TechNewsGazette

Acquisition

Bitcoin company nChain Holdings sold to private investors

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nChain Holdings, a company built around research of Craig Wright – a controversial figure who claims to have invented the Bitcoin cryptocurrency – has been sold recently to Malta-based High Tech Private Equity Fund SICAV plc.

The value of the deal hasn’t been disclosed, but those aware about the deal claim that it could be anywhere near the $300 million mark. According to Wright, the deal is the biggest to date involving Bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology. Wright says that they intend to make bitcoin a global payment “system with no ruler, no king” with at least a billion people on-chain.

Reuters previously identified nChain, formerly known as EITC Holdings, as Wright’s vehicle for filing hundreds of Bitcoin and blockchain-related patents. UK records confirm that the target company – under both its EITC and nChain names – already filed more than 80 Bitcoin and blockchain-related patents. A person close to the deal said $300 million had been invested in nChain, but it was not clear over what period of time.

nChain says that it might “make some of its intellectual property assets available to the blockchain community through open-source software and royalty-free licensing.”

nChain’s patent filings, seen by Reuters, range from the storage of medical documents to WiFi security. Investors have spent more than $1.5 billion on blockchain and bitcoin start-ups over the past four years, according to CB Insights, an internet research company.

The company said it was also working on software tools and applications to support the growth of blockchain. These include a software to develop applications on the bitcoin blockchain, solutions for bitcoin blockchain scalability, inventions to improve security, on-chain scripting for smart contracts, and a decentralised trading platform that uses autonomous agents.

The company also called for a neutral standards body to be set up to coordinate bitcoin’s development.

Microsoft acquires Maluuba to strenghten its AI portfolio

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Microsoft has acquired a Canadian artificial intelligence startup that is focused on making machines able to think and communicate the way people do with intentions of developing software that can read, write and converse using natural language.

Microsoft did not reveal the financial details of the transaction, but elaborated a lot on why it believes that Maluuba is a company that will enable it to take its AI game further and that too by leaps and bounds. Microsoft noted that the Canadian startup’s vision is to advance toward a more general artificial intelligence by creating literate machines that can think, reason and communicate like humans and that’s something that the Windows 10 has been working on as well.

“I’m incredibly excited about the scenarios that this acquisition could make possible in conversational AI”, said Microsoft artificial intelligence and research group executive vice president Harry Shum.

With more and more companies bringing their virtual assistants to the table over the last few months, the attention is now sharply on how to make these assistants intelligent as well as enable them to communicate in natural language with humans.

Just to share a glimpse of what tech giants are doing in this domain: Amazon virtual assistant Alexa was a star at the Consumer Electronics Show gadget gala last week in Las Vegas; at CES, computer chipmaker Nvidia said it would use Google Assistant for its interactive streaming devices; Microsoft’s Cortana will power a voice-assistant speaker for kids and families being introduced by Mattel, and will also be in Renault-Nissan’s connected car hub; Samsung’s smart refrigerator, which acts as a connected hub – with a voice activation system unveiled at CES – uses the South Korean giant’s Tizen operating system.

Many smart devices for the home also integrate with Apple Home Kit, which uses the iPhone maker’s artificial intelligence and voice assistant Siri. At CES, Chinese giant Baidu showcased its own virtual assistant “Little Fish” which will debut in China this year.

 Tiny Hearts gets picked up by Shopify

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Maker of some of the best chart busting apps including Pocket Zoo, Wake Alarm, Quick Fit, and Next Keyboard – Tiny Hearts – has been acquired by Shopify.

The news of the acquisition came from founder of Tiny Hearts Robleh Jama who revealed in a blog post that the product team at Tiny Hearts will be working with Shopify’s team and will be working from the Shopify Toronto office. The acquisition also includes Tiny Hearts’ apps and Busy Building Things as well as their online store and brand for creators.

Beyond the apps listed above, Tiny Hearts is also known for quite a few of its games like InstaMatch, Emoji Party and Save The Camp. Tiny Hearts has been into the business for seven years and during this time its apps managed to hit the top 10 charts quite a few times and downloads surpassed over 6 million. The team even won a few awards along the way and got featured in some of the major publications out there including The Verge, the New York Times, and WIRED Magazine.

Acquisition by Shopify isn’t surprising because the teams of both the companies have worked together before for the the first version of Shopkey, and later on the Frenzy app. According to Jama, Satish Kanwar brought up the idea of Tiny Hearts joining Shopify in early 2016. At the time Jama did take it as a huge complement, but decided not to rush into anything for they were still interested in experimenting with the different services Tiny Hearts was offering.

“Getting acquired by Shopify would mean being able to work with one of the most talented teams in Toronto, and joining one of the most respected companies in the country”, says Jama.

Jama points out that post the acquisition, Tiny Hearts’s name and corporation may not exist, but their overall goal of making people’s lives better in meaningful ways will remain.

“By joining Shopify, we’re free to keep the DNA of Tiny Hearts — the same spirit that brought Pocket Zoo to life — alive and well”, Jama notes.

Spotify’s SoundCloud acquisition talks have reached advanced stages

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If we are to believe a report on Financial Times, Spotify’s SoundCloud acquisition talks have reached advanced stages.

Back in July Bloomberg claimed that SoundCloud was looking at strategic options including a sale that could value the service at a whopping $1 billion and now a report on the FT that cites anonymous sources familiar with the matter effectively means that SoundCloud could indeed be up for grabs.

Music-streaming companies have struggled to turn a profit amid rising competition from larger players such as Apple Inc .

Amazon.com Inc is also preparing to launch a standalone music-streaming subscription service, Reuters reported in June, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

SoundCloud declined to comment, while Spotify could not immediately be reached for comment.