Techcrunch blog!: Daily Crunch

Tuesday, December 31, 2019 • By Darrell Etherington

2019 comes to a close

Today’s the last day of 2019 – quick, cross off those last minute to-dos for the year (and the decade). And should auld acquaintance be forgot? No, they obviously shouldn’t, the song is rhetorical. Enjoy this final Daily Crunch of the decade, your auldest and dearest acquaintance.

Uber and Postmates sue California over AB-5

Uber and Postmates are challenging the controversial AB-5 state bill just days before it’s set to go into effect. This is the bill that limits how much work companies can assign to contract workers, in an attempt to get them to actually hire more employees in-house. The effects of the bill don’t necessarily line up with its intent, according to critics, and Postmates and Uber are specifically challenging it as unconstitutional in this complaint, filed by the companies along with two contract workers.

Image Credits: ejs9 / Getty Images / Getty Images

Amazon is opening a homeless shelter in its Seattle HQ

Amazon is opening a homeless shelter that can accommodate families and pets, with private rooms and support for up to 275 people per night, along with an industrial, high-capacity kitchen. This will be located inside its headquarters, and its operation will be fully funded by the e-commerce giant. It’s a laudable move, but one could argue that the more pressing challenge to address is what impact Amazon’s operating model has on society as a whole.

Meanwhile, Seattle's experiencing a startup boom

TC’s Kate Clark dives into the moment that Seattle is currently experiencing in terms of home-grown startups, providing a pretty comprehensive look at not only the new ventures that have popped up in the hometown of Amazon and Microsoft, but also of the investors and firms funding the spike in entrepreneurial success.

2019 was a banner year for wireless headphones

Fully wireless headphones have been around for most of the latter half of the last decade in one form or another, but 2019 just might be the year they really found their footing and surpassed their wired peers on most, if not all, measures that count. That led to big growth in shipment volumes for the category this past year, Canalys reports.

Chinese EV company NIO gets a boost on surprise earnings

NIO, which went public earlier this year and has so far been hammered in the public markets, got a nice win on the heels of its latest earnings report, which included beats on both revenue and profit, as well as projections for big increases in vehicle deliveries for next quarter.

Image Credits: Visual China Group / Getty Images

Huawei revenue hits a record high despite U.S. reversals

Huawei’s business weathered 2019 and its turbulent trade war fallout pretty well, with a record $122 billion in total revenue. But the company doesn’t expect that to necessarily continue, since it’s looking at 2020 as being a “difficult” year given the U.S. trade blacklist and strict limitations on how Huawei can work with U.S. companies.

2019's 5 biggest investment rounds

TC’s Ingrid Lunden takes a look back at the five biggest VC investment deals in 2019, and what they signal about the investment market, their companies and the industry at large. This zoom-in is also informed by the overall trends that emerge from looking at the top 50 deals of the year, and is not to be missed. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Last call for ExtraCrunch discount

We have a holiday promotion going on right now with annual Extra Crunch membership. You can get an annual membership for only $79 (normally $150/year). This offer is available exclusively through this link, and the offer expires at the end of the month – which is today, for those keeping count.