A slew of media stars have hitched their stars to various virtual currencies, lending their social media outreach and luster to projects that have seemed less than golden. Now the SEC is warning celebrities that their endorsements “may be unlawful if they do not disclose the nature, source, and amount of any compensation paid, directly or indirectly, by the company in exchange for the… Read More
It’s impossible to know just how much stuff being circulated on social networks is Russian state content in sheep’s clothing, although tech companies are scrambling to figure that out. Now, thanks to Congress, we just got a rare peek behind the curtain of how Facebook’s ad operations were manipulated by a foreign power to foment outrage and division in American society. Read More
Tesla last week officially confirmed its plans to set up a manufacturing facility in China, and now we know a bit more about what it’s planning to do in terms of production. At the time, Tesla wouldn’t say much more beyond than it’s “committed to the Chinese market” and interested in exploring manufacturing facilities around the world. Tesla CEO Elon Musk went into… Read More
Elon Musk had some thoughts to share regarding full autonomy and how the automaker is preparing to deliver this to customers down the road. The company announced that its new vehicles had all the hardware on board they needed to achieve full autonomy last year, and offers customers the options to buy an upgrade that would deliver autonomy via software update once it was available. Read More
HelloFresh, the Berlin-based cooking kit delivery company, priced its IPO at the middle of its expected range at €10.25, or roughly $11.91. This means that the company could raise up to €318 million in the offering, or $369 million. The timing of the IPO may come as a surprise to some, given that competitor Blue Apron recently had a lackluster public debut. Read More
After months of preparation, startups will gather at St. James Palace in London to compete in the Pitch@Palace pitch-off. TechCrunch will be broadcasting the competition live here beginning at 5:30 p.m. PT.
The Pitch@Palace competition has toured a number of cities, including Aberdeen, Bristol and Oldham, giving startups an opportunity to hone pitches and be selected to compete at St. Read More
Against a backdrop of a year-long legal battle with Apple, Qualcomm has beat analysts’ revenue and earnings estimates in its fourth fiscal quarter. Qualcomm booked $5.96 billion in sales, or 92 cents per share, versus expectations of $5.8 billion and 81 cents per-share as the overall economics of the chip business continue to improve. The numbers were good enough to bump shares of the… Read More
Instagram and WhatsApp’s Snapchat clones aren’t slowing down. Today Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status both now have 300 million daily active users. That’s up from 250 million for Instagram in June, and WhatsApp in July. That makes the copies almost twice the size of the original, as Snapchat’s entire app only has 173 million… Read More
In late September, London made headlines when it stripped popular ride-hailing app Uber of its license to operate in the city. The wall-to-wall coverage that followed the decision was a sign, if any more were needed, that we are on the cusp of an urban mobility revolution. Read More
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman took to the site for his “quarterly inquisition,” an AMA where he fielded questions from users and moderators. The discussion today focused on empowering mods to do what they need to do, which should have a knock-on effect in creating functional communities. But he also addressed some politically sensitive issues, from election interference to… Read More
Despite Facebook’s effort to rapidly self-regulate in the wake of Russian interference in the U.S. election using Facebook ads, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he would support government regulation if implemented properly. Meanwhile, Facebook elevated its expense estimates for 2018 to fund security hiring. Read More
It’s no big secret that Razer (the company best known for building gaming peripherals and laptops) has been building a phone. The company bought fledgling smartphone maker Nextbit earlier this year, and there’s been talk of a Razer phone ever since. Sure enough, here it is: the Android-powered Razer phone. Read More
Tesla’s march toward its goal of being able to produce 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week is a very expensive prospect — but the company says it basically has enough money to hit that target. Despite that, Tesla wasn’t able to completely sate Wall Street’s concerns about the company’s ability to hit those production targets. Read More
Tesla went into a bit more detail about the production challenges it faces with the Model 3 in its letter to investors on the heels of its earnings report for Q3 today. We already know that Tesla shipped only 222 Model 3 vehicles during the quarter, since it releases sales numbers earlier than it reports earnings. But we now have some color regarding the manufacturing details that have slowed… Read More
Yelp, the platform which connects consumers and local businesses, posted third-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday.
Yelp’s net revenue for the third quarter was $222.4 million, 19 percent growth for the same period last year. This compares to analyst estimates of $220.8 million, according to Yahoo Finance.
Adjusted net income was $25.4 million, compared to $18.4 million… Read More
While many were hoping that GoPro’s efforts to turn the company around would continue with its Q3 earnings release today, Wall Street did not like what they saw, sending GoPro’s stock diving 11 percent after-hours. GoPro beat expectations handily on both revenue and earnings per share, but it was the company’s poor forward-looking guidance that led investors to dump the stock… Read More
I created the Product Safety and Security Team at Twitter. At different points in time I was responsible for the engineering of tools to mitigate abuse, compromised accounts and the login infrastructure, up to, and including, 2 factor authentication and password reset. I saw first hand the beginnings of the types of actions that are now being discussed in the US Senate at the #TechHearings.… Read More
It seems Fitbit is only slightly benefitting from the news of its new products — particularly the Fitbit Ionic device. The company just reported it beat analyst estimates with a non-GAAP net loss per share of $0.01, with $393 million in revenue; though that’s down from the $504 million in revenue last October, leading to a net loss of $113 million, or 48 cents per share. Read More
Facebook is still in the middle of its House Intelligence Committee hearing about Russian election interference, but the looming concerns over misuse haven’t dampened its business as profits continue to soar and its share price hits an all-time high. Still, CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw it fit to break from his traditional “Our business is doing well” script to add “But none… Read More
Trip.com, a travel discovery app formerly known as Gogobot, is getting acquired amid a flurry of activity surrounding trip discovery tools and companies — and the emerging presence of Airbnb’s foray into finding experiences. The acquisition comes amid the specter of Airbnb, which has been explicit about looking to become an “experience” engine. If you go to Airbnb… Read More
