WeWork picks up another $ 3B of SoftBank

WeWork picks up another $ 3B of SoftBank

Adam Newman (WeWork) at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2017
WeWork received an additional US $ 3 billion in financing from SoftBank, not confused with SoftBank Vision. The transaction comes in the form of a note, allowing SoftBank to pay $ 3 billion to allow shares to be bought before September 2019 at $ 110 or more, ultimately leading to WeWork's $ 42 billion valuation.

In August, Softbank invested $ 1 billion in WeWork as a convertible note.

According to the Financial Times, SoftBank will pay WeWork $ 1.5 billion on January 15, 2019 and another $ 1.5 billion on April 15.

SoftBank is the largest investor in WeWork, with SoftBank Vision contributing $ 4.4 billion to the company last year.

Playing real estate in WeWork is just one aspect of the company's strategy.

More than physical ground, WeWork wants to be the central connective tissue to work in general. The company often contracts with top service providers at "full sale" prices by negotiating on behalf of its 300,000 members. In addition, WeWork has developed corporate products for large companies, such as Microsoft, who tend to sign longer and more lucrative lease contracts. In fact, these types of deals make up 29 per cent of WeWork revenues.

The biggest issue is whether WeWork can maintain its overheated growth, which seems to have been the key to its high valuation. After all, WeWork has yet to achieve profitability.

Can vision become a reality? SoftBank seems willing to bet on it.
WeWork picks up another $ 3B of SoftBank

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Top Android Apps 2018: Download it now

Top Android Apps 2018: Download it now

The best free Android apps

Best Android Apps - Introduction
Ten years have passed since the announcement of Android, and it was a decade ago. But there was no better time to hop on board, as the Google Play store exploded in recent years, with applications spreading to meet all your needs.

The problem lies in: having a large number of them, even with Editors' Picks, Featured, Best Selling, Top Paid, and Top Free categories there to help.

There are things you can do to filter the winners of the wannabes. Google creates a list of apps that you recommend based on previous downloads, so this is often the place to start.

You can also filter by new versions if you just want to see the latest things to get to the store. Or, if you want an app similar to an app, look for that app and see what appears.

Of course, using user feedback and ratings is an essential part of ensuring that your applications are of high quality. But the easiest (and best) way to find high quality apps is to make someone else looking for you.

What is the best phone for 2018? Check the countdown for the video below!
That is why we put this list. Just like you want the best apps for Android phones. Applications that will revolutionize the functionality, or at least, offer something so great that it is one of the applications that should be downloaded when you get a new phone.

The following applications will be continuously updated and are a combination of paid and free apps selected by our Android experts. So, even if you're reviewing the actual money for one of these apps, you're safe knowing it's a worthwhile purchase.

New This Week: Mobi Goo


£ 7.99 per month

You may have come across Moby before - it's a streaming movie service that allows subscribers to access a new movie every day, with an emphasis on independent and global movies. Moby Goo is basically a movie.

The service selects a new movie version every week and gives you a free ticket. Or rather, it gives you a quick response code that can be scanned in some movie theaters in exchange for a ticket.

There seems to be a good range of cinemas, including big strings like Vue, although Moby Joe tends to choose specialized films that do not contain large versions, so if you are not in a big city your mileage may vary.

The service is included with a standard Mobi subscription, so if you are already a subscriber you can download the MobiJo app and instant access.

However, while Mobi itself is available in both the United States and the United Kingdom, Mobi Go is currently a British service only. We will not be surprised if that changes someday, but at the same time, American users always have a superficially similar MoviePass movie.

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Vista snaps up Apptio for $1.94B, as enterprise companies remain hot

It seems that Sunday has become a popular day to announce large deals involving enterprise companies. IBM announced the $34 billion Red Hat deal two weeks ago. SAP announced its intent to buy Qualtrics for $8 billion last night, and Vista Equity Partners got into the act too, announcing a deal to buy Apptiofor $1.94 billion, representing a 53 percent premium for stockholders.

Vista paid $38 per share for Apptio,  a Seattle company that helps companies manage and understand their cloud spending inside a hybrid IT environment that has assets on-prem and in the cloud. The company was founded in 2007 right as the cloud was beginning to take off, and grew as the cloud did. It recognized that companies would have trouble understanding their cloud assets along side on-prem ones. It turned out to be a company in the right place at the right time with the right idea.

Investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock and Madrona certainly liked the concept, showering the company with $261 million before it went public in 2016. The stock price has been up and down since, peaking in August at $41.23 a share before dropping down to $24.85 on Friday. The $38 a share Vista paid comes close to the high water mark for the stock.

Stock Chart: Google

Sunny Gupta, co-founder and CEO at Apptio liked the idea of giving his shareholders a good return while providing a good landing spot to take his company private. Vista has a reputation for continuing to invest in the companies it acquires and that prospect clearly excited him. “Vista’s investment and deep expertise in growing world-class SaaS businesses and the flexibility we will have as a private company will help us accelerate our growth…,” Gupta said in a statement.

The deal was approved by Apptio’s board of directors, which will recommend shareholders accept it. With such a high premium, it’s hard to imagine them turning it down. If it passes all of the regulatory hurdles, the acquisition is expected to close in Q1 2019.

It’s worth noting that the company has a 30-day “go shop” provision, which would allow it to look for a better price. Given how hot the enterprise market is right now and how popular hybrid cloud tools are, it is possible it could find another buyer, but it could be hard to find one willing to pay such a high premium.

Vista clearly likes to buy enterprise tech companies having snagged Ping Identityfor $600 million and Marketo for $1.8 billion in 2016. It grabbed Jamf, an Apple enterprise device management company and Datto, a disaster recovery company last year. It turned Marketo around for $4.75 billion in a deal with Adobe just two months ago.

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Cloudflare rolls out its 1.1.1.1 privacy service to iOS, Android

Months after announcing its privacy-focused DNS service, Cloudflare is bringing 1.1.1.1 to mobile users.

Granted, nothing ever stopped anyone from using 1.1.1.1 on their phones or tablets already. But now the app, now available for iPhones, iPads and Android devices, aims to make it easier for anyone to use its free consumer DNS service.

The app is a one-button push to switch on and off again. That’s it.

Cloudflare rolled out 1.1.1.1 earlier this year on April Fools’ Day, no less, but privacy is no joke to the San Francisco-based networking giant. In using the service, you let Cloudflare handle all of your DNS information, like when an app on your phone tries to connect to the internet, or you type in the web address of any site. By funneling that DNS data through 1.1.1.1, it can make it more difficult for your internet provider to know which sites you’re visiting, and also ensure that you can get to the site you want without having your connection censored or hijacked.

It’s not a panacea to perfect privacy, mind you — but it’s better than nothing.

The service is also blazing fast, shaving valuable seconds off page loading times — particularly in parts of the world where things work, well, a little slower.

“We launched 1.1.1.1 to offer consumers everywhere a better choice for fast and private Internet browsing,” said Matthew Prince, Cloudflare chief executive said. “The 1.1.1.1 app makes it even easier for users to unlock fast and encrypted DNS on their phones.”

You can download the app from Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

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