No need to remind you that this week’s biggest news is Apple and its new devices, most notably the Apple Watch, which I wrote about in this post: Apple Watch: Nothing new but will still drive the wearables market. To give you a break from all things Apple, how about this Reddit AMA with PayPal co-founder, early-stage Palantir Technologies investor Peter Thiel:
Read on for this week’s most relevant news in tech and retail:
In Tech:
- Apple unveils Apple Watch, “bigger than bigger” iPhone 6, phablet iPhone 6 Plus; launches payments platform Apple Pay; iPhone 6 Plus pre-order sells out in less than a day
- US threatened Yahoo with $250,000/day fine in 2008 to force release of user data; new court documents show
- Microsoft is rumored to be close to buying indie game Minecraft‘s parent company, Mojang for $2B
- Google introduces Cloud Platform for startups, offers $100K in credit; acquires opinion poll service Polar
- Payments platform Square reportedly raising $100M round of funding at $6B valuation as mobile payments heat up
In Retail:
- Paris-based L’Oreal SA buys Brazilian hair-color maker Niely Cosmetics Group with undisclosed sum; acquisitions this year top $5BLululemon
- Twitter public testing of “Buy” button with select partners including Burberry
- Earnings reports: Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay Co. reports fiscal 2nd-quarter sales up 87%; yogawear retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc. reports higher than expected sales and profits for fiscal 2nd-quarter, revenues up by 13%
- 4moms, maker of high-tech baby gear, closed $41M in second round of funding
- Here’s a great article on the effects of booming e-commerce on UPS‘ bottom line
