Techmeme
May 4, 2014, 4:05 PM

Top News

Fred Wilson / AVC:
Square and Box are trapped by their high valuations, burn rates, and a disappearing IPO market  —  The Valuation Trap  —  There is a long article on Square and Box in TechCrunch this weekend.  I am not sold on the arguments the author makes about the commodity nature of both products.
Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:
With IPO Hopes Fading, Square And Box Face Reality Of Commodity Products  —  Square and Box would seem to be the very epitome of every startup founder's dream of reaching the pinnacle of entrepreneurial success.  Take a kernel of an idea and turn it into a massive, multi-billion-dollar company that publicly debuts in an IPO.
Will Oremus / Slate:
Twitter isn't dying: active users and timeline views don't capture the platform's vast reach  —  Twitter Is Not Dying  —  Well, that's it folks: Twitter is dead.  It had a good flight.  A short flight, but a noisy one.  Sadly, it is now headed the way of Flappy Bird.
Ben Thompson / stratechery:
Twitter's problem: the initial idea was so great that they never needed to learn their market  —  Twitter's Marketing Problem  —  Twitter's unconventional path is well-documented at this point.  From failed podcasting company to playground sketch (actually, probably not) …
Kim Zetter / Wired:
Cops who use Vigilant's vehicle tracking system must agree to secrecy TOS  —  Cops Must Swear Silence to Access Vehicle Tracking System  —  It's no secret that police departments around the country are deploying automated license plate readers to build massive databases to identify the location of vehicles.
More: Techdirt and Ars TechnicaTweets: @ashk4n
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
Alibaba I.P.O. May Unleash Global Fight Over Users  —  The largest technology stock offering in history is looming, but few in Silicon Valley seem to care.  —  The initial public offering expected soon in the United States by Alibaba Group Holding, China's largest e-commerce company …
Tweets: @hkanji and @jonrussell
Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
PayPal's Strategy Exec: I Quit Before Twitter Tirade  —  Rakesh “Rocky” Agrawal, the PayPal strategy exec who unleashed on a couple of coworkers in a late-night Twitter rant earlier this weekend, said in a tweet on Sunday morning that he had resigned from the payments giant before his tirade.
Ina Fried / Re/code:
Jury Finds Samsung Phones Infringe on Several Apple Patents, Awards $119.6 Million  —  A federal jury ruled Friday that Samsung infringed on at least one of the patents that Apple had sued over in its latest patent case.  —  The jury found all accused Samsung phones infringed on the first patent at issue …

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More News

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Earlier Picks

Cynthia Littleton / Variety: