The Exchange: Unicorn IPOs, tech earnings and my favorite VC round from the week

The TechCrunch Exchange newsletter just launched. Soon only a partial version will hit the site, so sign up to get the full download. Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter for your weekend enjoyment. It’s broadly based on the daily column that appears on Extra Crunch, but free. And it’s made just for you. You can sign up for the newsletter here. With that out of the way, let’s talk money, upstart companies and the latest spicy IPO rumors. Affirm dreams of an 11-figure SPAC If you are tired of reading...

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Startups Weekly: Qualtrics IPO to be even more exciting this time around

Editor’s note: Get this free weekly recap of TechCrunch news that any startup can use by email every Saturday morning (7am PT). Subscribe here. German software giant SAP bought experience management platform Qualtrics for $8 billion days before the unicorn’s IPO, back in November of 2018. But last weekend it decided to spin out the experience management provider to finally go public on its own. The analysts Ron Miller talked to speculated about strategic issues on the SAP side, and concluded this was more of an internal reset combined...

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TikTok says it’s “not planning on going anywhere” in response to pending U.S. ban

TikTok’s U.S. General Manager Vanessa Pappas has posted a video message to the platform that appears to be a response to reports from Friday that President Trump is working on an effective “ban” of the app in the U.S., a plan he shared with reporters from the White House pool on board Air Force One. Whether or not he’s even able to do this remains an open question, but in the meantime TikTok seems keen to reassure U.S. users it doesn’t intend to change its operational plans in response to this vague, but potentially existential threat. TikTok...

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What brands need to do if they want to break up with Facebook

Sean Clayton Contributor A 15-year digital media veteran, Sean Clayton connects brands with the data-driven intelligence solutions they need to drive growth. With more than 90 major advertisers and counting announcing plans to dump Facebook, a significant question lingers: Where will brands go next for their digital marketing needs? The case for the breakup is clear: Brands want to distance themselves from third-party business practices that do not align with their values. Specifically, they are disenchanted by what even some members of Congress...

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Disrupt 2020 early-bird savings extended until next week

Even the hard-charging world of early-stage startups has its share of procrastinators, lollygaggers, slow-pokes, wafflers and last-minute decision makers. If that’s your demographic, today is your lucky day. You now have an extra week (courtesy of Saint Expeditus, the patron saint of procrastinators), to score early-bird savings to Disrupt 2020, which takes place September 14-18. Buy your pass before the new and final deadline — August 7 at 11:59 p.m. (PT) — and save up to $300. Who says prayers (or secular entreaties) go unanswered? Your pass...

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Twitter survey reveals the subscription options it’s eyeing, including an ‘Undo Send’ button

Earlier this month, Twitter told investors it’s considering a subscription model as a means of generating additional revenue to support its business. Now we know what sort of value-add features Twitter may be eyeing. In a new survey, the company asks users to evaluate paid features like “undo send” (an alternative to an edit button), as well as other ideas like custom colors, the ability to publish longer and more high-def videos, support for profile badges, auto responses, additional “social listening” analytics, and the ability to run brand surveys...

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Daily Crunch: Florida teen arrested in Twitter hack

Three arrests are made following this month’s celebrity Twitter hack, Microsoft may be working to acquire TikTok’s U.S. business and Facebook launches licensed music videos. Here’s your Daily Crunch for July 31, 2020. The big story: Florida teen arrested in Twitter hack In a hack earlier this month, high-profile Twitter accounts like Apple, Elon Musk, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were compromised and posted messages promoting a cryptocurrency scheme. Now an investigation by the FBI and Department of Justice has resulted in three arrests: Mason Sheppard...

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The leading arguments for a Microsoft-TikTok tie-up

Here they are, ranked by how much weight we put behind them:   from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/eA8V8J The leading arguments for a Microsoft-TikTok tie-up Alex Wilhelm https://ift.tt/2Pc5Z51 via IFT...

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Florida teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind celebrity Twitter hack

Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren announced today that he has filed 30 felony charges against a 17-year-old resident of Tampa, Florida, who was described by Warren’s office as “the mastermind of the recent hack of Twitter.” The hack in question occurred earlier this month and involved high-profile Twitter users like Apple, Elon Musk, Joe Biden and Barack Obama, whose accounts all posted messages promoting a Bitcoin wallet and claiming, “All Bitcoin sent to the address below will be sent back doubled!” The teen (we’re not identifying them...

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The leading arguments for a Microsoft-TikTok tie-up

Here they are, ranked by how much weight we put behind them:   https://ift.tt/eA8V8J The leading arguments for a Microsoft-TikTok tie-up https://ift.tt/2Pc5Z...

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Delightree raises $3M to help franchise business owners simplify their operations

Owning one brick-and-mortar business seems complicated enough. But running multiple locations? For many owners, that’s a constant juggling act of phone calls, check lists, and driving back and forth from store to store. In the middle of a pandemic, it gets all the more complex. Delightree, a company out of the previous Alchemist Accelerator class, has raised $3M to build a tool hyper focused on helping owners of franchise businesses (think hotels, gyms, restaurant chains, etc) take their operations and workflows digital. A big part of the idea...

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Big tech goes to Congress remotely

This week, the CEOs of Facebook, Apple, Alphabet and Amazon were called before the House’s Antitrust Subcommittee to defend the vast empires they’ve built. Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg faced questions about how their business practices propelled them into the market-dominant giants they are today. They lead four of the top six most valuable public companies in existence and are widely regarded as reshaping the consumer world, both within the tech industry and beyond. Watch TechCrunch reporters Taylor Hatmaker, Devin Coldewey...

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Cisco acquires Modcam to make Meraki smart camera portfolio even smarter

As the Internet of Things proliferates, security cameras are getting smarter. Today, these devices have machine learning capability that helps the camera automatically identify what it’s looking at — for instance, an animal or a human intruder? Today, Cisco announced that it has acquired Swedish startup Modcam and is making it part of its Meraki smart camera portfolio with the goal of incorporating Modcam computer vision technology into its portfolio. The companies did not reveal the purchase price, but Cisco tells us that the acquisition has closed. In...

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Mammoth Biosciences’s CRISPR-based COVID-19 test receives NIH funding through RADx program

CRISPR tech startup Mammoth Biosciences is among the companies that revealed backing from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) program on Friday. Mammoth received a contract to scale up its CRISPR-based SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic test in order to help address the testing shortages across the U.S. Mammoth’s CRISPR-based approach could potentially offer a significant solution to current testing bottlenecks, because it’s a very different kind of test when compared to existing methods based on PCR technology....

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Facebook will launch officially licensed music videos in the US starting this weekend

Facebook today confirmed it will begin rolling out official music videos across its platform in the U.S., as TechCrunch first reported, as well as introduce a new Music destination within Facebook Watch. The changes, which will go into effect starting this weekend, will allow Facebook users to discover, watch and share music videos from a wide range of artists, including, for example, Anitta, Blake Shelton, Bob Marley, Diplo, Elton John, Jonas Brothers, Josh Groban, Keith Urban, Maren Morris, Marvin Gaye, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, and others. Though...

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