Techmeme
January 17, 2014, 11:45 PM

Top News

Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:
Dropbox Raises About $250 Million at $10 Billion Valuation  —  BlackRock Is Leading the Deal Alongside Previous Backers  —  Dropbox Inc. has closed on about $250 million in a funding round that values the online-storage provider at close to $10 billion, according to two people familiar with the deal.
Liz Gannes / Re/code:
Dropbox Fundraising Could Actually Be as Much as $400 Million  —  Dropbox's latest funding round values the company at $10 billion, with private equity giant BlackRock leading the deal with participation with existing investors.  —  But while the round is currently worth $250 million …
Reuters:
Obama bans spying on leaders of U.S. allies, scales back NSA program  —  (Reuters) - President Barack Obama announced a ban on U.S. eavesdropping on the leaders of close friends and allies on Friday, and rein in the vast collection of Americans' phone data in a series of reforms triggered by Edward Snowden's revelations.
The Verge:
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Andreessen Horowitz raising $1.5 billion for new fund  —  Andreessen Horowitz is raising its fourth fund in six years.  —  FORTUNE — Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is in the process of raising $1.5 billion for its fourth fund, Fortune has learned.
Bloomberg:
HTC Said to Plan New One Phone With Larger Screen, Better Camera  —  HTC Corp. (2498) plans a March release for the latest version of its HTC One smartphone featuring a larger screen and twin-sensor rear camera, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plans.
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Nintendo ‘studying’ mobile devices in wake of bleak hardware sales forecast  —  “It's not as simple as enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.”  —  Earlier today Nintendo slashed its sales forecast for the Wii U by nearly 70 percent, which in turn led the company to predict an operating loss of around $336 million.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Andrew Martonik / Android Central:
Sprint Wifi Calling poised to debut on two Samsung phones  —  Calling requires software update but no monthly fee; only supported in the U.S.  —  T-Mobile may soon no longer be the only major carrier offering first-party Wifi calling, as Sprint apparently is preparing to launch a system of its own.
Joseph Czikk / BetaKit:
Hopper, the Startup That's Been in Stealth for Six Years Finally (Soft) Launched This Week  —  It's been six years since a bunch of ex-Expedia and TripAdvisor engineers started working on Hopper, a Montreal and Boston-based startup that has raised $22 million in funding.
More: TnoozThanks:@inkblotca
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Google introduces surveys to discover why you're muting its ads  —  Google today announced it is introducing, over the next few weeks, a series of short surveys in English-speaking countries which will appear after a user mutes an ad.  The company says its goals are to learn why users mute ads …
Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:
Path launches for Windows Phone as a public beta  —  Path today quietly launched an app for Windows Phone, but there's a small catch: it's a public beta.  Nevertheless, the social network has arrived on Microsoft's mobile platform and you can grab the app now directly from the Windows Phone Store.

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Alex Chitu / Google Operating System: