Year: 2018

 PAX Labs has a new CEO. The company, which makes loose-leaf vaporizers, has brought on Bharat Vasan as Chief Executive Officer. Vasan has spent the last 15 years in consumer hardware, serving as the President and COO of August Home, which was acquired by Swedish lock maker Assa Abloy in 2017. Before August, Vasan was the cofounder of Basis (a fitness-based wearable company), which was acquired… Read More

 Adding to what’s already a Very Weird 2018, Twitter now has a bigger market cap than Snapchat maker Snap after posting a thoroughly interesting earnings beat for its fourth quarter this morning. Shares of Twitter rocketed more than 25% this morning following the report, which showed the service is actually able to generate a profit on a GAAP basis. Twitter already wrapped up 2017 with a… Read More

 Police in Lower Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania have spotted a group of thieves who are placing completely camouflaged skimmers on top of credit card terminals in Aldi stores. The skimmers, which the gang placed in plain sight of surveillance video cameras, look exactly like the original credit card terminals but would store debit card numbers and PINs of unsuspecting shoppers. “While Aldi… Read More

 While Apple continues to focus its eye on how to step up its game in the area of original content, it’s also striking some partnerships that could help put its name on the map specifically in sports coverage. The company is adding a new section in Apple News that will be dedicated to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. The Olympics section will appear in the “For You”… Read More

 Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This week was a treat. Not only did venture capitalist Annie Lamont join our own Katie Roof, Matthew Lynley, and Alex Wilhelm, we also recorded this episode live at SaaStr, a yearly SaaS-focused confab in San Francisco. (SaaStr is the brainchild of venture… Read More

 Yet more consolidation in the enterprise collaboration software market. Today LogMeIn, the company that offers conferencing services like GoToMeeting and join.me as well as authentication and other online services to businesses and others, announced that it would acquire Jive Communications for $342 million in cash plus up to $15 million based on reaching specific milestones in the next two… Read More

 Sneaker marketplace GOAT is merging with Flight Club, essentially the first name in after market sneaker retail. It’s also raising a $60M series C led by Danny Rimer at Index with previous investors Accel, Matrix, Upfront and Network participating. The raise is significant, putting the total just shy of $98M raised, but it’s the merger with Flight Club that will cause this news to… Read More

 Despite flat user numbers and a nominal beat in revenue, Twitter’s fortune-reversal over the past several months is still going as the company said it actually posted a GAAP net income — sending the stock jumping more than 15%. Twitter’s overall user numbers were flat, but the company was still able to post a surprising profit and fell above what Wall Street expected for… Read More

 Attentive is coming out of stealth today with the announcement that it’s raised $13 million in Series A funding. The company was founded by Brian Long and Andrew Jones. They previously founded TapCommerce, a mobile ad startup that was acquired by Twitter for a reported price of $100 million. Long and Jones both worked at Twitter for a couple of years before leaving to start something… Read More

 China already operates the world’s largest surveillance state with some 170 CCTV cameras at work, but its line of sight is about to get a new angle thanks to new smart eyewear that is being piloted by police officers. The smart specs look a lot like Google Glass, but they are used for identifying potential suspects. The device connects to a feed which taps into China’s state… Read More