Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Report: Microsoft and VMware are working on software to ease porting apps built on VMware's virtualization tech to Azure as part of a broader partnership (Tom Krazit/GeekWire)

Tom Krazit / GeekWire:
Report: Microsoft and VMware are working on software to ease porting apps built on VMware's virtualization tech to Azure as part of a broader partnership  —  One of the biggest obstacles to the growth of cloud computing is inertia, as companies that spent tens of millions of dollars …



Facebook policy doc shows it wants up to a 30% cut of Fan Subscriptions, vs Patreon's 5%, and to reserve right to offer free trials with no creator compensation (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook policy doc shows it wants up to a 30% cut of Fan Subscriptions, vs Patreon's 5%, and to reserve right to offer free trials with no creator compensation  —  Facebook will drive a hard bargain with influencers and artists judging by the terms of service for the social network's Patreon …



Google says its AI-powered grammar checker, announced last July, will now be available on Google Docs for all G Suite users (Nick Statt/The Verge)

Nick Statt / The Verge:
Google says its AI-powered grammar checker, announced last July, will now be available on Google Docs for all G Suite users  —  The power of machine translation to help you improve your writing at work  —  Google today announced that its artificial intelligence-powered grammar checker …



SoFi says it will launch cryptocurrency trading in partnership with Coinbase in Q2 and also has plans for zero-fee SoFi-branded ETFs and a credit card in 2019 (Kate Rooney/CNBC)

Kate Rooney / CNBC:
SoFi says it will launch cryptocurrency trading in partnership with Coinbase in Q2 and also has plans for zero-fee SoFi-branded ETFs and a credit card in 2019  —  - The online lending start-up will launch cryptocurrency trading in the second quarter of this year.



Sources: Volkswagen is planning to invest around $1.7B in Ford's Argo self-driving subsidiary, making it the nucleus of a joint venture (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Volkswagen is planning to invest around $1.7B in Ford's Argo self-driving subsidiary, making it the nucleus of a joint venture  —  Volkswagen is planning to invest around $1.7 billion in a self-driving car venture with Ford's subsidiary Argo as auto makers seek to share the huge costs of developing self-driving cars.



FTC announces a new task force to monitor competition in "technology-related sectors" and says that it will look into previous mergers (Makena Kelly/The Verge)

Makena Kelly / The Verge:
FTC announces a new task force to monitor competition in “technology-related sectors” and says that it will look into previous mergers  —  And they're going to look at previous mergers  —  The Federal Trade Commission will be launching a task force to monitor competition …



Jio is going to pinch Mukesh Ambani's deep pocket really hard

Jio may lose nearly $2.1 bn this fiscal when costs such as handset subsidies are included, Bernstein estimates. https://ift.tt/2UadVEu https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Pepperfry launches gift registry service

Users can create a gift registry on the marketplace by adding their desired products to a wish list and providing requisite details like delivery address and occasion type among others https://ift.tt/2EAuW5E https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Indian lobby group seeks confidential IPO filing for startups

​​In its set of recommendations to the market regulator, Sebi, it has said confidential filing of the draft offer document will avoid public disclosure of sensitive commercial and financial information to the market and to competitors. https://ift.tt/2Vqd7M9 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Lessons learnt from Mexico, US & Brazil to help Twitter in LS polls

Twitter doesn't see any issue if India decides to extend the 48-hour silence rule ahead of elections, currently imposed on the print and electronic media, to the social media as well. https://ift.tt/2H4gfJB https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Amazon may buy a stake in Future Coupons to bag Future Retail prize

Move to help e-tailer bypass regulatory issues post tweaked FDI norms https://ift.tt/2tJdtkV https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Facebook expands ad buying options for premium video

The new program called Facebook Showcase allows advertisers to purchase ad spots in advance at a fixed cost, similar to the way TV networks host an "upfront" featuring new shows https://ift.tt/2TgIdbG https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Flipkart sellers plan to tweak purchases

India only allows FDI-funded marketplaces to lend their platforms for other businesses and sellers and bars such marketplaces from holding any of their inventories. https://ift.tt/2EzZfcv https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Spotify launches in India amid dispute with Warner Music

On Tuesday, Spotify was made available in India through its web and mobile apps for new and existing users. Monthly subscriptions is priced at Rs 119, while an yearly subscription is available at Rs 1,189 https://ift.tt/2GN03gv https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

I-bank Wolet files $800k suit over Flipkart’s Upstream buy

Flipkart had announced it was buying the Israeli startup in September for an undisclosed sum. https://ift.tt/2VpX1SO https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Arizona's Maricopa County is set to have the second largest concentration of US data centers by 2028, as the state races to increase electricity production (Pranshu Verma/Washington Post)

Pranshu Verma / Washington Post : Arizona's Maricopa County is set to have the second largest concentration of US data centers by 202...