Maria Deutscher
Latest from Maria Deutscher
SoftBank succeeds in its push to buy 15 percent of Uber
SoftBank Group Corp.’s multibillion-dollar offer to buy a minority stake in Uber Technologies Inc. from existing investors has garnered enough support to go through. Sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that stakeholders are tendering 20 percent of the equity in the ride-hailing company, and SoftBank confirmed the deal later Thursday. SoftBank acquired 15 ...
Researchers reveal many top websites fight ad blocking, but quietly
As a response to the rapid rise in ad blocker usage over recent years, website operators are deploying countermeasures to mitigate the impact on advertising revenue. A new study by researchers from the University of Iowa and UC Riverside suggests that the pervasiveness of such technology has been severely underestimated. According to the paper, previous reports put the percentage of leading sites using anti-adblocking scripts in ...
Clew Medical’s newly launched AI promises early detection of patient risks
The tech industry is hard at work applying artificial intelligence to healthcare. Google LLC recently accepted four startups into an incubator program designed to foster new medical applications of machine learning, while Germany’s Ada Digital Health Ltd. raised $47 million in November to harness the technology for a self-service diagnosis service. Another up-and-coming player hoping ...
Report: Uber to sell its troubled car leasing division to Fair.com
Uber Technologies Inc. is doing some end-of-year restructuring under its new chief operating officer. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the ride-hailing company has signed an agreement to sell its Xchange Leasing subsidiary to Fair.com, the startup behind the digital auto marketplace of the same name. The anonymous insiders who leaked the acquisition didn’t ...
Amazon acquires smart home startup Blink
Amazon.com Inc. is heading into 2018 with a new weapon to use against the likes of Alphabet Inc.’s Nest in the competitive smart home market. News broke this morning that the retail giant has acquired Blink Inc., a startup that makes mobile-controlled home monitoring devices. It first rose to prominence in 2014 after raising $1 million on ...
Daimler signs deal to acquire a French startup taking on Uber
Auto giant Daimler AG, which owns major car brands such as Mercedes-Benz, is capping off the year with an investment in the crowded ride-hailing market. The company today announced that it has acquired a majority stake in Chauffeur Privé, a French startup competing with Uber Technologies Inc. that boasts 1.5 million customers and 18,000 drivers. Daimler plans ...
Uber hires another Expedia veteran, Barney Harford, to serve as COO
Uber Technologies Inc. this morning bolstered its leadership team with the appointment of Barney Harford (pictured), a former executive at travel aggregator Expedia Inc., as chief operating officer. Harford’s career has followed an interesting trajectory. He joined Expedia in 2004 as the president of its Asia Pacific business shortly before Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive ...
Apple is reportedly working to enable universal iOS and Mac apps
The next iterations of Apple Inc.’s iOS and macOS operating systems may pack a big surprise for application makers. Citing anonymous insiders, Bloomberg today reported that the iPhone maker is working on a unified development model for its devices. Application teams that wish to target both mobile and desktop users must currently build a separate ...
Mobile-first insurance startup Lemonade scores $120M round led by Softbank
Lemonade Inc., a young startup emerging as a major player in the insurance sector, this morning revealed that it has secured a $120 million funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. The financing included contributions from several existing backers as well. Lemonade told VentureBeat that “most prior investors” participated but didn’t point out any specific members ...
Anodot, the startup helping Microsoft and Lyft analyze their data, raises $15M
When a server or a piece of industrial equipment starts displaying unusual behavior, it can take a while for the issue to be spotted even if administrators have access to diagnostics data from the system and the appropriate monitoring software. Tel Aviv-based Anodot Ltd. is using artificial intelligence to speed up the process. The startup’s ...
