Roundup of news and ideas from the world of startups – Week ending 8th July 2018
News you can use
We’ve got to become a start-up nation again,’ says former Cisco CEO –Cisco’s former CEO says that while tax reform has created a friendlier environment for start-ups, regulations need to be pared down in order for the U.S. to stay competitive.John Chambers tells CNBC the rate of start-up creation is not high enough.
Pressbox founders Drew McKenna, left, and Vijen Patel
Corporate M&A
Procter & Gamble acquires Dry-cleaning startup Pressbox – Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble is acquiring dry-cleaning startup Pressbox , the companies announced Tuesday. Pressbox, launched in Chicago in 2013 by University of Notre Dame graduates Vijen Patel and Drew McKenna, allows customers to drop off their dirty laundry at any time in one of the company’s lockers, mainly located in high-rise apartment buildings and offices. Customers can use the Pressbox app to track their laundry as it’s taken for cleaning and are notified when it is ready for pickup.
Reportedly Facebook Is Buying British AI Startup To Help It Shut Down Fake News – London-based start-up Bloomsbury AI will be acquired by Facebook for up to $30 million. The company specialises in natural language processing (NLP) technology, and has developed an AI called “Cape,” which can read text documents and answer questions about their contents.
Workday acquires financial modelling startup Adaptive Insights for $1.55B – Workday, the cloud-based platform that offers HR and other back-office apps for businesses, is making an acquisition to expand its portfolio of services: It’s buying Adaptive Insights, a provider of cloud-based business planning and financial modelling tools, for $1.55 billion. The acquisition is notable because Adaptive Insights had filed for an IPO as recently as May 17. Workday says that the $1.55 billion price tag includes “the assumption of approximately $150 million in unvested equity issued to Adaptive Insights employees” related to that IPO. This deal is expected to close in Q3 of this year.
Startup shut and failed last week
Verizon is shutting down go90 – Verizon is pulling the plug on go90, its mobile video service (disclosure: Verizon owns Oath, which owns TechCrunch). It represented a big investment for the telecom company. After a big splashy launch in October 2015, the service never really found its audience. “Following the creation of Oath, go90 will be discontinued,” Verizon told Reuters in a statement. “Verizon will focus on building its digital-first brands at scale in sports, finance, news and entertainment for today’s mobile consumers and tomorrow’s 5G applications.” According to Digiday, Verizon could have spent as much as $1.2 billion on content acquisition for the service. The company acquired Vessel, bought a stake in AwesomenessTV and bought distribution rights for Vice Media shows.