A possible Microsoft – TikTok acquisition is causing plenty of drama, we examine Google’s brand-new budget plan Pixel and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon returns to Earth. Here’s your Daily Crunch for August 3, 2020.
Microsoft-TikTok acquisition inches closer to reality
This weekend, Microsoft validated reports that it remains in speak with get TikTok, the popular mobile video app presently owned by Chinese business ByteDance. It sounds like the outcome of those talks may eventually have less to do with Microsoft and more with President Donald Trump.
” Following a discussion between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald J. Trump, Microsoft is prepared to continue conversations to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States,” the company said in a statement. “Microsoft completely values the importance of dealing with the President’s concerns. It is devoted to obtaining TikTok topic to a total security review and offering proper economic advantages to the United States, including the United States Treasury.”
And indeed, Trump said today that he’s not opposed to an acquisition, but that “a very significant part of that rate is going to need to come into the Treasury of the United States.” Chinese internet users are calling ByteDance’s CEO a traitor.
The tech giants
Google’s budget Pixel 4a addresses its premium predecessor’s most significant problem– Brian Heating system examines the brand-new $349 handset.
Facebook launches commerce and connectivity-focused accelerator programs– Facebook’s Commerce Accelerator will select 60 startups from the EMEA and LATAM regions, while Connection will include 30 startups from LATAM and North America.
Adobe’s prepare for an online material attribution standard could have huge implications for false information– The project was first revealed last November, and now the team has a whitepaper going into the nuts and bolts about how its system would work.
Start-ups, financing and equity capital
YC-backed Artifact wants to make podcasts more individual– Using professionally contracted job interviewers, Artifact conducts short interviews with an individual’s closest buddies or household and turns them into a personal podcast.
Established by a long-lasting house-flipper, Inspectify is a marketplace for house maintenances– Through the platform, purchasers can instantly book examinations and receive repair price quotes.
Mobile banking startup Varo is ending up being a genuine bank– The company announced that it has been given a nationwide bank charter from the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Currency and secured regulative approvals from the FDIC and Federal Reserve to open Varo Bank, N.A.
Recommendations and analysis from Extra Crunch
The important revenue software stack– Tim Porter and Elise La Cava of Madrona Ventures detail the set of services utilized by sales, marketing and development teams across their portfolio to identify and handle their prospects and profits.
Is the 2020 SPAC boom an echo of the 2017 ICO fad?– Alex Wilhelm looks at 2 new pieces of SPAC news.
After Shopify’s big quarter, BigCommerce raises its IPO price range– BigCommerce now plans to price its IPO between $21 and $23 per share.
( Suggestion: Bonus Crunch is our subscription membership program, which intends to democratize information about startups. You can register here.)
Everything else
SpaceX and NASA successfully return Team Dragon spacecraft to Earth with astronauts on board– SpaceX’s Crew Dragon appears to have performed precisely as intended throughout the objective, handling the launch, ISS docking, undocking, de-orbit and splashdown in a fully automated procedure that kept the astronauts safe and safe throughout.
Initial Material podcast: Netflix’s ‘Say I Do’ offers a wedding-focused twist on the ‘Queer Eye’ formula– I’m not somebody who cares about weddings, but this show made me sob. Multiple times!
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