Drama
This insurtech alleges its venture backer founded and funded a copycat: a founder’s ‘nightmare’
Relationships can be messy, including between startup founders and their venture investors. But in a case that takes messy to an extreme, an insurtech company in Santa Monica, California called Sure i
5 ways Robinhood’s rushed UX changes exacerbated the GameStop crisis
The GameStop debacle has been hailed by many as a first of its kind form of digital activism, with the “crowd” coming together to stick it to Wall Street, and specifically hedge funds that
VMware files suit against former exec for moving to rival company
Earlier this month, when Nutanix announced it was hiring former VMware COO Rajiv Ramaswami as CEO, it looked like a good match. What’s more, it pulled a key player from a market rival. Well, it
Nervous? Here, watch Philadelphia count votes on a live stream — that should help
No matter whom you support for President, it’s a nerve-wracking morning as many states come down to mere tens of thousands of votes. And perhaps no state looms larger than Pennsylvania, where a
Good and bad board members (and what to do about them)
Ryan Caldbeck, co-founder and former CEO of consumer-brands-focused investment platform CircleUp, recently published an email he’d written to a former director on the board of the company. Accor
Neither Microsoft nor Oracle gets to buy TikTok US: Chinese state media
What a whirlwind of a Monday morning. Shortly after news broke that Microsoft is out of the picture in bidding for TikTok’s U.S. operations, and rumors began circulating that Oracle is the winne
Belarus tech industry rallies around arrested PandaDoc colleagues in new video
In the wake of the arrest of four employees of San Francisco-based startup PandaDoc, the tech industry in Belarus has rallied support for the company and the pro-democracy movement in the country. Rep
The $10B JEDI contract is locked, loaded and still completely stuck
The other day I took a moment to count the number of stories we’ve done on TechCrunch on the DoD’s $10 billion, decade-long, winner-take-all, JEDI cloud contract. This marks the 30th time
DoD reaffirms Microsoft has won JEDI cloud contract, but Amazon legal complaints still pending
We have seen a lot of action this week as the DoD tries to finally determine the final winner of the $10 billion, decade-long DoD JEDI cloud contract. Today, the DoD released a statement that after re
Oracle loses $10B JEDI cloud contract appeal yet again
Oracle was never fond of the JEDI cloud contract process, that massive $10 billion, decade-long Department of Defense cloud contract that went to a single vendor. It was forever arguing to anyone who
Apple ordered to not block Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, but Fortnite to stay off App Store
A district court denied Epic Games’ motion to temporarily restore the Fortnite game to the iOS App Store, but also ordered Apple to not block the gaming giant’s ability to provide and dist
If Oracle buys TikTok I’ll go to Danny’s house and eat his annoying Stanford sweatshirt
Hey everyone, how are you? Are you doing well? Great. Or, condolences, depending. Anyway, last week the Equity crew was discussing bankers, and how they love to talk up stuff. The topic matters as the
SAP decision to spin out Qualtrics 20 months after spending $8B surprises industry watchers
When SAP announced on Sunday that it was spinning out Qualtrics, a company it bought less than two years ago for an eye-popping $8 billion, it was enough to make your head spin. At the time, then CEO
Carta’s former marketing VP is suing over gender discrimination after spearheading report on unequal pay
Emily Kramer joined the Silicon Valley company Carta to build up the company’s brand. Now, the company’s former VP of marketing is looking to shine a light on Carta for another reason: In
Alternative assets are becoming mainstream
Simply put: alternative assets are the things that probably wouldn’t come up when you meet with your financial advisor.
Microsoft and AWS exchange poisoned pen blog posts in latest Pentagon JEDI contract spat
Microsoft and Amazon are at it again as the fight for the Defense Department JEDI contract continues. In a recent series of increasingly acerbic pronouncements, the two companies continue their ongoin
Zoom retracts statement that it has 300M daily active users
Zoom is not having a good month. As it scales to meet pandemic demand, it has been beset by security issues, which it has had to explain and fix. Today, The Verge reported that the company just change
Verizon should make an Epic acquisition
To: Hans (Mr. Vestberg? Boss?) RE: An Epic opportunity We wanted to jot down this memo to pitch a deal that could remake Verizon’s fortunes in the media business. Every major carrier and interne
And then there was one: Co-CEO Jennifer Morgan to depart SAP
In a surprising move, SAP ended its co-CEO experiment yesterday when the company announced Jennifer Morgan will be exiting stage left on April 30th, leaving Christian Klein as the lone CEO. The pair t
Xerox drops $34B HP takeover bid amid COVID-19 uncertainty
Xerox announced today that it would be dropping its hostile takeover bid of HP. The drama began last fall with a flurry of increasingly angry letters between the two companies, and confrontational act