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THE HEADLINES
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SCOOT ON THROUGH
Uber will partner with Lime, an electric scooter sharing company, to help cover the first and last mile of Uber user’s commutes. Travis Kalanick’s former employer is dropping $335M as part of a $1.1B funding round led by Alphabet’s GV.
This marks another move in Uber’s bid to further disrupt the transportation industry. Electric scooters (and shareable bikes) have been popping up in cities throughout the US as an alternative to short distance rides and ride-hailing companies are on board. Lyft recently purchased Motivate, the owner of Citi Bike. Ever heard of it?
Not everyone is a fan of scooter sharing, though. The more agile relative of the Rascal can be left anywhere … and we do mean anywhere. Some cities have gone as far as to ban the nerdiest form of transportation.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “Alphabet is quietly becoming a huge player in the space. Uber got a piece of this deal but Google Ventures led the funding round, and Joe Kraus of GV is getting a seat on Lime’s board.”
SUCKS TO SUCK
Worried that the straw will be the downfall of mankind as we know it? Apparently, Starbucks is. The Seattle-based bean roasters plan to phase out single-use plastic straws by 2020 in their more than 28K stores nationwide.
As a replacement, Starbucks is rolling out what many are calling the “adult sippy cup,” which includes a strawless plastic lid that is easily recycled. For those that still want some of that sweet, sweet suction, non-plastic straws will also be available.
While this move is part of Starbucks $10M effort to create recyclable or compostable cups around the world, they’re not alone. Starting in June, McDonald’s locations in the UK and Ireland bid adieu to plastic straws as well.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “But wait, without that green straw, how will folks know, with just one glance, that you have “Starbucks money?”
LIFE’S A BREACH
Timehop, the app that’s quick to remind us of our dating mistakes from years past suffered a mishap of their own on our nation’s birthday. The company reported a major security breach. My how the tables have turned.
Thankfully none of your embarrassing prom pictures were compromised as the hacker only stole names and email addresses. The 21M affected users, essentially Timehop’s entire userbase, will have to re-authenticate their access.
The hacker gained access through Timehop’s cloud computing environment, which had not been protected by multi-factor authentication. While this has since been resolved, the company will have some explaining to do as they originally claimed the downtime users were experiencing stemmed from maintenance.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “I can’t wait to remind them of this mistake every Fourth of July. How does it feel Timehop?!”
IN OTHER NEWS
- JM Smucker will sell its US baking business, including Pillsbury and Hungry Jack, to PE firm Brynwood Partners for $375M. It’s all fun-fetti and games until someone gets divested.
- Xiaomi’s IPO went about as well as going swimming with your iPhone 5. The fifth largest seller of smartphones settled for a $54B valuation, after initially eyeing upwards of $100B. After opening below list price shares fell on the Hong Kong exchange before closing just slightly positive.
- Index Ventures closed $1.65B in new funds. The two funds will consist of $1B earmarked for later-stage investments and $650M which will be put into earlier rounds.