Tech Moves: Flexe hires Amazon biometrics leader; Fresh Chalk founder departs; and more — Flexible warehousing company Flexe hired Amazon vet Lara Rogers as SVP and general manager. Rogers spent the past decade… Read More
Italian antitrust regulator fines Amazon $1.3B for abuse of its market position The Italian government fined Amazon $1.3 billion for gaming its third-party seller platform to favor companies that pay the online… Read More
‘League of Legends’ creator Riot Games buys Seattle-area office for $114.1M, will employ 400 The creators of the computer game League of Legends have acquired a 156,000 square-foot office near Seattle in Mercer Island,… Read More
Digital identity startup Evernym sells to Avast, looks to bring trust to a decentralized internet There’s a lot of chatter these days about Web3 — a decentralized version of the internet that operates outside the… Read More
Social TV platform Scener adds Hulu’s David Baron as CEO and filmmaker J.J. Abrams as investor Scener, the Seattle-based startup that adds a social layer to the viewing of streaming television content, has named David Baron… Read More
Controversial capital gains tax spooks wealthy Washington residents as some unload their stocks A controversial capital gains tax in Washington state that goes into effect next month is causing executives and business owners… Read More
Microsoft Azure widens its space ecosystem through deals with Airbus and data partners One year after Microsoft expanded its Azure cloud domain to the final frontier, the company is taking another giant leap… Read More
Survey suggests 84% of Americans are illiterate about AI — so here’s a quiz to test your own AI IQ Can artificial intelligence write its own programs? Is there AI in your TV remote control? Researchers at Seattle’s Allen Institute… Read More
MacKenzie Scott says ‘no dollar signs this time’ as she finds new value in philanthropy’s meaning MacKenzie Scott is taking a break from the headline-grabbing posts about multi-billion-dollar gifts she’s given to charity the past couple… Read More
AWS and Washington state launch cloud training, but educators have big questions about rollout Amazon Web Services and Washington state officials this week announced a new partnership to provide cloud computing education for high… Read More
Blue Origin delays its next suborbital space trip because of worries about Texas winds Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard’s daughter will have to wait a little longer to take a ride on the suborbital spaceship… Read More
Cloud wake-up call: Amazon Web Services outage illustrates the pitfalls of online infrastructure Amazon Web Services is one of the greatest successes of modern business and technology, leveraging its first-mover advantage in the… Read More
The Rock thanks his ‘tequila drinking buddy’ Jeff Bezos at People’s Choice Awards Jeff Bezos made a surprise appearance at the People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles Tuesday night to present an award… Read More
No-code AI: Former Microsoft and Salesforce execs reveal new ‘machine teaching’ startup Intelus Machine learning is the common basis for modern artificial intelligence, using large amounts of data to build AI models that… Read More
University of Washington’s CoMotion incubator partners with T-Mobile to provide startups with 5G T-Mobile is equipping the University of Washington’s CoMotion Labs with a new 5G network to help entrepreneurs build products and… Read More
Review: Amazon’s Halo View health tracker is a good second release, with some awkward quirks Amazon’s original Halo Band, released last year, was notable both for what it lacked (a screen) and for what it… Read More
Electric Sky wins DARPA grant to work on focused power beaming system for drones A startup called Electric Sky says it’s begun building its first Whisper Beam transmitter for providing tightly focused wireless power… Read More
Report: Life sciences sector is booming as companies swoop up lab space and raise gobs of cash It’s hard for life sciences startups to find lab space, and there’s a good reason. The sector has been on… Read More
News publishers, including Seattle group, sue Google and Facebook over market dominance A group of 30 newspaper publishers, including Seattle-based Robinson Newspapers, have sued Google and Facebook over the way the social… Read More
‘Most unusual and difficult year of my life’: Personal and pandemic struggles aside, Bill Gates is hopeful Ever the optimist, even Bill Gates was challenged by everything 2021 threw at him. In a new end-of-the-year post on… Read More
Q&A with Vacasa CFO as vacation rental company goes public at $4.4B valuation Vacasa is officially a public company. The Portland, Ore.-based vacation rental platform made its debut on the NASDAQ after completing… Read More
AWS problems impact Amazon, Disney, Smartsheet, Canva and other online services If you’re having problems buying items or logging in to Amazon.com, you’re not alone, and thanks to the widespread use… Read More
Edtech startup Bamboo Learning raises cash from ex-Amazon VPs and new ‘Day One Syndicate’ The news: Bamboo Learning, which makes apps to help kids learn math and reading, launched its first iOS app and… Read More
Hospitality vet launches Route Line in drive to provide better access to adventure travel vehicles Seated in a customized Mercedes Sprinter van at a Seattle park on a recent sunny day, Johannes Ariens and his… Read More
Torq is the latest security startup to land funding, raising $50M for automation software The news: Portland, Ore.-based startup Torq landed a $50 million Series B round. Founded last year, the 71-person company helps… Read More
WellSaid and Five9 make bots sound more like humans when they take your call Earlier this year, Seattle-based WellSaid Labs helped create an AI disk jockey with a voice that sounds like it’s coming… Read More
Is traffic getting bad again? New report shows increased congestion, but not pre-pandemic levels On some days, it may feel like traffic is returning to pre-pandemic levels on streets around the Seattle area. But… Read More
Hometown hookup: Alaska Air shifts to T-Mobile from AT&T in new link between Seattle companies Alaska Airlines plans to shift the majority of its behind-the-scenes wireless business to T-Mobile — creating a new connection between… Read More
Meta grabbing more space in Bellevue’s Spring District with lease of fifth office building Looking to expand its already sizable stake in Bellevue, Wash., Facebook’s parent company Meta is making a move on another… Read More
Outreach opens office in New York City as startup continues to grow presence outside Seattle Seattle sales automation company Outreach announced the opening of an office in New York City on Monday. Located in the… Read More
