Google hires former SiriusXM CPO/CTO to lead its Maps team

Almost exactly a year ago, Google announced a couple of leadership changes that saw Prabhakar Raghavan, who joined the company back in 2012, take over the lead of Search, Assistant and Maps. Now, sources familiar with the hiring tell us, the company has hired Christopher Phillips, who was previousl

Tinder tested group video chat ahead of Match’s move into social discovery with Hyperconnect deal

As dating app Tinder and its parent company Match explore the future of personal connection through apps, it’s interesting to see what sort of ideas it tested but later discarded. One such experiment was something called “Tinder Mixer,” which had briefly offered Tinder users a way

Daily Crunch: Spotify’s new ‘Only You’ feature expands on personalization investment

To get a roundup of technewss's biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for June 2, 2021. It's a good day in the tech world because former unicorn Spotify is out with new features about you. Yes,

How to win consulting, board and deal roles with PE and VC funds

Would you like to work with private equity and venture capital funds? There are relatively few jobs directly inside private equity and venture capital funds, and those jobs are highly competitive. However, there are many other ways you can work and earn money within the industry — as a consultant

Rideshare drivers gather in NYC in hopes of unionizing

Protesters gathered in bright red t-shirts and matching masks bearing the Independent Drivers Guild logo. Placards bearing slogans like “Freeze Hiring, Reactive Workers Now!” and “Unlock Uber” were being handed out at a table toward the entrance. What the gathering lacked in sheer numbers,

FireEye to sell products unit to Symphony-led group for $1.2B

Cybersecurity giant FireEye has agreed to sell its products business to a consortium led by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group for $1.2 billion. The all-cash deal will split FireEye, the maker of network and email cybersecurity products, from its digital forensics and incident response a

With buyout, Cloudera hunts for relevance in a changing market

When Cloudera announced its sale to a pair of private equity firms yesterday for $5.3 billion, along with a couple of acquisitions of its own, the company detailed a new path that could help it drive back toward relevance in the big data market. When the company launched in 2008, Hadoop was in its

Gillmor Gang: Play It Again

For the past several months or so, I’ve been writing an accompanying post to editions of the Gillmor Gang. Due to production issues, I’m usually at least a week behind the recording session for the target show. This originally seemed like an impediment to the process of enhancing the i

OroraTech’s space-based early wildfire warnings spark $7M investment

With wildfires becoming an ever more devastating annual phenomenon, it is in the whole planet’s interest to spot them and respond as early as possible — and the best vantage point for that is space. OroraTech is a German startup building a constellation of small satellites to power a global

Startup Alley spots at Disrupt are almost sold out – apply today

Beware! There isn’t much time left to apply for Startup Alley. Take advantage of this opportunity before it’s too late. When you purchase a ticket for Startup Alley, you can opt into being considered for a spot in our inaugural Startup Alley+ cohort. This very cool and downright extraor

HBO Max launches ad-supported subscription for $9.99 per month

“Game of Thrones” might be over, but HBO Max is still breaking new ground, and even breaking the internet — this past weekend, HBO Max blacked out right before the finale of “Mare of Easttown,” likely due to traffic. But if you haven't hopped aboard the HBO Max tra

Confluent's IPO brings a high-growth, high-burn SaaS model to the public markets

Confluent became the latest company to announce its intent to take the IPO route, officially filing its S-1 paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week. The company, which has raised over $455 million since it launched in 2014, was most recently valued at just over $4.5 bil

Pentagram aims to cut through the noise of EV sound design

What does an electric vehicle sound like when it goes from 0 to 60, when it signals a turn, when it's powered down for the night? EV motors have fewer parts and are therefore incredibly silent, which presents safety concerns for drivers who recognize speed by sound and pedestrians who can't

Facebook's Spark AR platform expands to video calling with Multipeer API

At today's F8 developer conference, Facebook announced new capabilities for Spark AR, its flagship AR creation software. Since Spark AR was announced at F8 2017, more than 600,000 creators from 190 countries have published over 2 million AR effects on Facebook and Instagram, making it the large