Techmeme
June 9, 2017, 11:45 AM

Top News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Softbank is buying robotics firms Boston Dynamics and Schaft from Alphabet  —  Here's a surprise turn of events: Softbank — maker of the friendly Pepper robot and a major M&A player in the tech world — has just announced that it is acquiring two more robotics companies from Google owner Alphabet …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, Jeff Bezos, Safra Catz, other tech execs, to visit White House June 19 for first meeting of The American Technology Council  —  Meeting at White House comes despite Paris climate discord  —  Trump-created council given goal of modernizing government
Jason Del Rey / Recode:
Home design firm Houzz is raising a $400M round at a $4B valuation, source says led by Iconiq Capital  —  The company expects to close a deal for a new $400 million investment.  —  Houzz, the popular photo site used by homeowners to plan renovations, is finalizing a new funding round …
More: Fortune and Wall Street Journal.  Tweets: @delrey
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft releases Windows 10 build for Insiders with improved stylus support, new UI for Action Center, Edge improvements, easy emoji access, more  —  Microsoft is releasing a new test version of Windows 10, build number 16215, today and there's a lot of changes on the way.
Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Packagd, founded by Eric Feng, raises $6M Series A round and launches its Unboxed app that offers curated, hosted shows of consumer tech being unboxed  —  If you're a child of the '80s or '90s, you probably remember QVC or the Home Shopping Network.  Before every retailer had a website …
Kara Swisher / Recode:
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, in a 2013 email, advised employees on when sex is permissible for a Miami company celebration  —  “Do not have sex with another employee UNLESS ...”  —  In what is arguably an unusual email for the very top executive to send to employees, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick advised …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Taylor Swift's full catalog is returning to Spotify and other streaming services, reversing her stance against free music on ad-supported services  —  After breaking upin 2014, Taylor Swift and Spotify are getting back together.  To celebrate her album 1989 hitting 10 million records sold …
Aamer Madhani / USA Today:
Study: Chicago's taxi revenues fell by nearly 40% over the last 3 years, with ~42% of the taxi fleet inactive in March as customers chose ride-sharing services  —  CHICAGO — Operators of the nation's second-biggest taxi fleet are now accelerating toward their long-rumored extinction …
More: Axios
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Sources: Verizon will cut about 15% of AOL-Yahoo staff, or as many as 2.1K jobs, after merger closes  —  The proportion of jobs being made redundant across AOL and Yahoo is around 15 percent globally, we have confirmed with our sources.  —  This shakes out to as many as 2,100 jobs being lost as part of the corporate merger.

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More News

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

Earlier Picks

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
James Vincent / The Verge: