Spotify reportedly filed to go public confidentially

Looks like its latest legal trouble isn’t stopping Spotify from going public. New report claims Spotify has already filed confidentially to go public and did so with the SEC at the end of the year. It’s been rumoured for a while that the music streaming company wanted to debut for the first quarter of this year and this report just lines up with that. Spotify is said to be taking a more unusual route and would be a “direct listing” instead of being a traditional IPO. It’s said they’re exploring the possibility of listing on the stock market without the fundraising event.

With a direct listing this means everyone gets equal opportunity to buy shares, whether you’re an average investor or one lined to large institutions. This could mean less fees for Spotify and the possibility of higher revenue from selling shares in the long run, at least theoretically. But this could also mean increased volatility and smaller short term returns.

Source: Gizmodo

Netflix confirms sequel for ‘Bright’

James Gillham/Netflix

While panned by critics, there seems to be a big market for Bright that Netflix greenlighted a sequel to the film. Will Smith and Joel Edgerton will be reprising their roles and David Ayer will write and direct the second film. Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless will produce the film. Unfortunately, writer Max Landis won’t be coming back. The streaming service teased the announcement through a faux orc audition for the sequel.

According to Netflix, Bright is considered its highest-viewed original film on the service during its launch and is one of its biggest originals to debut on the service. Netflix claims it’s the No. 1 movie on Netflix in every country with more international than domestic viewers.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Orc auditions for the @BrightNetflix sequel are now closed. Thank you. Have a nice day. pic.twitter.com/QnVqkgYRkE

— Netflix US (@netflix) January 3, 2018

Source: Variety

Tesla Model 3 makes it from LA to New York in 50 hours

Alex Roy, editor-at-large for The Drive, has broken records and completed the quickest trip across the US. Making it from LA to New York City in 50 hours, 16, minutes and 32 seconds. The run was made on a Tesla Model 3 using the Tesla Supercharger network across the US. Roy spent roughly $100 charging the car tyhrough the trip. The Model 3 acquitted itself well in freezing conditions along the way. The Tesla Model 3 is starting to ship to buyers despite some delays and production issues.

Source: The Verge

Apple acquires Vancouver development studio Buddybuild

Vancouver-based development studio Buddybuild shared on their blog that they have been acquired by Apple. Buddybuild offers a service for users to build, test and ship iOS apps to testers, similar to TestFlight, which Apple also acquired in 2014 through its purchase of Burstly.

Buddybuild will eventually integrate into Xcode, Apple’s suite of development tools for iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS.

We're excited to share that the buddybuild team has joined the Xcode engineering group at Apple to build amazing developer tools for the entire iOS community.

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