Can Wal-Mart’s Expensive New E-Commerce Operation Compete With Amazon?Last summer, Marc Lore, founder and chief executive officer of e-commerce startup Jet.com Inc., sat down to record a private video for the top officials of the world’s largest retailer: Wal-Mart. In the video, meant for Wal-Mart executives and board members who weren’t yet part of weeks of secret negotiations between the companies, Lore stares earnestly into the camera and shows off his Bentonville bona fides. After humblebragging about reading every annual report since 1972, he says he’s been “struck by Wal-Mart’s maniacal focus” over its storied 54-year history. Meet the Little Stock-Trading App That Wants to Replace Wall Street FirmsEditor's Note: Inc.'s 12th annual 30 Under 30 list features the young founders taking on some of the world's biggest challenges. Here, meet Robinhood. Without a seconds hesitation, Vladimir Tenev can tell you the first time he invested in the stock market. He was just 12 but he was bullish on Palm, the maker of the PalmPilot, a hunch that earned him $1,000. That enthusiasm for mobile tech and the stock market led him to Robinhood, Tenev's startup, co-founded with Baiju Bhatt in 2013. [ INC ] How Indian DNA Test Startup Mapmygenome Draws From AstrologyIn Hindu culture, birth charts hold special significance. These Vedic horoscopes, called "Janampatri," lay out the positions of celestial bodies—like the sun, moon, and planets—at the time of a person's birth so as to reveal information, purportedly, about that person's life. People consult them to learn what the heavens have supposedly preordained about their marriage compatibility, health, and wealth. [ Fortune ] The president of Amazon’s fashion division is leaving the e-commerce giantCathy Beaudoin, the longtime Amazon executive leading the company’s fashion division, is exiting the company. Beaudoin joined Amazon eight years ago from The Gap and was tasked with improving the fashion industry’s opinion of Amazon and courting popular name brands to sell on the mass-market e-commerce site. Under her watch, Amazon has attracted contemporary fashion labels like Theory and Diane von Furstenberg, but still has work to do in convincing others that an association with Amazon won’t dilute their brand. [ Re/Code] Chris Sacca on Uber, Retirement, TV and the Tech Sector’s ProblemsThis article first appeared in Term Sheet, Fortune’s newsletter on deals and dealmakers. Sign up here. "Super" angel investor Chris Sacca spoke about his retirement from venture investing and Shark Tank, his plans for political activism, his new TV role, and the tech sector's role in the world's problems at the Collision conference in New Orleans Tuesday. Here are a few highlights: Amazon CEO Bezos Sells About $1 Billion in Company Stoc
Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos sold about $1 billion in company stock as part of a planned divestiture, a month after the world’s third-richest man said he spends about that amount annually on his space exploration company Blue Origin LLC. Bezos sold 1 million shares from Tuesday to Thursday ranging in price from about $935 to $950 per share, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday. He still owns 79.9 million shares, or about 17 percent of the company, down from 83 million shares at the end of 2015. [ Bloomberg ] Apple started a $1 billion fund to create advanced manufacturing jobs in the USIn an interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed today that the hardware titans have formed a new, $1 billion fund to promote advanced manufacturing jobs in the U.S. While President Donald Trump is certain to approve, the initiative was something that Apple began working on well before the presidential election. Apple has invested previously in U.S. hardware production with a Mac facility in Texas, as TechCrunch reported last year. In 2013, Apple released “Made in the USA” Mac Pros, which the company had touted before the U.S. Senate. [ Tech Crunch ] Healthcare Startups Getting HypedFortune, as I’ve mentioned recently, has the benefit of a good name, one we’ve had for 87 years. So when we have a conference on the confluence of medicine and technology, as we did in San Diego this week, it’s an opportunity to talk about how that exciting business is being financed. Wednesday morning at Brainstorm Health I hosted a vibrant roundtable discussion that asked where the smart money is going in healthcare IT and related fields. I have followed this topic only a little over the years as it never has been a core focus of investors in information technology, my area of coverage. [ Fortune ] Full transcript: Crowdpac co-founder and CEO Steve Hilton on Recode DecodeOn this episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Steve Hilton, the former senior adviser to a British prime minister, explained why he is now the founder of a tech startup in Silicon Valley. Crowdpac aims to get more people involved in the political process by making activities like fundraising for a campaign simpler. You can read some of the highlights from the interview at that link, or listen to it in the audio player below. We’ve also provided a lightly edited complete transcript of their conversation. [ Re/Code ] Study: Singapore should invest in more risks and stop supporting “zombie” startupsYou’ve heard of unicorns and even their ten-horn-festooned cousins but there’s another member of the startup animal kingdom you should pay attention to: enter the gazelle. A gazelle is a company that can achieve fast and profitable growth – increasing its revenue at a rate of 20 percent annually for more than four years, starting from US$1 million. While the term is far from new, we definitely don’t hear it much. [ Tech In Asia ] The U.S. Justice Department appears to be probing Uber’s use of software to avoid regulatorsThe U.S. Justice Department appears to have opened an investigation into Uber following reports that the ride-hailing company used a special tool to evade regulators and law enforcement officials around the country. In cities like Portland, Oregon, where Uber previously did not have permission to operate, the company in 2014 had relied on software known internally as “Greyball” to identify government officials and prevent them from booking rides. The New York Times first revealed Uber’s practice this March, leading the tech giant days later to say it would not use the system -- originally designed to detect fraud — to avoid scrutiny. [ Re/Cpde ] Bookmarc is an online marketplace allowing architects to tag products in their designs for cashPictures can be worth a thousand words – and occasionally a lot of money too. For an architect or design firm, selling the perfect design is at the heart of the industry, regardless of whether the showcasing images are simulated from computer software or photographed with the most aesthetically pleasing lighting. Developing a business-to-business (B2B) marketplace to help architects sell their imagery to product suppliers is Sydney-startup Bookmarc, an online platform slated to enter the market at the end of the month. [ Startup Daily ] The Rise And Fall Of Select On-Demand Startup Valuations Over TimeWithin the on-demand category, the valuations of certain startups have reached incredible heights. Ride-hailing companies Uber and Didi Chuxing rank as the highest-valued private startups in the world. However, while a few companies within the on-demand space have experienced a massive amount of success, their valuations alone are not representative of the health of the on-demand space as a whole. [ CB Insights ] Outset Medical Announces $76.5 Million in Funding for Innovative Dialysis TechnologyOutset Medical, a commercial-stage company delivering first-of-its-kind technology into the $13 billion global dialysis market, today announced $76.5 million in Series C equity funding. A new investor, funds advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., led the round, which also included participation from existing investors Fidelity Management & Research Company, Partner Fund Management LP, Warburg Pincus, Perceptive Advisors and The Vertical Group. [ Business Wire ] |