What's hot in Tech - January 4th
- Cryptocurrency Fund BlockTower Is Said to Raise $140 Million
- Merrill Lynch bans clients from investing in Silbert bitcoin fund
- GMO's Grantham Joins Bitcoin-Bubble Chorus as Swings Subside
- Volkswagen and Hyundai team up with Aurora on self-driving
- What will Apple do with its $250 billion in repatriated cash? Netflix, Disney, Tesla, and other options
Cryptocurrency Fund BlockTower Is Said to Raise $140 Million
BlockTower Capital, a digital currency hedge fund launched in August, raised $140 million and hired a former vice president at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., expanding its team to eight people, according to people familiar with the matter.
- The money manager, which is based in Stamford, Connecticut, has raised capital from family offices and other institutions such as venture capital firms, the people said.
- The company Hedge Fund Research last month launched an index tracking funds investing in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies that it said was up 1,500 percent through November. A separate index focused on just currencies was up 1,600 percent in the same period, it said in a release.
Merrill Lynch bans clients from investing in Silbert bitcoin fund
Bank of America Merrill Lynch banned clients from investing in one of bitcoin mogul Barry Silbert’s top funds last month, according to a memo seen by Reuters. Wall Street has taken a cautious approach to digital currencies, which are unregulated and have very volatile trading patterns. Last month, Chicago-based derivatives exchanges Cboe Global Markets and the CME Group launched bitcoin futures, but some banks and brokerages remain reluctant to trade them.
GMO's Grantham Joins Bitcoin-Bubble Chorus as Swings Subside
Jeremy Grantham has joined the chorus of crypto-bears warning of a potential bubble in bitcoin, as the price of the digital token appears to stabilize after a wild few weeks. The chief investment strategist for GMO in Boston described the bitcoin market as a “true, crazy mini-bubble” in a letter to investors this week.
“Having no clear fundamental value and largely unregulated markets, coupled with a storyline conducive to delusions of grandeur, makes this more than anything we can find in the history books the very essence of a bubble,” the GMO letter said.
Volkswagen and Hyundai team up with Aurora on self-driving
Two self-driving vehicle pioneers are taking their former big-name employers head on with a pair of alliances that could shake up the car industry. Aurora - a startup formed by one-time heads of autonomous car projects at Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Tesla Inc. - will develop self-driving electric vehicles with Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Co., the two automakers said in separate statements. The car companies, latecomers to the technology upending the sector, are exploring using the self-driving systems for taxi services, robotic deliveries and even in-car advertising.
Read more @ https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/04/volkswagen-and-hyundai-team-up-with-aurora-on-self-driving/
What will Apple do with its $250 billion in repatriated cash? Netflix, Disney, Tesla, and other options
With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 cutting the repatriation tax rate to 15.5 percent, Apple can now bring all of its foreign profits back to the U.S. at a nearly 20 percent discount. So, how will it spend all that cash?
- Netflix would make sense if you believe Apple wants to keep growing steadily in its currently enunciated direction. On the one hand, Netflix is a substantially larger company than Apple normally acquires, with a much higher valuation (roughly $86 billion) and more employees (just under 5,000) than even Beats Electronics ($3 billion, 700 employees). On the other hand, Netflix’s fortés are ones Apple can manage: video streaming and content production.
- Disney would bring Apple multiple assets with arguably unparalleled value. These include leading entertainment brands, with movies, television shows, networks, theme parks, and hotels, as well as additional merchandise and retail outlets. The companies also have some common DNA: Disney CEO Robert Iger has a seat on Apple’s board, Laurene Powell Jobs was Disney’s largest shareholder (thanks to Disney’s purchase of Steve Jobs’ company Pixar), and Disney has been an early partner on major Apple video initiatives.