If you look at the investment dollars for the last quarter, you might be surprised to see an uptick in deal volume. For all the gripes about sky-high valuations and bubble fears, it seems strange to see more money thrown at startups. It turns out that it’s mainly the businesses that have already raised a lot of capital that continued to attract even more. While there was an increase… Read More
Zoosk, the online dating company with 38 million members, is today launching a new application called Lively, aimed at a younger demographic. The app is meant to be Zoosk’s answer to Tinder’s success, but it moves beyond the “hot or not” swiping mechanism Tinder popularized in favor of something more original: stitched together photo and video collages that tell… Read More
The European Court of Justice has issued a preliminary ruling on a data retention case brought by UK MPs and privacy rights groups seeking to challenge the government’s data retention regime under DRIPA. Read More
Netflix has an overseas problem. The company’s share price plunged 15 percent week after it reported poorer than expected user growth numbers. Read More
Following a successful trial that took place earlier this Spring, restaurant delivery startup Deliveroo is expanding into alcohol delivery. The London-headquartered company has launched a wine and beer delivery service in the UK in partnership with Majestic Wines, and BrewDog, and a host of independent and other wine merchants across the country. Read More
Lookup, an India-based chat service that connects consumers to local business and is backed by some notable U.S. investors, has been acquired by business discovery service NowFloats, which is also based in India. The deal priced is undisclosed, and Lookup said it will continue to operate independently. Read More
A tequila brand and car company joining forces isn’t exactly a marriage made in marketing heaven. So what brought Ford and Jose Cuervo together? On Tuesday, the two companies announced a partnership to explore how the tequila distributor’s leftover agave plant fibers can be used to produce more sustainable bioplastic parts in the automaker’s vehicles. Currently, Ford and… Read More
TechShop CEO steps down from running company, Thrive Capital’s $700 million new fund, Microsoft Xbox One S gets a release date of August 2nd, Softbank Group buys Arm Holdings for $32 billion, Uber completes its 2 billionth ride. All this on Crunch Report! Read More
Line, the popular Japanese messaging service that went public last week on both the NYSE and in Japan, partnered on a fund a couple of years ago with the New York-based venture firm Collaborative Fund in order to gain more of a foothold in the U.S.
According to a Dealbook story that announced the pairing, the fund planned to invest less than $10 million and to focus on very early-stage startups. Read More
Apple is addressing a major complaint some users had with the way its Apple Music streaming service functions when it comes to matching your personal music collection to an online catalog – a feature that allows you to stream your tracks from the cloud, via Apple’s iCloud. The company is now switching from a poorer matching technology to use audio fingerprinting. By doing so,… Read More
Digital signage is an industry that just keeps getting bigger. Most digital signage customers use screens to sell advertising space, provide information or assist wayfinding. The really good ones look to create dynamic signage that changes in response to variables that allows them to personalize content and playlists. But recently, more are looking to use screens to inspire better health… Read More
While the ordinary proving ground of the smartphone may be the mean streets of the city, devices are to be found on the field of battle, too — and if a report from DoDBuzz is to be believed, Android may soon be giving way to iOS for some special operations forces. Read More
Cortana is set to fly the friendly skies thanks to a new partnership between Microsoft and Boeing, bring the Microsoft intelligent assistant closer still to the domain of its namesake. Microsoft and Boeing announced a partnership today to move Boeing’s suite of digital aviation offerings over to Azure, and the end result is that said servers are going to begin to get smarter, according… Read More
Estonian startup Cleveron is looking to one-up Amazon’s Lockers with a more advanced solution, and today the company’s PackRobot makes its public debut in its home country. Read More
Eager to throw its product development into high gear, Postmates snagged the team from Hey, Inc. The latter is best known for its ludicrously viral game Stolen, which was shut down and later reborn as Famous. “The Hey team was introduced to us by an investor,” Postmates’ CTO and co-founder Sean Plaice said. “He brought to our attention that the Hey team might be looking… Read More
Every toy and electronics maker wants to get on the edutainment train. And understandably so. After all, who wouldn’t want to make the toy that kickstarts the lifelong fascination of the next Nikola Tesla or Ada Lovelace? But such a glut of products highlights a consistent issue with the space: Educational toys are easy to do, but hard to do well.
As the first entry in its planned… Read More
Have you ever bought sweet tickets for a ballgame, a concert or some other live event, only to find out that you couldn’t make it? The internet certainly offers plenty of ways for you to unload the tickets… but how much should you charge? Ticketing startup SeatGeek has launched a new way to help you figure it out. In a way, SeatGeek has been offering this since last fall, when… Read More
Its core assets are worth $5 billion (we think?)
It owns a bunch of Alibaba
The audio fidelity of the earnings calls is really good
Yahoo Finance
Fantasy sports
(See also: Yahoo’s latest disappointing quarter pretty much sums up the past few years) Read More
