WhatsApp founder and CEO steps down to collect Porsches and play Frisbee

WhatsApp founder, Jan Koum, is parting ways with Facebook. Publicly, he says it’s time “to move on.” But according to insiders, tensions have been bubbling below the surface…

Lindsey Quinn • May 1, 2018

Big mergin’: Wallets are out and mergers are happening, people

Phones, fuel, and timeshares: Major M&As this week, from T-Mobile and Sprint, to Marathon Petroleum and Andeavor.

Wes Schlagenhauf • May 1, 2018

Wall Street sees the ’Sign: DocuSign stock jumps 38% in first day of trading post-IPO 

Cloud-based esignature company DocuSign raised $629m in their IPO last Thursday at $29 a share -- and their stock climbed to nearly $40 in their first day of trading on Friday.

Lindsey Quinn • April 30, 2018

Forget what your English teacher told you — trade jobs pay pretty darn well

Emphasis on the importance of a 4-year degree causes young workers to go into debt for a bachelor’s degree -- instead of taking high-paying trade jobs that desperately need workers.

Conor Grant • April 30, 2018

BlaBlaCar acquires carpooling startup as rideshare companies consolidate

French ride-share giant acquires another carpooling service as it looks to compete with the other ride-sharing glam-brands.

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 30, 2018

Power to the Peep-le: Union workers claim a sweet win over old man ’mallow

Marshmallow makers at a Pennsylvania Peeps factory won a court decision that will force their company Just Born, to honor their pension promises (while they still can).

Conor Grant • April 30, 2018

MoviePass reduces their 1-movie-a-day subscription plan to 4 movies per month

Looks like the other shoe just dropped… MoviePass reduces new subscribers to only 4 movies a month after losing money on every single new subscriber.

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 27, 2018

Nintendo had a killer fiscal year as profits continue to fly from Switch sales

Nintendo had a monstrous 2017 and it’s all thanks to the Nintendo Switch -- and a little nostalgia.

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 27, 2018

The truck driver shortage impacts everything from food prices to stock market performance 

As reported by USA Today, there’s a shortage of 51k truck drivers nationwide — which has driven shipping costs up by 6-10%, an increase that consumers will soon have to pay for. As baby boomers retire and young people fail to take their spots at the wheel, the shortage is expected to grow to more […]

Conor Grant • April 27, 2018

Amazon unveils Alexa for kids… and there’s a lot at stake for them to get it right

On May 9, Amazon will release the Echo Dot Kids Edition, complete with kid-friendly responses, and rewards for good manners... and we have some concerns.

Lindsey Quinn • April 27, 2018

Theme parks ride a roller coaster to Cash Mountain

Theme parks across the globe have leveraged popular movie characters and virtual-reality rides to crank out record-setting revenues.

Conor Grant • April 26, 2018

Old people are upping their marijuana consumption

Data from the past 30 years shows Americans age 50 and up are 20x more likely to use pot than older Americans were 30 years ago. What’s going on?

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 26, 2018

Telemedicine startup raises $74m to get more people into their digital doctor’s office

With so many Americans reluctant to visit the doc, companies are attempting to win back patients by rolling out cheap,easy-to-use on-demand medical options.

Conor Grant • April 26, 2018

FooledAllOfU: LendEDU outed for misleading reporters with a fake journalist

LendEDU has been exposed for hiding their ties to “independent, news outlet” The Student Loan Report -- and completely fabricating its founder, “journalist” Drew Cloud.

Lindsey Quinn • April 26, 2018

Quarter corner: The big winners of this week’s Q1 earnings calls

Earnings reports, geeetcha earnings reports: Alphabet, Coke, and Caterpillar led the charge in impressive Q1’s.

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 25, 2018

Walking-tour app takes a detour — gets acquired by Bose for audio AR

After the founder of a walking-tour app called Detour abandoned the company to develop a new product, speaker company Bose decided to stick its fork in the leftovers.

Conor Grant • April 25, 2018

Colleges award esports scholarships as gaming’s popularity hits a high score

As esports become increasingly popular, universities are creating varsity video-gaming programs to develop the next generation of gamers (and boost dwindling attendance numbers).

Conor Grant • April 25, 2018

Bad weather puts a cork in the world’s wine production

Due to bad weather, wine production decreased substantially over the last year -- while consumption continued to increase.

Lindsey Quinn • April 25, 2018

Netflix pours more fuel on its ‘fire’ content 

Netflix raises another $1.5 in debt as they continue to flood their platform with more original content.

Lindsey Quinn • April 24, 2018

A way of life: The business of Minecraft, and how Microsoft’s looking to shake things up 

Microsoft has paid Minecraft creators $7m since its Minecraft Marketplace release -- enough for some players to quit their day jobs.

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 24, 2018

Offshore crypto: The world’s biggest crypto exchange is moving to Malta

The world’s biggest crypto exchange is moving to a small island in the Mediterranean for their liberal trading policies and may inspire other exchanges to follow suit.

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 24, 2018

Canadian poker giant places a $4.7B bet on the future of gambling in the US

A Supreme Court decision that will likely end up legalizing sports betting across the board in the US has led to a pre-emptive shakeup in the online gambling industry.

Conor Grant • April 24, 2018

Cosmetic surgery social platform raises $40m to help people “work on themselves”

As more and more people go under the knife, the platform wants to bring transparency to a historically hush-hush industry.

Lindsey Quinn • April 23, 2018

Electric scooter startup wants to make it legal to ride scooters on the sidewalk

San Francisco city attorney sent a cease-and-desist order to all three companies, demanding they take stronger measures to keep riders off of the sidewalks -- now Bird's fighting back.

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 23, 2018

Wells Fargo slapped with $1B fine for more customer abuse

The bank is being fined $1B for forcing customers to purchase auto insurance policies they didn’t need, causing some to default on their loans.

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 23, 2018

“Finally, an app that lets rural Indians browse the Amazon — I mean the internet”

To access the 930m Indian consumers who don’t use the internet, Amazon rolled out an Internet app -- using a quieter version of the ‘global connectivity’ approach.

Conor Grant • April 23, 2018

To avoid ag-tech’s crowded field, investors throw their lucky pennies into the ocean

After the ag-tech boom sprouted big returns, new investors are pumping money into the growing industry of aquaculture-tech.

Conor Grant • April 20, 2018

Alibaba bets $717m on making rural farmers the crown jewel of their e-commerce empire 

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba just invested oodles of cash in a network and mom-n’-pop shops to expand their user base beyond cities.

Conor Grant • April 20, 2018

People who smoke can’t quit cigarettes, and it is ironically killing Philip Morris

Philip Morris plunges the most in a decade as they struggle to get their ol' faithfuls to move with them into the e-cigarette future.

Wes Schlagenhauf • April 20, 2018

Bezos bez-stows his wisdom in this year’s letter to shareholders

Jeff Bezos sent out his highly anticipated annual shareholder letter yesterday, chock-full of interesting tidbits he’s gathered during his tenure at Amazon. Here are our favorite takeaways.

Lindsey Quinn • April 20, 2018

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