Amazon.com Inc.-owned streaming service Twitch was reported today to have acquired Bebo Inc., an early social media provider for $25 million. Founded in 2005, Bebo first competed against Myspace and later Facebook Inc. for social media supremacy. Although it found some audience, particularly in the U.K. where it peaked at over 10 million users, its success ...

Less than a day after being announced, Facebook Inc.’s Libra cryptocurrency has already sparked a backlash as critics that include prominent politicians on both sides the Atlantic raised concerns and called for its rollout to be delayed or even stopped. In the U.S., politicians on both sides of the aisle expressed concerns about the announcement. ...

Russian hackers are now believed to be behind the hacking and theft of around $530 million in cryptocurrency from Japanese exchange Coincheck in January 2018, Japanese media reported Monday. The hack, the largest single successful theft of cryptocurrency of all time, even beating the better-known hack of Mt. Gox, was originally believed to have undertaken by North ...

BnkToTheFuture, best known as an investment platform for cryptocurrency and blockchain related companies has made its first acquisition: Altcoin.io, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed, but Altcoin.io had raised around $1 million in funding, according to Crunchbase, so the price tag likely wasn’t large. Founded in 2017, Altcoin.io pitches itself as ...

Israeli phishing protection startup Ironscales Ltd. today said it has raised $15 million in new funding to assist it in scaling up its North American operations and boost research and development. The Series B round was led by K1 Investment Management with additional investors not named. The company last raised venture capital in December 2017. Founded in ...

Ripple Labs Inc. has committed up to $50 million in investment capital in return for equity into MoneyGram International Inc. as part of an expansion of the partnership between the two companies announced in January 2018. The deal, announced today, sees Ripple investing $30 million upfront into MoneyGram for an 8% stake in the company at ...

Bitcoin hit a 13-month high in trading over the weekend after a sluggish month that was typified by a so-called “bull exhaustion” following a steady rise since March. The cryptocurrency peaked at $9374.87 at 4:15 a.m. EDT on Sunday, its highest level since May 8, 2018. The surge through $9,000 took three weeks in coming ...

Intel Corp.’s Mobileye division will launch a trial of self-driving taxis in Israel next year, Intel Chief Executive Officer Bob Swan announced Sunday. As first reported by Bloomberg, Swan made the announcement after riding in a self-driving vehicle developed by Mobileye in Jerusalem.  “The most impressive thing is to just to see how far they have ...

The cyber cold war between the U.S. and Russia continues to heat up, with accusations flying that both countries have either hacked or are seeking to hack each others’ power grids. On both sides, each country, either directly or through state-sponsored hackers, is allegedly attempting to insert malware into networks that, if triggered, could bring ...

Financial technology-focused startup Spring Labs Inc. has raised $23 million in new funding to assist it in developing its blockchain-based network. The Series A round was led by GreatPoint Ventures and included August Capital, General Motors Ventures, RRE Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Multicoin Capital, The Pritzker Group and CardWorks. Founded in 2016, Spring Labs is developing the Spring Protocol, a ...