Latest VatorNews stories

• Airbnb will fight NYC subpoena in court on Tuesday

  by Faith Merino, April 21, 2014

  Data revealed that two-thirds of NYC listings are illegal sublets

  The Attorney General subpoenaed Airbnb last year over illegal listings. NYC’s short-term subletting laws hold that renters can’t rent out their whole apartment to another renter for a period of less than 30 days. In the past, Airbnb has gotten around that problem by requiring hosts to be present when they rent out their home—as in, by renting out their couch or a single room instead

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• Facebook reportedly set to debut mobile ad network

  by Steven Loeb, April 21, 2014

  Facebook has been wanting to do this for years, began showing ads in third party apps in January

  It feels like the potential Facebook mobile ad network has been a very, very long time coming. The company has been experimenting with the idea since at least 2012. While Facebook's efforts have not worked out in the past, now, finally, after all this time, it looks like it has finally found the trick to making it succeed. The social network is all set to debut its mobile ad network in San Francis

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• Beats Music adds in-app subscriptions to iOS

  by Steven Loeb, April 19, 2014

  Apple is going to take 30%, but Beats believes it will lead to a significant increase in subscribers

  Beats Music may be the newest music streaming service on the scene, having launched in January, but its knows where the money is: mobile. The company updated its iOS app on Friday to include a very important new feature: the ability to buy in-app subscription. That also comes with account management via the users iTunes account. This move is a good indication of where Beats thinks it is going to ma

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• Facebook gives Paper its first update

  by Steven Loeb, April 19, 2014

  Reader app gets event and birthday notifications, photo comment and nine new covers

  It's been two and half months since Facebook debuted its new reader app called Paper. So I'd say it's about time it got an update, right? Facebook agrees and so, for the first time in 10 weeks, Paper users are finally getting some new features, Facebook revealed in a blog post on Friday, though they seem to suggest that Paper is becoming a bit more like the original Facebook app. Here's what's new

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• Funding roundup - week ending 4/18/14

  by Steven Loeb, April 18, 2014

  Squarespace, Enplug, Avvo, Work4, Citymapper, OwnZones, Nervana, FireHost, AgilOne, Greats, Preact

  Seed stage Talkwheel, a community and analytics platform, raised $1.2 million from Peter Horan, Randy Haykin, Roger Sippl, Young Soong, Payam Zamani, Larry Braitman, Tom Shields, David Jeske, and other angel investors. Boxbee, a storage startup that delivers boxes to its customers, raised $2.3 million from Floodgate Capital, Google Ventures, 500 Startups, Techstars, Jason Calacanis, and Ludlow Ven

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• LinkedIn reaches the 300 million user mark

  The social network now has only 3 billion users to go before it reaches the entire global workforce

  LinkedIn has made a major announcement regarding its user base. The company is picking up its growth, and is getting closer to the other social networks, but when you look a little closer it may not be ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• It's a great time to be an EdTech startup

  The funding landscape bloomed in 2013 as $616M was poured into EdTech startups

  We’re still in the early days of figuring out how to boost learning with technology. K-12 school districts across the country are giving students iPads and Macbooks, but there remain questions about ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• Michaels admits it was hacked, up to 3M cards affected

  Michaels follows Target and Neiman Marcus as the third retailer to reveal that it was breached

  This time it was arts and crafts retailer Michaels, which revealed on Thursday that it, like both Target and Neiman Marcus before it, had been the target of a security breach that may have put millions ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Dropbox picks up two new startups: Loom and Hackpad

  Photo management app Loom will be shut down, collaboration tool provider Hackpad will stay open

  Dropbox, it seems, doesn't just do one announcement a day anymore. Only a week after debuting a bunch of new features, products, two new executives and a new board member on the same day, the company has ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Lending Club raises $115M and makes first acquisition

  The P2P lending company acquires traditional consumer lender Springstone Financial

  IPO hopeful Lending Club is all grown up and making acquisitions. The peer-to-peer lending platform just announced its very first acquisition Thursday: Springstone Financial, a traditional consumer lender ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• Twitter introduces new mobile app install ads

  Twitter has found a new way to increase its ad revenue, even as investors fret over user numbers

  Despite its slowing user numbers, advertisers and brands still absolutely love Twitter. The company makes nearly all of its money off of advertising, and that revenue has been exploding in recent years. ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• One Medical Group snags $40M to streamline waiting room

  One Medical Group allows patients to take care of everything online

  I love my son’s pediatrician—the man has practiced for over 20 years, has won numerous awards, and he has a Hello Kitty sticker on his stethoscope which never fails to keep my kid entranced ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• VC investing gets frothy, hitting 13-year highs

  VC-backed M&A reaches highest-quarterly figure since Internet Bubble days circa 2000

  Some 862 companies raised $10.7 billion in venture capital in the first three months of this year, the highest dollar-value level since 2001, when 957 companies raised $11.5 billion, according to DJX VentureSource. ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• MC 'Hammer Time' at Splash Oakland, May 6-7

  Hammer joins tech investor, philanthropist Mitch Kapor to kick off the first day

  Hammer, an Oakland native and renowned entertainer and entrepreneur, will be one of the morning keynotes kicking off our inaugural two-day tech and business education event, to be held at Jack London Square ...
  By Bambi Francisco Roizen
  

• Content management company SpringCM raises $18M

  SpringCM provides cloud collaboration tools for enterprise companies, including Google and Facebook

  I remember a few years ago seeing a commercial on TV where someone mentioned "the cloud" and having absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Things have obviously changed a lot since then and now ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Google shares slide after results miss expectations

  Revenue and earnings were up, but price per click continues to fall

  Revenue came in at $15.42 billion, which marks a 19% increase over Q1 2013. Non-GAAP income came in at $4.3 billion, or $6.27 a share, compared to $4.04 billion or $6 a share in Q1 2013. That’s just ...
  By Faith Merino
  

• Joe Biden joins Instagram in most Biden way possible

  Biden's first post could easily be confused for an advertisement for Ray-Ban

  Plus, he's got a lot more experience than anyone ever gives him credit for. Seriously, the dude became a U.S. Senator when he was 30, was head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was a key player ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Alibaba could file for U.S. IPO as early as next week

  Chinese e-commerce company will likely surpass the $16 billion Facebook raised in 2012

  The Chinese e-commerce company, which declared its intentions to file for an initial public offering on the U.S. markets almost exactly one month ago, is expected to have a monster IPO. It could even wind ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• IoT platform provider Jasper raises $50M

  Jasper now works with 1,000 enterprise companies, and 19 mobile mobile operator groups

  As you may now by now, I will be taking the stage next month at our inaugural two-day Splash Oakland event May 6-7 to discuss the future of the Internet of Things with CEOs and investors betting on this ...
  By Steven Loeb
  

• Yahoo shares pop 6.8% after decent Q1

  But Alibaba is the real star of the show

  Yahoo shares were up 6.8% Wednesday morning to $36.54 following Yahoo’s A-Okay first quarter earnings results, posted Tuesday afternoon. While Yahoo maintained another quarter of meager growth, it ...
  By Faith Merino
  
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