The Daily Crunch 11/04/16

GoPro had a rough quarter, Samsung announces another recall and TechCrunch goes inside Intel's virtual reality lab. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for November 4, 2016. Also, we have no idea whether smartwatch sales are going up or down.

1. GoPro earnings disappoint 

GoPro failed to meet Wall Street's already-low expectations when it released its third quarter earnings report yesterday, missing revenue predictions by nearly 23 percent. It also posted a loss of 60 cents per share, compared to analyst predictions of 30 cents per share. The numbers were so bad that the company temporarily halted trading prior to its earnings release.

GoPro is hoping to turn things around this holiday season with its new Hero5 camera and its Karma drone, but even there, the company says its production is "compromised" and it "anticipates difficulty in meeting forecasted demand." Looking further ahead, the company told investors to expect "2017 to be more of an evolutionary year, rather than a revolutionary year."

2. Samsung recalls washing machines

Less than a month after halting production on the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung is making another hardware recall, this time of certain models of its top-loading washing machines. The company acknowledged issues around these machines back in September (one woman in Texas reported that her machine "exploded with such ferocity that it penetrated the interior wall of her garage"), and it now says there have been 733 reports of malfunctioning units.

3. Inside Intel's VR efforts

Every big tech company seems to be making a push into virtual reality, and Intel is no exception. TechCrunch's Lucas Matney traveled down to the company's Santa Clara headquarters to get a first look at Intel's new virtual reality lab. The company says it's working on a concept called "merged reality," which fuses VR with computer vision. The lab's research is supposed to feed into Intel's first head-mounted display, currently known as Project Alloy.

4. Luxembourg backs asteroid mining startup

Asteroid mining company Planetary Resources just raised €25 million from Luxembourg (yes, that Luxembourg) — €12 million came directly from the country, with another €13 million from public investment bank SNCI. A possible investment was first announced back in June,  but this makes the deal official. Planetary Resources says it's currently planning for a 2020 launch.

5. R.I.P. Cookie

German peer-to-peer payment startup Cookie is filing for bankruptcy. TechCrunch's Romain Dillet reports that the board, including co-founder and head of product Lamine Cheloufi, had previously fired the other co-founder, head of business Garry Krugljakow. A legal fight ensued, making it difficult for Cookie to raise more funding — and eventually, it ran out of money. It's a sad end for a promising product.

6. Actually, smartwatch sales might not be falling

A recent IDC report suggested that smartwatch sales are tanking, but another analyst firm, Canalys, suggested that's not the case. In fact, where IDC said shipments fell by 50 percent, year-over-year, Canalys said they actually rose 60 percent. But hey, at least both firms can agree that the Apple Watch is the top seller.

7. Microsoft partners with WeWork

Co-working giant WeWork has a big new client, namely Microsoft. This "City as a Campus" deal gives Microsoft's sales and marketing team access to all of WeWork's Manhattan locations. The announcement might seem odd, since Microsoft has a Manhattan office of its own, but since the sales team in particular might be constantly on the go, this allows them to get work done wherever they are in the city. (Sometimes Starbucks just doesn't cut it.) The two companies previously partnered to give all WeWork members access to MS Word.

P.S. - If you're wondering what happened to Darrell, he'll be back on Monday!