SiriusXM reaches a deal to acquire Pandora, Apple closes its Shazam acquisition and Microsoft announces a new product to run Windows in the cloud. Here's your Daily Crunch for September 24, 2018. 1. SiriusXM to acquire Pandora for $3.5B SiriusXM says it will leverage both services for cross-promotion — so you might hear references to SiriusXM shows while listening to Pandora, while SiriusXM hosts could suggest downloading the Pandora mobile app. Both the Pandora board and the SiriusXM board have approved the plan, but Pandora has also negotiated a "go-shop" provision, which means that the company can still evaluate other offers. 2. Apple closes its Shazam acquisition and says the music recognition app will soon become ad free It's a busy morning for music M&A, though in this case it's the completion of a deal that was first announced last year. 3. Microsoft's new Windows Virtual Desktop lets you run Windows 10 in the cloud Microsoft says Windows 10 on Azure will provide access to the Microsoft Store and the usual line-of-business applications that businesses have written for their users. It also says it wants to build a larger ecosystem. 4. Tile names GoPro vet CJ Prober new CEO, adds Comcast as investor and new product partner Co-founder Mike Farley will keep a seat on the board and become a strategic advisor to the company, stepping away from a day-to-day role. 5. Uber and Grab hit with $9.5M in fines over 'anti-competitive' merger The Competition Commission of Singapore declared the deal is "anti-competitive" following a months-long investigation — but it's only fining the companies, not unwinding the deal. 6. The Markup, a tech-focused investigative news site, raises $20M from Craigslist founder Celebrated former ProPublica investigative journalists Julia Angwin and Jeff Larson are launching an investigative nonprofit news organization called The Markup. 7. Can I interest you in a TechCrunch podcast? This week, the team Equity discussed Eventbrite going public. (A new episode of Original Content is on its way too, I just need to finish editing it!) |