Techmeme: Alex Chesterman raises £30M for his next startup, Cazoo, a platform to buy or rent used cars; Chesterman sold Lovefilm for £200M and Zoopla for £2.2B before (insider.co.uk)

Top News

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

Ming-Chi Kuo: updated AirPods with wireless charging support and upgrades to the Bluetooth spec to launch in Q1 2019, an all-new design model coming in Q1 2020 — The AirPods truly-wireless earbuds are on track to be Apple's best growth product for the foreseeable future, according to Ming-Chi Kuo.

More: AppleInsider, Digital Trends, MacRumors, Forbes, Cult of Mac, CNET, The Verge, Fortune, Ubergizmo, The Apple Post, TechRadar.com, Mashable, iPhone in Canada Blog, and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

Tweets: @leeratliff, @neilcybart, and @1jrice

Boris Hristov:

As Bitcoin bulls cite past recoveries, the amount of money lost in the last bubble raises the question of where funds for another BTC surge may come from — The crypto market correction turned winter will soon mark its first year. Over the last months, many folks have posted tables …

More: Bitcoin Magazine and Virtual Mining Bitcoin News

Tweets: @twobitidiot, @bitfinexed, @carnage4life, and @hristovbz

The Information:

Sources: Uber has recently held talks about possible acquisitions with scooter startups Bird and Lime — Uber has held talks recently with electric scooter rental startup Bird to acquire the company in what could be a multibillion-dollar deal, said several people briefed on the discussions.

More: The Verge, Telegraph, Gizmodo, Mashable, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, and NBC Bay Area

Tweets: @coryweinberg, @coryweinberg, @coryweinberg, @michalnaka, @business, and @semil

insider.co.uk:

Alex Chesterman raises £30M for his next startup, Cazoo, a platform to buy or rent used cars; Chesterman sold Lovefilm for £200M and Zoopla for £2.2B before — Alex Chesterman made a windfall selling Lovefilm, the video rental company he co-founded, to retail giant Amazon

More: Tech.eu, City A.M., and The Times & The Sunday Times

Tweets: @philipn_auto and @entreecap

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

After Qualcomm and Apple fail to reach a settlement over patent royalties, judge schedules the start of the trial for April 15 in San Diego federal court — Earlier this week, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf made headlines when he said his company was “on the doorstep of a resolution” with Apple, implying a settlement was possible.

More: sandiegouniontribune.com, iPhone Hacks, TechSpot, and The Verge

Jason Del Rey / Recode:

How Amazon is limiting the ability of popular brands to sell independently via its Marketplace, if they also want to sell their goods directly via Amazon itself — Some companies are choosing to end their relationship with Amazon rather than cave to the online retailer's demands.

More: The Precursor Blog. Tweets: @delrey, @herrmanndigital, and @retailgeek

Anna Escher / TechCrunch:

Brazil-based QuintoAndar, an online marketplace for long term rentals, raises $64M Series C led by General Atlantic, bringing the total funding raised to $95M — Anna Escher @https://www.twitter.com/annaescher / 8 hours — There's quite a bit wrong with real estate in Brazil, according to QuintoAndar founder and CEO Gabriel Braga.

More: AIM Group and Pulse 2.0

Steve Lohr / New York Times:

Since Satya Nadella became CEO, Microsoft has almost tripled its market cap to $850B+, and on Friday it replaced Apple as the world's most valuable company — Just a few years ago, Microsoft was seen as a lumbering has-been of the technology world. — It was big and still quite profitable …

New York Times:

US officials: China's cyberespionage against the US, which was pared back in 2015 after US-China pact, picked up again in 2017 and has accelerated since then — WASHINGTON — Three years ago, President Barack Obama struck a deal with China that few thought was possible …

Tweets: @daknycip, @keithbradsher, @halberesford, @cooterdwayne, @jmohanmalik, @nytimes, and @graymanactual

Simone Stolzoff / The Atlantic:

PitchBook: VCs invested ~$8B in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and Pakistan in first 10 months of 2018, 40% more than in all 2017 — Entrepreneurs such as Sidra Qasim and Waqas Ali exemplify the increasing ease of accessing venture capital from the developing world.

Matthew Hughes / The Next Web:

E Ink unveils JustWrite, a new digital paper technology that doesn't require a backlight and promises almost no lag — The hypothetical pinnacle of digital paper is when it becomes indistinguishable from the real article, both in terms of reading and writing.

More: Business Wire, Engadget, TechCrunch, BostonGlobe.com, PCMag, The Verge, SlashGear, Good e-Reader, and Liliputing

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

AT&T plans another, 3-tiered streaming service for Q4 2019 with a movie-focused entry level, a premium level with original programming, and a WarnerMedia bundle — AT&T may be ready to sell its stake in Hulu, the company revealed in an analyst presentation on Thursday.

More: Variety, AT&T, Axios, Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, Engadget, Neowin, iPhone Hacks, Wall Street Journal, Variety, Tubefilter, and The Verge

Tweets: @schestowitz, @mcastimovies, and @karlbode

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