Daily Tech Snippet: Tuesday, Monday May 26

• SoftBank's $100 Billion Tech Fund Rankles VCs as Valuations Soar: In the months since Softbank Group Corp. unveiled plans for a $100 billion technology fund, the Japanese company has been making its presence deeply felt across the industry. The Vision Fund closed a few days ago with $93 billion in initial commitments, and already venture firms from London to Silicon Valley are fretting about a behemoth with the resources, clout and name recognition to snatch away the most promising deals. Just last week, SoftBank swooped in and pumped $1.4 billion into Paytm, India’s largest digital-payments startup. The deal boosted Paytm's valuation by about 40 percent to $7 billion. That's not outlandish given Paytm's dominant market position, but the valuations of other SoftBank deals have prompted head-scratching and ignited alarm that a funding atmosphere that only recently cooled off will heat up again. there's the concern that SoftBank will ladle out more money than startups need or can absorb. Already founders approached by SoftBank are caught between the desire to take the money and concern about handing over too much control of their company, according to an investor. One startup targeted by SoftBank has tried to negotiate for less money, this person says. SoftBank won't budge; it's a big check or nothing. SoFi originally asked for less money, too, according to another investor. Pushing startups to take more cash than they ask for has been Son's strategy since the beginning. SoftBank invested more money in Yahoo, Alibaba and Didi than what the entrepreneurs had initially wanted. 

• Quora tests video answers to steal Q&A from YouTube: Newly-minted unicorn Quora has even bigger ambitions than text questions-and-answers. And it’s not going to let video giants or startups disrupt its future. This week Quora began testing video answers, because sometimes it’s a lot easier to show someone how something works, the best way to complete a task, or why one thing is better than another than try to write it out for them. Users in the beta group will be able to record videos on iOS or Android as supplements or complete answers that everyone on Quora can watch. It’s considering allowing video uploads, which might offer more polished content but increase spam concerns. Previously, Quora only let users answer with text, natively hosted photos, links, and embedded videos from platforms like YouTube. Now it’s actively hosting and soliciting video uploads. Quora’s entry into the space could box out younger competitors like Justin Kan’s mobile video Q&A app Whale, and video Ask Me Anything app Yam. These apps are focused entirely on simplifying the process of recording video answers to questions with features like filters to make you look better, and both give creators ways to earn money. But Quora’s 190 million users, $226 million in funding, and 8-year head start give it a big edge. It’s been cautiously curating a network of experts and content, while building a brand name known for quality in contrast to its predecessor Yahoo Answers. Its network effect may be tough to break.

• Pittsburgh Welcomed Uber’s Driverless Car Experiment. Not Anymore. When Uber picked this former Rust Belt town as the inaugural city for its driverless car experiment, Pittsburgh played the consummate host. “You can either put up red tape or roll out the red carpet,” Bill Peduto, the mayor of Pittsburgh, said in September. “If you want to be a 21st-century laboratory for technology, you put out the carpet.” Nine months later, Pittsburgh residents and officials say Uber has not lived up to its end of the bargain. Among Uber’s perceived transgressions: The company began charging for driverless rides that were initially pitched as free. It also withdrew support from Pittsburgh’s application for a $50 million federal grant to revamp transportation. And it has not created the jobs it proposed in a struggling neighborhood that houses its autonomous car testing track. The deteriorating relationship between Pittsburgh and Uber offers a cautionary tale, especially as other cities consider rolling out driverless car trials from Uber, Alphabet’s Waymo and others.

• LeEco employees are being called to a Tuesday meeting, and massive layoffs are expected: LeEco, a Chinese company that made a big splash in the U.S. last fall, is preparing for a round of layoffs that may happen as soon as Tuesday, according to sources. Two people told CNBC the company is planning massive layoffs in the U.S., with one source saying that only 60 employees will be left after the cut. The company's current headcount in the U.S. is over 500, according to this person. LeEco started out in China as a streaming media provider — it has been referred to as the "Netflix of China" — and looked to expand into the US by selling affordable hardware that linked consumers to media content from LeEco's partners. Its first batch of products included two smartphones and several TVs, all of which offered flagship-level specs at affordable prices. The idea, it seemed, was that LeEco would make its money back when consumers tuned in to partner programming. When it made its debut in the US in October 2016, it also promised more, including VR headsets and an electric bicycle.