Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, June 18

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• Profitable and Growing Fast, Fitbit Prices I.P.O. at $4.1 Billion Valuation, Above Top of Its Range: Fitbit begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the symbol FIT. The company, which sells popular wearable fitness-tracking devices like the Fitbit Surge bracelet, priced its initial public offering at $20 a share on Wednesday, a dollar above its already heightened price range of $17 to $19 a share. At that level, the company will raise $732 million for itself and its selling stockholders after increasing the number of shares to be sold to 36.6 million from 34.5 million. The price values Fitbit at $4.1 billion. Its debut is a bet that consumers will continue to buy fitness bands as other, more complex smartwatches like the Apple Watch and various Android competitors hit stores. In addition to tracking users’ heart rates and steps, the newer devices offer access to email, text messages and other applications. Fitbit faces another challenge in the form of legal fights from a rival, Jawbone, which filed two lawsuits over the last month. One accuses the company of patent infringement, which could lead to a ban on importing Fitbit devices or important parts. The other accuses Fitbit of poaching employees who then illicitly stole confidential information from their former employer. Fitbit has denied those accusations. Investors for now appear undaunted by those challenges. Last year, Fitbit earned $131.8 million, reversing a nearly $52 million loss in the previous year. Its sales more than tripled during that same period, to $745.4 million.


• GitHub to Seek $2 Billion Valuation in Latest Funding Round: GitHub, a startup that helps companies and developers build software, is seeking to raise about $200 million in a new Series B round that may value San Francisco-based GitHub about $2 billion. The company works as a social coding platform, where a software developer can display a project and others can contribute. The company says more than 8 million people use the service, and it charges monthly subscriptions to store programming source code.


• Uber driver is an employee, not a contractor, California regulators say: California's Labor commission has ruled that an Uber driver was an employee, not a contractor, a potentially costly precedent for the ride-sharing company. Uber unsuccessfully argued to the commission that drivers on its ride-hailing smartphone platform aren't employees, because it doesn't set their hours or force them to pick up riders. The commission ruled that Uber was more than a passive platform connecting drivers and riders. Instead, the commission said in its ruling, Uber is “involved in every aspect of the operation,” vetting drivers, setting standards and establishing non-negotiable rates. The company can also kick drivers off the service if customers give them a low rating. Currently, Uber drivers take an 80 percent cut of fares, but they cover their own costs and pay their own taxes. The ruling could set a broad precedent if it is upheld. For Uber, the implications of counting its drivers as employees rather than contractors are substantial. It would suddenly have to pay for employees' health care benefits, worker’s compensation and payroll taxes, and be on the hook for costs like gas and car maintenance.


• Oracle sales, profit miss estimates; shares fall: Shares of Oracle, often seen as a barometer for the technology sector, fell 6 percent to $42.15 in extended trading after the company's earnings report.Revenue fell 5.4 percent to $10.71 billion. Revenue rose 3 percent on a constant currency basis. Net income fell to $2.76 billion, or 62 cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended May 31, from $3.65 billion, or 80 cents per share, a year earlier. Sales from Oracle's cloud-computing software and platform service, an area keenly watched by investors, rose 29 percent to $416 million.


• Location Intelligence firm AdNear expands into Europe: Bangalore and Singapore-based AdNear Pte Ltd, which helps brands reach out to audiences by analysing time-bound location data, has ventured into Europe by establishing a beachhead in London. The company has appointed Ken Parnham, former managing director of data privacy management company TrustE, as general manager of Europe. AdNear was founded by Anil Mathews, who is also the company’s CEO, back in 2009. The company’s advertising platform is built on a proprietary hybrid geo-location platform, which helps to provide location awareness on mobile phones without GPS or operator assistance. It serves clients in India, Singapore, Australia and other Asia-Pacific countries. AdNear leverages real geo-location, combined with consumer behaviour, to target relevant users within a geo-fence. All ads are displayed within mobile apps and they ensure further engagement as users can find their way to the advertised stores and use coupons among other things. Recently, the company had raised Series B funding of $19 million from Telstra Ventures, Global Brain, Sequoia Capital and JPM Private Equity Group. In November 2012, Adnear had raised $6.3 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and Canaan Partners.


• 4 Microsoft Executives to Leave in Top-Level Shake-Up: Four senior Microsoft executives, including Stephen Elop and Mark Penn, will leave the technology company in the biggest organizational shake-up yet under Satya Nadella, its chief executive. Mr. Nadella said that three of the departures were related to his decision to organize the company’s engineering efforts into fewer groups. The three executives leaving as a result are Mr. Elop, former chief executive of Nokia, who has been leading Microsoft’s devices group; Eric Rudder, leader of its advanced technology and education efforts; and Kirill Tatarinov, head of its business solutions group. While Microsoft has a long history of bureaucratic reshufflings, they do not typically involve the departure of so many executives at once. Mr. Nadella’s decision to merge several groups into others effectively left a handful of Microsoft executives without clear roles. By far, the most significant of the changes is the merging of devices, which includes Xbox, Surface tablets, smartphones and other hardware products, with the Windows organization under Mr. Myerson. By grouping hardware and operating systems under one leader, the move undoes part of the reorganization by Mr. Ballmer.