Latest and Hotest Technology Updates

Under Armour gives up on one of its big acquisitions, Uber Eats faces complaints over its free delivery policy for Black restaurants and Facebook takes another step to limit QAnon-related content. This is your Daily Crunch for October 30, 2020.

The big story: Under Armour is selling MyFitnessPal

Five years after Under Armour acquired MyFitnessPal for $475 million, it’s selling the diet- and exercise-tracking app to investment firm Francisco Partners for $345 million. It’s also shutting down the Endomondo platform, which it acquired at the same time.

Under Armour says it’s making these moves so that it can focus its brand on its “target consumer – the Focused Performer.” However, the diminished price suggested there may be more going on here, perhaps the business likely suffering as companies like Peloton and Apple (with its upcoming Fitness+ service) hog the spotlight in the casual fitness category.

It’s also worth noting that Under Armour isn’t completely giving up on digital products — it will continue operating the MapMyFitness platform, including MapMyRun and MapMyRide.

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The tech giants

Uber Eats faces discrimination allegations over free delivery from Black-owned restaurants — Uber says it has received more than 8,500 demands for arbitration as a result of it ditching delivery fees for some Black-owned restaurants via Uber Eats.

Facebook is limiting distribution of 'save our children' hashtag over QAnon ties — Over the past several months, these terms have provided a kind of innocuous cover for the popular online conspiracy theory.

Reliance Jio Platforms tops 400M subscribers, explores expanding services outside of India — The Facebook- and Google-backed telecom operator said its finances have improved, despite the pandemic.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Daimler invests in lidar company Luminar in push to bring autonomous trucks to highways — Luminar will also become a publicly traded company through its merger with special purpose acquisition company Gores Metropoulos.

Nestlé acquires healthy meal startup Freshly for up to $1.5B — Founded in 2015, Freshly is a New York City-based startup that delivers healthy meals to your home in weekly orders, which can then be prepared in a few minutes via microwave or oven.

B8ta remains bullish on IRL shopping with new acquisition — B8ta offers shelf space to unique digital products.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

New GV partner Terri Burns has a simple investment thesis: Gen Z — Burns is the firm’s youngest partner and the first Black woman to hold the role.

Is the Great 2020 Tech Rally slowing? — What happens if COVID-19, unrest and hyped valuations collide?

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Teachers are leaving schools. Will they come to startups next? — Teacher departures are a loss for public schools, but an opportunity for startups racing to win a share of the changing teacher economy.

Big tech's 'blackbox' algorithms face regulatory oversight under EU plan — Major internet platforms will be required to open up their algorithms to regulatory oversight under proposals European lawmakers are set to introduce next month.

AOL founder Steve Case, involved early in Section 230, says it's time to change it — “Having more of a dialogue between the innovators and the policymakers is actually going to be critical in this internet third wave,” Case told us.

• Mobile Applications Technical Lead - Xamarin at Petco (San Diego, CA, USA)
• UI UX Designer at IBISWorld (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
• Sr. Front End Engineer (US - Remote) at Hip eCommerce (USA)
• Software Configuration Management Specialist at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Archive Developer at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Cambridge, MA, USA)

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Google releases its latest earnings report, Spotify is getting ready to raise prices and Excel gets friendlier to custom data types. This is your Daily Crunch for October 29, 2020.

The big story: Google had a good quarter

Google’s parent company Alphabet released its third-quarter earnings report this afternoon, coming in well ahead of Wall Street expectations thanks in large part to YouTube, which saw revenue rise to $5.0 billion (compared to $3.8 billion during Q3 2019).

Google Cloud also grew revenue from $2.4 billion last year to $3.44 billion in the most recent quarter. Overall, Alphabet reported revenue of $46.2 billion and earnings per share of $16.40, compared to analyst predictions of $42.88 billion in revenue and EPS of $11.21.

The company’s shares quickly rose 8.5% in after-hours trading.

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The tech giants

Spotify CEO says company will 'further expand price increases' — Although the company didn't detail its plans, CEO Daniel Ek said the hikes will take place in markets that are more mature for Spotify.

Microsoft now lets you bring your own data types to Excel — That means you can have a "customer" data type, for example, bringing in rich customer data from a third-party service into Excel.

Why Apple's Q4 earnings look different this year — With Apple’s latest iPhone launch running a few weeks behind this year, it missed the window to be included on Q4.

Startups, funding and venture capital

Donut launches Watercooler, an easy way to socialize online with co-workers — The startup also announced that it has raised $12 million in total funding, led by Accel.

One-click housing startup Atmos raises another $4M from Khosla, real estate strategics and TikTok star Josh Richards — According to CEO Nick Donahue, users have started designing the "first dozen homes" on the platform.

Commissary Club wants to help formerly incarcerated people find community —  While 70 Million Jobs focuses on helping people with criminal records find jobs, its new network Commissary Club is designed to be a place for folks to find community.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

VCs poured capital into European startups in Q3, but early-stage dealmaking appeared to suffer — The VC trends of later and larger continue to change the landscape of private capital.

In the 'buy now, pay later' wars, PayPal is primed for dominance — Button’s Stephen Milbank writes that the greatest limitation to buy-now-pay-later adoption is its availability.

Twitter's API access changes are chasing away third-party developers — On August 12, Twitter launched a complete rebuild of its 2012 API.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Europe to limit how big tech can push its own services and use third-party data — Commission EVP Margrethe Vestager confirmed that a legislative proposal due in a few weeks will aim to ban what she called "unfair self-preferencing.”

Comcast says Peacock has nearly 22M sign-ups — But it’s not clear how many of them are paid versus free.

Tech optimism…in this economy? — The latest episode of Equity looks at big startup opportunities for the coming decade.

• Mobile Applications Technical Lead - Xamarin at Petco (San Diego, CA, USA)
• UI UX Designer at IBISWorld (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
• Sr. Front End Engineer (US - Remote) at Hip eCommerce (USA)
• Software Configuration Management Specialist at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Archive Developer at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Cambridge, MA, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

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Apple might be building a Google competitor, Audible adds more podcasts and an ad measurement company raises $350 million. This is your Daily Crunch for October 28, 2020.

The big story: Apple seems pretty interested in search

Apple has a growing interest in search technology and might even be working on a product to compete with Google, according to The Financial Times.

The most visible change is the fact that in iOS 14, Apple is now showing its own results when you type queries in the home screen. In addition, there seems to be an increase in activity from Apple’s web crawler.

There may be more of an opportunity here as the U.S. Justice Department has sued Google over what it claims are anticompetitive behaviors around search. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean Apple and Google will soon be going head-to-head in search — it could just be a sign that Apple’s Siri voice assistant is getting more search queries.

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The tech giants

Joe Rogan, Alex Jones and Spotify's illusion of neutrality — Spotify is facing criticism after Joe Rogan brought Alex Jones of InfoWars onto his show.

Audible further expands into podcasts — Audible is adding approximately 100,000 podcasts.

Apple eyes the TikTok generation with an updated version of Clips — The update brings much-needed support for vertical videos, allowing for sharing to TikTok and the "Stories" feature in other social apps.

Startups, funding and venture capital

DoubleVerify, a specialist in brand safety, ad fraud and ad quality, raises $350M — DoubleVerify’s technology can detect fraud, viewability and brand safety.

Outrider raises $65M to bring its autonomous tech to distribution yards — The startup has built a three-part system that includes an autonomous electric yard truck, software to manage the operations and site infrastructure.

Lunchbox raises $20M to help restaurants build their own ordering experiences — CEO Nabeel Alamgir said that if restaurants can handle more online orders themselves (rather than just relying on delivery apps), they'll make more money while also maintaining a direct relationship with their most loyal customers.

Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch

As venture capital rebounds, what's going on with venture debt? — While venture capital is back setting new records, it appears that its lesser-known sibling won’t be able to match the past few years’ results.

Current and upcoming trends in Latin America's mobile growth — Latin America is home to one of the fastest-growing mobile markets in the world.

Dear Sophie: Any upgrade options for E-2 visa holders interested in changing jobs? — Another edition of Sophie Alcorn’s column answering immigration questions about working at technology companies.

(Reminder: Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)

Everything else

Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith is buying majority stake in the Utah Jazz for $1.6B — Smith sold Qualtrics to SAP for $8 billion in 2018.

US online holiday sales to reach $189B this year, up 33% from 2019 — That’s according to a new forecast from Adobe Analytics.

• Mobile Applications Technical Lead - Xamarin at Petco (San Diego, CA, USA)
• UI UX Designer at IBISWorld (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
• Sr. Front End Engineer (US - Remote) at Hip eCommerce (USA)
• Software Configuration Management Specialist at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Cambridge, MA, USA)
• Archive Developer at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (Cambridge, MA, USA)

See more jobs on CrunchBoard

Post your tech jobs and reach millions of TechCrunch readers for only $200 per month.