Latest Posts

• Ribometrix Takes Aim at “Undruggable” RNA with $30M Series A Funding

  Most drugs target proteins in the cell, but the world of RNA has remained largely untapped by companies making chemical-based, or small-molecule drugs. That’s changing though—just in the last couple of years, there’s been a mini-boom in biotechs trying to overturn... Read more »

  Corie Lok11/13/18

• Qualtrics Skips IPO for $8B Sale to SAP

  It’s hard to say no to $8 billion. Qualtrics, the enterprise software firm that was on the verge of going public, has pulled its IPO in favor of selling to German software giant SAP for $8 billion in cash.

  Qualtrics—which has... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/12/18

• Bio Roundup: Midterm Fallout, Alzheimer’s Search, Postpartum Panel

  There was plenty at stake in this week’s midterm elections, and not just in terms of political wins and losses. With congress now divided—Democrats took back control of the House and Republicans extended their majority in the Senate—the implications are significant... Read more »

  Ben Fidler11/9/18

• Hold Your Horsepower: For Mobility Industry, “Reality Is Sinking In”

  Earlier this month, GM CEO Mary Barra told the crowd at a financial conference that her company was on track to unveil a ridesharing service in 2019 that would be powered by autonomous vehicles. It sounded like pretty big news, but... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson11/8/18

• Esperanto Reaps $58M to Speed Development of Its AI Chip

  Esperanto Technologies, a startup AI chip developer that has operated mostly below the radar since its founding in 2014, announced this week that it raised $58 million in a Series B fundraising round.

  Mountain View, CA-based Esperanto is vying with... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey11/5/18

• Scale Computing Snags $34.8M to Advance “Alternative” IT Platform

  Scale Computing, an Indianapolis IT startup serving smaller businesses, distributed enterprises, and retailers around the world, has raised $34.8 million in a Series F funding round.

  Co-founder and CEO Jeff Ready says technology hardware giant Lenovo was the largest contributor... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson11/2/18

• Bio Roundup: Depression Drug Dashed, Peek at ASH, CRISPR Worry & More

  The gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 is opening up new research avenues all the time, such as giving drug developers a cheaper, faster way to knock out genes in tumor cells.

  Studies of CRISPR-Cas9 to treat human disease are about to start,... Read more »

  Alex Lash11/2/18

• Cloud Leaders Shrug at IBM’s $34B Red Hat Deal

  In some ways, the biggest software acquisition of all time could be a yawner.

  IBM’s planned $34 billion deal to acquire open-source software maker Red Hat is a hefty price to pay to give its cloud computing business a shot in... Read more »

  Jeff Engel11/1/18

• IRobot’s Roombas to Map Households for Google Smart Homes

  Autonomous vehicle developers rely heavily on navigational technology that maps the complex terrain of roads, curbs, signs, and people that their cars have to thread through.

  Google, as it develops its smart home systems, is turning to a company that already... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/31/18

• Facebook’s 3Q Growth Suffices to Stave Off Another Stock Dive

  Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) shares gained nearly 3 percent Tuesday, and ticked up further in after-hours trading following the release of a third quarter earnings report that showed some strengths as well as shortfalls. Investors have been concerned about the social... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/30/18

• Stantt CEO Thinks Its Approach to Selling Men’s Wear Fits Just Right

  Stantt wants to make standard sizing anything but.

  “Traditional sizing only fits 15 percent of guys,” says Matt Hornbuckle, the startup’s founder and co-CEO. “Twins come in and get different sizes.”

  To connect guys with a shirt that fits well, the... Read more »

  Angela Shah10/29/18

• IBM Buying Red Hat in $34B Mega-Deal to Beat Amazon, Google in Cloud

  [Updated 10/29/18, 12:53 pm, with executives’ comments.] IBM has agreed to buy open-source software maker Red Hat in a $34 billion bet aimed at helping it win the cloud computing war against Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

  It’s one of... Read more »

  Jeff Engel10/29/18

• Pineapples and Bananas: Yummy to Eat, And Now Fashionable to Wear

  Style trends may come and go but the apparel industry is increasingly accepting that sustainability will always be in fashion.

  “We have the chance to shift the environment to a cleaner, more non-toxic place,” says Greg Altman, co-founder and CEO of... Read more »

  Angela Shah10/26/18

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• U.K. Slaps Maximum Fine of $645,000 on Facebook for Privacy Violations

  The U.K.’s data privacy regulator fined Facebook $645,000 for violations that allowed political marketing firm Cambridge Analytica and other outside companies to extract 87 million Facebook profiles worldwide without adequate user knowledge or consent.

  The purpose of the U.K.’s enforcement actions... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/26/18

• Bio Roundup: Alzheimer’s Puzzle, ESMO Assessed, Drug Prices & More

  In the biotech investment and research communities this week, much of the attention was turned to Europe.

  Munich, Germany, hosted the annual conference of the European Society for Medical Oncology, where cancer drug developers unveiled the latest clinical data for experimental... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/26/18

• Trump Plan Ties Medicare Drug Prices to Cheaper Foreign Ones

  [Updated 5:41pm ET with analyst note, see below.] When the Trump administration announced its blueprint for lowering prescription drug prices in May, many observers said it was too soft on the biopharma industry and didn’t contain concrete initiatives... Read more »

  Corie Lok10/25/18

• Berkeley’s SkyDeck Offers Chip Design Support Worth Millions to Startups

  The current land rush in chip development, spurred as new technologies such as artificial intelligence create new needs, is pitting established semiconductor companies like Intel and Nvidia against tech titans like Facebook that are building their own chips. A wave of... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/25/18

• Amgen Slashes Cholesterol Drug Price 60% to Match Rival Regeneron

  [Updated, 10/25/18, 12:15 a.m. See below.] Amgen is cutting the list price of its new cholesterol-lowering drug by nearly 60 percent, a move the company says is intended to make the product more affordable for more patients.

  The move... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/24/18

• U-M Reports 2018 Rise in Inventions, Licensing, and Startups

  Every fall, the University of Michigan formally celebrates the inventions and companies spun out of the school’s research and development efforts. This year, there was a lot to celebrate: according to U-M, a record number of 21 startups were launched during... Read more »

  Sarah Schmid Stevenson10/24/18

• Baubles & Bling: Swoonery Uses Tech to Connect Shoppers With Jewelry

  Jean Poh’s family has been in the jewelry business for four generations. And, for the most part, the industry has operated much the same as it always has, she says.

  Following a professional detour in which she worked as an attorney... Read more »

  Angela Shah10/23/18

• ESMO ’18: Precision Meds, Breast, Lung, and More from the Cancer Front

  [Ben Fidler co-authored this report.] The European Society for Medical Oncology is wrapping up its annual conference today, replete with clinical data from cancer’s front lines. We’ve sorted the headlines into a few big categories: immunotherapy combinations, breast cancer,... Read more »

  Alex Lash10/23/18

• Tech Industry Lobby Proposes Data Privacy Laws; Critics Call Them Weak

  The tech industry, which reaps billions of dollars by harvesting personal data and using it to sell targeted advertising and other services, opened the door to federal data privacy regulations today in a proposal by ITI, a lobbying organization for tech... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/22/18

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• Bio Roundup: Prices on TV, Novartis Hearts Radio, Warp Drive’s End

  Two new battlegrounds emerged this week in the nation’s ongoing drug pricing debate. The first involved television: The federal government hopes that blaring prices in TV ads will essentially pressure drug makers into lowering them, and the pharma lobby fired back.... Read more »

  Ben Fidler10/19/18

• Report: Express Scripts Shuts Out Teva Migraine Drug, Prefers Rivals

  [Updated 10/17/18, 2:52 p.m. See below.] Express Scripts has just exerted its influence over the emerging market battle between drug makers trying to sell a new class of migraine-preventing medicines. The pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) is excluding a new... Read more »

  Frank Vinluan10/17/18

• SoftBank’s Arm to Include Cybereason Security Services in IoT Hub

  Security-tech company Cybereason is announcing another boon flowing from close ties with its biggest investor, Japanese telecom and tech giant SoftBank. Boston-based Cybereason has formed a partnership with Arm, the dominant developer of computer chip architecture, which was acquired by SoftBank in... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/17/18

• Citing Regulatory Uncertainty, Origin Code Academy to Close

  Origin Code Academy, one of San Diego’s few coding schools—for-profit companies that offer short-term vocational training in computer programming—said this month it will shutter on Nov. 16 after about three years in business.

  The company opened in late 2015, offering a... Read more »

  Sarah de Crescenzo10/17/18

• Paul Allen’s Contributions, Far Beyond Microsoft, Touched the Brain, AI & More

  Technology and life sciences leaders say they’ll remember Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder, philanthropist, and investor who passed away Monday at age 65, as an “inspiration” whose work will impact the fields he worked in for years to come.

  Allen died... Read more »

  Jeff Buchanan10/16/18

• Tulerie Helps Users Dress Like Models, Without Breaking the Bank

  Tulerie makes its debut today, joining a growing roster of online clothing rental startups.

  The New York-based Tulerie focuses on high-end couture—items that retail for $1,000 to $10,000—that might be worn a time or two but mostly take up space in... Read more »

  Angela Shah10/16/18

• Room Service by Robot and Other Ways Tech Is Changing the Hotel Stay

  More days than not, Michael Colaneri’s home is a hotel room. So innovations like “geolocation” sensors that automatically unlock his room door and adjust the thermostat when he’s nearby make the constant change easier—sometimes.

  “My experience has been exceptionally inconsistent,” he... Read more »

  Angela Shah10/15/18

• Bio Roundup: BIO Diversity, Allogene IPO, CRISPR In Utero & More

  Nearly four years after investors snapped up new shares of Juno Therapeutics in a $265 million IPO, cancer immunotherapy remains a hot ticket. Like Juno, Allogene Therapeutics just pulled in a massive IPO haul, nearly $300 million. And like Juno, Allogene... Read more »

  Alex Lash10/12/18

• Facebook Bars 800 Fake Accounts and Pages For Using Tactics Like Russia’s

  In another wave of account shutdowns, Facebook announced Thursday that it disabled more than 800 pages and accounts to prevent groups that disguised their identities from flooding its network with inauthentic content—some of it hyper-partisan political messages.

  Facebook (NASDAQ: FB)... Read more »

  Bernadette Tansey10/11/18

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