Techmeme
January 14, 2015, 5:20 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Samsung has approached BlackBerry to buy the company for as much as $7.5B, proposed initial price of $13.35-$15.49/share  —  Exclusive: Samsung makes takeover approach to BlackBerry - sources  —  (Reuters) - Smartphone company Samsung has recently approached BlackBerry Ltd to buy the company …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Facebook launching “Facebook at Work” employee collaboration tool with a handful of test companies  —  Facebook Unveils Facebook At Work, Lets Businesses Create Their Own Social Networks  —  About six months ago, we reported that Facebook was working on a new product aimed squarely …
Barak Turovsky / The Official Google Blog:
Google Translate mobile app auto-detects language in spoken conversations, adds instant translate in camera view  —  Hallo, hola, olá to the new, more powerful Google Translate app  —  Often the hardest part of traveling is navigating the local language.
Reuters:
Apple sues Ericsson over LTE wireless telecom patents  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) sued Ericsson (ERICb.ST) alleging that the Swedish company's LTE wireless technology patents are not essential to industry cellular standards and that it is demanding excessive royalties for these patents.
Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:
Google's modular Project Ara smartphone to pilot in Puerto Rico later this year with between 20 and 30 Ara modules available by launch  —  Google's modular Project Ara smartphone will begin pilot testing in Puerto Rico later this year  —  Google is holding its second Project Ara developer's conference today …
Garett Sloane / Adweek:
Snapchat Is Asking Brands for $750,000 to Advertise and Won't Budge  —  Brands balk at paying top dollar for one day of disappearing ads  —  Snapchat is asking brands for $750,000 a day for its new ads, according to multiple industry sources who have heard the pitch, and some say that's too expensive for the young app.
David Streitfeld / New York Times:
Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe offer joint payment of $415M to settle US poaching lawsuit  —  Bigger Settlement Said to Be Reached in Silicon Valley Antitrust Case  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Silicon Valley companies have sweetened the pot to try to get rid of an embarrassing class-action antitrust suit …
Kurt Wagner / Re/code:
LinkedIn has plans for an app to connect co-workers and for another product to help companies share content with employees  —  Upcoming LinkedIn Products Connect Co-Workers  —  LinkedIn, long the place to hunt for a new job, plans to make it easier to connect with the colleagues you already have.
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Google Voice founder and former Google Ventures general partner Wesley Chan joins Felicis Ventures as managing director  —  Former Google Ventures General Partner Wesley Chan Joins Felicis Ventures As Managing Director  —  One of the earliest members of both Google and Google Ventures has found a new home.
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Samsung Launches Its First Tizen-Powered Phone, The Z1, In India For $92  —  After plenty of speculation and aborted launches last year, Samsung has finally outed its first phone powered by the Tizen operating system.  The Samsung Z1 is coming to India initially, where it is available to buy for 5,700 INR …
Deborah Gage / Wall Street Journal:
Moovit Picks Up $50 Million to Help Transit Riders Find Faster Routes … Moovit has raised $50 million for a mobile app that lets riders plan trips and anticipate obstacles on local public transit systems in more than 500 cities around the world.  —  The Series C round includes corporate …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Report: Google Play's App Store And Developer Community Grew Faster Than Apple's In 2014  —  According to a new report out this morning from appFigures, the Google Play mobile application market surpassed Apple for the number of new apps for the first time in 2014, and its developer community growth …

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