⚡️A good read on all November tech IPOs - DoorDash, Airbnb, Affirm, Roblox and Wish.

Revenue and net loss figures included.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/21/key-points-from-doordash-airbnb-roblox-wish-affirm-s-1-filings.html

⚡️Snap just launched a new feature - Spotlight that works like TikTok and Instagram Reels.

Spotlight will show users the top snaps that have been submitted for consideration by the app’s more than 249 million daily users in a feed that they can swipe or tap through. Spotlight snaps will play in a continuous loop until users swipe to the next one. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/23/snap-launching-a-competitor-to-tiktok-and-instagram-reels.html

⚡️Tesla market cap soared to $498 billion.

Elon Musk projected in 2015 that company’s market cap would increase to $700 billion in 2025. Looks like Tesla is easily outpacing the forecast.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-500-billion-market-cap-elon-musk-self-driving-cars-2020-11-1029830601

⚡️Big fintech players PayPal and Square are buying up most of the new Bitcoins coming on the market. That drives BTC price to rise over $18,000.

The Bitcoin network issues new BTC on a fixed and predetermined schedule. Only 6.25 new BTCs are mined every 10 minutes.

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-shortage-pantera-thinks-market-rally-driven-by-paypal-buys

⚡️Saleseforce in talks to acquire Slack!

Slack Technologies shares jumped 24% to $36.58, giving the company a market capitalization of $21 billion.

If the negotiations conclude successfully, a deal could be announced before Slack reports quarterly earnings on Dec. 9.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-slack-tech-m-a-salesforce-com-idUSKBN2852PA

⚡️Facebook’s crypto currency Libra could launch in Jan 2021.

https://www.ft.com/content/cfe4ca11-139a-4d4e-8a65-b3be3a0166be

⚡️ Nikola stock plunged more than 27% after General Motors gave up an equity stake in Nikola. The new deal drops plans on building an electric truck Badger and keeps only fuel cell partnership.

In September, the automakers announced a $2 billion deal that gave GM an 11% stake in Nikola to supply battery and fuel cell technologies as well as produce the Badger pickup.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/30/gm-nikola-announce-reworked-smaller-deal-focused-on-fuel-cell-supply-deal.html

⚡️ DoorDash plans to list 33 million shares on the NY Stock Exchange at a price between $75 and $85 and raise up to $2.8 billion in its IPO, giving it a valuation of up to $32 billion.

DoorDash has the lead in U.S. with 49% of meal delivery sales in September compared with Uber’s 22% and GrubHub’s 20%.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/30/doordash-ipo-seeks-valuation-of-up-to-30-billion.html

⚡️GitLab was valued over $6 billion which is more than double the company’s last announced valuation in September 2019.

The company had originally aimed to go public this month but decided to delay those plans until 2021.

GitLab was co founded by Ukrainian developer Dmitriy Zaporozhets in 2014.
Its 1,300-plus employees work fully remote in more than 65 countries.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/30/-gitlab-valued-over-6-billion-in-secondary-share-sale.html

⚡️Zoom reported fiscal Q3 earnings after the closing bell on Monday, beating analysts’ expectations with revenue jumping 367% year-over-year ($777M vs 693M expected).

At the start of the year, Zoom’s stock price sat at $71.90. But with the company growth amid the pandemic, the stock ended Monday at $478.36.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zoom-q3-earnings-2021-190234686.html

⚡️Facebook backed Libra Association was renamed to Diem. Libra cryptocurrency will be called Diem as well (why not just call it a Zuck Buck).

It could debut as a single coin backed by the dollar, with an initial launch as early as Jan 2021.

Diem is an independent group organized by Facebook to manage digital currencies that had a rough start when Visa, MasterCard, eBay and PayPal dropped out. Although companies like Coinbase, Farfetch, Spotify, Uber and Shopify still remain its members.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/01/facebook-backed-libra-digital-currency-has-been-renamed-diem.html

⚡️Salesforce will acquire Slack for $27.7 billion ($26.79 in cash and 0.0776 shares).

Shares of Slack rose nearly 48% in the last five days.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/salesforce-to-buy-slack-for-27-billion-reports-q3-results-211923742.html

⚡️Hewlett Packard Enterprise is leaving Silicon Valley and relocating its headquarters from San Jose, California, to Houston, Texas.

Hewlett-Packard was one of the original Silicon Valley success stories, founded by partners Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in a garage in Palo Alto 1939.

The garage has turned into a tourist destination and became known as the "Birthplace of Silicon Valley."

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/01/hpe-is-relocating-headquarters-to-houston-from-california.html

🎄Microsoft released its geek version of holiday ugly sweater.

$70 worth Windows sweaters sold out in 24h.

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-buy-microsoft-paint-holiday-sweaters-2020-12?r=MX&IR=T

💵 In the light of recent $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack by Salesforce here is a recap of the greatest Big Tech deals:

• IBM buys Red Hat for $34 billion in 2019
• Amazon buys Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017
• Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016
• Facebook buys WhatsApp for $19 billion in 2014
• Microsoft buys Skype for $8.5 billion in 2011
• Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion in 2012
• Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2006

https://fortune.com/2020/12/02/slack-salesforce-deal-acquisition-big-tech-amazon-whole-foods-apple-beats-facebook-instagram-google-youtube/

🌵Elon Musk could be moving to Texas.

Three of Musk’s businesses SpaceX Tesla and Boring Company already have offices in Texas.

Getting out of California, with the highest income tax in the country %13.3, and into Texas, which has no state income tax, could save Musk billions of dollars.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/02/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-plans-to-move-to-texas-friends-and-associates-say.html

💃From dancing to fintech.

TikTok's biggest star, 16-year-old Charli D'Amelio, invested in teen banking app Step.

Step is a mobile app that provides teens with a bank account and a Visa card with no fees. It allows parents to set guidelines for their children's spending, and users can send and receive money.

The dancer, who's endorsed the app on her accounts, boasts 100 million followers on TikTok, 34.5 million on Instagram and 4.9 million on Twitter.

Charli D'Amelio earns an estimated $4 million a year from TikTok.

@OGoMono 🐈 can you dance?

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/03/business/charli-damelio-banking-app/index.html

🛰 Starlink will get $885.5 million worth of federal subsidies to support rural broadband customers through the company’s satellite internet network.

Starlink is SpaceX’s plan to build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites, designed to deliver high-speed internet to anywhere on the planet.

In October the company began a public beta test of Starlink, with service priced at $99 a month.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/07/spacex-starlink-wins-nearly-900-million-in-fcc-subsidies-auction.html

🦠 Apple and Google are launching a COVID contact tracing app called CA Notify in the state of California.

Your phone will automatically exchange a private key with another phone if they’re within Bluetooth range. (The key doesn’t contain location or any personally identifying information.) When someone tests positive, they can press a button to send a notification to every other person using the app whose phone virtually bumped into theirs, letting them know that they should get tested and quarantine.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/7/22159842/apple-google-covid-contact-tracing-tech-california

🚀 Big toys for big boys.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1336041065879580673?s=21

🖥 Apple is planning a series of new Mac processors for introduction as early as 2021 that are aimed at outperforming Intel.

They will be successors to the M1 chip, Apple’s first Mac main processor that debuted in November.

The company said it expects to finish the transition away from Intel and to its own silicon in 2022.

Intel’s shares slid 2.9% after the news.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-07/apple-preps-next-mac-chips-with-aim-to-outclass-highest-end-pcs