Travis Kalanick Needs to Explain His Role in Uber's CyberattackWhat did Travis Kalanick know, and when did he know it? That's the question Uber needs to answer after a stunning revelation that the company concealed a cyberattack last year that compromised personal information on 57 million Uber riders and 600,000 of its U.S. drivers. Bloomberg News reporter Eric Newcomer wrote Tuesday that the company fired its chief security officer and one of his deputies for concealing the cyberattack, which ironically came at the same time
that Uber was making up with regulators over misrepresentations of how it handled consumer and driver information. [ Bloomberg ] Lyft gets approval to test self-driving cars on public roads in CaliforniaLyft is the latest company to be added to the ever-growing list of those permitted to test their self-driving technology on California state public roads. The California Department of Motor Vehicles added Lyft to the list recently (via Axios), following Lyft’s foundation of a self-driving technology development center earlier this year, and its announcement that it would work on both its own autonomous tech and with automaker and other partners. The fact that the ride hailing provider secured an autonomous vehicle testing permit from the state DMV could suggest it’s ready to start testing its own vehicles and technology on roads very soon. The company has previously discussed pilot projects with a number of autonomous technology partners to debut self-driving vehicles working on its platform, including with fellow DMV list member Drive.ai, but this would seem to suggest it’ll take a more active role in the vehicle technology itself in the near future. [ TechCrunch ] As harassment scandal reaches tech industry, start-ups look for ways to check bad behaviorVenture capitalists have long had god-like status in the tech industry. Founders venerate them because they need their money. Limited partners eagerly throw billions of dollars their way, enamored by their outsized investment returns. But now, after allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct have led to the resignations of Justin Caldbeck of Binary Capital and Dave McClure of 500 Startups, and the dismissal of Steve Jurvetson of DFJ, the industry's once-celebrated kingmakers are facing pressure from founders and limited partners to clean up their act. [ LA Times ] Tech firms raise record venture capital fundsIrish technology companies raised a record €817 million in venture capital funding in the nine months to the end of September, according to new figures. Research published by the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA) showed that the level of venture capital funding raised by tech companies rose by 11 per cent compared with the same period last year when €734 million worth of funding was attracted. Funding raised in the third quarter reached €319 million. [ The Times ] Sarah Chou on Finding Product-Market Fit in the Education Industry - at YC Edtech NightAltSchool wants to change how kids learn, but fears that it’s failing students are surfacingEarlier this week, Business Insider reported that numerous families have grown frustrated with the education their children are receiving at AltSchool, an ambitious San Francisco-based ed tech company that four years ago began opening physical grade schools and promising a personalized learning approach that would far surpass the standardized education most kids receive. It’s not just parents who have growing concerns about AltSchool, however. Educators also question whether AltSchool is the next best thing in education, or whether instead the for-profit company could hamper the prospects of the children with which it works, and those it might impact down the road. [ TechCrunch ] Peter Thiel Sells 73% of His Remaining Stake in FacebookBillionaire Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook Inc., sold 73 percent of his stake in the social-media company this week. Thiel, a member of Facebook’s board, sold 160,805 shares for $29 million, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. The transactions are the latest in a series of sales in recent years that have left Thiel, 50, with 59,913 shares valued at $11 million as of 11:21 a.m. in New York. Facebook shares have surged 58 percent this year through Tuesday, adding $25 billion to co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune and making him the world’s fourth-richest person with $74.9 billion. Thiel has a net worth of $3.2 billion, including a stake in data analytics company Palantir Technologies Inc., according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. [ Bloomberg ] AppLovin’s acquisition by Orient Hontai is off, accepts $841 million investment insteadEverything seemed to be going well for mobile marketing firm AppLovin at the end of last year. The company agreed to be sold to private equity firm Orient Hontai for $1.4 billion in September 2016, but more than a year later the deal is no longer on the table. While AppLovin is once again officially unattached, it’s not going away without a consolation prize: Orient Hontai is backing the company to the tune of $841 million in debt financing. AppLovin wouldn’t comment on why it or Orient Hontai withdrew from the deal, instead referring VentureBeat to its blog post for more details. [ Venture Beat ] Mark Cuban Asks Trump If He Knows About Alibaba's Impact on U.S.Billionaire investor and Trump gadfly Mark Cuban tweeted at the president Wednesday asking if knew how big of an impact a single Chinese company has had on the U.S. stock market. Cuban asked Trump if he realized that “5 percent of the increase in stock market value ($250 billion), and 7.5 times our monthly trade deficit with China has gone to one Chinese company.” The tweet included a link to a blog post about e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares have almost tripled to $190.23 a share for a market valuation of $487 billion since its initial public offering in September 2014, which was the biggest in U.S. history. [ Bloomberg ] HAS THE SILICON VALLEY HYPE CYCLE RUN ITS COURSE?It is a strange feature of golden ages that they only seem apparent in retrospect. If you’re lucky enough to realize you’re in one, you’re probably late to the party. For Silicon Valley, that wasn’t yet obvious in 2014, amid an unprecedented surge in venture capital. Yik Yak, which I checked religiously as a college senior, was a surprise hit. Money flowed into other millennial-friendly apps, like Secret and Meerkat, which went briefly, spectacularly viral. The term unicorn, which had just been coined by venture capitalist Aileen Lee was just coming into vogue. At the time, there were 39 firms with billion-plus dollar valuations; today, there are, ostensibly, some 170. Even so, the euphoria that was then blazing hot is now decidedly cooler. Deal flow fell off a cliff in 2015, just a few months after the painfully true-to-life comedy Silicon Valley debuted on HBO. Yik Yak, Secret, and Meerkat have all disappeared (in one way or another), and although money is still pouring into tech, power has been consolidated among a handful of incumbents, including Facebook, a company that barely existed a decade earlier, but which now ruthlessly quashes any threat to its supremacy. [ HIVE ] TECH AS WE KNOW IT WOULD NOT EXIST WITHOUT IMMIGRANTSIN JANUARY, WHEN President Donald Trump issued an executive order limiting immigration, the news was met with clenched fists in Silicon Valley. On big tech campuses, like Facebook and Google, there were protests, rallies, and boycotts. Of the hundred-some companies that signed an amicus brief protesting the decision, most were tech companies. This sudden political awakening, some argued, was confirmation of tech’s liberal slant. Of course the young employees who populate the Valley bleed blue. [ WIRED ] Immigrants are vital to startup communities across the U.S.THE FASHION APP FOUNDER WITH A POCKET FULL OF VISASAI Again Features Prominently In Asia-Silicon Valley DealmakingLessons Learned On Building A StartupWalmart may own ModCloth, but the women’s fashion retailer is showing some independence on Black FridaySingapore: MyRepublic secures $51.7m funding from Makara Innovation FundGrieving Mother’s Firing Sparks Backlash Against Chinese Education StartupChinese Startups See Funding Boom In Automotive Sector5 VC-backed companies that can deliver Thanksgiving to your homeAn Antifragile Thanksgiving |