Duncan Riley
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Online workspace startup Notion raises $50M on $2B valuation
Online workspace startup Notion Labs Inc. said today it has raised $50 million in new funding on a $2 billion valuation in a round led by Index Ventures, giving it a $2 billion valuation. Founded in 2016, Notion offers an all-in-one workspace that includes support for notes, tasks, wikis and databases. Pitched as blending everyday ...
Report: YouTube is planning to launch a rival to TikTok
Google LLC-owned YouTube is planning to launch a rival service to wildly popular short-form video app TikTok, according to a report today from The Information. YouTube’s rival, reportedly called Shorts, will be featured inside its existing mobile app. Shorts will include a feed of brief videos posted by users and will also take advantage of YouTube’s ...
Coronavirus pandemic will hit the tech startup ecosystem hard but there is hope
Policy advisory and research firm Startup Genome today released a report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the startup ecosystem — and though the short-term impact is unsurprisingly not good, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. Starting with mainland China, the report notes that venture capital deals have contracted ...
5.2M customer records stolen in latest hack targeting Marriott hotel group
Marriott International Inc. has suffered yet another data breach, this one involving the theft of personal information on 5.2 million guests. The new data breach was discovered in late February after those behind the data breach gained access to data from mid-January. The data is believed to have been accessed by an unknown third party using the ...
Huawei’s profit growth slows in 2019 amid US trade bans
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. today reported that its profit rose in 2019, but the smartphone maker said its growth rate came in lower than in previous years amid trade bans from the U.S. For the calendar year 2019, Huawei booked revenue of RMB 858.8 billion ($123 billion), a 19% rise over the year before. Net profit ...
Houseparty offers $1M bounty for information on hacking smear campaign
Videoconference service Houseparty has offered a $1 million bounty to anyone who can provide details of what it says is a smear campaign claiming it has been hacked. In one of the more strange alleged hacking stories during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports started appearing in the U.K. on Monday claiming that the service had been hacked. Some ...
Airbnb sets up $250M fund to compensate hosts for canceled bookings
Airbnb Inc. has finally stepped up to the plate, offering financial support to hosts for missed and canceled bookings. The company has set aside $250 million to pay hosts for missed stays, according to a letter sent to Airbnb providers, CNBC reported today. Airbnb will provide 25% of the fee usually collected when users cancel bookings to ...
WeWork sells Meetup to investor group led by AlleyCorp
Troubled workplace provider WeWork has sold community meeting platform provider Meetup to a consortium of investors led by AlleyCorp. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Fortune reported today that Meetup sold for a fraction of the $156 million that WeWork paid to acquire the company in 2017. “This acquisition provides the long-term capital to ...
Researchers see sharp rise in fake Zoom domains as hackers target remote workers
Security researchers at Check Point Software Technology Ltd. said today they’ve observed a sharp rise in the number of fake “Zoom” domains registered in the last week as more and more people switch to remote working during the global coronavirus pandemic. The researchers found 1,700 new domain names containing the word “Zoom” since January with 25% ...
Ryuk ransomware targets more hospitals during coronavirus pandemic
Ryuk ransomware is continuing to target hospitals and other medical providers during the global coronavirus pandemic despite some cybercriminals encouraging others to refrain from doing so. According to data released March 26 by Bleeping Computer, Ryuk in the last month has targeted 10 health organizations, including two independent hospitals and another healthcare provider with a ...