Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, September 8

• What’s Really Missing From the New iPhone: Dazzle Forget about the headphone jack for a second. Sure, it’s pretty annoying that Apple’s newest iPhones — the 7 and 7 Plus, which were unveiled in San Francisco on Wednesday and will start shipping to customers on Sept. 16 — will not include a port for plugging in standard earbuds. But you’ll get used to it. The absence of a jack is far from the worst shortcoming in Apple’s latest product launch. Instead, it’s a symptom of a deeper issue with the new iPhones, part of a problem that afflicts much of the company’s product lineup: Apple’s aesthetics have grown stale. Apple has squandered its once-commanding lead in hardware and software design. Though the new iPhones include several new features, including water resistance and upgraded cameras, they look pretty much the same as the old ones. The new Apple Watch does too. And as competitors have borrowed and even begun to surpass Apple’s best designs, what was iconic about the company’s phones, computers, tablets and other products has come to seem generic. This is a subjective assessment, and it’s one that Apple rebuts.Yet there are signs that my critique of Apple’s designs are shared by others. Industrial designers and tech critics used to swoon over Apple’s latest hardware; nowadays you witness less swooning and more bemusement.And while Apple has slowed its design cadence, its rivals have sped up. Last year Samsung remade its lineup of Galaxy smartphones in a new glass-and-metal design that looked practically identical to the iPhone. Then it went further. Over the course of a few months, Samsung put out several design refinements, culminating in the Note 7, a big phone that has been universally praised by critics. With its curved sides and edge-to-edge display, the Note 7 pulls off a neat trick: Though it is physically smaller than Apple’s big phone, it actually has a larger screen. So thanks to clever design, you get more from a smaller thing — exactly the sort of advance we once looked to Apple for.

• Amazon Cuts Delivery Times in Threat to Alibaba, EBay, Wish.com: Amazon.com Inc. is speeding the delivery of USB cables, smartphone screen protectors, cosmetics and other small, flat items in its continuing push against rival marketplaces that help overseas manufacturers and suppliers sell directly to U.S. shoppers.  The Seattle-based company notified merchants Wednesday that such items would now be delivered to Amazon Prime members within five business days, down from eight previously, according to an e-mail obtained by Bloomberg. That makes Amazon delivery of small, inexpensive items from China, for example, much faster than the two weeks to 30 days it can take using marketplaces owned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., EBay Inc. and Wish.com. Amazon wants quick delivery, which has helped it dominate online shopping in the U.S., to further differentiate itself from competitors in cross-border e-commerce. U.S. online shoppers will spend about $30 billion this year on cross-border transactions, a 10 percent increase from 2015, with China the leading source of goods purchased, according to a February report byEMarketer. 

• OfferUp raises $119 million for resale marketplace: It’s like Craigslist, but with auctions. OfferUp is an app that makes it easy to buy and sell your goods. The fast-growing Seattle-based company is raising $119 million to continue its global expansion and continue hiring. The round is led by Warburg Pincus and includes funding from GGV Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and T. Rowe Price. OfferUp users snap a photo of their used items like clothing and furniture and then check the app to sort through the highest bids. The built-in messaging feature also makes it easy to communicate with prospective buyers. Hans Tung from GGV Capital said that he invested in OfferUp because “Craigslist hasn’t innovated for a long time and there is unmet, pent up demand for classified on mobile.” He points out that OfferUp makes it easy to communicate with prospective buyers, without having to share one’s personal cell phone number. OfferUp launched just last year and already has 29 million installations in the U.S. They claim that their user engagement rivals Snapchats.I personally tried OfferUp last fall when I was selling items before a cross-country move. I was surprised to see how easy it was to find bidders for seemingly undesirable things, including my used trash can! OfferUp previously raised over $91 million in funding. 

Daily Tech Snippet: Monday, August 29

• China’s Murky World Where E-Commerce Meets Student Lending: Across college campuses in China, a small army of marketers is recruiting students to borrow money at interest rates many times that charged by the nation’s banks. Those without a credit history or parental approval can borrow money to buy a smartphone, pay for holidays, or get the latest sneakers through a raft of apps such as Fenqile. The market leader, whose name literally means Happy Installment Payments, has 50,000 part-time marketers across more than 3,000 universities and proudly touts the slogan “Wait no more; love what I love.” Welcome to the regulatory gray area where peer-to-peer lending meets e-commerce in China. In the last three years, tens of millions of students have taken out micro-loans with the tap of a button to buy things. Once just the realm of startups, the sector has attracted heavy hitters in China’s online industry, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s finance affiliate and JD.com Inc., which are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the lending model. In a nation with 37 million college students, the market is expected to reach $15 billion, according to the Beijing-based market research firm Analysys. The apps sell everything from cameras to concert tickets sourced from third-parties, charging students annualized interest rates typically above 10 percent. The loans are then packaged and sold to wealthy individuals, who find the expected return of as much as 10 percent much more attractive than the central bank’s benchmark savings rate of 1.75 percent.

• How long before Amazon forces its Indian rivals into a merger or sale? Three years into Amazon’s aggressive push in India, the country’s two home-grown e-commerce competitors are feeling the pressure. Both Flipkart and Snapdeal have raised more than a billion dollars, but have historically recorded big losses as they’ve engaged in discounting battles with each other and with Amazon. Amazon has made it clear it is willing to spend big to become the No. 1 e-commerce player in the country after failing to make a dent in another huge international market, China. Now, it seems like every week there’s a new rumor of the two homegrown players considering a merger or sale. Alibaba, which owns a stake in Snapdeal and another Indian player, Paytm, is often in the conversation. In any potential talks, however, Flipkart and Snapdeal’s frothy valuations could be a problem. Flipkart was valued last year at $15 billion while Snapdeal most recently secured a $6.5 billion valuation.

Daily Tech Snippet: Tuesday, August 23

• Former Flipkart CEO’s Employee Clash Shows Indian Startup Trauma..: India’s largest online shopping service is heating up, and not in a good way. Flipkart’s regular Friday townhall grew tense after employees incensed by hundreds of job cuts openly accused management of betrayal. Taken aback, chairman Sachin Bansal countered that the departures stemmed from poor performance and he lost his job as chief executive for the same reason. The co-founder admitted the company had missed financial targets in recent months, prompting an overhaul of its top rungs, according to employees who attended the meeting. He didn’t elaborate but recent moves -- including a brief decision to go mobile app-only after ditching its fashion site -- may have granted an opening to a hard-charging Amazon.com Inc. Bansal’s unusual candor, which drew applause, underscores the plight of the country’s technology sector as competition intensifies and funding begins to dry up.

• ..Even as analysts opine that Amazon overtook Flipkart in India July e-commerce sales: Barely three years after launching in India, Amazon (Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd) likely exceeded Flipkart in terms of gross sales in July. Flipkart reported gross sales or gross merchandise value (GMV) of less than Rs.2,000 crore in July, while Amazon’s gross sales crept up above Rs.2,000 crore, according to five people familiar with the companies’ numbers. Another local online marketplace Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd) reported gross sales numbers of roughly Rs.600 crore, a fall of more than 50% from the sales it had been generating until the end of last year, said two other people, familiar with the company’s numbers. Gross sales refer to the value of goods sold on a site, and not net revenue. (Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon are structured as marketplaces because of regulations; their net revenue comprises the commissions they charge their third-party sellers on every transaction and fees for services) To be sure, the numbers are only for the month of July and the market share battle between Flipkart and Amazon is far from over. Flipkart’s numbers also exclude revenue at Myntra and Jabong, the two large fashion retailers it owns. Snapdeal’s numbers exclude sales at FreeCharge, its payments arm. Including Myntra and Jabong revenues, Flipkart is still comfortably ahead of Amazon. Yet, the numbers confirm reports in Mint and other publications since the start of the year that Flipkart and Amazon are running neck-and-neck in the e-commerce market share battle and the latter is close to overtaking it. This is the first time the exact picture has emerged.

• Chinese investors buy ad tech startup Media.net for $900 million: Advertising technology startup Media.net, founded by tech entrepreneur Divyank Turakhia, said on Monday it had been acquired for about $900 million by a group of Chinese investors. The deal would represent the third-largest in the ad tech industry, after Google's acquisition of DoubleClick and Microsoft Corp's for aQuantive. More here: Ad-tech firm Media.net Sells to China Group for $900 Million: The startup, which powers contextual ads offered by Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing, plans a move akin to a reverse merger that would make it a public company in China.Media.net, which is based in Dubai and New York, is touting this as the third-largest ad-tech acquisition in history. However, the complex deal more closely resembles a reverse merger, where a private company takes over a public one and bypasses the formalities of an initial public offering. Technology entrepreneur Divyank Turakhia started Media.net in 2010 and bootstrapped the business. The company provides the technology powering contextual ads offered by Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s Bing search engine. The system is similar to one offered by Google, choosing which ads to show based on the content of the web page they appear on. The deal comes as merger activity involving ad-tech companies is declining. There were 43 deals during the first half of the year, according to research firm PitchBook Data. That’s a 45 percent decline from the same period last year. Media.net generated $232 million in revenue last year, more than half of which came from mobile visitors, Turakhia said. The U.S. accounts for 90 percent of Media.net’s revenue, but the company is hoping to make a big push into China after the deal, he said. 

• Amazon wants to sell a cheaper music subscription service that will only work on its Echo player: Spotify, Apple Music and everyone else cost $10 a month. Amazon wants to charge half of that. Amazon wants to launch a music subscription service that would work the same way services from Apple, Spotify and many others work: $10 a month, for all the music you can stream, anywhere you want to stream it.  But Amazon is also working on a second service that would differ in two significant ways from industry rivals: It would cost half the price, and it would only work on Amazon’s Echo hardware. Industry sources say Amazon would like to launch both services in September, but has yet to finalize deals with major music labels and publishers. One sticking point, sources say, is whether Amazon will sell the cheaper service for $4 or $5 a month.

Daily Tech Snippet: Friday, August 5

• Meet the China ‘whisperers’ who get the big deals done in Silicon Valley: When Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick wanted advice about whom to hire to run his ride-hailing business in China, he asked Carmen Chang, a longtime Silicon Valley lawyer and investor who had helped a previous generation of tech companies navigate that murky territory. When Uber sold its China business to its rival Didi this week, Chang was a trusted confidante.When Lyft, Uber’s smaller rival, needed an entree into China, the company’s president turned to another Silicon Valley insider who shuttles between worlds. The introduction from Connie Chan, a partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, to China’s largest ride-hailing company led to a $100 million investment and partnership. Behind the scenes of an unprecedented flood of capital from China into Silicon Valley over the past two years is an elite network of brokers. These brokers do more than deal-making; they play anthropologist and cultural translator -- from coaching startup founders about the culturally appropriate place to sit at a conference room table in China to breaking down how emojis are used in Chinese apps. Their acumen is growing more valuable, entrepreneurs say, as they navigate a cast of hard-to-parse characters with alluring deep pockets and promises of big business opportunities overseas. “She is the whisperer between China and Silicon Valley,” said Matthew Prince, chief executive of Cloudflare, a web security startup, of Chang. Last year, Chang helped Prince -- whose company had given up on China in 2011 -- clinch a partnership with Baidu, China’s search giant. “There’s very few that really understand both sides.” Chang, who was born in Nanjing, China, came to the States to seek a doctorate in Modern Chinese History. She got pulled into tech industry after graduating from Stanford Law School in the early 1990s, when she got a job as an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the Silicon Valley firm known for its ties to the clubby venture capitalists on Sand Hill Road. One of her early clients was Masayoshi Son, the billionaire Japanese investor who founded the Japanese telcommunications giant Softbank. At the time, she said, senior management at the firm had never been to Asia, and Son “wasn’t considered important enough” to be represented by a general partner. “So he got an associate,” she says.

• Snapchat Used to Spook Advertisers. Not Anymore. When Snapchat opened itself up to advertisers more than a year ago, many initially griped that the company needed to lower its ad prices. Some were mystified about how to reach the right audience with the ads, since Snapchat did not provide traditional ad-targeting tools. Most of all, brands wondered how Snapchat could be effective when the ads — like Snapchat messages — disappeared. In the last 15 months, Snapchat has moved to respond. It introduced new ad formats. It dangled its attractive user base — the service now claims 150 million daily users, including nearly half the country’s population from ages 18 to 34 — to lure advertisers. Most important, Snapchat has persuaded brands like Tiffany & Company, Kraft Foods and Burger King that its ads let them interact playfully with this young audience.Now Snapchat faces the challenge of keeping up its nascent ad business as its early success raises the competitive hackles of rivals. On Tuesday, Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook, introduced a near carbon copy of a Snapchat photo and video service known as Stories. A lot is riding on Snapchat’s building up its ad business. The company, which Mr. Spiegel helped found in 2011 and is now based in the Venice Beach neighborhood of Los Angeles, needs to justify a valuation of about $19 billion that its investors have placed on it. The company also faces sky-high revenue expectations; the investment bank Jefferies recently projected that Snapchat’s revenue would grow to $1 billion next year from more than $350 million this year.Mr. Khan’s biggest job was to explain why Snapchat’s unusual platform was better for advertisers. The task was thorny because Snapchat is a messaging, sharing and broadcast service where most content disappears. Companies had few comparable apps to judge Snapchat against. The potential became clearer after brands started experimenting with Snapchat’s geofilters, a tool that adds custom stickers, a type of colorful icon, to the app when people enter a certain geographic area, and lenses, which are whimsical images that transform someone’s face in the app.

• Facebook's News Feed to show fewer 'clickbait' headlines: Facebook's News Feed will show fewer "clickbait" headlines over the next few weeks, the company announced Thursday, as it seeks to establish itself as the prime web destination for news and social updates. The company receives thousands of complaints a day about clickbait, headlines that intentionally withhold information or mislead users to get people to click on them, Adam Mosseri, vice president of product management for News Feed, said in an interview. In an effort to eliminate clickbait from the site, Facebook created a system that identifies and classifies such headlines. It can then determine which pages or web domains post large amounts of clickbait and rank them lower in News Feed. Facebook routinely updates its algorithm for News Feed, the place most people see postings on the site, to show users what they are most interested in and encourage them to spend even more time on the site. The system looks for commonly used phrases in clickbait headlines, similar to how filters for email spam work, Facebook said in a blog post. It categorized tens of thousands of headlines as clickbait by looking for headlines that intentionally withheld information and those that exaggerated the content of an article. News Feed, a team of about 200 people, uses a similar classification system to determine what it should show each user, Mosseri said.

• Amazon adds several new devices to its Dash Replenishment auto ordering service: At the beginning of the year, Amazon flipped the switch on Dash Replenishment, a service aimed at bringing the instant reordering of its devoted product buttons directly to connected devices. The idea being that you don’t have to, say, order ink for your printer or batteries for your smart lock — the devices will do it for you. The retail giant has already announced a slew of different partners for the program, including Brother Printers, the Gmate SMART blood glucose monitor and a GE washing machine, all of which went live in the first round. Today the company announced a number of new additions. The highest profile of the additions is GE, which will be extending its involvement to driers and dishwashers, which will be updated to order fabric softener and dishwasher detergent, respectively, when supplies start to dwindle. Neato joins the list as well, bringing the Wi-Fi-connected robot to the service to order replacement filters and brushes, while Petcube’s Kickstarter-supported Bites camera will be able to order pet food. Also on the list are the Behmore Connected coffee brewer, Simplehuman trashcan and SmartThings platform. Even The Hershey Company has been added to the stable with an unnamed device. That should be interesting.

• LinkedIn Results Beat Expectations Ahead of Microsoft Deal: LinkedIn Corp. reported earnings and revenue that were higher than analysts expected, after the company negotiated a $26.2 billion sale to Microsoft Corp. LinkedIn said second-quarter revenue was $933 million, up 31 percent from a year earlier. The average analyst estimate was $899 million. Earnings, excluding some items, were $1.13 cents per share in the second quarter, compared with analysts’ projection of 78 cents. This may be LinkedIn’s last earnings report as an independent company, before it joins Microsoft in one of the largest technology industry deals on record. 

• As Chinese hacking abates, FireEye plans layoffs, cuts forecasts; shares plunge: Cyber security firm FireEye Inc said on Thursday it planned to lay off 300 to 400 of its 3,400 workers as it announced quarterly sales below its own forecast, due to a slowdown in demand for its services helping businesses respond to hacking attacks. FireEye's shares were down 16.2 percent at $14.02 in extended trading.Chief Executive Kevin Mandia said the company is now responding more frequently to financially driven cyber criminals, who engage in crimes such as ransomware, which are relatively simple to clean up. "The size and scope have changed. The whole remediation was more complex" when the company was responding to large numbers of state-sponsored hacks from China, he said. FireEye cut its full-year revenue forecast to $716 million-$728 million from $780 million-$810 million.Executives blamed much of the trouble on a slowdown in its services business, including its high-profile Mandiant forensics unit that helps organizations respond to cyber attacks. That division's revenue rose just 2 percent in the second quarter, compared to a 40 percent increase in the first quarter. Its total number of engagements rose, but average revenue from each one fell dramatically because work performed was less extensive. Mandia said that was due to a shift away from previous years where there were large numbers of state-sponsored espionage hackers from China attacking customers in the United States. FireEye and other cyber security firms said in June that cyber espionage attacks from China appeared to have dropped this year as the Chinese government made good on a pledge with the United States to stop supporting the digital theft of U.S. trade secrets.

• Zynga plummets 9% in after-hours trading: Social game developer Zynga tumbled 9 percent in after-hours trading following the second quarter 2016 earnings announcement after the bell today. The company reported a net loss of $4.4 million, while still beating analysts’ expectations in terms of revenue.For the second quarter ended June 30, the San Francisco-based maker of FarmVille and Words with Friends posted revenue of $181.7 million and non-GAAP net earnings came in at $0. 

• Grand Theft Auto' publisher Take-Two's revenue jumps 13 percent: Videogame publisher Take-Two Interactive Software Inc reported a 13 percent rise in revenue, helped by strong sales of its "Grand Theft Auto V" and "NBA 2K16" titles. Take-Two, like its rivals, has also benefited from a shift by players downloading digital copies of its videogames – which generate higher margins – rather than buying physical game discs. Take Two's net revenue rose to $311.55 million in the first quarter ended June 30 from $257.30 million a year earlier. Digital downloads accounted for about 55 percent of revenue in the quarter. Net loss narrowed to $38.57 million, or 46 cents per share, from $67.02 million, or 81 cents per share.

• Activision revenue surges on "Overwatch" launch, "Candy Crush" deal: Activision Blizzard Inc reported a 50.4 percent surge in quarterly revenue on Thursday, propelled by the popularity of the newly-launched "Overwatch" game and the boost from the acquisition of "Candy Crush" maker King Digital. Activision's total adjusted revenue, which excludes deferred revenue and related costs, rose to $1.57 billion in the second quarter ended June 30 from $1.04 billion a year earlier.The company's shares were up 1.4 percent at $41.40 in extended trading. Activision, best known for its "Call of Duty" and "World of Warcraft" games, released "Overwatch" on May 24 to rave reviews. The multi-player futuristic game now has more than 15 million players and has generated about $500 million in revenue to date, excluding deferrals, the company said. The company's net income dropped 40 percent to $127 million, or 17 cents per share, mainly due to costs associated with the near $6 billion acquisition of King Digital in February.

Daily Tech Snippet: Monday, August 1st

• A quiet news weekend, but lots of big news from Friday, which I've recapped below.

• Amazon’s Profits Grow More Than 800 Percent, Lifted by Cloud Services: For the second quarter, which ended June 30, Amazon reported net income of $857 million, or $1.78 a share, up from $92 million, or 19 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue jumped 31 percent to $30.4 billion from $23.19 billion a year ago. Amazon’s shares rose more than 2 percent in after-hours trading after the release of its results. For most of its life, Amazon sacrificed profits if it could build another few warehouses to ship orders to customers more quickly or find some other investment to fuel its growth. Now, it cannot avoid showing big profits thanks to the lucrative cloud computing business in which it has improbably become a leader. On Thursday, Amazon reported net income of $857 million in its most recent quarter, the third quarter in a row in which it has shown a record profit. Its net income for those three months was also more than nine times the amount for the same period last year. A big part of what has made Amazon’s story as a company so captivating to investors is the single-minded focus of Jeffrey P. Bezos, the company’s founder and chief executive, on making big long-term investments. Unlike Google and Facebook, which have highly profitable advertising businesses, Amazon’s retail business has operated on thin profit margins that quickly vanish when the company begins spending heavily, pushing it into the red. What is most striking about its recent habit of showing profits is that Amazon has not suddenly become stingy about making investments. In a conference call, Amazon’s chief financial officer, Brian Olsavsky, said that the company would open 18 new fulfillment centers — the warehouses from which it processes customer orders — in the third quarter of this year, three times the number it opened in the same period last year. The retail business that Amazon is best known for is growing at a torrid pace even though it is now more than two decades old. The company’s North American retail revenue jumped 28 percent as it continued to benefit from a shift in consumer spending to online from offline stores. The company’s spending on new warehouses and delivery services has played an important role in helping it gobble up a bigger portion of the money people spend on consumer goods. “They are defying the laws of gravity,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. “It shows their level of market share gains is increasing.”

• Google Silences Doubters With Blockbuster Quarter: It’s good to be Google. Sometimes it’s just plain great. Revenue regularly increases at a clip rarely achieved by firms of its size. The same goes for profits. Seven of its products have over a billion users, a scale unimaginable in the predigital era. A reorganization last year into a holding company called Alphabet, accompanied by some related high-level personnel moves, was unexpected but generally applauded. Investors and analysts see little in the short term to disrupt this happy state of affairs, which has pushed Alphabet’s value to more than $500 billion. Those sentiments were confirmed in its second-quarter earnings report, released Thursday after the market closed. It was even better than the rosy forecasts. Revenue rose to $21.5 billion, about $750 million more than analysts were predicting and a 21 percent jump from a year earlier.Celebration ensued. Alphabet’s shares, which drifted sideways during regular trading, immediately rose 4 percent after hours.

• Oracle’s $9.3 Billion Deal for NetSuite Will Bolster Its Cloud Offerings: When Evan M. Goldberg founded NetSuite in 1998, he did so with backing from his former boss, Lawrence J. Ellison, who started the software giant Oracle. On Thursday, their relationship came full circle as Oracle agreed to acquire NetSuite for $9.3 billion to beef up its cloud offerings.The NetSuite deal is Oracle’s largest acquisition since it bought PeopleSoft for $10.3 billion in 2004, according to data from Standard & Poor’s Global Market Intelligence. That deal, a hostile takeover fought out over 18 months, extended Oracle’s customer base and product offerings. It made Oracle bigger, but it did not change its business model. About 5,000 PeopleSoft employees, close to half the company, were laid off in the following months. The NetSuite purchase, on the other hand, is at the heart of Oracle’s fight to remake itself for the modern world of cloud computing, or providing accessing to vast computational resources over the internet. This transition has shaken up the software business for the last several years. Companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon have created markets worth billions, and older companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle have struggled to change the way they make and sell their products.The deal also illustrates that, for all the reach and novelty of tech, Silicon Valley remains a very small place with long personal histories. Mr. Goldberg got the idea for NetSuite after conversations with Mr. Ellison about where else the internet might go. Down the hall was another rising star at Oracle, named Marc Benioff. Mr. Benioff started a company called Salesforce.com within weeks of NetSuite’s start, also with backing from Mr. Ellison. Today, Salesforce is regarded as the leading company selling only cloud software, with a market capitalization of $55.7 billion. The relationship between Oracle and Salesforce is testy, however. In 2011, Mr. Benioff was kicked out of a big Oracle conference after he lampooned Oracle’s cloud efforts. And now the NetSuite technology will help Oracle compete more directly with Salesforce for customers.

• Flipkart valuation shrinks again; firm reveals job cuts: Global asset manager T. Rowe Price Group Inc. has reduced the value of its stake in Flipkart Ltd by a fifth, its second cut in four months, reflecting continued investor concerns over the valuations of technology start-ups. The move came ahead of a statement by Flipkart on Friday that it was cutting 300 to 600 additional jobs, after already shrinking its workforce to 30,000 from 33,000 at the start of the year to reduce costs. US-based T. Rowe Price lowered the value of its holding in Flipkart to $96.29 per share, a 20% erosion, according to a filing the investment manager made to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the quarter ended June. That values Flipkart at $10.3 billion, according to T. Rowe Price. The firm had earlier cut the value of its stake in Flipkart by 15% in April.On Friday, a Flipkart spokeswoman said the company had cut 300 to 600 jobs.The Economic Times reported on Friday that Flipkart was offering employees who had failed to meet expectations the choice to either resign or be sent off with severance pay, adding that the move was expected to impact 700-1,000 staff.

Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, July 26

• Amazon Expands Drone Testing in Britain:  Amazon has partnered with the British government to significantly expand drone testing, a move that could allow the devices to deliver packages to British homes far earlier than in the United States. Under the partnership, Britain’s aviation regulator will let Amazon test several aspects of drone technology — such as piloting the machines beyond the line of sight of its operators — that the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States has not permitted. The tests, which are an important sign of confidence in Britain after its historic vote last month to leave the European Union, are to begin immediately.The move puts pressure on the F.A.A., which had recently rebuffed requests by Amazon, Google and other drone makers to advance their delivery plans. The tech behemoths and other drone makers have aggressively lobbied the F.A.A. to authorize the devices to significantly reduce costs to transport goods by airplane, freight and trucks. Amazon said it hoped success with the drone trials in Britain would encourage more hesitant regulators in the United States and elsewhere to loosen restrictions. The trials will “help identify what operating rules and safety regulations will be needed to help move the drone industry forward,” the company said in a statement. Amazon will work with British regulators to test drones that fly beyond the line of sight of operators in rural and suburban areas. It will also test whether a single operator can safely command multiple drones at once, as well as technology that lets the machines automatically detect and avoid other planes, buildings and people.

• Analyst Downgrades Apple and Says It Has 'Peaked': With Apple Inc's earnings report just a day away, Wall Street analysts are more at oddsthan ever, and one of them in particular anticipates tough times for the tech giant. "Our opinion [is] that Apple has peaked under the leadership of CEO Tim Cook," Colin Gillis of BGC Financial L.P. said in a note this week. "Our view that that there is risk that the upgrade rate for the next iPhone may slow even more than the upgrade rate cycle of 6s, which has been materially lower than the upgrade rate of the iPhone 6 as per the company." However, others disagree and say that while things haven't been great as of late, things will get better next year. "Amid pervasive investor fear and negativity, we see results/guidance as not great but good enough to start swinging the tide from near-term fear to cautious optimism about the future," Timothy Arcuri of Cowen and Company LLC said in a note. "Given our installed base work, we see a "super-cycle" in '17 and iPhone 7 could even sell a little better than bearish expectations." Even Gillis acknowledges that shares could see a move higher after earnings due to the low expectations. After that bounce, though, his pessimism continues. "[W]hen we ask ourselves 'Do we see Apple gaining or losing its next $100 billion of value,' the answer is losing."

• Sprint says to be cash-flow positive next year, shares soar: Sprint Corp (S.N) reported better-than-expected first-quarter revenue as big discounts attracted more postpaid subscribers, and the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier said it expected to be cash flow positive next fiscal year after breaking even this year. The company's shares surged more than 28 percent to $5.93 on Monday - their biggest intraday percentage gain ever - after it also said it had enough money to fund its business this year. Some analysts and investors had raised questions about Sprint's financial position after majority owner SoftBank Corp (9984.T) agreed earlier this month to buy UK chipmaker ARM Holdings for $32 billion. Sprint had negative cash flow of $3.17 billion in the financial year ended March 31. "We expect that we will have adequate sources to provide all the capital necessary to fund the business and repay the debt maturities due in FY 16," Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati said on a conference call with analysts.Sprint, in which Japan's SoftBank holds a more than 80 percent stake, said its net operating revenue fell marginally to $8.01 billion. Up to Friday's close, Sprint's shares had risen 27.6 percent since the start of the year.

• Investors realize Nintendo didn’t develop Pokémon Go and shares plummet: Nintendo’s shares plunged after the company said late Friday that the worldwide success of Pokémon Go will not significantly impact its financial results. Nothing Nintendo disclosed about the ownership of the game was new information, but markets were shocked anyway. The stock sank 18 percent to 23,220 yen at the close in Tokyo, the maximum one-day move allowed by the exchange, noted Bloomberg. After the drop, Nintendo’s stock remained flat. In morning trading today, the Kyoto-based company’s shares were down $2.36, or 8.14 percent, at $26.64.On Friday, Nintendo put out a statement pointing out that it owns only 32 percent of the voting power of The Pokémon Company, an affiliated company that holds the ownership rights to Pokémon. Nintendo also owns 13 percent of Niantic, the San Francisco-based mobile developer spun out of Google last year who developed and distributed the game. “Because of this accounting scheme, the income reflected on the company’s consolidated business results is limited,” Nintendo wrote in a notice. Also, Nintendo said that “Pokémon Go Plus,” its peripheral device for use with the application, is scheduled for release and it’s already reflected in the financial forecast. Following Pokémon Go’s release in the U.S. at the beginning of July, Nintendo’s market valuation soared to more than $40 billion, passing Sony. 

Daily Tech Snippet: Wednesday, July 13

• EU-U.S. commercial data transfer pact enters into force: A new commercial data pact between the European Union and the United States entered into force on Tuesday, ending months of uncertainty over cross-border data flows, and companies such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft can sign up from Aug. 1. The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield will give businesses moving personal data across the Atlantic - from human resources information to people's browsing histories to hotel bookings - an easy way to do so without falling foul of tough EU data transferral rules. The previous such framework, Safe Harbour, was struck down by the EU's top court in October on the grounds that it allowed U.S. agents too much access to Europeans' data. Revelations three years ago from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden of mass U.S. surveillance practices caused political outrage in Europe and stoked mistrust of big U.S. tech companies. In the months that followed the EU ruling companies have had to rely on other more cumbersome mechanisms for legally transferring data to the United States. The Privacy Shield will underpin over $250 billion dollars of transatlantic trade in digital services annually. Google and Microsoft said they would sign up to the Privacy Shield and would work with European data protection authorities in case of inquiries. A person familiar with social network Facebook's thinking said the company had not yet decided whether to sign up.

• Google just scored a bunch of new property to make its crazy dream campus come true: Google couldn’t score LinkedIn’s business. But it’s getting LinkedIn’s real estate. On Tuesday, the two companies announced a large, surprising property swap encompassing over three million square feet of existing and future real estate, including LinkedIn’s corporate headquarters. The companies wouldn’t share financial terms, but they said neither side paid a premium for the properties. From Google, LinkedIn is picking up seven buildings, a plan it said will consolidate its staff around its Sunnyvale and Mountain View Calif., offices. The company said the deal is unrelated to its recent Microsoft acquisition. In return, Google is getting LinkedIn’s Mountain View headquarters office and — far more critical for the internet giant — four different surrounding properties that enable Google to follow through on its ambitious plan for a new, green, crazy-futurist campus. But here’s the kernel: Google proposed the aforementioned crazy-futurist campus in early 2015. It was a big deal; the “genius” architect behind it got a magazine cover. Then LinkedIn spoiled the fun: Mountain View’s city council voted last May to cede the property to LinkedIn, blocking Google’s grand vision. But now the runway for Google is clear.

• Amazon Says ‘Prime Day’ Sales Up 30 Percent for Merchants: Amazon.com Inc. said Prime Day sales from third-party merchants surged 30 percent compared with a year earlier, fueled largely by international demand. While U.S. sales appeared to start slowly on Tuesday, hampered by technical glitches, the world’s largest e-commerce company built momentum on the summertime promotion it created last year to entice shoppers to subscribe to its $99-a-year Amazon Prime membership. “Led by strong growth internationally, we are seeing more than 30 percent increase over last year in the number of items sold by small businesses and sellers on Prime Day,” Amazon said in an e-mail, reflecting sales as of 3 p.m. New York time. “We are expecting a record day for small businesses and sellers on Amazon with many more deals to come today.” Amazon also used Prime Day to push shoppers beyond physical goods by offering discounts on housecleaning through Amazon Home Services, restaurant delivery in several cities and on-demand video rentals for movies such as “Kung Fu Panda 3” and “Deadpool.” Hot-selling items on Tuesday included pressure cookers and iRobot Roomba vacuums, according to the company.The event highlights the benefits of Prime membership, such as free two-day shipping on many items, which converts the occasional Amazon shopper into a devotee. Prime subscribers spend about $1,200 annually on the website, compared with $500 for non-subscribers, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners in Chicago. Amazon had 63 million Prime subscribers as of June 30, an increase of 43 percent from a year earlier, according to the research firm.

Daily Tech Snippet: Tuesday, July 12

• The non-gamer’s guide to playing Pokemon Go: Pokemon Go is a full-blown phenomenon, with millions of downloads and excitement only growing after players got through their first weekend of being real-life Pokemon trainers. The game is heavy on fun but light on explanations -- particularly if you're so excited to start playing that you blitz through the opening tutorial. So maybe you've downloaded it, fired it up and then gotten, well, completely lost. If you're completely mystified by how this game actually works, here are some basics to get you out there and catching Pokemon in no time.Once you download the app, you'll be asked to sign in. You can sign in using an existing Google account. Or, if you're not so keen to connect your Pokemon identity to your Google identity, then you can also sign up with the Pokemon Trainer Club, which is an account with the Pokemon Co. From there, you design your character and pick your first Pokemon. Then you can get going! And you will have to actually get going. The whole selling point of the game is to walk around the real world to find the cute little critters. This not only encourages you to explore your own city, but also -- gasp! -- gets you outside and around other people. In fact, this is not really a game you can play while stationary. Sometimes Pokemon will come to you, but more often than not you have to go to them.

• Twitter Falls After Analysts Downgrade Stock on Slow Growth View: Twitter Inc. slipped after analysts at two firms downgraded the stock, citing a lack of confidence in the company’s direction and ability to capitalize on new products. "What is Twitter? Quite frankly, we don’t believe that question has been answered," said James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. in a note. "Barring any changes, Twitter was, is and will continue as a niche product." He downgraded the stock to the equivalent of hold from buy. Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey also lowered his rating on the stock to the equivalent of hold from buy. “User growth and engagement for Twitter continue to be challenged, and we believe that increasing monetization can only go so far with limited new product introductions increasing competition (Snapchat!) and a challenging advertising background,” Peck said in a note.The stock fell 2.6 percent to $17.61 at 10:16 a.m. in New York. The shares have declined about 50 percent over the past year, valuing the company at about $12.4 billion. Many analysts see the company as an inevitable takeover target some day, though not anytime soon. “It’s surely an upside risk to our new rating, but at this time we expect Twitter will have to navigate as a standalone company,” Cakmak said.

• The SEC is investigating whether Tesla should have told its investors about a fatal crash: The Securities Exchange Commission is opening an investigation into Tesla to determine whether the company should have told shareholders earlier about a fatal crash related to its autonomous driving tech, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Joshua Brown was killed on May 7 when his Tesla, operating in Autopilot mode, drove into a tractor-trailer that that was crossing the highway. Autopilot is a semi-autonomous driving technology that’s a much more sophisticated version of cruise control. Weeks later, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into the accident to determine whether the technology worked as expected. This SEC probe, on the other hand, is not about the technology; it’s about whether, under securities law, Tesla should have told its investors about the accident and when. A Tesla spokesperson said the company had not received any communication from the SEC as yet.) The results of the SEC probe will set a precedent for the auto industry as more automakers roll out their own versions of Autopilot. The 2017 Mercedes Benz E class will be equipped with semi-autonomous technology called Drive Pilot; Volvo’s XC90 already has semi-autonomous technology called Pilot Assist; and General Motor’s Super Cruise technology is expected to become available in the 2017 Cadillac CT6. Automakers typically don’t disclose to investors every single accident in which their vehicles are involved. If, however, the SEC determines that Tesla should have disclosed this accident to its investors, that may all change.

• Bezos Beats Buffett as Amazon Market Value Tops Berkshire: Amazon.com Inc., Jeff Bezos’s online retailer, moved past Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. to become one of the world’s five largest companies by market value on Monday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Amazon rose as high as $356.5 billion in the first two hours of trading. The company surpassed Berkshire on the day before Prime Day, an annual promotion.

Daily Tech Snippet: Friday, July 8

• Uber Is Said to Close $1.15 Billion High-Yield Leveraged Loan: Uber Technologies Inc. closed a $1.15 billion high-yield leveraged loan, a person familiar with the matter said, bringing the total equity and debt raised by the ride-hailing mobile app to more than $15 billion. Bloomberg reported last month that Uber was seeking to raise $1 billion to $2 billion in debt. Morgan Stanley, Barclays Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. facilitated the deal. Creditors will receive about a 5 percent yield on the loan, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the terms aren’t public.

• Amazon’s Audible Goes Long on Short-Form Audio: Amazon hopes to persuade people to pay for something they have traditionally enjoyed free: short-form audio. Audible, Amazon’s audiobook and spoken-word subsidiary, on Thursday announced Channels, a subscription service that will offer a new library of audio, including original programs, articles read aloud and more. At $4.95 a month, it presents a lower-priced entry point to the service and significantly expands on Audible’s core audiobook offering, while giving listeners more incentive to stick with the company. Channels will be free under Audible’s traditional $14.95 monthly membership, which provides access to hundreds of thousands of programs and audiobooks.Roughly two out of five Audible customers listen to podcasts, he said. But those customers are not always satisfied with what they find. “When you talk to those customers and you ask them about podcasting, they describe something that equally enthralls them and frustrates them,” he said. In that frustration, Audible sees an opportunity. Similar programs, in the form of podcasts — a label Audible resists as too narrow — have traditionally been free, supported by advertising, sponsorships, user donations or support from media and radio organizations. That a subsidiary of a company as aggressive as Amazon would invest in such a service suggests that it anticipates a willingness among the public to pay for short-form audio.

Daily Tech Snippet: Wednesday, June 29

• Lyft Tells Investors to Expect No Growth in Rides for June: Lyft Inc. may be hitting a wall in its war with its richer competitor. Lyft told investors in a recent memo obtained by Bloomberg that it expects the number of rides it handles to be flat or down in June, compared with May. That follows a record month for rides in May. Lyft expects to beat its target for second-quarter ride volume by 35 percent, Lyft told its investors. "This implies June will be flat to slightly down from the record May level given we face traditional seasonality headwinds in June as most college students leave their campuses for the summer," the note said. "Additionally, June represents the first full month without Austin, after pausing operations in the city in May." (Uber and Lyft pulled out of Austin, Texas, after the city passed legislation that would require them to conduct fingerprinted background checks on their drivers.)  One Lyft investor told Bloomberg that, given the company’s heavy losses, if Lyft could sell itself for $5.5 billion -- the value of the company at its latest valuation -- that would be an acceptable price. Qatalyst could also help the startup sell a stake, rather than the whole business. The company also said in the memo that it reached a nearly $1.9 billion annual revenue run rate based on its performance in May. In November, it touted a $1 billion run rate. Revenue run rates apply monthly figures to a 12-month period. Investors use them to gauge the potential for growing businesses.While Lyft expects to lose hundreds of millions this year, Uber has lost money on a much larger scale. In three quarters last year Uber lost $1.7 billion. The company has committed to spending billions in China and India, and Uber has continued to subsidize rides against its global competitors like Didi Chuxing and Ola. Like Lyft, as a private company, Uber’s financials are private.

• Airbnb’s new funding round makes it the second-most valuable startup in the United States: Last year, Airbnb raised $1.5 billion at a $25.5 billion valuation. Earlier this month, the companyraised $1 billion in debt financing. And now, sources close to the company tell Recode, Airbnb is currently raising an undisclosed amount of cash at a $30 billion valuation. Such a deal would make Airbnb the second-most valuable startup in the United States, trailing only the $62.5 billion Uber. The New York Times first reporteddetails of Airbnb’s latest round. With all the new money, Airbnb plans to grow its global operation. Bloomberg has previously reported that the company plans to add booking features later this year for things beyond short-term home rentals (think museums, restaurants, etc.). In the meantime, Airbnb is being kept busy on the legal front. Earlier this week the company filed suit against the city of San Francisco for imposing stiff penalties on home rental registration rules that Airbnb helped write. The company is also locked in a battle with the New York government, where state legislatorsrecently passed a bill that would further restrict the company’s listings.

• Amazon Expands Items on Dash Buttons as Order Rate Doubles: Amazon.com Inc. has added more than 50 new brands to its Dash Button service for instantly reordering everyday items, citing a doubling in the frequency of orders over the last three months. After introducing the WiFi-connected plastic tabsthat can be mounted to the fridge, washing machine or kitchen cupboard in 2015, the online retailing giant has steadily increased the number of brands available for replenishment to more than 150, Amazon said in a statement Thursday. Amazon also expanded its product categories to include toys, such as Play-Doh and NERF darts and added new items like Campbell’s Soup and Cascade dishwashing soap. Members of Amazon Prime, which offers free two-day delivery on many items, are placing orders at a pace of more than twice a minute, Amazon said, up from once a minute three months ago. Total orders increased more than 70 percent in the last three months.

Daily Tech Snippet: Tuesday, June 28

• Lyft Is Said to Hire Qatalyst as Uber’s Rival Explores Deals: Lyft Inc., the second-largest U.S. ride-hailing startup, is working with Qatalyst Partners LP to explore deal options, said a person familiar with the matter. Qatalyst, an investment bank founded by Wall Street veteran Frank Quattrone, has orchestrated high-profile sales of technology companies. Lyft and Qatalyst declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal, which earlier reported the hiring, said Quattrone has contacted large automakers about buying a stake in Lyft. In January, Lyft said General Motors invested $500 million into the San Francisco company. Lyft, which was last valued at $5.5 billion, has been overshadowed by Uber. While Lyft only operates in the U.S., it has teamed up with China’s Didi Chuxing and other global ride-hailing companies to form an alliance to take on Uber.

• JD.com Loses Luster as Hedge Funds Backpedal Amid Slowing Growth:JD.com Inc., the Chinese online retailer that a year ago was a favorite among hedge fund managers including Tiger Management LLC’s Julian Robertson, is quickly losing its allure. The U.S.-traded stock has plunged 37 percent this year, wiping out almost $17 billion in market value. The number of shares borrowed for short selling touched a record on June 15 after more than doubling in less than a month. Hedge funds including Tiger and Lone Pine Capital have been bailing out. The turnaround comes as China’s slowing economy and intensifying e-commerce competition crimp the company’s expansion. With sales growth flagging, investors are increasingly questioning when, or even if, the 12-year-old company will ever become profitable.After revenue more than quadrupled over the past three years, the shortcomings of the country’s second-largest e-commerce company are now being laid bare by China’s slowing consumption. JD.com’s self-owned inventory and logistics have helped it grab market share by offering authentic products and speedy shipping. That model, similar to Amazon.com Inc.’s, also has driven up costs and led to operating losses as the company builds warehouses and employs more than 59,000 delivery staff, more than the total number of employees of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., its larger Chinese competitor.The stock slump has deepened since May 9, when JD.com said first-quarter revenue growth fell to 47 percent, from 57 percent the previous period. Its loss widened to 10 cents per share, from 8 cents a year earlier. The company warned that revenue may increase as little as 40 percent in the second quarter.

• Amazon Unveils Online Education Service for Teachers: Just ahead of the back-to-school season, Amazon plans to make a major foray into the education technology market for primary and secondary schools, a territory that Apple, Google and Microsoft have heavily staked out. Monday morning, Amazon said that it would introduce an online marketplace with tens of thousands of free lesson plans, worksheets and other instructional materials for teachers in late August or early September. Called Amazon Inspire, the education site has features that may seem familiar to frequent Amazon shoppers. Search bar at the top of the page? Check. User reviews? Check. Star ratings for each product? Check. By starting out with a free resources service for teachers, Amazon is establishing a foothold that could expand into a one-stop shopping marketplace — not just for paid learning materials, but for schools’ wider academic and institutional software needs, said Tory Patterson, co-founder of Owl Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in ed tech start-ups. Amazon is joining other tech industry giants in a push to expand the use of technology in the public schools. Last year, primary and secondary schools in the United States spent $4.9 billion on tablet, laptop and desktop computers, according to a report by Linn Huang, a research director at the International Data Corporation, a market research firm known as IDC. Schools bought 10.8 million Apple, Google Chrome and Microsoft Windows devices in 2015, he said. Because its devices tend to cost more, Apple accounted for the largest slice of school computer sales, amounting to $2.2 billion, Mr. Huang said. By volume, however, Chromebooks — the inexpensive laptops that run on Google’s Chrome operating system — have taken schools by storm, accounting for more than five million devices bought last year, he said. Even so, ed tech industry analysts said the growing market for digital educational materials, which Amazon is entering, is likely to prove much more valuable over time than the school computer market.

Daily Tech Snippet: Monday, June 13

• Apple Starts to Woo Its App Developers: When Apple’s App Store opened in 2008, there were well under a thousand apps, and the relationship was obviously beneficial for both sides. But now, when there are more than 1.5 million apps fighting for attention in the App Store, the benefits for developers, particularly smaller ones, have become much less apparent. “Is Apple coasting on its relationship and lead with developers? I think the answer is yes,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners. “Their app store is considered an unappealing experience by many people. Their rules are arbitrary, and they take a big slice of money from sales.” For a long time, Apple didn’t have to care. But now it faces flat sales of its flagship iPhones, a lack of excitement about newer products like its smart watch and Apple TV, growing competition from Google’s Android platform and the rise of new challengers like Amazon’s Echo device, which responds to a user’s voice commands at home with the kind of magic that used to be an Apple hallmark. As the company prepares to hold its annual developer conference in San Francisco next week, there are signs that it wants to improve its relationship with app makers. Among the announcements expected at the gathering: Apple plans to finally give developers access to its Siri voice assistant so they can incorporate it into their apps.Apple’s charm offensive began in earnest in December, after it put Philip W. Schiller, its senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in charge of the App Store. Under Mr. Schiller, the company accelerated the app approval process, cutting typical review times from two weeks to a day or two. On Wednesday, Apple announced that it would soon begin allowing app makers to buy ads that would appear at the top of search results in the App Store, like the ads already on Google’s Play Store and website. Apple also said that it would cut its usual 30 percent commission on all subscriptions to 15 percent after an app subscriber had been active for at least a year.

• What happens when your search engine is first to know you have cancer:This week researchers demonstrated that by analyzing a person’s Web searches they could in some cases predict an upcoming diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The team of researchers aren’t pancreatic cancers experts, but computer scientists at Microsoft. Unlike traditional medical professionals, they have the advantage of access to a trove of data that Microsoft collects through its search engine, Bing. The Microsoft researchers identified Web users who had recently searched for queries indicating they have pancreatic cancer, such as “I was told I have pancreatic cancer, what to expect,” and then looked back months earlier to examine patterns in the symptoms that the users searched for. This included phrases such as “dark or tarry stool,” “abdominal swelling,” “dark urine” and “yellowing skin.” From this analysis they realized trends in the queries of users who were soon to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, identifying 5 to 15 percent of cases with low false-positive rates. The research was published in the Journal of Oncology Practice.

• Alibaba Bears Pounce as SEC Probe, SoftBank Sale Squeeze Shares:Traders have never been more bearish on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the fast-growing Chinese e-commerce company facing a regulatory probe and the loss of a key investor. The total number of outstanding shares borrowed for short selling peaked at more than 124 million last week. That’s the most since its 2014 initial public offering and is up from about 60 million in December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Markit. Prominent short sellers including Jim Chanos and John Hempton have been red-flagging Alibaba for months, suggesting that its growth figures might be too good to be true. Bearish bets spiked in the past two weeks after the company disclosed a regulatoryprobe of its Chinese delivery unit and SoftBank Group Corp. disclosed plans to sell a $10 billion stake. Alibaba, which claimed more than 75 percent of the e-commerce market share in China last year, made history with a record $25 billion initial public offering in September 2014. Traders in New York clamored for the stock, which was priced at $68 a share, as a way to tap into the potential profits available from the country’s growing middle class. The shares have dropped 6.4 percent to $75.92 since May 25 when the company said that the SEC is looking at data reported from the company’s Singles’ Day promotion, Alibaba’s biggest shopping day, and how the company consolidates results from affiliates, including logistics partner Cainiao Network. While SoftBank’s divestment comes as part of a broader strategy to find new investments in startups and strengthen its debt-heavy balance sheet, the move can be unsettling to investors as the Japanese technology giant first bought into the company 16 years ago, said Henry Guo, a New York-based analyst at M Science. “The stake sale by SoftBank caught the market off guard, which damped Alibaba shares as it’s one of the early investors,” Guo, who has been covering Chinese internet stocks traded in the U.S. for about 10 years and has a positive outlook on Alibaba, said by phone.

• Amazon is preparing to launch streaming music service - sources: Amazon.com Inc is preparing to launch a standalone music streaming subscription service, placing it squarely in competition with rival offerings from Apple Inc and Spotify, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The service will be offered at $9.99 per month, in line with major rivals, and it will offer a competitive catalog of songs, the sources said. Amazon (AMZN.O) is finalizing licenses with labels for the service, which likely will be launched in late summer or early fall, the sources said. Amazon, which offers a free streaming music service with a limited catalog to subscribers of its Prime shipping and video service, did not respond to a request for comment about the new, full-fledged music plan. Although it will be a late entrant to the crowded streaming space, Amazon believes a comprehensive music service is important to its bid to be a one-stop shop for content and goods, the sources said. The new music offering also is intended to increase the appeal of the Amazon Echo, its home speaker, which searches the Internet and orders products from the retailer with voice commands.

• Why Line’s Two-Year Wait for IPO Cost It $4 Billion in Valuation: Line Corp. has finally pulled the trigger on an initial public offering after a two-year hiatus. That period of hesitation may have cost the messaging service $4 billion in valuation as Facebook Inc. began encroaching on its turf and markets cooled on technology company debuts. Japan’s leading mobile messaging service is aiming to raise as much as 113 billion yen ($1 billion) in July at a market value of roughly 588 billion yen, according to data in its Friday IPO filings. That’s down 40 percent from an estimated 1 trillion yen when it first filed for an offering in 2014. The price range will be set on June 27, and the final price July 11. That may be as good as it gets. Line’s gearing up for a battle with far larger rivals like Facebook and China’s WeChat as it looks to expand its 218 million user base beyond its strongest markets of Japan, Taiwan and Thailand. The Tokyo-based company, owned by South Korean search portal Naver Corp., plans to use the proceeds to spearhead an expansion across Asia and, eventually, the U.S. “Line will have its market in Japan fairly fortified from the likes of WhatsApp or even Facebook Messenger,” said Amir Anvarzadeh, manager of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc. “Outside of its core markets, it’s going to be a massive challenge.”

Daily Tech Snippet: Friday, June 10

• Thomas J. Perkins, Pioneering Venture Capitalist in Silicon Valley, Dies at 84: Thomas J. Perkins, who nurtured Silicon Valley’s venture capital industry into a force that later helped foster the growth of companies like Google and Amazon, died Tuesday night at his home in Marin County, Calif. He was 84. Mr. Perkins co-founded the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1972, at a time when parts of Silicon Valley were still fruit orchards. Mr. Perkins and his partners popularized a model of investment that involved putting small amounts of money into promising young start-ups in return for a stake in the companies, giving them advice and counsel to spur their growth. Some of the investments turned into gigantic hits. Mr. Perkins had said that his favorite investment was Genentech, a biotechnology company that has since been acquired by Roche. Over time, Kleiner Perkins — and its home on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif. — became a destination for other venture capitalists. Mr. Perkins helped recruit venture capitalists like John Doerr to his firm, leading to investments in a new generation of technology companies, including Netscape, AOL, Amazon and later Google. The firm’s success transformed Silicon Valley and the technology and biotechnology industries, leading to a proliferation of venture firms in the region and creating an ecosystem of investment in start-ups that today remains unrivaled in any other part of the world. Later in his life, Mr. Perkins was embroiled in several controversies. In 1996, he was convicted in France of involuntary manslaughter from a yacht collision. In another, he stepped down from the board of Hewlett-Packard in 2006 after he said the company had used illegal methods to obtain his phone records. The allegations led to the resignation of H.P.’s chairwoman and an overhaul of the board. He also publicly broke with Kleiner Perkins in 2014 after writing an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal in which he compared the “progressive war on the American 1 percent” to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. The comments set off a firestorm, and the firm moved to distance itself from Mr. Perkins, who later apologized for his language. David A. Kaplan, who wrote a biography of Mr. Perkins titled “Mine’s Bigger: The Extraordinary Tale of the World’s Greatest Sailboat and the Silicon Valley Tycoon Who Built It” (2007), said in an interview on Thursday that Mr. Perkins’s “legacy won’t be helped by all the excessive things he said in recent years and the grudges he nursed,” though he was a “seminal figure” for Silicon Valley.

• Amazon confirms international expansion of its Fresh grocery delivery service: Amazon announced an overseas expansion of its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service on Thursday, starting with a rollout in certain neighborhoods in London. Recode reported two weeks ago that Amazon planned to expand to a variety of new markets this year, including the U.K. and Boston in the U.S., after an 18-month hiatus on new city launches. The service will cost Londoners about $10 a month on top of their regular Amazon Prime membership, or about $120 a year. In the U.S., an Amazon Fresh membership costs about $200 on top of the normal $99 Prime membership program. Orders of around $58 or more come with free delivery in London. Amazon delivers the groceries — which can include both packaged groceries as well as perishable items like meat and cheese — on the same day for morning orders, or the next day for late afternoon and evening orders. Amazon Fresh launched nearly a decade ago, but has expanded slowly as the company has tried to figure out a business model that works. The service was previously only available in parts of Washington, California, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The online grocery market is still tiny in the U.S., but is more mature in the U.K. That means more competition for Amazon, but perhaps the opportunity to grow the business more quickly.

• Uber Feels UberPop Hangover With French, German Legal Setbacks: Uber Technologies Inc. is feeling the sting of European judges from Paris to Frankfurt over UberPop, suffering setbacks in France and Germany months after it took the ride-sharing option out of its app there. On Thursday, a French criminal court fined the company and two of its executives a total of 850,000 euros ($960,000), half of which was suspended, and a German appeals court separately said it wouldn’t overturn a ban of UberPop in the country. French prosecutors had attacked Uber for fraudulent commercial practices and encouraging illegal activity through UberPop, as well as improper use of personal data. “UberPop went on for months illegally, though the company and its executives knew very well what the applicable legal context was,” judge Cecile Louis-Loyant said in Paris. She fined Uber France 800,000 euros, the head of its French operations, Thibaud Simphal, 20,000 euros and Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, the company’s general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, another 30,000 euros, saying they incited others to break the law by working for the service, leading to riots and taxistrikes in the French capital. UberPop, which allows anyone with a vehicle and driver’s license to offer a cab-like service, stopped in July in France and was banned in Germany in March 2015. Meanwhile Uber’s main chauffeured-car service, that requires registration with authorities, is still going.

Daily Tech Snippet: Wednesday, June 8

• Online Reviews? Researchers Give Them a Low Rating: Reviews tell us what to read next, where to eat dinner and what to order there, where to go on vacation and what doctor to call. Soon, as Google demonstrated with the introduction of its voice-activated Google Home device in May, reviews will be read aloud to you as you lie on the couch, wondering what movie to see next. But if reviews are ubiquitous, there are also persistent controversies over how many of the reviews on the internet were bought by the subject rather than written as finely reasoned opinions from a neutral party, and whether that distorts all results.But if reviews are ubiquitous, there are also persistent controversies over how many of the reviews on the internet were bought by the subject rather than written as finely reasoned opinions from a neutral party, and whether that distorts all results. In May, Yelp issued 59 new Consumer Alerts, which are notices it puts on a business’s page that it has been caught trying to pay for better reviews. Among those cited were a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon and an emergency room in Humble, Tex. Lifehacker.com recently took on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, arguing their way of compiling reviews was “fundamentally flawed.” FiveThirtyEight.com reported that “men are sabotaging the online reviews of TV shows aimed at women.” (Why? Because they can.) Bart de Langhe, an assistant professor of marketing at Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, used to see numerical reviews online and accept them implicitly. Then, when his son was born three years ago, he needed to buy a car seat. Mr. de Langhe noticed that the seat rated lowest by Consumer Reports got a high rating on Amazon, and the one rated highest by Consumer Reports received a low rating on Amazon. The more popular seat on Amazon was also more expensive. Were reviewers, he wondered, paying more attention to things like price and brand than the objective, measurable ability of the seat to protect its occupant? With two other researchers, Philip Fernbach and Donald Lichtenstein, Mr. de Langhe began a study that compared online reviews for items like air-conditioners and car batteries with the evaluations in Consumer Reports. “Navigating by the Stars” was published in April in The Journal of Consumer Research. After analyzing 344,157 Amazon ratings of 1,272 products in 120 product categories, the researchers found “a substantial disconnect” between the objective quality information that online reviews actually convey and the extent to which consumers trust them. In other words, the consumer saw a number — 4.6 stars out of 5 — and took it much more seriously than it merited. Nearly half the time, Amazon reviewers and the Consumer Reports experts disagreed about which item in a random pair was better. Moreover, average user ratings did not predict resale value in the used-product marketplace, another traditional indicator of quality.

• Amazon to Invest Additional $3 Billion in India, CEO Bezos Says: Amazon.com Inc. will invest $3 billion more to build its business in India, bringing the company’s total pledged investment in the country since 2014 to $5 billion as it chases growth outside the U.S. Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of the Seattle-based online retailer, announced the investment Tuesday at the U.S.-India Business Council’s Leadership Summit in Washington, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to executives from U.S. companies. “We have already created some 45,000 jobs in India and continue to see huge potential in the Indian economy,” Bezos said in a statement from the council. “Our Amazon.in team is surpassing even our most ambitious planned milestones.” Amazon gets most of its international revenue from the U.K., Germany and Japan. The company doesn’t break out sales from India, instead including it in a group with other international markets. Revenue from that group in 2015 reached $7.4 billion, or 6.9 percent of total sales. Amazon has targeted India as an area ripe for growth, and has been spending to challenge local e-commerce company Flipkart. Bezos said at a conference last week that Amazon is doing most of the last-mile deliveries and opening more distribution centers in India. Bezos also highlighted achievements in India in his annual letter to shareholders. They included the launch of Seller Flex, which uses Amazon sellers’ warehouses to store other products sold on Amazon, helping the company quickly expand its delivery capabilities. Amazon’s cloud computing division is also developing new infrastructure in India.

• Sovereign wealth funds throw funding lifeline to tech ventures: A succession of funding deals by deep-pocketed sovereign wealth funds have thrown a life preserver to some of the world’s biggest private tech firms whose high valuations have come under scrutiny in the past year. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States along with state-backed investors in Singapore and China have ploughed money into hot tech investments such as ride-sharing company Uber  and Chinese Internet giant Alibaba and its private affiliates. With overall funding for start-ups slowing down by a third to $25.5 billion in the last two quarters, according to data from CB Insights, high-profile ventures are turning to government funds or institutional money to create "private IPOs" rather than to venture capitalists or chancing public listings. These capital injections have helped to keep valuations high as other tech ventures such as those of cloud storage service Dropbox or Indian takeaway food ordering app Zomato have been marked down by some earlier backers. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund said last week it invested $3.5 billion in Uber, Silicon Valley's most highly valued private company. At $62.5 billion, the car-sharing firm is worth more than the stock market capitalizations of automakers BMW or GM and close to VW, Daimler and Ford. Also last week, Singapore's two big government investors bought $1 billion of Alibaba Group shares, while in April, China Investment Corp, took part in a $4.5 billion round in Alibaba's financial services affiliate ANT Financial with other investors, marking the largest ever funding round in a fintech firm. Saudi Arabia's $3.5 billion stake in Uber was the largest ever single private investment in a tech company while the Kuwait Investment Authority took the lead this year in a $165 million private equity funding for struggling U.S. wearable devices maker Jawbone, one of seven tech and healthcare ventures it has made in the last two years. Qatar Investment Authority invested in Uber and Indian ecommerce firm Flipkart in 2014. Norway’s $865-billion fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth investor, is a major backer of publicly traded tech stocks such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O), but it can only invest in an unlisted company in the final run up to a public offering. Restrictions on private investments mean it passed on an offer from Facebook (FB.O) to invest several years ago.

• The unsexiest trillion-dollar startup: Steve Jobs went ballistic when public shipping manifests leaked the existence of the iPhone 3G. That’s about the only time something exciting happened in the freight forwarding business. The circulatory system of the global economy is a trillion-dollar industry, yet no one really talks about it, or builds tech for it. That’s what makes freight such a massive disruption opportunity for a startup likeFlexport.  Transparency begets data, which begets efficiency. Smarter shipping shrinks the physical world the way faster internet shrinks the digital one. New businesses emerge. High bandwidth connections paved the way for Netflix. Now Flexport could make meatspace merchants as nimble as Amazon. With $26.9 million in funding, Flexport grew the volume of goods it ships by 16X this year. Y Combinator president Paul Graham says “Flexport is one of that small handful of startups that are going to change the world.” Freight might finally be getting the weight of attention it deserves. Stick with me. Anything weighing over 150 kilos can’t be sent like a parcel through the postal service. It qualifies as freight, and can require several separately owned vehicles to deliver it across land, sea, or air from its source like a factory to a destination like a retail store. To get the best deal on each leg of the journey and handle the hand-offs through customs, freight forwarding services serve as an organizational logistics layer. They have direct relationships with carriers like truck owners and massive shipping container boats. But like I said, it’s an unsexy business, so until recently, freight forwarding was still being done with a jumble of Excel, email, fax, and paper manifests shipped around the world. That made it extremely tough to spot overspending or snags in supply chains. That is, until Flexport indexed all the available carriers into a searchable database in its free software for organizing and tracking shipments. In 2016 it’s moved freight to or from 64 countries for over 700 clients like Ring and Le Tote, with a $1.5 billion annual run-rate of merchandise value shipped. There’s 2.4 million toys and 412,000 pieces of glassware currently in transit on the Flexport platform. Its investors include First Round, Founders Fund, Felicis, GV (Google Ventures), Box Group, Bloomberg Beta, and Ashton Kutcher. That’s quite an ascent considering Petersen admits “I didn’t learn what the term ‘freight forwarder’ meant until a year into starting the business.”

Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, June 2

• Uber Turns to Saudi Arabia for $3.5 Billion Cash Infusion: In its quest to build a global empire, Uber has turned to the Middle East for its biggest infusion of cash from a single investor. Uber said on Wednesday that it had raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the kingdom’s main investment fund. The money was part of the ride-hailing giant’s most recent financing round and continued to value the company at $62.5 billion. The investment does not cash out any of Uber’s existing investors.Uber, which has viewed the Middle East as an important area in its expansion, said the investment further aligned the company with Saudi Arabia as the kingdom planned to transform its economy, reducing its dependence on oil and improving employment. The investment from Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest single investments collected by the technology world’s top privately held companies. Uber, whose valuation makes it Silicon Valley’s most valuable private business, has collected billions at a rapid clip over the last three years. Uber has drawn from a wide variety of investors, including traditional venture capital firms, mutual fund giants like BlackRock and wealthy clients of firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Other sovereign wealth funds like that of Qatar have also invested. Other smaller tech companies have not fared as well in raising money over the last several months. Some so-called unicorns, the term used to refer to businesses valued at more than $1 billion, have struggled to collect new investments, and some, like Jawbone, have had to raise money at lower valuations. Uber is racing to defend its territory — which covers 460 cities in more than 69 countries — against incumbents in other regions like Southeast Asia and Europe. China, in particular, is a difficult battleground, as Uber is spending millions in a subsidy war with Didi Chuxing, the dominant ride-hailing start-up in the country. Both companies have made no indications that they will back down. Though Uber dominates the American market for ride-hailing, it has increasingly seen overseas markets as crucial to its growth. Among Uber’s increasingly important overseas markets is the Middle East, where the company has already said it plans to invest $250 million. The service operates in 15 cities and nine countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia.

• No Venture Capital Needed, or Wanted: The business world is filled with starry-eyed entrepreneurs who hope that the blessings of angel investors and venture capitalists will transform their start-up dreams into companies with billion-dollar valuations. But some successful start-ups have been bucking the trend by growing and expanding without taking a dime from major outside equity investors.Those who buck the odds by “bootstrapping” their own enterprises are rare, experts say. “It’s a huge anomaly,” said Mark Walsh, head of innovation and investment at the Small Business Administration He estimated that as few as one in 50 brick-and-mortar companies and one in 10 online companies could build their businesses into $50 million or $100 million enterprises on their own. But taking venture capital can be risky. In their haste to get financing, start-up founders often fail to read the fine print and later discover that they have signed away huge shares of the profits. In some cases, founders may be removed by the board of their own companies by the time the businesses are rapidly growing or plan to go public. For these reasons, some founders opt to take debt capital from banks and investors instead of giving away equity.

• Internet Boom Times Are Over, Says Mary Meeker’s Influential Report: Global internet and smartphone user growth are slowing dramatically, but at least things are looking up in India.  Growth of internet users worldwide is essentially flat, and smartphone growth is slowing, too. Those sobering insights were among the hundreds packed into the much-awaited Internet Trends report, an annual tech industry ritual led by Mary Meeker, a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Developing countries have proven harder to capture than expected because internet access remains inaccessible or unaffordable for many, the report said. Here are some other highlights from the report: India is the one country where internet usage is growing, up 40 percent compared with 33 percent a year ago. India passed the U.S. to become the No. 2 global market behind China in 2015. The Asia Pacific region represented 52 percent of smartphone users globally in 2015. The rapid growth in recent years has begun to slow, dropping to 23 percent in 2015 from 35 percent in 2014. North America, Europe, and Japan represented 63 percent of global GDP in 1985. By 2015, their contribution dropped to 29 percent. China and emerging markets in Asia represented 63 percent of global GDP last year. Online advertising is still not very effective. Advertisers are spending an outsize amount on legacy media. Global birth rates are down 39 percent since 1960. So where will technology growth come from? Who knows, but at least there's this: Global life expectancy is up 36 percent since 1960.

• Elizabeth Holmes, Founder of Theranos, Falls From Highest Perch Off Forbes List: Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood testing company Theranos, was a rare breed, something more rare than even the Silicon Valley unicorn she created: a self-made female billionaire. Forbes, the business publication that has made a franchise of cataloging the rich, had put Ms. Holmes on the top of its list last year of America’s richest self-made women.The magazine’s new estimated tally of her wealth? It went from $4.5 billion to $0. Ms. Holmes’s unusual status, as a young woman who created and controlled a company seemingly valued at about $9 billion, captivated the media: She graced countless magazine covers, including T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Theranos, she said, would revolutionize the lab industry by offering blood tests from a single finger prick at a fraction of the cost of traditional testing. But over the last year, Theranos became the subject of a series of hard-hitting Wall Street Journal articles and intense regulatory scrutiny from an array of federal agencies. The media is now mesmerized by Ms. Holmes’s fall. Truth be told, the half of the $9 billion valuation ascribed to Theranos and previously listed as Ms. Holmes’s wealth was nothing more than an estimate based on investors’ best guesses. Taking into account all the controversy and uncertainty surrounding the value of the company’s top-secret technology, Forbes is now guessing that the company is worth more like $800 million. While Ms. Holmes still owns at least half of the company, much of that value would be tied up with outside investors.Not surprisingly, Theranos refused to shed any light on the matter, except to dispute Forbes’s analysis.

• Early days, but Apple Pay struggles outside U.S.: More than 18 months after Apple Pay took the United States by storm, the smartphone giant has made only a small dent in the global payments market, snagged by technical challenges, low consumer take-up and resistance from banks. The service is available in six countries and among a limited range of banks, though in recent weeks Apple has added four banks to its sole Singapore partner American Express; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Australia; and Canada's five big banks. Apple Pay usage totaled $10.9 billion last year, the vast majority of that in the United States. That is less than the annual volume of transactions in Kenya, a mobile payments pioneer, according to research firm Timetric. And its global turnover is a drop in the bucket in China, where Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent dominate the world's biggest mobile payments market - with an estimated $1 trillion worth of mobile transactions last year, according to iResearch data. Anecdotal evidence from Britain, China and Australia suggests Apple Pay is popular with core Apple followers, but the quality of service, and interest in it, varies significantly. To use Apple Pay, consumers tap their iPhone over payment terminals to buy coffee, train tickets and other services. It can be also used at vending machines that accept contactless payments. Apple Pay transactions were a fraction of the $84.5 billion in iPhone sales for the six months to March, which accounted for two-thirds of Apple's total revenue.

• Singapore buys $1 billion in Alibaba stock in SoftBank sale: Singapore sovereign wealth funds bought $1 billion of Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's shares as part of an $8.9 billion sale by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, Alibaba's biggest shareholder, the company said on Wednesday. Singapore's GIC Private, Ltd and Temasek Holdings each purchased $500 million of Alibaba shares at $74.00 apiece through subsidiaries, Alibaba said, offering details of the SoftBank sale announced on Tuesday. Alibaba purchased $2 billion of its own stock at the same price, in a move which would add to earnings, Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai told analysts on a call. Members of the Alibaba Partnership of senior executives and founders purchased another $400 million, as expected, at the $74 per share price, he added. SoftBank also offered $5.5 billion in debt securities, which can be exchanged for Alibaba stock in three years, Tsai said. SoftBank Group said on Tuesday it would sell at least $7.9 billion of shares in Alibaba to cut the Japanese company's debt. It said it would remain Alibaba's largest shareholder after the sale. Shares of Alibaba fell about 6.5 percent to close at $76.69.

• Salesforce takes aim at e-commerce with $2.8 billion Demandware buy: Cloud-based software maker Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N) said on Wednesday it would buy Demandware Inc (DWRE.N), whose software is used by businesses to run e-commerce websites, for about $2.8 billion. The deal would help Salesforce open a new front as it seeks to take more market share from traditional software providers such as Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) and SAP AG (SAPG.DE), both of which already offer cloud-based e-commerce services. The e-commerce market has been growing at a blistering pace as retailers expand their online presence, boosting demand for software that helps manage functions such as payment processing and inventory management. Salesforce's cash offer of $75.00 per share represents a 56.3 percent premium to Demandware's Tuesday closing. The lofty premium indicates that multiple bidders were likely at the table for Demandware, Stifel Nicolaus & Co analyst Thomas Roderick said, naming Adobe Systems Inc ABDE.O and Oracle as the other possible contenders. Demandware's shares, which have fallen about 21 percent in the past year, rose 55.9 percent to $74.81 on Wednesday. Shares of Salesforce, considered a barometer for the cloud-computing industry, edged down 0.3 percent.

• Amazon sues sellers for buying fake reviews: Seller beware — if you buy reviews for your products on Amazon, the company might sue you. As part of its effort to combat fake reviews on its platform, Amazon sued three of its sellers today for using sock puppet accounts to post fake reviews about their products. Amazon has been aggressively pursuing reviewers it does not consider genuine over the last year, often using lawsuits to discourage the buying and selling of reviews, but this is the first time it has sued the sellers themselves. Today’s suits are against sellers who Amazon claims used fake accounts to leave positive reviews on their own products. The fake reviews spanned from 30 to 45 percent of the sellers’ total reviews. The defendants are Michael Abbara of California, Kurt Bauer of Pennsylvania, and a Chinese company called CCBetter Direct. Amazon is asking for the defendants to be banned from selling products on any of its sites or accessing its services. The suits also ask for the profits the sellers made on Amazon, attorneys’ fees, and damages exceeding $25,000. Amazon says that, since early 2015, it has sued over 1,000 people who posted fake reviews for cash. Now, the company is going after the retailers themselves. Amazon said that it intends to eliminate incentives for sellers to buy fake reviews for their products. “Our goal is to eliminate the incentives for sellers to engage in review abuse and shut down this ecosystem around fraudulent reviews in exchange for compensation,” an Amazon spokesperson said.