Yahoo this morning is making a play for cord cutters with the launch of a new TV-watching site called Yahoo View, featuring Hulu’s free content. The site will now become one of the only ways to watch Hulu’s TV shows and movies for free, as the company is planning to wind down its free version in favor of its subscription services – a plan that was already in the works ahead… Read More
Walmart today took its biggest step yet in its bid to compete against Amazon in the world of digital commerce: today the retail giant announced that it would be acquiring Jet.com — an online-only shopping site that has been live for a little over a year — for $3 billion in cash, plus up to $300 million in shares for the founders and others at the company. Jet.com will continue… Read More
The Israeli government’s decision to reverse math and English learning requirements for the country’s ultra-Orthodox schools could deal a serious blow to Israel’s vital technology industry and seems to fly in the face of the wishes of the ultra-Orthodox community itself. On July 24 the Israeli government announced that Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) schools do not have to teach… Read More
There’s another notable funding round for a fintech startup in Southeast Asia, after Singapore-based Funding Societies raised a $7.5 million Series A round for its take on marketplace lending. Read More
People flying Delta may have woken up this morning to find out they aren’t flying at all – a massive networked service outage resulting from a power failure in Atlanta, the airline’s home base, has delayed all of today’s current flights and is causing widespread cancellations. Delta confirms that the outage began at around 2:30 AM ET, and affected its computer… Read More
If you’ve been following Apple for a few years, you know that the company loves to remove buttons, ports and everything that sticks out. According to a new report from Mark Gurman, Apple plans to replace the good old physical home button with a pressure-sensitive button that provides haptic feedback. This change would remove a recurring point of failure for iPhone owners. The last time… Read More
Privacy rights organization Privacy International has filed another legal challenge to the UK government’s use of bulk hacking against foreigners. The filing, with the European Court of Human Rights, follows Privacy International’s attempt earlier this year to challenge the use of bulk hacking against foreigners via the local oversight court for the UK’s intelligence… Read More
AngelList, the online platform for venture capital, is making a huge impact in the early-stage funding scene in the U.S. — it helped raise over $160 million for startups last year, for one thing — and now it is looking to expand its horizons to India. Read More
European online charity auction platform CharityStars, which counts eBay as its main competitor (in addition to ChaityBuzz and IfOnly), has closed a modest €2 million in Series A funding. The round is led by 360 Capital Partners, with participation from A.S. Roma soccer player Stephan El Sharaawy, and LastMinute Group CEO Fabio Cannavale. Read More
Uber drivers in Nairobi went on strike to protest the company’s July fare cuts. The move comes amidst greater competition in Kenya’s ride-hail market since local telecoms company Safaricom entered with its own Little Cab app. Partnering with Kenya’s Craft Silicon, Safaricom launched the new service to aggressively take on Uber—immediately offering cheaper pricing and… Read More
Walmart Stores is buying Jet.com in a deal worth $3 billion dollars according to a source with direct knowledge of the deal, confirming reports that have been pouring in about the bid for Jet.com all week. According to our source the signatures for the deal were dry on Friday and will be announced as early as Monday morning — echoing what was reported in both Bloomberg and Recode.… Read More
Marketers in the high-tech world who use phrases such as “social media marketing,” “Facebook marketing” and “content marketing” do not understand the basic difference between marketing strategies, marketing channels and marketing content. And Google Analytics is to blame. Read More
The path for SaaS domination of a market segment has historically followed one of two routes: bringing previously offline workflows online, or moving on-premise software processes online. In short, SaaS would take over segments that previously were not SaaSified. Yet, the current wave of HR SaaS innovators the past few years is proving that there can be more to the story. Read More
After an impromptu meetup in Prizren, Kosovo, where I met with local startups, I’m heading to Tirana, Albania where I’ll be holding an informal TechCrunch Meetup. Sign up here to get details soon on the details. There is also a Facebook event page. It will be on the evening of Monday Aug 8. I’ve been impressed with the growing tech scene in the Balkans, and it’s clearly… Read More
The market for mergers and acquisitions, particularly in software, is red-hot: Big private-equity firms, flush with cash, did 170 software deals worth $27.22 billion in the first half of 2016 alone. But the software M&A frenzy also highlights how smaller tech companies can turbocharge their growth by pursuing highly strategic, add-on acquisitions. Read More
Two years ago when the international 3D printing industry was still a much-contended space a small Polish company called Zortrax made waves – and raised capital – on the news that it had signed a contract with Dell for 5,000 3D printers. I reported the news in 2014 and researched the implications more deeply later that year and found little that might concern an investor or fan:… Read More
While bugs and feature complaints are still causing a decent amount of negativity among users, Pokémon Go continues its upward trajectory in terms of overall revenue. App analytics platform Sensor Tower reveals that the game now have over $200 million in net revenue from players based on their estimates. The spending frenzy in Go compares favorably to in-game revenue generated by other… Read More
A Missouri man might not have made it safely to the hospital without the aid of his Tesla Model X’s self-driving features (via Slate). Joshua Neally, the 37-year old Model X owner, was on the way home from his law firm after work when he was struck by a pulmonary embolism. Neally allowed the Autopilot system to take over for 20 miles of highway driving, which brought the vehicle and… Read More
How are UK startups coping with the unraveling of the old world order? In the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, TechCrunch spoke to several founders who expressed shock, disappointment and concern for the future. A month on, what — if anything — has changed for them and their businesses? Read More
