IBM has announced Thursday purchasing live video streaming platform, UStream. Details of the acquiring deal haven’t been disclosed, but the price believed to peg a price not more than $150 million in cash. IBM has furnished a press release in its website, which ends leaving probability for changing its narrated goals on forming cloud video unit.
Industry
FiveStars Rewarded By Series C Round Providing Fund For $50 Million In Expansion Move
FiveStars, one of the most popular business startups, has raised $50 million funding from Series C round to expand its business across the US. With its innovative customer management tools, every customer is being identified with a number. So all the customers are new here and receive VIP treatment during every visit. Despite charging with a quite higher monthly fee in a competitive market, its clients feel like getting more than they spend.
Bankrupt cloudControl Releases Control Over dotCloud, PaaS To Suspend Operation on February 29
cloudControl, German owning entity of dotCloud, has filed for bankruptcy this week. To facilitate operation for the European brand, it has decided to shut down the operation of dotCloud. The PaaS has sent mails to its users regretting its failure to continue service and expresses gratitude for keeping trust on the brand. The startup that has once independently backed Silicon Valley’s prominent startup, Y Combinator, is going to end its path on February 29.
El Chapo Shirt: Shirt Sales Rise as Mexican Drug Lord gets Recaptured
The store who designed and manufactured the shirt keeps getting surge of orders. El Chapo, the drug lord captured last Friday, was shown wearing that shirt on a photograph with actor Sean Penn.
Volkswagen names Hinrich J. Woebcken for US operations; Michael Horn continues
Hinrich J. Woebcken, a former BMW executive, has been appointed by emission scandal-hit Volkswagen to oversee business operations in the US, Canada and Mexico. Woebcken will assume charge from 1 April 2016. Audi and Porsche brand don't come under Woebcken's area of operations. However, Volkswagen has retained Michael Horn as CEO of Volkswagen Group America Inc. The emission-scandal hit Volkswagen has been facing regulatory investigations in the US.
Latest News
The New York Times has published its first online edition on Jan 22, 1996. Marking the 20th founding anniversary, the news conglomerate has launched ‘History of NYTimes.com’, narrating chronology of the news website’s evolution and further development. The capsule offers video and audio contents including interviews with people related to the evolution.
The subprime online lender company Elevate Credit delays its IPO scheduled on Thursday. Teetering market has been the main reason of the postponement and high risk of online subprime lending service.
Austin-based tech company, Waldo Photos closes its $5 million seed funding on Thursday. The seed funding round was led by California's venture capital firm Upfront Ventures.
Biotech companies in last 5 years were enjoying easy access to capital. That scenario started to change after stocks started to slide in July 2015 and have not stopped with Nasdaq Biotechnology Index reading 2933 Wednesday which is the lowest level since November 2014. This means biotech startups would be expected to brace for harsher investment climate although experts are assuring that market fundaments are still strong.
The latest food scandal emanating from China revolves on the usage of poppy powder is a banned item by the Food and Drug Administration of China. Five restaurants have been prosecuted and another 30 more are under probe for using ingredients like morphine and heroine in restaurant food. This latest scandal is one in the many high-profile food scandals that has been hitting China in the recent years.
Sprint - the 4th biggest Telco in US - has been taking steps to cut its costs since it first revealed its costs cutting plan in November 2015 to as much as $2.5bil. The latest move saw Sprint's product head leaving after 25 years of service. The reason for his leaving whether it was related to costs cutting measure or something else is still unclear. Sprint praised Owen for his contribution that helped Sprint succeed and evolve into the wireless company it is today. Sprint extended gratitude for all that he has done and wished him best of luck and continued success in future endeavors. CEO Marcelo Claure has indicated more layoffs are in the offing in the coming months. CFO Tarek Robbiate made statement to effect that no one was safe where costs was concerned.
GM with its main Chinese partner have opened a Cadillac plant in Shanghai on Thursday, 21 Jan 2016 to take advantage of the potential growth in the overcrowded luxury market of China. Cadillac plant has capacity to produce 160,000 vehicles annually. Cadillac believe the luxury car market offer a lot margin opportunity notwithstanding pressure in pricing. Shares of GM have been reported trading on NYSE higher by more than 1 percent on Thursday.
Windows and Dropbox, bonded with a partnership, have announced updating of Dropbox through integrating with Windows 10. The Windows 10 compatible app offers some new extraordinary features. But mobile compatibility of the app is widely desired since it will allow to open synced files from the account storage cloud at any moment.
Schlumberger Ltd, on Thursday, reported a net loss of $1 billion for the fourth quarter and also said that it has axed 10,000 additional employees, as an effort to adjust its resource and cost base.
