21st Century Innovative Technologies and Developments as also discoveries, curiosity ( insolite)...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Intel Corp has bought Israel-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm Habana Labs for about $2 billion, the chipmaker said on Monday, seeking to expand its AI portfolio to bolster its data-center business.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

https://www.scoop.it/topic/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=AI

Der US-Suchmaschinen-Gigant Google erweitert seine Geschäftsfelder: Die Kalifornier übernehmen die bekannte Firma Fitbit, Hersteller von sogenannten Fitness-Trackern, für 2,1 Milliarden Dollar. Mit dem Deal tritt Google auch in neuerliche Konkurrenz zu Apple und Huawei.

Fitbit stellt sogenannte „Fitness Tracker“ her, mit denen die Kunden ihre Trainingseinheiten aufzeichnen und messen können. Die Geräte werden wie ein Armband getragen. Die einfacheren Geräte sind im Prinzip normale Schrittzähler, die teureren Modelle können auch die Herzfrequenz oder die Qualität des Schlafes messen.

Der Internet-Riese zahlt 7,35 Dollar pro Aktie und Fitbit wird damit insgesamt mit gut zwei Milliarden Dollar bewertet, wie die Unternehmen am Freitag mitteilten. An die Börse ging Fitbit im Jahr 2015 noch mit einem Ausgabepreis von 20 Dollar je Aktie – zwischenzeitlich war der Kurs aber bis an die Marke von drei Dollar gefallen. Nach Bekanntgabe der Übernahme ging die Fitbit-Aktie am Freitag steil nach oben.

Konkurrenz durch Apple und Huawei
Mit den Ressourcen und der Plattform von Google werde Fitbit schnellen Innovationen herausbringen können, erklärte Mitgründer und Chef James Park. Die Daten von Fitbit würden nicht für die Platzierung von Google-Anzeigen verwendet, hieß es. Zugleich gab es kein Versprechen, Daten getrennt zu lagern, wie einst bei der Übernahme des Smarthome-Spezialisten Nest durch Google. Inzwischen wurde Nest komplett in die Hardware-Sparte von Google einverleibt.


Das Geschäft von Fitbit lief zuletzt holperig, weil die Pionier von zwei Seiten in die Zange genommen wurde. Im lukrativeren Markt der Computer-Uhren konnte die Firma aus San Francisco nicht mit der Apple Watch mithalten. Bei günstigen Fitness-Bändern, die etwa Schritte und verbrauchte Kalorien zählen, graben chinesische Rivalen wie Xiaomi und Huawei dem Branchenpionier Fitbit das Wasser ab. Im zweiten Quartal verbuchte Fitbit einen Verlust von knapp 36 Millionen Dollar bei Umsätzen von 313,6 Millionen Dollar.

Google entwickelt das speziell auf Computer-Uhren ausgerichtete Betriebssystem Wear OS. Es ist vom Android-System abgeleitet, das den Smartphone-Markt dominiert. Bei Computer-Uhren konnte das Android-Lager aber bisher nicht die Apple Watch einholen, obwohl Geräte verschiedener Hersteller auf dem Markt sind. Schon Anfang der Woche hatte es Berichte über ein Kaufangebot von Google für Fitbit gegeben.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

When Sphero laid off 45 employees in early 2018, the Boulder, Co.-based company explained the difficult decision as an effort to return its focus to the education market after a foray into creating consumer toys. Today, the robotic toymaker is following through by adding a big building block to its educational offerings.

Sphero has acquired littleBits, a New York City-based company best known for its electronic kits and instructional resources that introduce kids to building and programming by hand.

“We are both pursuing the same goal,” says Sphero CEO Paul Berberian, which he describes as providing students with playful tools that nurture creativity as they learn to use and build with technology. “But we have different ways of bringing that to life.” His company’s flagship offerings are robots that come pre-built with LED lights, sensors and motors that respond to light and gestures, and which kids can control via an app on a computer, smartphone or tablet.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/topic/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=makerED

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Microsoft und das Start-up OpenAI verkünden eine neue Partnerschaft. Rund eine Milliarde US-Dollar investieren die Redmonder in das junge Unternehmen. Gemeinsam wolle man KI so weiterentwickeln, dass sie die großen Probleme der Menschheit lösen kann.

Sam Altman (li.), CEO von OpenAI, mit Microsoft-CEO Satya Nadella.
(Quelle: Microsoft )Microsoft investiert eine Milliarde US-Dollar in das Start-up OpenAI. Das junge Unternehmenhat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) so zu entwickeln, dass sie der gesamten Menschheit zugutekommt. Mit dem Investment unterstützt nun Microsoft dieses Vorhaben.
Geplant ist der Aufbau einer neuen Infrastruktur auf Azure für KI-Supercomputing. Diese soll auch für das Training und die Ausführung von fortgeschrittenen KI-Modellen herangezogen werden können. Außerdem will Microsoft die Technologie auch anderen KI-Entwicklern zur Verfügung stellen.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Google announced this morning its intent to acquire business intelligence platform Looker for $2.6 billion in an all-cash deal. Google plans to add this to the services portfolio of the Google Cloud platform, providing the last mile link into BigQuery.

While Google has carved out a reputation for machine learning and AI, the acquisition of Looker is intended to broaden its portfolio in business intelligence. The acquisition of Looker follows the recent acquisition of Alooma, which adds ETL tools, and the earlier acquisition of Cask Data, which has resulted in the Google Cloud Data Fusion data pipelining tool.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Apple has acquired Pullstring, a startup that helps customers publish voice apps, according to Axios.
The acquisition could be part of an effort by Apple to catch up to Amazon, the current leader in the voice assistant space.
Pullstring was last valued at $163.57 million, according to PitchBook, but the terms of the deal were not specified in the report.
Apple has acquired Pullstring, a company that helps companies publish voice apps for platforms like Amazon's Alexa and the Google Assistant, according to a new report from Axios.

The move could help Apple bolster its Siri virtual assistant, which is far more limited in terms of its features and the products it works with when compared to Amazon's digital butler, Alexa. Amazon is considered to be the market leader in the digital assistant space, and that lead only lengthens when you look at smart speaker use specifically.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

https://www.scoop.it/topic/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Apple

Im vergangenen Quartal ging der Umsatz von IBM um 2,1 Prozent zurück. Der Aktienkurs von IBM ist im vergangenen Jahr um 19 Prozent gefallen. Zum Ende des dritten Quartals verfügte das Unternehmen über liquide Mittel in Höhe von 14,7 Milliarden US-Dollar.

Red Hat ist ein US-amerikanischer Softwarehersteller und hat seinen Hauptsitz in Raleigh, North Carolina. Entwickelt wird die weit verbreitete Linux-Distribution Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Das Unternehmen ist auch am Fedora-Projekt beteiligt. Das Unternehmen erzielte im vergangenen Geschäftsjahr, das im Februar 2018 endete, einen Umsatz von 2,9 Milliarden US-Dollar.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Reuters - Apple Inc has acquired a startup focused on making lenses for augmented reality glasses, the company confirmed on Wednesday, a signal Apple has ambitions to make a wearable device that would superimpose digital information on the real world.

The Apple logo is seen on a computer screen in this illustration photo taken in Bordeaux, France, February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo
Apple confirmed it acquired Longmont, Colorado-based Akonia Holographics. “Apple buys smaller companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans,” the iPhone maker said in a statement.

Akonia could not immediately be reached for comment. The company was founded in 2012 by a group of holography scientists and had originally focused on holographic data storage before shifting its efforts to creating displays for augmented reality glasses, according to its website.

In augmented reality, digital information is overlaid on the real world as in the popular game Pokemon Go. Mobile phones use their camera system to do this on the phone’s screen, but major technology firms are racing to create glasses that will show digital information on transparent lenses.

Akonia said its display technology allows for “thin, transparent smart glass lenses that display vibrant, full-color, wide field-of-view images.” The firm has a portfolio of more than 200 patents related to holographic systems and materials, according to its website.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

After a week of rumors, Microsoft today confirmed that it has acquired GitHub, the popular Git-based code sharing and collaboration service. The price of the acquisition was $7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. GitHub raised $350 million and we know that the company was valued at about $2 billion in 2015.

Former Xamarin CEO Nat Friedman (and now Microsoft corporate vice president) will become GitHub’s CEO. GitHub funder and former CEO Chris Wanstrath will become a Microsoft technical fellow and work on strategic software initiatives. Wanstrath had retaken his CEO role after his co-founder Tom Preston-Werner resigned following a harassment investigation in 2014.

GitHub says that as of March 2018, there were 28 million developers in its community, and 85 million code repositories, making it the largest host of source code globally and a cornerstone of how many in the tech world build software.

But despite its popularity with enterprise users, individual developers and open source projects, GitHub has never turned a profit and chances are that the company decided that an acquisition was preferable over trying to IPO.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Google reprend à LogMeIn sa plateforme IoT Xively
par Charlie Braume, le 16 février 2018 16:26

Le géant du Cloud muscle ses offres IoT en rachetant une solution et surtout une équipe pour 50 millions de dollars.

Les grands Clouds publics se préparent maintenant à la bataille de l’IoT. Ainsi pour muscler sa Google Cloud Platform et renforcer ses ressources dans ce domaine, le géant de Mountain View annonce son intention de racheter à LogMeIn sa plateforme IoT Xively. L’opération est chiffrée à 50 millions de dollars, Google reprenant à cette occasion une équipe de 45 personnes. LogMeIn avait acquis Xively (anciennement Cosm and Pachube) en 2014 pour 12 millions de dollars. S’appuyant actuellement sur la plateforme cloud de LogMeIn (Gravity), elle génèrerait selon LogMeIn un chiffre d’affaires annuel de 3 millions de dollars.

Cloud IoT Core en béta
Google se fixe comme objectif de fournir aux entreprises un service complet de gestion de données IoT appelé actuellement Cloud IoT Core .et proposé en version béta. Il s’agit de connecter de manière efficace et sûre, de traiter et de gérer les données d’une multitude d’objets distants. Antony Passemard, Product Management, IoT & Pub/Sub, Google Cloud, estime à 20 milliards le nombre d’objets connectés en 2020.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Internet+Of+Things

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=IoT

Der Entwickler des VR-Spiels Beat Saber gehört jetzt zu Facebook. Das teilte Facebooks VR-Abteilung Oculus auf Twitter mit. Über die finanziellen Details der Übernahme schwiegen sich die Studios aus. Beat Games soll weiterhin unabhängig aus seiner Zentrale in Prag operieren.

Beat Saber ist eines der meistgespielten VR-Spiele der Welt, Stand März wurde das Rhythmus-Spiel für VR-Brillen eine Million Mal verkauft. Das Spiel ist eine Art Fruit Ninja für die VR: Im Rhythmus zur Musik schlagen Spieler mit Glühstäben anfliegende Beat-Blöcke. Von Kritikern wurde Beat Saber sehr...

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

(Reuters) - Google owner Alphabet Inc has made an offer to acquire U.S. wearable device maker Fitbit Inc, as it eyes a slice of the crowded market for fitness trackers and smartwatches, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Microsoft has acquired cloud-migration provider Movere for an undisclosed amount. Movere, formerly known as Unified Logic, was founded in 2008 and is based in Bellevue, Wash.

According to Microsoft's September 4 blog post about the acquisition, Movere will fit in with Microsoft's strategy to migrate existing applications and infrastructure to Azure. The company's discovery and assessment capabilities "will complement Azure Migrate and our integrated partner solutions, making migration an easier process for our customers," said Jeremy Winter, partner director of Azure Management, in that blog post.

Movere officials describe the company as a software as a service (SaaS) platform "that increases business intelligence by accurately presenting entire IT environments within a single day,providing enterprises with the confidence they need to have visibility and control of their environments regardless of platform, application or geography as organizations grow, change and digitally optimize."

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Root Robotics acquired by iRobot to bring coding education to classrooms worldwide

Today, iRobot Corp. announced its acquisition of Root Robotics, Inc., whose educational Root coding robot got its start as a summer research project at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University in 2011. Since then, it has developed into a robust learning tool that is being used in over 500 schools to teach children how to code in an engaging, intuitive way. iRobot plans to incorporate the Root robot into its growing portfolio of educational robot products, and continue the work of scaling up production and expanding Root’s programming content that began when Root Robotics was founded by former Wyss Institute members in 2017.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

https://www.scoop.it/topic/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Robotics

https://www.scoop.it/topic/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=iRobot

Apple has agreed to acquire Intel's 5G modem business in a deal which highlights the iPad and iPhone maker's desire to control more of its supply chain. 

On Thursday, at the same time that Intel released its Q2 2019 earnings report, Apple announced the deal which is worth $1 billion. 

Under the terms of the agreement, roughly 2,200 engineers will move from Intel to Apple, which forms of the majority of Intel's modem business. 

Apple will also acquire a range of patents, bringing the tech giant's count up to over 17,000 in wireless technologies, cellular standards, and modems. 

A Google exec admits the ugly truth about the smart home
Is Apple cutting corners in order to cut prices? (ZDNet YouTube)
"Intel will retain the option to develop modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, internet of things devices and autonomous vehicles," Apple says. 

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Google acquires cloud migration platform Alooma
Frederic Lardinois@fredericl / 3 hours ago

Google today announced its intention to acquire Alooma, a company that allows enterprises to combine all of their data sources into services like Google’s BigQuery, Amazon’s Redshift, Snowflake and Azure. The promise of Alooma is that it handles the data pipelines and manages them for its users. In addition to this data integration service, though, Alooma also helps with migrating to the cloud, cleaning up this data and then using it for AI and machine learning use cases.

“Here at Google Cloud, we’re committed to helping enterprise customers easily and securely migrate their data to our platform,” Google VP of engineering Amit Ganesh and Google Cloud Platform director of product management Dominic Preuss write today. “The addition of Alooma, subject to closing conditions, is a natural fit that allows us to offer customers a streamlined, automated migration experience to Google Cloud, and give them access to our full range of database services, from managed open source database offerings to solutions like Cloud Spanner and Cloud Bigtable.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Amazon has announced that it's buying mesh networking fim Eero. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco. According to Crunchbase it employs between 51 and 100 people.

In January 2018, the company laid off 30 employees, around 20% of the company. It has raised around $90 million in four funding rounds so far.

The company's product is selling simple, powerful networking hardware that's easy to use. Eero says that you can take its product out of the box and have it up and running in 10 minutes.


It has two main products, a smaller repeater that plugs into a power outlet and a larger device that can cover 1,500 sq feet with Wi-Fi. The hardware scales so that larger houses can add more devices to provide comprehensive wireless coverage.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Apple übernimmt Videoeffekte-Spezialisten Spektral
Apple hat das dänische Startup Spektral übernommen, das sich auf Videoeffekte wie Greenscreens in Kombination mit Maschinenlernen spezialisiert hat. Die Übernahme soll bereits Ende 2017 erfolgt sein, wurde aber erst jetzt publik.

Apple hat einem Bericht von Borsen zufolge das dänische Startup Spektral Ende 2017 übernommen, wie erst jetzt bekanntwurde. Das Unternehmen hat sich auf die Kombination aus Maschinenlernen und Videoeffekten spezialisiert. Es hat eine Technik für Fotos und Videos entwickelt, die die Freistellung bewegter und unbewegter Motive von ihrem Hintergrund möglich macht, ohne dass der Nutzer dafür einen Greenscreen verwenden muss. Apple soll für die Übernahme 31 Millionen US-Dollar bezahlt haben.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Mozilla is growing, experimenting more, and doubling down on our mission to keep the internet healthy, as a global public resource that’s open and accessible to all. As our first strategic acquisition, Pocket contributes to our strategy by growing our mobile presence and providing people everywhere with powerful tools to discover and access high quality web content, on their terms, independent of platform or content silo.

Pocket will join Mozilla’s product portfolio as a new product line alongside the Firefox web browsers with a focus on promoting the discovery and accessibility of high quality web content. (Here’s a link to their blog post on the acquisition).  Pocket’s core team and technology will also accelerate Mozilla’s broader Context Graph initiative.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/curation-the-21st-century-way-to-learn-on-its-own-pace-and-to-organize-the-learning/

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/curation-tips-and-tricks-with-scoop-it-rescoop-and-tags/

https://gustmees.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/learn-every-day-a-bit-with-curation/

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Curation

Microsoft has acquired Flipgrid, a social education app that utilizes short video clips to create collaborative lesson plans. The Minneapolis-based startup, which began life as Vidku, has had strong growth for an experience that has been alternatively described as Instagram and Snapchat for the cla…

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehre erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Nokia last week said that it was selling off its digital health business, after failing to develop it into a substantial business itself, but this week the Finnish company is announcing an acquisition that underscores how it is doubling down in another one of its business areas, the Internet of Things. Nokia has acquired SpaceTime Insight, a California-based IoT startup that provides predictive analytics based on machine learning algorithms.

Terms of the deal are not being disclosed, Bhaskar Gorti, president of Nokia Software, said in an interview. The startup had raised between $50 million and $65 million in funding (based on figures from Crunchbase and PitchBook), and PitchBook last estimated its valuation at just over $103 million in 2016. Backers of the startup included the energy giant E.ON, Novus Energy Partners, Zouk Capital and more.

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions

Apple rachète Shazam, l'appli de reconnaissance musicale.
Apple dépensera 400 millions de dollars (339,6 millions d'euros) pour l'entreprise qui a été récemment valorisée à un milliard de dollars (850 millions d'euros).

Learn more / En savoir plus / Mehr erfahren:

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-innovative-technologies-and-developments/?&tag=Acquisitions