Author: TechBrunch
Payments infrastructure company Infibeam Avenues has acquired a majority 54% stake in Rediff.com for up to $3 million, a dramatic turn of fortune for the 28-year-old company that was the first Indian internet company to list on Nasdaq in 2000. Founded in 1996, Rediff rode the early dot-com boom to become one of India's leading Web portals, offering email, news and e-commerce services. At its peak, Rediff was valued at more than $600 million on the Nasdaq stock exchange. According to brokerage Jefferies, Rediff generated the most traffic in India, climbing to at least 12th place. A 2001 Credit Suisse…
Montenegro's High Court ruled on Thursday that Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon should be extradited to his native South Korea. The ruling confirms an April ruling by the High Court of Podgorica that rejected a cryptocurrency fugitive's request for extradition to the United States. A date for Kwon's extradition to South Korea has yet to be set. The ruling in Montenegro on August 1 is the latest in a series of protracted legal battles surrounding the disgraced cryptocurrency founder. After Montenegro's High Court ruled in March to extradite Kwon to South Korea, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling in April…
The platform reached that milestone a day after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during the company's Q2 2024 earnings call that Threads, its latest social media experiment, had “nearly” reached 200 million users. Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed in a Threads post that Twitter rival Meta has hit 200 million active users, a figure it took just 13 months for Meta to hit. “I'm excited to announce we've hit the 200 million milestone on @threads,” Mosseri wrote. “I hope Threads continues to inspire ideas that connect people and that this amazing community continues to grow.” Growth for Threads has been…
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 will take place in San Francisco from October 28-30. We're already excited. Disrupt brings innovation to every stage of startup life. We couldn't put on this world-class event without our world-class partners. Take advantage of the opportunity to leverage the expertise and resources of leading technology companies. Their participation will elevate, engage and advance your venture. Check out our newest group of companies that can help take your company to the next level. Find out what they do and where to find them. Don't miss Nebius AI's presentation on the AI stage and be sure to stop…
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…
Following a recent lawsuit filed by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) against music generation startups Udio and Suno, Suno acknowledged in a court filing on Thursday that it did indeed train its AI models using copyrighted music, but the company argued that doing so was lawful under fair use doctrine. The RIAA filed suit against Udio and Suno on June 24, alleging that the companies trained their models using copyrighted music. Suno investors have previously suggested that the startup didn't have permission from music labels to use copyrighted material, but they haven't stated that as directly as in…
Apple on Thursday reported third-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations and a 5% rise in total revenue. After struggling in recent years, the iPad saw its biggest increase in sales during the quarter, from $5.8 billion to $7.2 billion year over year. Tablet sales, driven by the product line's biggest ever refresh, helped make up for slowing iPhone sales, which fell to $39.3 billion from $39.7 billion year over year. Despite the quarterly sales decline, iPhone remains Apple's most important category, followed by Services, which includes software products like iCloud, Apple TV+, Apple Music, etc. The category continued to…
Molly Alter wears many hats. She's a mockumentary filmmaker working on a project about an alternate reality where charades are big business. She's a Caesar salad expert who ranks different restaurant endeavors on her blog, JULIUS. She's also Northzone's newest partner. Alter's path to venture capital was far from obvious: the daughter of journalist parents, she grew up indulging in creative passions like theater and improvisational comedy. These interests formed the basis for the company she started at Harvard University filming a cappella concerts and dance recitals, and ultimately led her to venture capital. She told TechCrunch that she only…
Molly Alter wears many hats. She's a mockumentary filmmaker working on a project about an alternate reality where charades are big business. She's a Caesar salad expert who chronicles rankings of different restaurant endeavors on her blog, JULIUS. She's also Northzone's newest partner. Alter's path to venture capital was far from obvious: the daughter of journalist parents, she grew up indulging in creative passions like theater and improvisational comedy. These interests formed the basis for the company she started at Harvard University filming a cappella concerts and dance recitals, and ultimately led her to venture capital. She told TechCrunch that…
Microsoft has a long and complicated relationship with OpenAI, having reportedly invested $13 billion in the ChatGPT maker as part of a long-term partnership. As part of the deal, Microsoft runs OpenAI's models across its enterprise and consumer products and is OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider. But the tech giant called the startup a “competitor” for the first time in an SEC filing on Tuesday. In Microsoft's annual 10K, OpenAI joined a long list of competitors in the AI space alongside Anthropic, Amazon, and Meta. And thanks to OpenAI's new SearchGPT feature announced last week, OpenAI is now listed as a…