Staff Picks

Spotify Stretches Footprint into Asia, Latin Am, Northern Europe

spotify

Battling Pandora for turf in the on-demand music streaming service business, Spotify announced plans to expand its footprint into Asia, Latin America and Northern Europe recently on its blog. The company will expand into eight new countries, bringing its total markets to 28. The new locations include Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, … [Read more...]

Samwer Brothers Launch Global Founders Capital with €150M Fund

samwer

The Samwer brothers, the siblings behind Berlin's Rocket Internet incubator known for launching clones of successful companies in new markets, have teamed up with Fabian Siegel, one of the co-founders of Delivery Hero, a global online food delivery platform, to launch a new fund to be headquartered in Munich, Germany. Global Founders Capital will … [Read more...]

Ductor to Revolutionize Fertilizer, Crude Oil with Bio-based Approach to Ammonia

ductor

By MATT GALLAGHER, Red Herring Harnessing the power of ammonia, Ductor hopes to revolutionize both garden farming and gas tanks by the end of this summer. The company is developing what it claims to be the world’s first industrial scale ammonia and phosphate production technology based on a 100 percent biological process that actually reduces … [Read more...]

Netflix Goes Social with Facebook Friends

netflix

It cost Netflix about $1.5 million in lobbying money to convince Congress to legalize sharing what you watch on your Facebook wall. Last week, just a day before the death of the judge whose congressional nomination inspired the legislation, the Senate voted to relax the Video Privacy Protection Act passed in 1988 that had prohibited video … [Read more...]

LinkedIn Masses 1 Billion Endorsements in 6 Months

linkedin

Though the feature may only be six months old, LinkedIn’s endorsements have already helped the professional social network increase user incentive for engagement. This week, the company announced a milestone of surpassing 1 billion Endorsements, with 58 million members receiving recognition from other members for a variety of areas of expertise. … [Read more...]

US Security Firm Tracks Cyber Criminals to Chinese Army Hotpoint

cyberattack

Mandiant, a US securities company specialized in identifying sophisticated cyber attacks on both corporate and government entities, has tracked members of some of the most notorious Chinese hacking groups to the doorsteps of the Chinese military, making it increasingly difficult for the Chinese government to deny it does not engage in hacking … [Read more...]

Square Offers Merchants Complete Sales System w/ “Business in a Box”

square

Known for its mobile reader, Square now offers merchants a sales system they can actually nail down. Built to use an iPad, its recently debuted Business in a Box for Square Register provides a complete point of sale system that includes everything the average retailer needs to manage commerce, all for a starting price of $299, not counting the … [Read more...]

German Court Rules in Facebook’s Favor on Real Names Policy

facebook

A German court ruled in favor of Facebook’s real names policy, stating that because the social network is headquartered in Ireland, it does not need to comply with an earlier German agency demand for the company to allow pseudonyms, the AP reported. Last December, the Unabhaengiges Landeszentrum fuer Datenschutz maintained that as German law … [Read more...]

Startup Act 3.0: Show Me the Visa!

ellis

Third time’s a charm? A group of lawmakers led by Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) have launched Startup Act 3.0, a bill that would make it possible for foreign entrepreneurs who employ at least five full time, non-family members to stay in the US for at least three years, as well as have a potential path to permanent citizenship. Before anybody … [Read more...]

SoftBank Launches $250M Fund to Help Startups’ Asian Expansion

softbank II

SoftBank Capital, the venture firm of Japan's SOFTBANK Corp., announced the closing of the PrinceVille Fund, a $250 million fund designed to help startups expand into Asia. “Due to its long-standing strategic relationship with SOFTBANK, a worldwide leader in Internet, mobile communications, broadband services and fixed-line telecommunications … [Read more...]