miles in the U.S. could be handled by self-driving electric vehicles operating in shared service fleets in cities, due mostly to considerable cost… Read More
If you have a garage with a power socket, an electric car makes an awful lot of sense. If you park on the street, however, the infrastructural challenge of keeping your electron-powered vehicle topped up becomes complicated enough that perhaps sticking to driving on squished dinosaurs makes sense for a while longer. Until Char.gy comes along, that is. Read More
Qualtrics, an online survey research platform, is listed as tops among likely candidates to go public this year. But is it really going to file and, if so, how close is it to doing that? I’m betting yes and very soon based on some interesting answers in a recent interview with founder Ryan Smith. Read More
After California’s Department of Motor Vehicles recently proposed new regulations governing the testing and deployment of autonomous vehicles, many were left to wonder: Will this help retain the state’s status as a testing and deployment ground for the technology, and will it make California safer? The answer is… yes and … maybe? Read More
Chinese electronics giant LeEco will not acquire U.S.-based TV maker Vizio as announced, the two companies said today. The deal has been hitting roadblocks according to recent reports, and now it’s officially ended as a result of “regulatory headwinds,” according to LeEco.
The companies are quick to note that this isn’t the end of the relationship between the two. Read More
Those little hearts you tap to signal to a live video’s creator that you’re enjoying the content might look a little different on Twitter in the future. The company announced today a new way for brands to engage fans through live video – it will now let them create their own “custom hearts” for use in Periscope’s live video. The customizations can be… Read More
