| Microsoft unveils its Chromebook competitors, Angie's List will merge with HomeAdvisor and Twitter goes all-in on live video. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for May 2, 2017. 1. Windows 10 S laptops will start at $189 and ship this summer Microsoft is looking to reclaim the U.S. education market, where it's been losing to Google's Chromebooks, with the launch of laptops powered by the new Windows 10 S operating system. Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Samsung and Toshiba are all working on Windows 10 S laptops. Microsoft says the devices will come with a free one-year subscription to Minecraft: Education Edition, as well as free Office 365 apps for teachers and students. The first laptops are supposed to ship this summer, just ahead of the school year. 
2. Angie's List will merge with HomeAdvisor after finally accepting IAC's acquisition offer After two years of wooing, Angie's List has finally agreed to be acquired by IAC. After the deal closes, Angie's List will combined with HomeAdvisor, IAC's home services marketplace, into a new public company called ANGI Homeservices. 3. About.com rebrands to Dotdash More IAC news: About.com, which is also owned by IAC, is ditching its old name. To be clear, Dotdash isn't a name most consumers should expect to become familiar with — instead, it's meant as a corporate umbrella for About.com's sites, including Verywell (health), Lifewire (tech), The Balance (personal finance), The Spruce (home and food) and ThoughtCo (education). And if you're not a fan of the new name, well, it could be worse. 4. Twitter announces new live shows from the WNBA, BuzzFeed, Viacom and more Twitter unveiled more than a dozen content partnerships at its first NewFronts event yesterday. Eventually, according to CFO and COO Anthony Noto, the company plans to air live video 24 hours a day, seven days a week — in fact, it sounds like two of these deals already get Twitter to that goal. 5. With Series A funding from Benchmark, Prefer takes the wraps off its new marketplace Julio Vasconcellos has spent the last year-plus working on a services platform called Prefer that relies exclusively on trusted referrals, replacing the wisdom of crowds with the wisdom of one's friends when it comes to hiring a babysitter or accountant or housekeeper. Eventually, the startup plans to become users' go-to source for every service professional with whom people tend to have a close, ongoing relationship. 6. Theranos reaches settlement with investor Partner Fund Management The hedge fund filed a lawsuit against Theranos last year saying the company had tricked it into investing "through a series of lies, material misstatements, and omissions." Terms of the settlement are confidential, but PFM had sought to recoup its investment in the case and was also asking for damages. 7. Airbnb settles lawsuit with San Francisco Yesterday was settlement day! In this case, Airbnb settled its lawsuit against San Francisco over the city's new rental legislation. As part of the deal, Airbnb will offer a streamlined registration process to hosts that makes it easy to register their short-term rental with the city and obtain a business license through Airbnb's platform. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.