| | Saturday, July 23, 2016 | |
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Verizon leads Yahoo bidding, according to CNBC sources; advisors are now working exclusively with Verizon and are closing in on potential deal; reportedly includes real estate but no intellectual property; deal could be announced early next week and would close in six to nine months - Link
UPDATE: Recode sources indicate Verizon plans to buy Yahoo's core business for roughly $5B and combine it with AOL - Link
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@jason: So... Yahoo will be a content-driven business after all. |
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SoftBank acquires chipmaker ARM Holdings ($22.5B mkt cap) for $32.1B in largest acquisition of a European tech company to date, reports the Financial Times; will pay $22.48 per share, a 43% premium; SoftBank approached ARM only after Brexit, which resulted in an 11% value increase for the yen against the pound; deal results in ARM receiving a $30.8B enterprise value - Link
Update: SoftBank's CEO denies Brexit having any influence on the company's decision to acquire ARM at this moment, asserting rather that it was solely the desire to invest in IoT; did however admit to having only begun negotiations two weeks ago; noted that the decline of the pound was offset by a 16% increase for the company's stock price - Link
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Mastercard ($102B market cap) acquires 92.4% of UK payment company VocaLink for $1.14B; will give $920M up front, an additional $220M if performance targets are met; remaining 7.6% will remain with investors for at least three years; VocaLink runs much of the UK’s ATM, direct debit and mobile payments infrastructure - Link
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Unilever ($138.75B market cap) acquires Dollar Shave Club for $1B cash, according to Fortune sources; will continue to be operated independently; author sees an opportunity for DSC to expand internationally and improve distribution; has raised $163.5M to date - Link
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Opera cancels $1.2B takeover deal by Chinese internet consortium, agrees to sell parts of consumer business for $600M; gave only vague reasons for sudden change; the consortium, which includes Qihoo 360 and Beijing Kunlun, will acquire browser business, performance and privacy apps, technology licensing and Opera's stake in nHorizon - Link
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Postmates acqui-hires Hey, the company behind mobile apps Stolen and Famous; terms undisclosed; Postmates has not acquired any IP; Hey plans to continue operating Famous, but is in talks with potential buyers; Postmates has raised $138M to date; Hey previously raised $5.5M - Link
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Typeface company Monotype acquires visual marketing platform Olapic for $130M; founded in the 19th century, Monotype provides fonts, related technology and services; Olapic brings user-generated marketing content, more; Olapic previously raised $21M - Link
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Expedia ($17.5B market cap) acquires travel photo- and experience-sharing startup Trover (iOS, Android); terms undisclosed; Trover lets users browse and publish vacation photos and experience descriptions, recommendations, etc; users can follow one another, like and comment on posts; Trover previously raised $2.5M - Link
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Salesforce acquires data analysis startup Coolan; terms undisclosed; will help Salesforce optimize infrastructure by deploying data center analyzing technology; CEO Amir Michael will also continue working on the Open Compute Project - Link
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HR and financial management SaaS Workday ($15.4B market cap) acquires big data analytics company Platfora; terms undisclosed; Workday says the acquisition will give its customers access to richer operational metrics; founded in 2011, Platfora previously raised $95M - Link
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This Week in Startups episode 660: Jason speaks with Antonio García Martínez, author of “Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley”; the conversation includes Antonio's time as Strategist at Goldman Sachs, Product Manager at Facebook, and at other companies; covers back-door deals, SV culture, more - Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE0pIKV5Mlc
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This Week in Startups episode 661: Jason speaks with Comma.ai founder George Hotz about the core technology of his autonomous driving startup, how it learns from drivers and compensates for human error, and about how data will let users optimize commutes - Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zy_07g2IrM
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Jason appears on CNBC's Squawk Alley; on Netflix missing new subscriber expectations: if the company continues producing amazing, binge-able content, it could be five or 10 times bigger in coming years; on Nintendo's doubled market cap: Pokémon GO could ultimately generate billions in profits, but that doesn't mean it's created $20B in market cap - Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckazTb6E0Yo
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From the VCs:
--David Cohen says founders looking to raise funds should first pitch to existing investors; not only are they the most likely to invest in a new round, they're the most likely to provide honest feedback on the pitch; increases the chances of winning new investors - Link
--Leo Polovets details how data analysis and A/B testing can be used to optimize virtually any process, including sales, marketing, recruiting and fundraising; provides generalized algorithm for improving decision-making processes - Link
--Elizabeth Yin says fundraising requires 100 percent of a seed-stage CEO's time; responsibilities must be handed off, outsourced, automated or eliminated; the fundraising process will take two or more months; preparing for it takes one to four weeks - Link
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Elon Musk says he expects at least two-thirds of Tesla shareholders will approve SolarCity acquisition; Tesla has proposed $26.50 to $28.50 per share, a 30 percent premium on SolarCity's June 21 stock price; Musk and several others who have interest in both companies will not be voting on the deal - Link
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Tesla releases Master Plan, Part Two; justifies SolarCity acquisition in order to build in-roof solar paneling; plans expansion of electric/autonomous vehicles to shipping and public transport sectors; explains decision to release Autopilot prior to perfection, sets goal of being 10x safer than vehicle average; details plan to let users rent out cars when not in use as part of a Tesla-run ride hailing fleet - Link
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Samsung ($247B market cap) buys $449M stake in Chinese electric car maker BYD ($126B market cap); the company’s semiconductor division gathered funds from six investors to purchase 52.3M shares; Samsung claimed the move would bolster the market for its semiconductor business for cars - Link
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Rocket Internet’s Global Fashion Group raises $363M at $1.1B valuation; valuation was cut from $3.4B; half of the round was provided by previous investor Kinnevik; Rocket’s business model of replicating proven business models has increasingly made investors nervous - Link
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Sprinklr, a social media management platform for brands, raises $105M Series F at $1.8B valuation led by Temasek; provides tools for engaging with customers, monitoring mentions, creating and tracking content, more; supports 23 social networks; claims 1.2k brand clients, including Nike and Microsoft; raised $239M to date - Link
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Public Wi-Fi and marketing company Zenreach emerges, raises $30M Series B led by Founders Fund (Peter Thiel joins board); provides Wi-Fi access point for brick-and-mortar businesses; patrons use email to log in, provide gender, age; Zenreach automates marketing emails and provides analytics, including walkthrough rate; raised $50M to date - Link
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E-commerce fraud detection and prevention company Sift Science raises $30M Series C led by Insight; uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze business interactions and transactions in order to identify behavior correlating with criminal activity; clients include Airbnb and Yelp; raised $54M to date - Link
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Active processing wireless earbuds company Doppler Labs raises $24M Series B (second tranche) led by The Chernin Group; brings round total to $41M; the company's Here One earbuds, with accompanying app, process environmental audio in real time; the user can filter out airplane noise, adjust music equalization, more; raised $50M to date - Link
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Seedlings:
--Personal finance bot Trim raises $2.2M seed - Link
--Andromium launches Kickstarter campaign for Superbook - Link
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Spotify to IPO in second half of 2017, according to Bloomberg sources; has consistently had losses for last 10 years, despite most of its 30M users paying $10 per month; possibly due to record labels receiving 55% of sales, and publishers also taking a cut; recently raised $1B in debt financing on $8B valuation - Link
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Unverified images depict three versions of the next iPhone, labeled as iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPhone 7 Pro; the Pro model appears to feature dual camera lenses, which could enable post-shot refocusing, depth-of-field effects, more; also appears to feature a magnetic smart connector, similar to that of the iPad Pro - Link
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