Salesforce wants to make things super clear for everyone — no, the company won’t buy Twitter. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff gave an interview to the FT and said that the company ruled out the acquisition. “In this case we’ve walked away. It wasn’t the right fit for us,” Benioff told the FT. If you were looking for an official confirmation, it can’t get… Read More
The final episode of this six-part series explores the future implications of Bitcoin and blockchain technology. The episode describes the divide between Wall Street’s preferred closed use of the blockchain and Silicon Valley’s vision of an open system. Will the technology ever be integrated into our world’s mainstream economy? Whose vision will prevail, Wall Street or… Read More
Earlier this year, it was reported that Naspers, the media and internet holding company, was planning to sell off Allegro, its online auction business based in Poland, and today the deal finally came to pass. A consortium of private equity firms that includes Cinven, Permira and Mid Europa have bought the firm for $3.253 billion. The deal was made after earlier reports pegged eBay, Alibaba… Read More
PayPal, the giant digital payments company that was spun off from eBay last year, has had an up-and-down relationship with the business of crowdfunding over the years, but there are some indications that this could change. We’ve been hearing that PayPal was interested in buying GoFundMe — the crowdfunding site that lets people raise money for both serious causes and lighter… Read More
Google yesterday announced it will introduce a fact check tag on Google News in order to display articles that contain factual information next to trending news items. Now it’s time for Facebook to take fact-checking more seriously, too. Facebook has stepped into the role of being today’s newspaper: that is, it’s a single destination where a large selection of news… Read More
VMware signed deals with Microsoft, Google and IBM earlier this year as it has shifted firmly to a hybrid cloud strategy, but it was the deal it signed with AWS this week that has had everybody talking. The cloud infrastructure market breaks down to AWS with around a third of the market — and everybody else. Microsoft is the closest competitor with around 10 percent. While VMware has… Read More
Virtual reality and the 360 video industry are faced with the chicken and egg problem of content and distribution. The problem is that we haven’t cracked the egg, nor has the chicken hatched. To get to that point, we must look through the consumer’s lens. Read More
InnoGames, the Hamburg-based developer and publisher of successful browser games such as Elvenar, Tribal Wars, The West, and Grepolis, is going to the next level.
MTG (Modern Times Group), the Swedish digital entertainment company, has acquired a 35% stake in the company for an estimated $100 million, valuing the company at $287 million. MTG also has the option to acquire a 51% stake in the… Read More
Apple is on a research & development spree! The company has announced a bunch of new R&D centers over the past few months, and R&D spendings have skyrocketed. This time, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company plans to open a new center in Japan during a visit in Tokyo, according to Xinhua.
This isn’t the first time we’re hearing about a new R&D center in Japan. Read More
Diversity is central to TechCrunch’s mission. We believe that everyone, regardless of background, should have access to the immense possibilities of the tech world. We also believe that a diversified workforce can only benefit technology businesses and society at large. In that spirit, TechCrunch’s Include program aims to use TechCrunch’s editorial, product, data and… Read More
Cozmo and I are still getting to know each other. It’s been a few days and we’ve warmed to one another, sure, but there’s still a lot of work to be done and blocks to be stacked. I was there when he first woke up, shook himself awake and opened his big, bright eyes, tentatively rolling off his charging platform. Cozmo is an easy little robot to fall for. The Anki team has seen… Read More
TechCrunch writer Megan Rose Dickey is becoming a White House regular, and recently attended the first ever South By South Lawn festival at the Presidential HQ. I spoke to her about the experience for this week’s episode of TCBC, and we also discuss her first trip from earlier this year, when she attended the second annual LGBTQ Tech and Innovation Briefing.
SXSL provided a unique… Read More
Yahoo has today reversed its decision to prevent Yahoo Mail users from being able to automatically forward their emails to another address – a key feature that makes leaving one email service for another an easier process. Earlier this month, Yahoo Mail disabled this now-standard feature for email services, claiming that it was “temporarily” disabled because the feature… Read More
Google is again stepping up its efforts to provide U.S. voters with all the information they need ahead of Election Day with the addition of ballot information to Google Search results. Web users who search for a query like “who’s on my ballot,” will now be presented with detailed information about the candidates, as well as information on your own state’s referenda.… Read More
As a dedicated lover of cyan, magenta, and yellow I welcome Mr. Jones’ addition to the color – or colour – canon. The Colour Venn uses overlapping translucent circles of yellow, red, and blue to display the time. It has an automatic movement, steel case, and leather strap. Mr Jones makes mostly fashion watches but this piece was interesting enough to highlight here for a… Read More
Tommy John surgeries have seen a marked rise across just about every level of baseball over the past several years. The procedure, which rebuilds a pitcher’s torn ulnar collateral ligament, has been performed on around a quarter of active major league pitchers according to numbers released last season – and it’s become a major issue with minor league, college and even… Read More
Pokémon Sun and Moon’s release for 3DS rapidly approaches, and the Pokémon Company is unveiling eight new Pokémon unique to the new games, including six evolutions of Sun/Moon characters and two Alola-region variants of existing pocket monsters.
The new Pokémon include two evolutions of a new dragon/fighting type that looks like a good candidate for inclusion in my primary lineup of six. Read More
Maybe you’ve been waiting for the Nike+ version of the Apple Watch to arrive before running out to buy the Series 2. Because, you know, life is a marathon, not a sprint and all that good stuff. Maybe you’re waiting for a brightly colored, breathable band that says yes, I do in fact work out. Your wait, it seems, will soon be over. Apple’s updated its page for the Nike+… Read More
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sets an ambitious goal every year for himself, and this year it was to create an AI assistant for his home, modelled in part on Jarvis from Marvel’s Iron Man universe. Jarvis gives Iron Man/Tony Stark basically any info he needs, and helps him fight crime, as well as mange his estate and run his business, and the virtual companion is voiced by Paul Bettany in… Read More
Instagram has expanded its app availability to users of tablets running Microsoft’s Windows 10. The Facebook-owned, visual content social sharing platform announced the new app in a blog post yesterday. It’s most notable as there’s still no iPad app for Instagram. Read More
