Techmeme: Facebook acquires link-sharing service Branch for around $15 million (Ellis Hamburger/The Verge)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise

January 13, 2014, 4:45 PM

Top News

Google:

Google to acquire Tony Fadell's smart home startup Nest Labs for $3.2 billion in cash — Google to Acquire Nest — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to buy Nest Labs, Inc. for $3.2 billion in cash. — Nest's mission is to reinvent unloved …

More: Re/code, Gizmodo, Fortune, TechCrunch, Marketing Land, The Verge, Business Insider, GeekWire, ZDNet, MacRumors, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Ars Technica, Gigaom, CNET, BGR, Valleywag, Cult of Mac, IntoMobile, Mashable, App Advice and MobileSyrup.com

Tweets: @sundarpichai, @nest, @cdixon, @markgurman, @ryan, @om, @jwherrman, @fmanjoo, @jank0, @mattbuchanan, @samir, @samfbiddle, @piercedavid, @qthrul, @cdixon, @zpower, @hunterwalk, @fromedome and @getwired

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Nest Says Customer Data From Devices Will Only Be Used For Nest Products And Services — Nest says that it's not going to just hand over its customer data to Google willy-nilly post-acquisition - in a blog post sent to TechCrunch penned by Nest founder Tony Fadell, a question and answer section at the end contains the following:

Tweets: @caseyjohnston. Thanks:@mjburnsy

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:

Facebook acquires link-sharing service Branch for around $15 million — Link-sharing service Branch and subsidiary Potluck have agreed to be acquired by Facebook for around $15 million, sources familiar with the deal told The Verge. Branch CEO Josh Miller broke the news in a Facebook post this morning, but didn't disclose a price.

Matt Mullenweg:

In role swap, Matt Mullenweg becomes Automattic's CEO, Toni Schneider to focus on new products — Toni Schneider & Automattic CEO — Eight years and one day ago I blogged about Toni Schneider joining Automattic as CEO, as I said then: … Fast-forward roughly two thousand, nine hundred …

More: Toni.org, Om Malik, Gigaom, SiliconANGLE, VentureBeat, Post Status, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Re/code and WebProNews

Tweets: @jeffjarvis, @hunterwalk and @dangillmor

See also Mediagazer

Liam Boogar / Rude Baguette:

Taxi protest in Paris turns to guerrilla warfare as Uber car attacked on freeway — The right to protest has always been powerfully upheld in France - whether it's protesting an immigrant's right to healthcare, the closing of a factory, or even Taxis, who have perfected the art of making their voice heard …

More: GeekWire, bizjournals, blogs.ft.com, CNET, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, Tech.eu, VentureBeat, Business Insider, PC Magazine, Mashable, CNET, english.rfi.fr, Gigaom, Gawker, TechCrunch, SlashGear and The Verge

Tweets: @katborlongan, @katborlongan, @sacca, @michaelklishin, @loic, @rudebaguette and @papadimitriou

Simon Khalaf / Flurry:

Mobile Use Grows 115% in 2013, Propelled by Messaging Apps — In November 2013, Benedict Evans, a well-respected and widely followed analyst, shared an updated version of his famous slide deck called “Mobile is Eating the World”. This deck quickly made the rounds on social media …

More: VentureBeat, AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, The Next Web, iPhone in Canada Blog, TelecompetitorTelecompetitor, TechCrunch and Gamasutra

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:

Sprint's ‘One Up’ early upgrade plan axed after just four months — Sprint's One Up early upgrade plan is no more. With the announcement of the plan last September, Sprint joined T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon in offering a way for customers to upgrade their handset mid-contract.

More: PC Magazine, CNET, Examiner, IntoMobile, Electronista, Gigaom, TechSpot, BGR, Pocketables, PhoneArena, iPhone, Gotta Be Mobile, App Advice, LAPTOP Magazine, TechnoBuffalo, AndroidHeadlines.com, Android Central and Overclockers Club

@twitter:

We're now rolling out a refreshed http://twitter.com reflecting the look & feel of our iOS & Android apps. pic.twitter.com/Mb6qjjP8Dm

More: TechCrunch, The Next Web, The Verge, Engadget and CNET

Klint Finley / Wired:

Out in the Open: An NSA-Proof Twitter, Built With Code From Bitcoin and BitTorrent — When mass political protests erupted throughout Brazil in June, Miguel Freitas did what countless others did: He followed the news on Twitter. Tweets revealed information he couldn't get anywhere else, including the mainstream media.

More: Daily Dot. Tweets: @trevortimm

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Groupon Moves Into Flash Fashion, Buys Ideeli For $43M In Cash — More acquisitions for Groupon to widen the net of consumers using its platform for more than daily deals. Today it is announcing the acquisition of ideeli, a flash fashion retailer, for $43 million in cash.

More: Business Wire, Betabeat, VentureBeat, Re/code, TechnoBuffalo, The Next Web, internetretailer.com and WebProNews. Thanks:@ingridlunden

Michael Gold / Reuters:

New Acer CEO disappoints with lack of detail on future plans — (Reuters) - Investors looking for specifics as to the future of Acer Inc, the world's No.4 PC vendor, came away disappointed when the new CEO spent more time delivering a history of the company's past mistakes than on where it was headed.

More: eWeek, ZDNet, Bloomberg, Maximum PC, Taipei Times and Wall Street Journal

Rich McCormick / The Verge:

Nokia's Android phone appears in prototype form — Images of Nokia's Android phone — code-named Normandy — were published in November, showing what purported to be a low-cost smartphone that would run with a custom implementation of Android. Now another picture of the phone has appeared on Twitter …

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

‘High-profile’ Google+ users will get better default email settings — A few days ago, Google rolled out a potentially invasive new feature — if you have both a Gmail address and Google+ account, other Google+ and Gmail users will soon be able to send messages right into your inbox, even if you never gave them your email address.

Tweets: @nateingraham and @tomwarren

Jean-Louis Gassée / Monday Note:

Internet of Things: The “Basket of Remotes” Problem — We count on WiFi and Bluetooth in our homes, but we don't have appliances that provide self-description or reliable two-way communication. As a result, the Internet of Things for consumers is, in practice, a Basket of Remotes.

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Microsoft, GoDaddy partner on Office 365 plans for small businesses — Summary: GoDaddy will be offering its small-business customers a choice of three Mirosoft Office 365 plans, including one for $12.49 a month that includes desktop versions of Office. — Microsoft and GoDaddy are extending …

More: The Microsoft Office Blog, Re/code, GeekWire, The Verge, PR Newswire, TechCrunch, WebProNews, Softpedia News, The Next Web and Electronista

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model — Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy. Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.

UiPath:

UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future — Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025

Zoho:

Zoho Books now enables direct VAT filing with EmaraTax — We're excited to announce that Zoho Books is now recognised as a Digital Tax Integrator by the Federal Tax Authority, enabling direct VAT return filing from within your favorite accounting software.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:

Tim Apple's Very Bad Week

The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.

Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.

Sponsor this podcast

The Logan Bartlett Show:

Jeffrey Katzenberg & Sujay Jaswa (WndrCo) on What Startup Founders Can Steal From Hollywood

A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.

Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.

Hard Fork:

Google DeepMind C.E.O. Demis Hassabis on Living in an A.I. Future

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Spotlight On:

VBSR 1.01: RTO is back (again) + data moats dry up + Sara vibecodes

A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.

Subscribe to Spotlight On.

BG2 Pod:

AI, Middle East, China, Tariffs, Recon Bill, Invest America

Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley.

Subscribe to BG2 Pod.

Decoder with Nilay Patel:

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is okay with reinventing the bus

A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.

Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.

Add your postcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:45 PM ET, January 13, 2014.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.