THE BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY
Most often, CEOs are hired to replace a predecessor in times of troubles with the mandate to fix things. Once again, the British-based startup Shazam is an exception. Founded in 2000, the last 13 years have brought both traction and a venerated position in pop culture’s mobile hall of fame as an all-time, top 10 most downloaded iPhone app. The … [Read more...]
Pure Storage, the enterprise solid state storage entrepreneur, has raised an impressive $150 million. The company claims it’s the largest single private round in the history of storage. It is also the third largest financing round in a North American business technology company this year, according to Bloomberg data. The investment values the … [Read more...]
Last Monday, Wichita-based Koch Industries acquired Molex, the 75-year-old connector company and Apple parts supplier. Both companies look to close the deal by the end of this year, which depends on both regulatory and shareholder approval, according to a Molex FAQ on the deal. Privately-held Koch picked Molex up at a premium, dishing out $7.2 … [Read more...]
Uber, the car service that lets you hail a driver anywhere from its app, has confirmed it has raised $258 led by Google Ventures in the biggest round ever for the search engine investment arm. TPG Capital also participated. With the Google investment, the company also gains access to Google’s technology, Uber explained in a blog post confirming … [Read more...]
Real estate kingpin Zillow has acquired StreetEasy, a go-to New York real estate listing service with over 1.2 million unique monthly visitors. The $50 million sale gives Zillow a local presence to leverage the market in New York City, one of the largest and most concentrated real estate markets in the world. StreetEasy, for its part, can now … [Read more...]
Elon Musk followed up on his Tweet heard round the tech world today with published plans [link via Gizmodo] for the Hyperloop. The pod-and-tunnel design revolves mainly around a low-pressure tube system, a nose-mounted electric compressor fan, air bearings, and an external electrical motor. As the number of authors is unclear, all quotes from the … [Read more...]
Apigee, which provides an API platform to simplify the creation of apps, has landed $35 million in a Series E sizable enough it could carry the company to an IPO. The round was led by a fund under management by a subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc ., with participation from Accenture, Bay Partners, Focus Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), SAP … [Read more...]
While some consider Singapore a market in miniature, online commodities shop Redmart has used it as a platform for tremendous growth. Its success depends on logistics and proper scaling; and while the company learned to walk in Singapore, it’s almost ready to run. For folks in the Western Hemisphere who might not know, Redmart’s a Singaporean … [Read more...]
There’s an adage in business: If you’re early, you’re on time, and if you’re on time, you’re late. But to land a job in the first place, you’ll need to beat the clock as well as other applicants to the punch––which is where Proven, the job search platform for desktop and mobile, races in. “Proven is changing the way people apply and experience the … [Read more...]
Baidu has just announced the biggest deal in its history. China’s premier search engine plans to pay $1.9 billion for 91 Wireless, a major developer of app stores in China that has downloaded more than 10 billion apps to date. It’s a sign of the search giant’s push towards mobility as it struggles to transcend the shift from desktops to mobile … [Read more...]