Techmeme: Lyft forgoes global expansion in favor of U.S. market domination (Heather Somerville/Mercury News)

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August 1, 2015, 6:35 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Uber closed round of nearly $1B with Microsoft participating, valuing the company at over $50B and bringing total funding to more than $5B — Uber Valued at More Than $50 Billion — Ride-sharing app, which just closed a funding round, reaches mark faster than Facebook

Dina Bass / Bloomberg Business:

Microsoft Said to Invest About $100 Million in Startup Uber — Microsoft Corp. has agreed to invest about $100 million in Uber Technologies Inc. at a valuation of approximately $50 billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said. — The deal was finalized earlier on Friday …

More: Forbes and Neowin

David E. Sanger / New York Times:

Anonymous Obama administration sources say US will retaliate against China for OPM hack and is weighing options that include breaching the Great Firewall — U.S. Decides to Retaliate Against China's Hacking — The Obama administration has determined that it must retaliate against China …

More: International Business Times, Los Angeles Times, hakspek.com, Engadget and The Verge

Tweets: @thegrugq and @gaberivera

Takashi Mochizuki / Wall Street Journal:

Japanese Police Arrest Mark Karpelès of Collapsed Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox — Official says police allege he manipulated the company's computer system to inflate its assets — TOKYO—Japanese police on Saturday arrested Mark Karpelès, the head of collapsed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox …

More: Ars Technica, CIO.com, New York Times, CoinDesk, Fusion, Guardian, Reuters, NEWSBTC and CoinTelegraph.Com News. Tweets: @mochi_wsj

Heather Somerville / Mercury News:

Lyft forgoes global expansion in favor of U.S. market domination — SAN FRANCISCO — Lyft has walked back years of promises about a global expansion, and instead the car-booking company is doubling down on the U.S. market, hoping to beat its biggest foe here at home.

Tweets: @glennf

Kurt Wagner / Re/code:

Trevor O'Brien, the Product Lead Running All Twitter Apps, Is Departing — Another key product exec is leaving Twitter. — Trevor O'Brien, who joined Twitter a year and a half ago from YouTube and oversees product for Twitter's iOS and Android apps, is departing the company, according to multiple sources.

More: BuzzFeed. Tweets: @tmobrien and @heyheyesj

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Will Acquire Fashion Startup Polyvore — Yahoo just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire style-focused community Polyvore. — In a blog post about the deal, Yahoo's senior vice president of publisher products Simon Khalaf highlighted “Polyvore's expertise …

More: Yahoo, Marissa's Tumblr, The Official Blog of Polyvore, ZDNet, Ubergizmo, eWeek, New York Times, The Technology Chronicles, Wired, AdExchanger, internetretailer.com, The Verge, The Next Web, SiliconBeat, VentureBeat, Search Engine Land and silicontap.com

Owen Williams / The Next Web:

Kim Dotcom no longer involved with Mega, plans to create open-source, non-profit competitor — Kim Dotcom: 'I don't think your data is safe on Mega anymore' — In a Q&A session with Slashdot users this week, Kim Dotcom, the infamous former millionaire at the center of a US court case against Megaupload …

More: Slashdot, TorrentFreak, Engadget, Wired.co.uk, TechRadar.com, gHacks Technology News, ZDNet, International Business Times, See it First, TechCrunch, The Register, Tech Insider and Ubergizmo

Dan Seifert / The Verge:

YotaPhone cancels US launch of YotaPhone 2 despite successful Indiegogo campaign, citing complications with its manufacturing partners — YotaPhone 2 won't be coming to the US — Yota Devices revealed today that it is canceling its plans to launch the YotaPhone 2 in the US, citing complications with its manufacturing partners.

More: Consumerist, The Digital Reader, Gizmodo, ValueWalk, Liliputing, Neowin, SlashGear, 9to5Google, Engadget, Droid Life, Android Beat, Android Police, Android Authority, PhoneDog, PE Hub Blog, Pocketnow, The Next Web and Android Central

Biz Carson / Business Insider:

Frontback announces they will not shut down, after signing an agreement with a new partner — Frontback, the once-hot startup that rejected a $40 million Twitter acquisition, is back from the dead — The selfie app Frontback has found a new partner and narrowly avoided shutting down.

More: Frontback. Thanks:@bizcarson

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

4th Amendment Lives: Court Tells US Government Get A Warrant If It Wants Mobile Phone Location Info — A potentially big ruling came out of the courtroom of Judge Lucy Koh yesterday, in which she affirmed a magistrate judge's decision to tell the government to get a warrant if it wants …

More: ZDNet

New York Times:

Xiaoice, Microsoft's Chinese chatbot, has a sense of humor, good listening skills, and 20M registered users — For Sympathetic Ear, More Chinese Turn to Smartphone Program — She is known as Xiaoice, and millions of young Chinese pick up their smartphones every day to exchange messages with her …

More: Daily Mail

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