Florida-based Citrix Systems, Inc. has agreed to acquire Wrike, a rapidly growing, developer of SaaS collaborative work management space, for $2.25 billion in cash. Headquartered in San Jose, and employing more than 1,000 employees, Wrike is owned by private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. The combination will bring together Citrix’s powerful digital work platform, which securely […]
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Lumentum to Buy Coherent in $5.7 Billion Deal
SAN JOSE — Two photonics companies in Silicon Valley have agreed to merge. Lumentum Holdings has agreed to buy Santa Clara-based Coherent in a cash and stock transaction valued at $5.7 billion. Coherent stockholders will receive $100.00 per share in cash and 1.1851 shares of Lumentum common stock for each Coherent share they own. At […]
Netflix Shares Soar 16% After Surpassing 203 Million Subscribers
LOS GATOS — Shares in Netflix soared 16.8% on Wednesday after announcing it has more than 203.6 million subscribers worldwide. The company said it added 8.51 million subscribers in the fourth quarter and net income of $542 million on $6.6 billion in revenues. With the pandemic keeping people home around the world, streaming services have […]
Stanford Elects Denning to Board of Trustees
Stanford University announced that Roberta Denning, who earned her undergraduate degree in English and her MBA from Stanford, has been elected to the university’s Board of Trustees. Her five-year term begins Feb. 1. In 2017, Denning was awarded the university’s Gold Spike Award, one of Stanford’s highest honors for volunteer service. Specifically, Denning was recognized […]
PC Sales Continue to Soar Due to Pandemic
Sales of personal computers (including desktops, notebooks, and workstations) continue to soar due to the pandemic. The fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q20) saw global shipments grow 26.1% year over year to 91.6 million units, according to research from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. The same category of devices grew 13.1% […]
Notable Health First to Launch Automated Identification and Engagement of Patients Eligible for COVID-19 Vaccine
SAN MATEO — Notable Health, the leading intelligent automation company for healthcare, announced today it has extended its platform capabilities to support automating COVID-19 vaccine administration workflows. US healthcare systems face a massive logistical challenge in identifying patients who meet state or federal criteria for receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, and engaging with these patients to schedule as […]
Intel Hires VMware’s Gelsinger to be New CEO
SANTA CLARA — Chip maker Intel announced that its board of directors has appointed VMware Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger to be its new CEO, effective Feb. 15, 2021. Gelsinger will also join the Intel board of directors upon assuming the role. He will succeed Bob Swan, who will remain CEO until Feb. 15. Gelsinger […]
Walmart to Launch Financial Startup With Ribbit Capital
Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, is creating a new fintech startup to offer affordable financial solutions aimed at its customers and employees. The new company is a strategic partnership with Palo Alto investment firm Ribbit Capital, which has backed Affirm and Robinhood. The unnamed venture will bring together Walmart’s retail power and scale with Ribbit’s […]
NIO Teams Up With NVIDIA for Autonomous Vehicles
SHANGHAI and SANTA CLARA — NIO, a Chinese maker of electric cars, has selected the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip (SoC) for its new generation of electric vehicles (photo above), which will offer advanced automated driving capabilities. NIO is working to make consumer adoption of smart, performance-packed electric vehicles a widespread reality. At NIO Day, the […]
Acer Debuts New Gaming Notebooks Powered by AMD
Taiwanese computer company Acer has announced new Nitro 5 gaming notebooks, plus new Aspire 5 and 7 notebooks, powered by AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors. The new AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors deliver fast and efficient performance for laptops. With up to 8 cores of processing power, they combine low-power high-bandwidth memory with low power […]
Protiviti Promotes 34 New Directors
MENLO PARK — Consulting firm Protiviti says it has promoted 30 of its directors to the position of managing director and four to the position of senior director. The new managing directors and senior directors are from a range of Protiviti’s solution groups including Internal Audit and Financial Advisory, Risk and Compliance, Technology Consulting and […]
Homes for Sale Inventory at Record Lows
SANTA CLARA — The number of homes for sale in the U.S. reached an all-time low in December, dipping below 700,000 for the first time as buyers remained active throughout the holiday season, according to realtor.com’s Monthly Housing Trends Report. Due to unusually strong demand, home prices were up double digits compared to last year, however, the median […]
Chipotle Introduces Cauliflower Rice at Restaurants
Casual food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill has introduced Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower rice that is now available at U.S. and Canadian restaurants for a limited time. The rice costs an additional $2 per order with burrito or tacos. Chipotle’s latest plant-based option is made with freshly grilled, riced cauliflower, finished with hand-chopped cilantro, lime, and salt, and […]
The Greatest Year Ever for Silicon Valley Stocks?
2020 may go down in history as one of the greatest years ever for stocks at companies in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. Even with a pandemic that caused the stock market to plunge in March, investors stuck at home and low interest rates on savings helped drive a surge in buying that led […]
KBS Sells District 237 Office Building for $50.5 Million
SAN JOSE — Commercial real estate investor KBS has sold a 96,502-square-foot building at District 237, an eight-building, 415,492-square-foot, Class A office/R&D complex in San Jose. The building at 350 Holger Way (photo above), owned by KBS Real Estate Investment Trust II, was sold to Thor Equities for $50.5 million. District 237, formerly known as […]
RingCentral Launches Free Video Meeting Service
BELMONT — RingCentral is looking to take on Zoom’s popular video conferencing service with one of its own. RingCentral has launched Glip Pro, a free, unlimited, easy-to-use solution that offers high quality and high-availability video and audio conferencing, seamlessly integrated with team messaging, file sharing, contact, task, and calendar management. It includes pre-meeting, in-meeting, and […]
Homes Near Trader Joe’s Have Highest Value
IRVINE — Homes near Trader Joe’s supermarkets have the highest value compared to other top chains according to ATTOM Data Solutions, a provider of real estate data. ATTOM has released its annual 2020 Grocery Store Wars analysis, which shows how living near a Trader Joe’s, a Whole Foods or an ALDI might affect a home’s […]
Dick’s Sporting Goods Delivering With Instacart in 150 Stores
SAN FRANCISCO — Instacart, the nation’s leading online grocery delivery service, continues to expand with non-food retailers in a new partnership with DICK’S Sporting Goods, the country’s largest sporting goods chain. DICK’S operates 732 stores in the U.S. but has just launched same-day delivery with Instacart in only 150 stores in nine states just before […]
Robinhood Fined $65 Million by SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Robinhood Financial LLC for repeated misstatements that failed to disclose the firm’s receipt of payments from trading firms for routing customer orders to them, and with failing to satisfy its duty to seek the best reasonably available terms to execute customer orders. Robinhood agreed to pay $65 million […]
Jimmy John’s Sub Chain Joins Doordash, Uses Own Drivers
The Jimmy John’s sandwich chain is now available on Doordash, the nation’s largest food-delivery platform. Doordash customers can now order delivery from over 2,400 Jimmy John’s restaurants nationwide and food will be delivered by Jimmy John’s own fleet of delivery drivers, not contractors employed by Doordash. After a successful six-month pilot with more than 100 […]
HP Enterprises Moving Headquarters to Houston
HP Enterprises (HPE) says it will move its headquarters from San Jose in Silicon Valley to a new state-of-the-art campus under construction in Spring, TX, just outside of Houston .The move was announced in a blog post by CEO and President Antonio Neri. Houston currently is the location with the most employees at HP Enterprise. […]
Apple Releases $549 AirPods Max Headphones
CUPERTINO — Apple has introduced new headphones priced at $549 just in time for the holidays. AirPods Max are wireless headphones that feature an over-ear design with high-fidelity sound. AirPods Max combine a custom acoustic design, H1 chips, and advanced software to power computational audio for a listening experience with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, […]
Luminar Technologies Continues to Soar
Luminar Technologies continues its run up since going public last week in a reverse merger. Shares in Luminar (LAZR) have soared over 250% since combining with Gores Metropoulos last Thursday. Gores Metropoulos is a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) sponsored by private equity firm The Gores Group in Los Angeles. Luminar is a maker of […]
Airbnb Raises IPO Price to $60 Per Share
SAN FRANCISCO — Airbnb, the popular rental service for individual homes and apartments, is set to go public this Thursday and is raising its IPO price to as much as $60 per share. In a new S-1/A filing with the SEC, Airbnb said it would sell 56,551,723 shares at a price of $55 to $60 […]