Hej,
last week had two major events: (i) the merger of the year – probably – was announced as AT&T bought Time Warner for USD 85.4 BN of which half in cash half in shares; (ii) fully autonomous cars are now being shipped to the public as Tesla announced.
(i) Let’s elaborate briefly: Fox tried to buy TWX in 2014 but came in too low. This time the deal is approved on both sides creating another media giant. It is yet another distributer buying a content player that includes HBO and CNN. Pitchbook
(ii) Now anybody who two or three years ago, autonomous cars aren’t going to happen during our lifetime or be commercial before 2030 just got proven wrong. Tesla – with evangelist Elon Musk – are as of right now producing vehicles with fully autonomous capabilities and claim to be able to make the technology available in late 2017 The Verge Wired
Tech
– VC firm KPCB released its Internet trends of 2016 here are some key details: KPCB
– Internet is now used by 3 BN people growing at 9% YoY
– Smartphone shipments growth slowed to 10% YoY from 26% YoY with iOS decreasing its market share to Android
– Generation Z (currently being borned) communicate with images, not like millennials with text
– Swedish delivery service Urb-it raise more capital SEK 21 M at a SEK 425 M valuation DiDigital
– Social network meeting company Skout with Swedish founders was recently bought by Meetme for USD 55 M DiDigital
Media
– Netflix reported its Q3 Earnings and strong growth in subs likely thanks to Narcos season 2 and Stranger Things NetflixEarningsCall
– Swedish Institute for Film backed its first VR movie Oh Deer SFI
– People spend 44% of the day on media platforms, leaving 56% of the 24h to sleep and human (?) interactions. TechCrunch
– Google signed CBS to be the first content provider available on its Unplugged service launching in 2017 WSJ
Transportation
– Uber and Lyft made up a total of 53% of business travel expenses in Q3 according to certify published by VentureBeat, see below for statistics
– Another impact of autonomous cars, it will create more time to remain in arcade like environments Wired
– Juno CEO revealed his plan going after Uber and Lyft by being more efficient CNBC
– Apple scales back its plans to build an autonomous vehicle unless the team meets management’s goals in 2017 Bloomberg
MR/AR/VR
– More speculations on Magic Leap surfaced last week claiming the company will launch its first product next fall GPUofthebrain
– The Oculus chief scientist has been proven right in his predictions since 2014 UploadVR
– As Playstation VR put its first week on the neck movie Allumette gets credit being “an experience VR was made for” PlaystationLifestyle
– Speculations also makes the case Magic Leap engineers keep their notes in a secret language BusinessInsider
Statistics:
and the internet report on internet trends 2016, credits to KPCB.
