Archives for March 2020

What does a pandemic say about the tech we’ve built? There’s a joke* being reshared on chat apps that takes the form of a multiple-choice question — asking who’s the leading force in workplace digital transformation? The red-lined punchline is not the CEO or CTO, but: C) COVID-19. There’s likely more than a grain of […]

Xerox drops $34B HP take-over bid amid COVID-19 uncertainty Xerox announced today that it would be dropping its hostile takeover bid of HP. The drama began last fall with a flurry of increasingly angry letters between the two companies, and confrontational actions from Xerox including an attempt to take over the HP board that had […]

Marriott says 5.2 million guest records stolen in another data breach Marriott has confirmed a second data breach in three years — this time involving the personal information on 5.2 million guests. The hotel giant said Tuesday it discovered the breach of an unspecified property system at a franchise hotel in late February. The hackers […]

OrbitFab secures National Science Foundation funding to propel its satellite refueling tech to space On-orbit satellite refueling technology is closer than ever to a practical reality, which could help immensely with the cost and sustainability of orbital businesses. Startup OrbitFab, a 2019 TechCrunch Battlefield finalist, is one of the companies working to make orbital refueling […]

No proof of a Houseparty breach, but its privacy policy is still gatecrashing your data Houseparty has been a smashing success with people staying home during the coronavirus pandemic who still want to connect with friends. The group video chat app, interspersed with games and other bells and whistles, raises it above the more mundane […]

How to value a startup in a downturn The value of technology companies has fallen as the broader public markets have repriced themselves in light of COVID-19-related market and economic disruptions. And as the public markets sort out the new value of a huge piece of global business, private companies are being shaken as well. […]

3 Time-Management Myths You Should Stop Believing Time management has become something of a cultural obsession, and like any cultural phenomenon, it’s surrounded by some myths — including around the term’s true meaning. What we really mean by time management is our ability to plan and control the time we have in order to efficiently […]

How to Relax, Unwind and Reduce Stress Many of us work hard to achieve a successful career. We spend years in school, and then get a good paying job that we think will bring us a comfortable life. Then one day we realize that all we seem to do is work and have forgotten how […]

5 Steps (And 4 Techniques) for Effective Problem Solving Problem solving is the process of reviewing every element of an issue so you can get to a solution or fix it. Problem solving is a series of steps that you work through, covering multiple aspects of a problem until you can find a solution. Whether […]

Brandless founder Tina Sharkey joins the board of PBS Tina Sharkey, the founder and former CEO of the recently closed D2C brand Brandless, has today been appointed to the board of directors of PBS. Sharkey is an independent board member. Before her time at Brandless, Sharkey spent years in the media world. She scaled Johnson […]

Are Accelerator Programs Right for Your Business? Entrepreneurs think they’ll provide that extra “oomph” to their business. The opposite may often be true. March 31, 2020 5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Shortly after I first moved to San Francisco, I was sitting outside Peet’s Coffee in Palo Alto and speaking […]

Daily Crunch: Amazon warehouse workers walk out Amazon faces worker complaints over its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, General Motors says it’s moving fast to manufacture face masks and we’ve got some numbers quantifying the video conferencing boom. Here’s your Daily Crunch for March 31, 2020. 1. Amazon warehouse workers are walking out and Whole […]

Microsoft launches Edge Zones for Azure Microsoft today announced the launch of Azure Edge Zones, which will allow Azure users to bring their applications to the company’s edge locations. The focus here is on enabling real-time low-latency 5G applications. The company is also launching a version of Edge Zones with carriers (starting with AT&T) in […]

Amid shift to remote work, application performance monitoring is IT’s big moment In recent weeks, millions have started working from home, putting unheard-of pressure on services like video conferencing, online learning, food delivery and e-commerce platforms. While some verticals have seen a marked reduction in traffic, others are being asked to scale to new heights. […]

Leading VCs discuss how COVID-19 has impacted the world of digital health In December 2019, Extra Crunch spoke to a group of investors leading the charge in health tech to discuss where they saw the most opportunity in the space leading into 2020. At the time, respondents highlighted startups in digital therapeutics, telehealth and mental […]

DataStax launches Kubernetes operator for open source Cassandra database Today, DataStax, the commercial company behind the open source Apache Cassandra project, announced an open source Kubernetes operator developed by the company to run a cloud native version of the database. When Sam Ramji, chief strategy officer at DataStax, came over from Google last year, the […]

China’s Pinduoduo raises $1.1 billion in private share placement Chinese e-commerce firm Pinduoduo said on Tuesday it had raised $1.1 billion in a private share placement that will enable its further expansion and allow it to capture “additional opportunities” during the times of uncertainty. The Nasdaq-listed firm said some of its long-term investors financed the […]

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp steps back from board director role Uber co-founder Garrett Camp is relinquishing his role as a board director and switching to board observer — where he says he’ll focus on product strategy for the ride hailing giant. Camp made the announcement in a short Medium post in which he writes of […]

Portfolio school: Get better clients There’s a tragedy unfolding all around us, unevenly distributed. It’s about health and it’s also about the economy. We are called upon to not panic, to try to focus, to figure out how to make it all work. And many of us are overwhelmed. From health care workers who are […]

D-Wave gives anyone working on responses to the COVID-19 free cloud access to its quantum computers D-Wave, the Canadian quantum computing company, today announced that it is giving anyone who is working on responses to the COVID-19 free access to its Leap 2 quantum computing cloud service. The offer isn’t only valid to those focusing […]