A new acquisition should help Fandango expand its streaming efforts, Apple brings its digital services to new countries and new research suggests a higher-than-expected infection rate for COVID-19.
1. Walmart is selling its on-demand video service Vudu to Fandango
Details as to how Fandango will specifically leverage Vudu weren’t immediately disclosed, but the company currently operates a four-year old movie streaming platform, FandangoNOW, which is an obvious integration point.
As a part of the agreement, Vudu will continue to power Walmart’s digital movie and TV store on Walmart.com. The video service supposedly reaches more than 100 million living room devices across the U.S.
2. Apple expands App Store, Music, iCloud and other services to dozens of additional markets
The App Store, Apple Arcade, Apple Podcasts and iCloud are now available in 20 additional nations in Africa, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East. Meanwhile, the music streaming service Apple Music has launched in an additional 52 countries.
3. LA COVID-19 antibody study adds further support for a higher-than-suspected infection rate
A new study conducted by the University of Southern California along with the LA County Department of Public Health indicates the presence of antibodies for COVID-19 in between 2.8% and 5.6% of the population of LA County, suggesting that between 221,000 and 442,000 individuals had the infection — up to 55 times more people than have been confirmed via testing.
4. Alphabet’s Loon deploys internet connectivity balloons to Kenya for first commercial service launch
Loon, Alphabet’s high-altitude broadband connectivity company for hard-to-reach places, has launched the first balloons that will provide its first ever commercial connectivity services to Kenyans. The balloons are now in testing, but pending the results of those tests, Loon says it will turn on service “in the coming weeks.”
5. Eight top fintech VCs discuss COVID-19 trends, signals and opportunities
It’s clear that we’re going to see some fintech startups struggle in the near future, but venture capitalists claim not to think in a short-term manner. And since we ran our last fintech VC survey in November 2019, we wanted to get their take on where fintech is today. (Extra Crunch membership required.)
6. The Nintendo Switch had a very good March
Switch sales more than doubled their numbers from March 2019, according to NPD. It was a March record for the console, which launched in March 2017. It was also the best first quarter unit sales for any gaming console since the company’s DS system, way back in 2010.
7. ForgeRock nabs $93.5M for its ID management platform, gears up next for an IPO
ForgeRock has built a platform that is used to help make sure that users accessing online services really are who they say are, and to help organizations account for how their services are getting used.
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
