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CD Projekt Red will pay only $1.85 million to settle 'Cyberpunk 2077' lawsuit
Developer CD Projekt has reportedly agreed to pay $1,850,000 to settle an investor lawsuit over the buggy launch of Cyberpunk 2077.
Mt. Gox exchange users may finally get to recover some of their lost Bitcoin
An agreement between Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy trustee and another group might allow creditors to recover as much as 90 percent of the remaining Bitcoins.
Waymo's first outside investment round includes car industry heavyweights
Believe it or not, Waymo hasn't really leaned on outside help to fulfill its self-driving car ambitions -- Alphabet (and earlier, Google) has shouldered much of the load. Now, however, it's expanding its sources of cash. Waymo has announced its first external investment round, and you might recognize a few of the names contributing a shared $2.25 billion. Car tech giant Magna International and retailer AutoNation are making investments, as are well-established investment groups like Andreessen Horowitz, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Silver Lake and Mubadala.
Google thwarts shareholder challenge to its China search plans
If investors and employees were hoping to prompt cultural change at Alphabet during the company's shareholder meeting, they were likely disappointed. Voters at the meeting rejected all shareholder proposals, including a resolution that would have required a human rights impact assessment before Google went forward with a censored Chinese search engine. Backers like Azzad Asset Management were concerned China could "weaponize" search data to expand mass surveillance and other human rights abuses.
Kids are overusing iPhones, warn two Apple investors
Apple built features into iOS years ago that prevent young users from straying anywhere parents don't greenlight. But those don't prevent kids from overusing those devices. Two investment groups with a combined $2 billion in Apple shares published a public letter over the weekend urging the company to address what studies suggest is a growing crisis of smartphone addiction among children and teens.
Saudi Arabia arrests one of tech's biggest investors
Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a crackdown on alleged corruption, and its dragnet has caught one of the tech world's most important investors: the country has arrested Prince al-Waleed bin Talal over money laundering charges. He has major stakes in satellite TV providers and in recent years has been one of the largest individual investors in a number of well-known tech giants, including Apple and Lyft. The royal is particularly important to Twitter's fate. He poured $300 million into the social network in 2011, and his stake is second only to that of Twitter co-founder Ev Williams -- even CEO Jack Dorsey has a smaller financial commitment.
Wells Fargo will use 'robo-advisers' to dish out investment help
You won't have to go to a dedicated, tech-focused firm to get investment help from machines instead of humans. Wells Fargo has revealed that it's using SigFig's "robo-advisers" to offer guidance to investors. The sometimes troubled bank will launch a pilot program for the AI helpers sometime in the first half of 2017. It's not certain when you could see it widely available, but that will likely depend on the test's success.
Scottrade learned about a data breach from law enforcement
Companies typically find out about data breaches first-hand, and bring in the police after the fact to (hopefully) identify the culprits. Unfortunately, Scottrade didn't even have that luxury: the investment firm only learned about a huge breach after federal law enforcement showed up at its door with word of an ongoing investigation. The intruders compromised roughly 4.6 million accounts between late 2013 and early 2014. They focused primarily on snagging contact information, but the targeted system also included information as sensitive as Social Security numbers.
Startups can ask investors for cash through Twitter
Your favorite internet startup might not just be using Twitter for business news and sales pitches in the near future -- the US Securities and Exchange Commission has greenlit using the social network to drum up interest in future stocks and debt offerings. This only works for small outfits raising less than $50 million per year, but it should do a lot to help these young companies get funding when many venture capitalists thrive online. While this probably won't be a make-or-break matter for many companies, it shows that the SEC is aware that stuffy official filings will only get you so far in the internet era. Besides, it's fun to think that a 140-character Twitter spiel may be enough to jumpstart the next big tech firm.
Investors plug $6 million into Majesco
Majesco Entertainment completed an investment round that resulted in $6 million in funding, the Cooking Mama publisher announced today. $1 million of the funds were issued to the company with the rest stashed in escrow until certain, as-yet-unknown conditions are met by Majesco. The company also appointed two people to its boards of directors to replace two that stepped down, one of whom is Jesse Sutton, who will remain Majesco's CEO after resigning from the company's board. SEC filings in November admitted that Majesco "suffered losses that raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern." It reported a 27.2 percent drop year-over-year in net revenue in September, as well as net losses of $2.7 million. As a result, Majesco laid off several staff in October to reduce fixed costs. The company also noted last month that it is "currently not developing any significant new games for release in fiscal 2015," which ends on October 31, 2015. [Image: Majesco]
Nerd Kingdom is hopeful about an investor for TUG
Developer Nerd Kingdom has been fairly quiet since its announcement in September that half of its team was being let go in order to keep development moving on TUG. The good news is that the needed investors might be right around the corner. An update on the game's Kickstarter page notes that the team is entering what appear to be final talks with a potential investor, ensuring that the team has enough money to finish the game. The update stresses the fact that said investor is not looking to alter the development process or compromise the team's vision for the title. in terms of actual development, the game's multiplayer mode is coming together. It's also going to be increasing in price soon to $19.99, so if you'd been holding off on buying the game but really want to pick it up for only $10, your time is running out, although given recent events, you may want to hold off a little bit until the investment is a sure thing.
Morgan Stanley is totes in love with Apple Pay
With Apple Pay slated to launch this month, all eyes are on Apple to see if it can shake the curse of NFC payment systems and break through to mass adoption. We won't know if it succeeds for a while, but Morgan Stanley's Craig Hettenbach certainly seems upbeat about the possibility. In a release to investors -- which AppleInsider pored over -- Hettenbach makes some big predictions for Apple's future in the payment space. "By reducing fraud, improving data security, and increasing credit/debit volumes for issuers and networks, while protecting the value of the existing payments value chain, we believe Apple Pay has a high chance of success," Hettenbach boasts, adding that Apple appears to have solved all the major problems that have plagued past NFC payment efforts from the likes of Google and PayPal. Hettenbach also notes that wide adoption of Apple Pay will likely help boost the appeal and adoption of its competitors' payment platforms as well, which makes a lot of sense. Right now, NFC on the iPhone 6 and 6+ will remain locked down and out of reach for third-party developers who might want to use it, like Google, but if those bars are removed in the future, it could potentially cause even greater competition between the two tech giants.
Nintendo president: Expect 'Nintendo-like' profits in 2016 [Update]
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata recently acknowledged the long rebuilding process the company is mired in to become increasingly profitable again in the coming years. While unable to offer specific numbers, he toned down expectations for the coming financial year (FY 2014) as well as the next one (FY 2015) in a fiscal 2013 financial results briefing with investors, stressing that "instead of seeing a great and sudden recovery in our profitability in the next fiscal year, I am rather expecting to be able to report Nintendo-like profits from around the following fiscal year," referring to 2016. Nintendo posted a $229 million loss for the year, with Wii U estimates down 60 percent. Part of the company's expected transition involves the outlook it receives as "a video game company." Iwata believes "the intrinsic nature of entertainment is much broader than how we see it today," and that Nintendo "may be able to establish some sort of new core business if we consider our role as an entertainment company in a broader sense." While that may involve Nintendo's "quality of life" initiatives, it also relates to the company's "active utilization of character IP" as well as its expanding definition of video game platforms. It also relates to Nintendo's use of smart phones, as Iwata echoed the company's plans from January to branch into the mobile space: "Moreover, I feel that we will be able to further stimulate our platform business by taking advantage of smart devices," Iwata said. One of its first major pushes into mobile comes in the form of a Mario Kart TV companion app for Mario Kart 8, screens of which were included in Iwata's presentation, as seen above. Nintendo also recently unveiled a near-field communication (NFC) reader for the 3DS as well as plans to use the Wii U Game Pad's built-in NFC functionality with new character figurines. Update: As it turns out, Iwata was referring to the fiscal year 2015 (2016) when he spoke of the company being able to report "Nintendo-like profits from around the following fiscal year," as opposed to 2015. We've updated the language in the article to reflect this. [Image: Nintendo]
Kickstarted sword-fighter Clang pauses development, seeks further investment
Developer Subutai Corporation rececntly announced that it has "hit the pause button" on the development of Clang. The project earned $526,125 on Kickstarter in July 2012, though it has apparently run out of resources in the meantime, leading the developer to focus on luring investors to fund the rest of its development. Project lead and sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson explained in the update on the game's Kickstarter page that Subutai Corporation "stretched the Kickstarter money farther than we had expected to, but securing the next round, along with constructing improvised shelters and hoarding beans, has to be our top priority for now." Stephenson said the plan to further fund the project outside of Kickstarter was in the cards all along, citing the team's plan to build a "functional proof of concept in the form of an exciting prototype" in order to "achieve our next level of funding" in the project's description. Numerous backers questioned the direction of the project, noting the description didn't make the developer's aspirations for additional funding particularly clear at the outset. To risk-averse publishers, Stephenson said that the sword-fighting simulator "seems extra worrisome because it is coupled to a new hardware controller." Clang uses controllers like Sixense's Razer Hydra motion controller and the STEM system, the latter having been successfully funded on Kickstarter and has three weeks left in its campaign. While the PC game can be played with a mouse and keyboard, Stephenson endorsed Sixense's Kickstarter project in the hopes that it "will get the next generation of hardware out on the market, reducing the element of perceived risk and, we hope, clearing the way for us to pursue our own quest to find financiers who have steady nerves and other anatomical prerequisites." Until then, the developer is "working on Clang as an 'evenings and weekends' project until such time as we get funding for a more commercial-style reboot."
Icahn's AAPL buyback advice could benefit Apple quickly, significantly
An analysis by Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore shows a potential US$50 billion stock buyback would boost Apple's earnings per share by as much as $4.25 in 2014, AppleInsider reports. This comes in the wake of a meeting last week between Tim Cook and investor Carl Icahn where the possibility of expanding the company's share buyback program was discussed. Icahn made headlines last week when he reportedly invested over $1.5 billion in the Cupertino-based tech giant. This strong vote of confidence had a rather dramatic effect on AAPL, boosting it by over 20 points in less than a day. Of course, the most important factor in further pushing Apple's stock upwards is the continued announcement of innovative products, and with an iPhone event reportedly scheduled for September 10, we won't have to wait long on that front.
Oculus Rift using its millions to hire more staff
The Oculus Rift creators recently secured $16 million in funding from investors, on top of their September Kickstarter bounty of $2.4 million – and they're going to use that cash to bulk up the team. "We're using the funding to ramp up on hiring more smart people, the best and brightest that we can find," Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe told Engadget. "The dev kit as it is now, that we're shipping, will stay the same, and the software side will just keep getting better." Oculus Rift currently employs fewer than 50 people, and the new hires will be mostly engineers, Iribe said. Right now the headset is in development for PC games, but that doesn't mean other platforms are out of the running completely. "We're always looking at other platforms, looking at consoles; we're also looking at Android and the mobile side in a big way – but right now we really are focused on the PC platform," Iribe said. Sony President Shuhei Yoshida said he loves the Oculus Rift, though the PS4 doesn't currently support the VR headset. Yoshida wouldn't say if the PS4 will support Oculus Rift in the future – and he said it with a big smile, Engadget noted.
Paper for iPad developer receives $15 million in funding
What do you do when your one and only iPad app is a runaway success? If you're FiftyThree, the development firm behind the beautiful journal / art app Paper (free, many in-app purchases available), you get funding for expansion into new areas. FiftyThree announced today that it received US$15 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreesen Horowitz, with such stellar investors as Twitter's Jack Dorsey, Bright Capital, Highline Ventures and SV Angel joining the party. Paper has been profitable from day one; it's usually in the Top 10 Paid Apps on the App Store, and over 80 million users have downloaded the app. What's FiftyThree planning on doing with $15 million? Co-founder and CEO Georg Petschnigg says that he wants to add to his team of employees in Seattle and NYC, and create a suite of software, hardware and services. GigaOM's Erica Ogg talked with Petschnigg and although he wouldn't elaborate, the idea of a Paper-branded stylus is a natural outgrowth. Petschnigg's big picture for the firm appears to be collaboration: "We've been focused on iPad there, but the next part we're working on is services that will start to answer the question of how people work together and collaborate." All secretive talk aside, we're looking forward to seeing what's next from the team at FiftyThree.
Oculus Rift secures $16 million in first round of investor funding
The first round of investor funding for Oculus Rift brought in $16 million, with contributions from Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, Founders Fund and Formation 8, the Oculus team announced today. This funding is separate from the Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign, which asked for $250,000 and concluded with $2.4 million in September. Spark founder Santo Politi and Matrix general partner Antonio Rodriguez are now on the board of directors for Oculus Rift, after they led the first funding round. "In this business, there are only a few rare companies that can so perfectly embody the future you read about in science fiction novels," Rodriguez says in a press release. "What Palmer, Brendan and the team are building at Oculus so closely matches the Metaverse, we had to be part of it. Working with them to get this platform to market at scale will be enormously exciting." A mere $16 million gets you access to the Metaverse. Not bad.
Pebble receives $15 mil in funding, releases SDK and Sports API
The company behind the Pebble smartwatch, which not only looks awesome but connects up to your iPhone, has picked up US$15 million in funding from venture capitalists, and has released yet another version of its SDK. The funding is obviously a solid chunk of change, and should help Pebble not only fulfill its current orders (the company is still aiming to get watches out to all of its supporters from a successful Kickstarter bid), but push the company on into the future as well. This latest SDK release, called the PebbleKit, allows for two-way communication back and forth between the watch and your smartphone, which means there are lots of new options for apps to work with the watch as a display or even a remote control. The company has also released a Sports API, which should allow for GPS-enabled apps (like running apps) to send and receive information from the watch. Pebble's initial set of features was quite limited, but this API update should make a lot of new apps possible, and of course we'll likely see more in the future. You can pre-order a Pebble watch on the main website right now for $150.00. Or you may want to wait just a bit longer, if you happen to believe those crazy rumors about an Apple iWatch.
Netflix's 'Long Term View' lays out predictions for internet vs. traditional TV delivery
Haven't been reading every Netflix quarterly report or listening to each earnings call for the last several years? No problem: you can quickly get caught up on the company's strategy thanks to a "Long Term View" document posted to its investor relations site. Boiling down many of the things executives like Reed Hastings have been saying into a single PDF, it's easier to digest road map of where Netflix thinks this whole online video thing is going. Among other things, it sees the simplicity of its offering -- no ads, no VOD, no-hassle cancellation, access on any screen at any time mobile or TV -- as a main selling point. How to keep customers happy? Make sure that they think of Netflix as the better option for their entertainment time than other possible choices. Hit the source link to dig into it yourself or check below for a breakdown.
