Talk about rock solid – tech giants join forces to create global standard for… concrete?

The Open Compute Project Foundation (OCP) has announced a new collaboration with leading technology companies, including AWS, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, to test and promote the use of low-embodied carbon concrete, also known as “green concrete,” in data center construction.This initiative is part of a broader effort to drive the adoption of environmentally responsible building materials, with the project aiming to significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with data center construction by developing concrete mixtures that lower carbon impact by more than 50% per cubic yard.The project reportedly includes the testing of four different concrete mixtures with varying levels of global warming potential, the lowest of which achieved the targeted 50% reduction in carbon emissions compared to standard concrete. The formulas use alternative cements and supplementary materials that are commercially available but have not yet been widely adopted due to perceived risks and implementation challenges.Sustainable building practicesThe announcement was made during a demonstration event held on August 8 at the Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE) facility in Northbrook, Illinois. The event was attended by senior representatives from AWS, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, as well as members of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the US Department of Energy, and other governmental and environmental organizations.Through this open source approach, the project aims to build confidence in new concrete technologies and create a market force that will accelerate the industry’s transition to more sustainable practices.The move is seen as a crucial step in reducing the carbon footprint of data center construction and promoting sustainable building practices across the industry. The findings will be compiled into a whitepaper and made publicly available to encourage the broader adoption of low-embodied carbon concrete. The comprehensive testing plan includes both laboratory and field assessments to evaluate the performance of these new mixtures, with the results informing future industry practices.Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!More from TechRadar Pro

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Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2: Disney Plus release date prediction, likely cast, and more news and rumors

Ahsoka season 2: key information- Announced in January 2024- No release date announced- Will stream exclusively on Disney Plus- Main cast expected to return- No official plot details or footage revealed yet- Building up to a “climactic story event” that will merge its storyline with those in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba FettAhsoka season 2 will continue the story of Anakin Skywalker’s former Padawan whose story, alongside her Mandalorian apprentice Sabine Wren’s, clearly isn’t done yet. Indeed, with Lucasfilm and parent company Disney announcing that Star Wars: Ahsoka will get at least another season, the duo will be back for more adventures on the small screen at some point.So, what do we know about the Disney Plus show’s second chapter ahead of its eventual debut? In this guide, we’ve rounded up every big piece of news, plus the occasional rumor or 10, on Ahsoka’s next installment. That includes our thoughts on when it’ll be released, its likely cast, potential plot threads, and more.Full spoilers follow for Star Wars: Ahsoka season 1, as well as other TV series tha take place in the post-Return of Jedi timeline, including The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2 release date predictionSeason 1 reunited former Star Wars: Rebels heroes Ezra Bridger and Sabine Wren (Image credit: Lucasfilm/Disney Plus)Although StarWars.com confirmed – in January 2024 – that the series is returning, an Ahsoka season 2 release date hasn’t been announced. We don’t even know whether it’ll start filming before many other new Star Wars movies and TV shows, either, although creator, showrunner and Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni told the Happy Sad Confused podcast (in June 2024) that “right now, my focus is very clearly on [Ahsoka] season 2.”So, what could that mean in terms of its launch date? Currently, there aren’t many other big Star Wars projects in active development. One that’ll surely impact Ahsoka season 2’s development, though, is The Mandalorian & Grogu movie, which Filoni – alongside frequent Star Wars collaborator Jon Favreau – is also working on. Din Djarin and Baby Yoda’s eagerly anticipated big-screen debut is due to go into production this year, before The Mandalorian and Grogu lands in theaters in May 2026.If the first Star Wars film – since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker – takes precedence from a principal photography perspective, it’s possible Ahsoka’s next season will take a developmental backseat. If it does, its own shooting schedule might not start until mid- to late 2025, which means we wouldn’t expect to see it arrive on Disney Plus, aka one of the world’s best streaming services, until late 2026 at the very earliest.Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2 cast: likely and rumoredMary Elizabeth Winstead is sure to return as General Hera Syndulla from season 1 (Image credit: Lucasfilm)Major spoilers follow for Star Wars: Ahsoka season 1.Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.Lucasfilm and Disney are yet to confirm who’s coming back, but we’d bet a sizeable number of galactic credits on these actors returning for Ahsoka season 2 :Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka TanoNatasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine WrenMary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera SyndullaLars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral ThrawnEman Esfandi as Ezra BridgerIvanna Sakhno as Shin HatiHayden Christensen as Anakin SkywalkerDavid Tennant as HuyangWes Chatham as Captain EnochGenevieve O’Reilly as Mon MothmaEvan Whitten as Jacen SyndullaClaudia Black as KlothowJeryl Prescott Gallien as AktropawJane Edwina Seymour as LakesisChopper as himselfSadly, there is one significant absentee from season 1. Ray Stevenson, whose fallen Jedi Baylan Skoll was one of the show’s standout characters, passed away in May 2023. Star Wars doesn’t traditionally recast roles, but Ahsoka’s season 1 finale hinted that Baylan still had a significant part to play. A more recent story on ComicBookMovie.com reports that Lucasfilm is seeking a “white man in his 50s/60s”, a casting call that would fit Skoll’s description, so maybe the studio wil recast Skoll.Despite being the focus of three (prequel) episodes of animated series Tales of the Empire, Diana Lee Inosanto is not expected to return as Nightsister Morgan Elsbeth, seeing as the character died in the Ahsoka season 1 finale.There could, however, be cameos from other familiar faces, as pretty much every Rebel who survived Return of the Jedi is still active at this point in the Star Wars timeline. Anthony Daniels had a brief appearance as C-3PO in season 1, but the most likely returnee is surely Zeb Orrelios. Having served on the Ghost alongside Sabine, Hera, Ezra, surly droid Chopper, and late Jedi Kanan Jarrus throughout Star Wars: Rebels, the Lasat is overdue an appearance in Ahsoka. Expect Steve Blum to reprise his voice role as he did in The Mandalorian season 3.Star Wars: Ahsoka season 2 story speculationThe story of Baylan Skoll (pictured) is tied to the Mortis gods and the origins of the Force (Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd)Full spoilers follow for Ahsoka’s first season.Official plot details for Ahsoka season 2 are thin on the ground, but we’ve got some idea of what could transpire, based on how its forebear ended. For a round-up of everything that happened, read our Ahsoka season 1 ending explained article.For those who don’t want to click on the aforementioned link, though, here are some key story details: Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren, and Jedi support droid Huyang are currently trapped on the world of Peridea in a distant galaxy, so their first order of business is likely to be getting home. Whether that involves enlisting the help of the resident Noti (a cute, snail-like species native to Peridea), hitching a ride with the Purrgil space whales (as Ahsoka did in season 1), or something more magical, though, is unclear.Speaking of magic, no live-action Star Wars project has explored the mythology of the Force in as much detail as Ahsoka. Season 2 is primed to continue that deep dive, especially after Baylan Skoll’s search for answers led him to a pair of statues carved into the cliffs of Peridea. They represent the Father and (we think) the Son, two of “the Ones” (essentially, they represent god-like beings in this universe) from the planet Mortis. Anakin encountered them in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and they have a crucial role to play in maintaining the balance of the Force. Morai, the owl-like convor who appears to Ahsoka in season 1 episode 7, is a manifestation of the Daughter, who represents the Light Side of the Force. The Son is her Dark Side counterpart.Anakin Skywalker has graduated to Force ghost/mentor status (Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd)Anyway, Tano, Wren, and Skoll aren’t the only beings marooned on Peridea. Skoll’s Dark Side apprentice Shin Hati, who he has little use for now, is also still knocking about. She was last seen riding alone into the wilderness of Peridea, but it’s unlikely we’ve seen the last of her.We can also expect Ahsoka’s old Jedi master Anakin Skywalker to guide her – Obi-Wan Kenobi-style – from a more spiritual plane across this mysterious worl. In season 1, he communed with his former Padawan via the mysterious World Between Worlds, before showing up as a Force ghost in the finale.”My feeling about Anakin is that George [Lucas] resolved everything about Anakin,” Filoni told Vanity Fair in November 2023. “I don’t think I have anything to do there. I’m not trying to add anything to that. Everything Anakin’s involved with is about [Ahsoka]. It’s about her point of view on Anakin. It’s about what Anakin taught her. He’s there in more of an Obi-Wan role that we saw in the old movies.”Will New Republic Chancellor Mon Mothma finally do something about the resurgent Empire? (Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd)While Ahsoka and Sabine are stuck in another galaxy, Imperial warlord Grand Admiral Thrawn has made the return journey after being exiled to parts unknown in Star Wars: Rebels. Thrawn’s Star Destroyer – the Chimaera – was last seen heading for Dathomir, the base of the Nightsisters. A trio of these Force-sensitive witches – Klothow, Aktropaw, and Lakesis – aided his long-prophesised comeback, and he’s likely to call on their services again in his pursuit of power.He won’t be short of help, either. When the so-called Shadow Council met in The Mandalorian season 3, the leaders of the Imperial Remnant were already anticipating Thrawn’s return. He’s long been seen as the “heir to the Empire”, a figure capable of pulling disparate factions together, and Filoni is positioning the Chiss officer as the Big Bad at this point on the timeline.”When Timothy Zahn wrote Heir to the Empire [a 1991, no-longer-canon novel], Thrawn became this very iconic villain, because he was different than anything we’d seen before,” Filoni told Empire magazine in April 2023. “He wasn’t another helmet-wearing, lightsaber-wielding bad guy, you know? There’s a lot of pull to make characters that are like Vader, because it is so iconic. But the boldness that Tim had was to make somebody that wasn’t like that, that didn’t have those abilities, but could fight in a different way. In the words ‘Star Wars’, the ‘war’ part of it – him being a Grand Admiral, a leader, a military strategist, a Moriarty archetype, someone that will out-think you, out-strategise you – that really resonated. He’s a critical player in this time period.”The Shadow Council were already planning for Thrawn’s return in The Mandalorian season 3 (Image credit: Lucasfilm/Disney)Up to now, the New Republic’s government has been strangely complacent about the rise of the Imperial Remnant, with only the likes of General Hera Syndulla and X-Wing pilot/Outer Rim cop Carson Teva alert to the danger. Now that wannabe Jedi Ezra Bridger has returned from his own extended stay on Peridea (and been reunited with Hera, his former commander on the Ghost), though, he’s in a strong position to warn everyone about the clear and present danger posed by Thrawn.We’re expecting this to be a major aspect of the Ahsoka season 2 story. That said, after key plot points from The Mandalorian season 2 were resolved in episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, there’s every chance Thrawn and Ezra’s story will continue in the The Mandalorian & Grogu – or even Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, which releases in December – before Ahsoka rematerializes.Ahsoka season 2 trailer: is there one?There won’t be a season 2 trailer for a long time. (Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)It’s currently way too early for an Ahsoka: season 2 trailer. Going on past Star Wars form, we’d expect the first footage to appear four to six months ahead of release. We’ll update this section once one is revealed.Where to watch Star Wars movies and TV showsTales of the Jedi looks back on Anakin and Ahsoka’s master/apprentice relationship (Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)If you want to watch or revisit previous Star Wars adventures ahead of Ahsoka season 2, every movie and TV show in the official canon is available on Disney Plus.Long-running animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (set between Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) is a good place to start, as it details Ahsoka Tano’s formative years in the Jedi Order as Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan. Ahsoka subsequently cameos in animated form in Star Wars: Rebels (set in the run-up to Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope), and in live-action in episodes of The Mandalorian and the Book of Boba Fett. Her backstory is also the subject of three standalone episodes in anthology series Tales of the Jedi.For more details on when and where Ahsoka and company appear, read our guide on how to watch the Star Wars movies in order.Where does the Star Wars universe go after Ahsoka season 2?Grand Admiral Thrawn is being positioned as the primary villain of the post-Return of the Jedi era (Image credit: Lucasfilm Ltd)Whatever form the big cinematic event – involving characters from Ahsoka, The Mandalorian, and more – takes, we can expect it to be epic. “To me, a theatrical experience has to have a big idea,” Filoni told Empire magazine. “[It has to be] a monumental moment in the time period that changes what’s happening. What Tony [Gilroy, Andor showrunner] has done and what we did in Rebels, everything then changes when Luke blows up the Death Star. You’re looking for those moments that define an era, and that’s what the films really should be about – whether it’s characters coming together or a defining moment.”The interweaving plots, then, are all building up to what’s been described by Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy as a “climactic story event”. The culmination of the post-Return of the Jedi era of storytelling will be a theatrical movie directed by Filoni. It’s widely expected to pull various plotlines together, laying the groundwork for the rise of the First Order, the events of The Force Awakens, and beyond.Telling Vanity Fair about his plans for Ahsoka season 2 and his as-yet-untitled film, Filoni said: “I’m setting up what seems to be a larger conflict with the Imperial Remnant. That conflict can’t just mirror what we’ve seen before. It has to take on a different shape. It can’t just be the Empire versus what looks like the Rebellion, or even the Republic. It has to be visually different”. Here’s hoping it’s worth the wait.For more Star Wars coverage, see which Lucasfilm series made it onto our best Disney Plus shows list. Alternatively, see why Star Wars should learn from Andor and stop making Disney Plus shows that are so obsessed with the Jedi or why Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has already got a lot of convincing to do.

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The 12 biggest take-private PE acquisitions so far this year in tech

The private equity realm has been pretty active so far in 2024, serving as a powerful “alternative” source of liquidity for technology startups and scale-ups in search of an exit. Just this month, TechCrunch reported that EQT had picked up a majority stake in cybersecurity firm Acronis at a valuation of around $4 billion, following in the footsteps of another exit, in which EQT snapped up enterprise middleware company WSO2 for $600 million.

However, private equity has also been busy in the public markets, with some big deals going down to transform underperforming companies with strong growth prospects. According to PitchBook, there were 136 take-private deals led by private equity firms in 2023, up 15% on the previous year. New data provided to TechCrunch by PitchBook indicates that so far in 2024, there have been 97 such deals, meaning we’re roughly on course to match last year’s figure (give or take) if the current trajectory holds.

Of the take-private deals that have closed so far in 2024, 46 belong to the technology sector. TechCrunch has filtered through these transactions to identify deals specifically focused on product-centric companies (rather than IT consultancies or services firms), and pulled out all the acquisitions valued at $1 billion or more.

We’ve included transactions that have either already closed in 2024 or are set to close in 2024; this includes deals first announced last year.

Adevinta: $13 billion

Adevinta chair Orla Noonan and CEO Rolv Erik Ryssdal, with executive management, opening trading on April 10, 2019.Image Credits: Adevinta (opens in a new window)

Norwegian media group Schibsted spun out classifieds platform Adevinta as a stand-alone business in 2019. With existing online marketplaces in France, Spain, Brazil, and the U.K., Adevinta went on to acquire eBay’s classifieds business for $9.2 billion in 2020.

During the original spinout in 2019, Schibsted listed Adevinta on the Oslo Stock Exchange at a $6 billion valuation. In late 2023, news emerged that private equity firms Permira and Blackstone were leading a consortium to take Adevinta private in a deal worth 141 billion Norwegian crowns ($13 billion). That deal finally closed in May.

Squarespace: $6.9 billion

Squarespace IPO (2021).Image Credits: NYSE (opens in a new window)

U.K.-based private equity firm Permira announced plans to acquire website builder Squarespace in May, in an all-cash deal valued at $6.9 billion.

Squarespace filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, shortly after raising $300 million at a $10 billion valuation. The company went on to reach a market cap high of $8 billion in mid-2021, but its stock went into free fall, dropping to a low of $2 billion in 2022. The company was already on the rebound this year, with its market cap soaring past $5 billion off the back of strong earnings, sparking Permira into action.

The proposed take-private deal is expected to close in Q4 2024.

Nuvei: $6.3 billion

Nuvei’s opening day on the Nasdaq in 2021.Image Credits: Nasdaq (opens in a new window)

Canadian fintech Nuvei, which provides companies with a range of services spanning payments processing, risk management, currency conversion, and more, entered into an agreement in April to be taken private by Advent International in a deal worth $6.3 billion.

The Ryan Reynolds-backed company originally filed to go public in 2020 on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), followed by the Nasdaq in the U.S. a year later. The company hit a peak valuation of more than $24 billion in 2021 before hitting a low of $2.6 billion in October, 2023.

The deal is expected to close in late 2024 or early 2025 at the latest.

PowerSchool: $5.6 billion

Hardeep Gulati, chief executive officer of PowerSchool, center right, rings the opening bell during the company’s IPO in 2021. Image Credits: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg / Getty Images

K-12 education software provider PowerSchool is in the middle of being taken private by Bain Capital, in a transaction that values the Folsom, California-based company at $5.6 billion.

PowerSchool was originally acquired by Apple in 2001 for $62 million in an all-stock deal, with Apple selling PowerSchool to Pearson five years later. Pearson then sold it on to Vista Equity Partners in 2015, with Onex Partners joining as investor three years later.

PowerSchool went public in 2021, with the NYSE listing giving the company an initial valuation of around $3.5 billion. It later surged to $5.5 billion in late 2021, before falling to $1.8 billion within a year and then hovering at around the $3.5 billion mark for the past couple of years.

The take-private transaction is expected to conclude in the second half of 2024.

Darktrace: $5.3 billion

Darktrace on the London Stock Exchange.Image Credits: London Stock Exchange (opens in a new window)

U.K. cybersecurity giant Darktrace is set to go private in a $5.3 billion deal spearheaded by an entity called Luke Bidco Ltd., formed by private equity giant Thoma Bravo.

Founded in 2013, Darktrace raised some $230 million in VC funding and reached a private valuation of $1.65 billion, before going public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 with an opening-day valuation of $2.4 billion. The full valuation based on Thoma Bravo’s offer amounts to $5.4 billion on a fully diluted basis, with the corresponding enterprise value sitting at $4.99 billion.

The deal is expected to close by the end of 2024.

Instructure: $4.8 billion

Instructure’s opening day listing on the NYSE (2021).Image Credits: NYSE (opens in a new window)

Educational technology company Instructure first went public in 2015, but it was taken private by Thoma Bravo in a $2 billion transaction four years later.

In 2021, the private equity giant spun Instructure out once more as a public company on the NYSE, but its valuation generally hovered around the $3.5 billion mark. But KKR swooped in with a $4.8 billion bid in July, with plans to take the company private once more.

The deal is expected to close in late 2024.

Alteryx: $4.4 billion

Alteryx NYSE IPO on March 24, 2017.Image Credits: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Data analytics software provider Alteryx was taken private in a $4.4 billion deal.

Alteryx went public on the NYSE in 2017, with its shares soaring past the $12 billion mark in the intervening years. However, its market cap had been in free fall since 2021, hitting a low of $2 billion before Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners came in with their offer last December.

The take-private transaction closed in March this year.

EngageSmart: $4 billion

EngageSmart.Image Credits: EngageSmart

First announced in October 2023, Vista Equity Partners bid $4 billion to take customer engagement software provider EngageSmart private in a deal valued at $4 billion. EngageSmart went public on the NYSE in 2021, with its market cap hovering around the $2 billion to $3 billion mark until Vista Equity Partners tabled its $4 billion offer.

The transaction closed in January, with the EngageSmart brand now in the process of being discontinued and replaced by two separate companies: InvoiceCloud and SimplePractice.

Rover: $2.3 billion

The front lobby of Rover.com in Seattle.Image Credits: John Moore/Getty Images

Pet-sitting marketplace Rover went public on the Nasdaq via a SPAC in 2021. At the tail end of 2023, Blackstone announced its intentions to acquire the company for $2.3 billion.

That all-cash transaction finally closed in February, with Rover now a private company once more.

Everbridge: $1.8 billion

Everbridge goes public in 2016.Image Credits: Everbridge (opens in a new window)

Thoma Bravo first announced its intentions to acquire Everbridge, a critical event management software company, for $1.5 billion in early February. Following further negotiations, Thoma Bravo bumped that price up to $1.8 billion.

Founded in 2002, Everbridge went public on the Nasdaq in 2016, with its shares peaking at $6.4 billion in 2021 before falling below the $1 billion mark ahead of Thoma Bravo entering the the mix.

The transaction closed in July.

Kahoot: $1.7 billion

Kahoot on the Oslo Børs.Image Credits: Kahoot (opens in a new window)

Way back in July 2023, a consortium of buyers led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management announced it was acquiring gamified e-learning platform Kahoot in a deal worth $1.7 billion.

The announcement came a little over two years after Kahoot went public on the Oslo Stock Exchange, with the sale price representing a 53.1% premium on the last trading day before its investors’ specific shareholdings were publicly disclosed in May.

The transaction finally closed in January this year, with Kahoot delisting from the Oslo Børs stock exchange.

Model N: $1.25 billion

Model N goes public in 2013.Image Credits: NYSE (opens in a new window)

Model N, a platform that helps companies automate decisions related to pricing, incentives and compliance, went private in a $1.25 billion deal spearheaded by Vista Equity Partners.

Founded in 1999, Model N went public on the NYSE in 2013, though its valuation rarely ventured further north than $1.5 billion — a figure that fell to below $1 billion in the six months leading to Vista Equity Partners stepping into the fray.

The transaction concluded in June 2024, with Model N now a private company.

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Here’s how you can get a limited edition Apple Watch award today

While it’s not the International Day of Yoga – after all, that only comes once a year on June 21, 2024 – today, August 25, 2024, is a day that Apple Watch workout aficionados should be excited about. Why? You can earn a limited edition award for completing a workout, and all types are eligible as long as it is for 20 minutes. The occasion is to celebrate natural parks at home or visit one in the United States. That might be for a relaxing meditation or yoga workout on a hill, a hike, or even kayaking. Similarly, it could be a HIIT workout at home. (Image credit: Apple)While Apple has been celebrating National Parks in the United States’ 108th birthday and has been a longstanding partner, anyone who wears an Apple Watch worldwide can complete a workout for 20 minutes today to score the limited-edition award. Plus, you’ll unlock exclusive stickers for iMessage that celebrate the parks.The included stickers are really fun, including someone paddling on a kayak through water, a lovely bee pollinating some flowers, and even an animated version of the limited-edition award. To get it, you simply complete a workout of at least 20 minutes today, August 25, 2024. To do so, on your Apple Watch, you’ll open the Workouts app – you can push the Digital Crown to find it, hit the Action Button on an Apple Watch Ultra if you’ve set that up, or even ask Siri to open Workouts. You can select from the long list of workout types from there and are ready to begin. Once you end the workout, along with your stats – think heart rate and calories burned – you’ll see the award with a fun animation. It’s as simple as that, and the sticker set will also be unlocked for use.(Image credit: Apple)Beyond this workout award, all purchases made on Apple.com in the United States or at an Apple Store in America using Apple Pay by the end of the day on August 25th, 2024, will result in Apple making a $10 donation to the National Park Foundation. Additionally, as part of iOS 18 and watchOS 10 this fall (think September through November 2024), Apple Maps will expand details on hiking trails for National Parks in the United States.Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.If you’re already running the iOS 18 Public Beta, you can try those out now and read all about a secret feature here.You Might Also Like

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TPG closes on $150M funding for India’s Eruditus, valued at $2.3B

Eruditus, an Indian edtech startup, is in advanced stages of talks to secure about $150 million in new funding, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, in what would be the largest fundraise by an Indian education firm in years.

TPG, a major private equity player, is discussing to lead the investment, the sources said. The new investment will value Eruditus at up to $2.3 billion, according to proposed terms, the sources added, requesting anonymity as the deliberations are ongoing.

This valuation is tied to Eruditus meeting specific performance targets. Failing to hit these milestones could see the startup lose its value to at least $1.8 billion, the sources added. The potential new valuation represents a decrease from the $3.2 billion at which Eruditus was valued during its last funding round in August 2021.

Terms of the deal could still change in the coming weeks, the sources cautioned. Eruditus counts Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Prosus Ventures, Accel, SoftBank, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Peak XV among its backers.

Eruditus, founded 14 years ago, collaborates with leading global universities to provide executive education programs for businesses and individuals. The startup generates over two-thirds of its revenue from international markets.

Eruditus and TPG didn’t immediately respond to request for comment outside business hours.

The potential $150 million investment in an edtech firm could reinvigorate a sector that has struggled since the reopening of schools post-pandemic. Many edtech companies have faced devaluations or closures as their growth stalled with the return to in-person learning.

The Indian edtech market is also reeling from the sudden collapse of Byju’s, once valued at $22 billion. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup is mired in lawsuits and governance challenges and staring at insolvency proceedings.

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New enterprise class NVMe SSD is the perfect internal boot drive for high-volume servers — This Gen 4×4 PCIe interface with 112-layer 3D TLC NAND SSD even has hardware-based power loss protection

Kingston Digital has announced its latest data center SSD, which it says can utilize the latest Gen 4×4 PCIe interface, paired with 112-layer 3D TLC NAND.The DC2000B offers low latency and IOPS consistency, which are critical for high-duty cycle workloads. This combination ensures the SSD delivers top-tier performance, making it ideal for internal server boot drive applications.This high-performance PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD works as an internal boot drive for high-volume rack-mount servers.On-board power loss protection(Image credit: Kingston Digital)The DC2000B SSD comes with an onboard hardware-based power loss protection (PLP) not commonly found on M.2 SSDs. PLP reduces the possibility of data loss or corruption due to unexpected power outages.It also features an integrated aluminum heatsink that helps ensure broad thermal compatibility across a wide variety of system designs. This heat management system allows the device to maintain optimal performance levels even under heavy workloads.The DC2000B SSDs are designed to operate in a wide range of temperatures. When in storage, it can handle from -40°C to 85°C but when in operation, it can take from 0°C to 70°C.The SSD utilizes 3D TLC NAND technology and it is available in three capacities: 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB. The sequential read and write speeds of this device vary depending on the storage size.Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!(Image credit: Kingston Digital)The 240GB model offers read speeds of up to 4500 MB/s and write speeds of 400 MB/s, while the 480GB version ramps up to 7000 MB/s for reads and 800 MB/s for writes. The largest capacity, 960GB, matches the 480GB in read speeds at 7000 MB/s but improves the write speed to 1300 MB/s.In terms of steady-state 4K read and write IOPS, the 240GB model provides 260,000 read IOPS and 18,000 write IOPS. The 480GB version enhances this with 530,000 read IOPS and 32,000 write IOPS, while the 960GB variant delivers 540,000 read IOPS and 47,000 write IOPS, showcasing its ability to handle demanding workloads with ease.These devices are compact with dimensions of 80 mm x 22 mm x 8.3 mm, and weigh in at 9g for the 240GB model, 10g for the 480GB model, and 11g for the 960GB model. These SSDs are also built to withstand significant vibration, with a non-operating tolerance of 20G Peak across a frequency range of 10 to 2000Hz.Kingston’s DC2000B SSD comes with an endurance rating of 0.4 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day) over five years for all capacity options. Furthermore, it includes Enterprise SMART tools which permit the tracking of parameters such as usage statistics, SSD life remaining, wear leveling, and temperature.(Image credit: Kingston Digital)The durability and longevity of this device are reflected in its Total Bytes Written (TBW) values. The 240GB model is rated for 175 TBW, the 480GB version for 350 TBW, and the 960GB variant for 700 TBW, ensuring reliable performance even under heavy usage.The SSDs also exhibit low latency, with read latencies averaging 70µs across all capacities. Write latencies are optimized as well, with the 240GB model at 53µs, the 480GB at 29µs, and the 960GB at just 20µs.In terms of power consumption, the 240GB model averages 2.97W during read operations and 4.02W during write operations, with peak consumption slightly higher. The 480GB model consumes an average of 3.22W for reading and 5.60W for writing, while the 960GB version uses 3.26W for reading and 7.36W for writing.The DC2000B has a Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) rating of 2 million hours, indicating a long lifespan under typical usage conditions. To top it off, Kingston offers a limited five-year warranty with free technical support.Tony Hollingsbee, SSD business manager, Kingston EMEA said “Whitebox server makers and Tier 1 server OEMs continue to equip their latest generation servers with M.2 sockets for boot purposes as well as internal data caching…DC2000B was designed to deliver the necessary performance and write endurance to handle a variety of high-duty cycle server workloads. Bringing the boot drives internal to the server preserves the valuable front-loading drive bays for data storage.”The DC2000B is available from Kingston in the UK, with the 240GB version at £104.40, 480GB at £134.40 and 960GB at £195.60. In the US the DC2000B is available through B2B and government resellers.More from TechRadar Pro

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The fallout after Bolt’s aggressive fundraising attempt has been wild

This past week was a wild one in the world of fintech as Bolt surprised the industry with a leaked term sheet that revealed it is trying to raise $200 million in equity and an unusual, additional $250 million in “marketing credits.” 

As part of this deal, Bolt wanted a $14 billion valuation bolstered by an aggressive pay-to-play type cramdown that would try and force its existing investors to cough up more cash, too, or essentially lose their stakes to a 1 cent per share buyout.

The industry responded with a collective “We’ll see about that.”

Brad Pamnani, an investor who is spearheading the proposed $200 million equity investment deal, told TechCrunch on Thursday that shareholders have until the end of next week to indicate whether or not they plan to write checks into the new funding round. 

To backtrack to the beginning: on August 20, the Information reported that one-click checkout startup Bolt was close to raising another $450 million at a potential $14 billion valuation. That would have been shocking if wholly true, but as more info emerged about this proposed deal, the details were not that straightforward.

It would have been shocking because this company had seen a lot of controversy since its last $11 billion valuation in 2022, including its outspoken founder Ryan Breslow stepping down as CEO in early 2022. Part of the news of the new funding round included Breslow coming back as CEO. This after allegations that he misled investors and violated security laws by inflating metrics while fundraising the last time he ran the company. Breslow is also still embroiled in a legal battle with investor Activant Capital over a $30 million loan he took out.

Initial reports tagged Silverbear Capital as leading that investment, but Pamnani told TechCrunch (as also reported by Axios’s Dan Primack) that this isn’t accurate. Although Pamnani is a partner at Silverbear Capital, the investment vehicle is actually a SPV that will be managed by a new UAE-based private equity fund.

“We have already filed in UAE, and it’s pending approval of regulators,” he said, declining to reveal the names of any entities. 

Silvebear is not involved at all in the Bolt deal, Pamnani said, noting that he also works for an unnamed Cayman Islands-based private equity firm that is an LP in the SPV.

“At the beginning, I used my Silverbear email to respond to some things and that caused some confusion but Silverbear was never actually looking at this deal,” he said.

Breslow told TechCrunch he couldn’t comment on the proposed transaction.

Ashesh Shah of The London Fund also explained to TechCrunch more about that additional, at least $250 million he plans to invest in Bolt, but not so much with cash. Instead, he confirmed he’s offering “marketing credits.” He described those credits as a cash equivalent that could be provided in the form of influencer marketing for Bolt by some of his funds’ limited partners, who are in the influencer and media world. 

Image Credits: Bolt

New investors agree to put Breslow back in charge

Bolt’s annualized run rate was at $28 million in revenue and the company had $7 million in gross profit as of the end of March, journalist Eric Newcomer, who also saw copies of the leaked term sheet, reported this week. 

That means a valuation of $14 billion would be an enormous multiple in this market, and a step up to the multiple used when Bolt landed its $11 billion valuation in January 2022.

Pamnani told TechCrunch that he was hoping for a valuation closer to $9 billion or $10 billion.

“We wanted a discounted valuation when going in and were discussing somewhere close to $9B-$10B. We have no interest in paying top dollar if we don’t have to. Unfortunately we didn’t land that,” he said. 

“But we think that is a fair valuation to be able to reach,” he said of the $14 billion valuation. 

Pamnanii said the SPV also pushed for Breslow to be reinstated as CEO. Notably, the term sheet stipulates that the founder would receive a $2 million bonus for returning as CEO, plus an additional $1 million of back pay.

Bolt has been running under former director of sales Justin Grooms as interim CEO as of March when Maju Kuruvilla was out after reportedly being removed by Bolt’s board. Kuruvilla served in the role since early 2022 after Breslow stepped down.

“We realized just looking back at the historical record that Bolt had when Ryan was in the driver’s seat, and then as soon as he left, it started going downhill, and it was not the best time,” Pamnani said. 

Can Bolt really force investors to sell for a penny a share?

The deal also includes a so-called pay-to-pay or cramdown provision where existing shareholders must buy additional stakes at the higher rates or the company has threatened to buy back their shares for a penny apiece.

So the question is, if a shareholder doesn’t agree to buy in again, can the company really dispose of their investment in such a way? 

Not likely, according to Andre Gharakhanian, partner at venture capital law firm Silicon Legal Strategy, who has viewed the company’s charter. He described the proposed transaction as “a twist on the pay-to-play structure.”

“Pay to play” is a term used in term sheets that benefits new investors at the expense of old. It grows in popularity during market downturns (which is why it has become increasingly common in 2024, according to data from Cooley.) Essentially, it forces existing investors to buy all the pro rata shares they are entitled to or the company will take some punitive action, like converting their shares from preferred shares with extra rights to common shares, explains AngelList.

In Bolt’s case this is “actually not a forced conversion like most pay-to-plays. Instead, it’s a forced buyback. The goal is the same — to pressure existing investors to continue to support the company and diminish the ownership of those who are not providing that support,” Gharakhanian said. “However, instead of automatically converting non-participating investors into common — they are buying back 2/3 of the non-participating investors’ preferred stock at $0.01/share.”

The catch, he said, is that most venture-backed startups must obtain approval from preferred stockholders to do a gambit like that, according to their corporate charters. That typically requires approval from the majority, the very people that Bolt is trying to strong arm.

What usually happens is that such a threat sends everyone to their lawyers. A deal could eventually get struck after much “hemming and hawing” and much ill will, Gharakhanian said.  

“If the company truly has no other alternatives, the non-participating investors will often relent and consent to the deal,” he said, meaning they will agree to let the company buy them back. If they agree to take that much of a loss remains to be seen.

Stay tuned.

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Starliner will return to Earth uncrewed, astronauts staying on ISS until February

Boeing’s Starliner mission is coming back to Earth — empty.

After months of data analysis and internal deliberation, NASA leadership announced today that Starliner will be coming back to Earth in September, without a crew. Meanwhile, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams will remain on-board the International Space Station until February 2025, when they will return on SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft as part of the Crew-9 mission.

NASA noted that while the astronauts’ eight-month stay on the ISS will be longer than expected, others have remained on the ISS for as long as 12 months. While there, Wilmore and Williams will be involved in research, station maintenance, and potentially a few spacewalks.

Boeing launched the first crewed Starliner mission — a test mission — on June 5, with issues starting around 24 hours later. In the final phase of approach to the ISS, five of the 28 thrusters on Starliner went offline, and several helium leaks sprung up in the spacecraft’s propulsion system. Since then, NASA and Boeing engineers have been engaged in a root cause analysis, conducting tests of the thrusters onboard the spacecraft and testing a replica engine here on Earth. 

NASA was betting a lot on Starliner — approximately $4.2 billion, per a contract that was awarded to Boeing for Starliner’s development back in 2014. Boeing has also put a lot on the line, with cost overruns on the capsule amounting to over $1.5 billion.

NASA’s aim was to have two commercial crew transportation providers, which is why it awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX. But while SpaceX completed its certification mission in 2020, and has conducted eight NASA missions since that point, Boeing’s Starliner faced numerous delays.

Although the incident might seem like the nail in Starliner’s coffin, at today’s press conference, NASA leaders said they’ve been working closely with Boeing, and they pushed back against a question implying that there’d been any loss of trust in the company or Starliner — instead, they suggested there was merely a “disagreement” over the level of risk.

“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star.”

Nelson later said he is “100 percent” certain that Starliner will be able to launch a crewed mission to the ISS in the future.

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Google just made a $250M deal with California to support journalism — here’s what it means

This week, Google joined a $250 million deal with the state of California to support California newsrooms. While the deal offers a much-needed cash infusion for an industry that’s seen crippling layoffs this year, the deal’s been criticized by some as a half-measure — and a cop-out.

By agreeing to this deal, Google averts bills that would have forced it and other tech companies to pay news providers when they run ads alongside news content on their platforms.

The Media Guild of the West (MGW), the local chapter of the journalism labor union the NewsGuild-CWA, denounced the deal in a post on X, calling it a shakedown.

“After two years of advocacy for strong anti-monopoly action to start turning around the decline of local newsrooms, we are left almost without words,” MGW said in a statement. “The publishers who claim to represent our industry are celebrating … minimum financial commitments to Google to return the wealth this monopoly has stolen from our newsrooms.”

But what would the Google agreement actually accomplish, should it be approved by California’s policymakers? And are there any reasons to be optimistic?

Five years of funds

Last year, California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks introduced a bill, AB 886, that would’ve mandated certain platforms pay publishers a percentage of their ad revenues in exchange for linking to those publishers’ articles. Senator Steve Glazer introduced a second bill, SB 1327, that would’ve levied a 7.25% tax on ad revenue to create a tax credit for newsrooms.

The $250 million Google deal leaves both proposals dead in the water.

Instead of imposing a fee structure, the deal will draw on funding from Google, taxpayers, and potentially other private sources to establish two programs: the News Transformation Fund and the National AI Innovation Accelerator.

Administered by UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, the News Transformation Fund will support newsrooms (excluding broadcasters) based in California. Taxpayers’ contributions amount to $70 million while Google is pledging to give at least $55 million for a grand total of ~$125 million, with the funds to be doled out to news organizations based on how many reporters they employ. Funds will be distributed over a five-year period.

Twelve percent or more of the News Transformation Fund’s pool will go toward “locally focused” publishers and publications aimed at underrepresented groups, reports The New York Times. Google will pay $15 million into the News Transformation Fund in the first year and “at least” $10 million in each of the following years; California taxpayers will provide $30 million in the first year and $10 million in each of the next four years.

The National AI Innovation Accelerator has a different, more tech-driven mission. With $62.5 million from Google over five years, it’ll provide “organizations across industries and communities” with funding to experiment with AI to “assist them in their work,” according to a press release. The funds “will be administered in collaboration with a private nonprofit,” the release reads, “and will provide organizations from journalism, to the environment, to racial equity and beyond with financial resources and other support.”

You’ll notice that Google’s financial commitments come to $117.5 million — short of the $250 million figure quoted in the release. That’s because the remainder ($132.5 million) is in the form of replenishments to the company’s existing programs to support journalism, the Google News Initiative and partnerships through Google News Showcase, Google says.

Pros and cons

The initiatives, slated to go live sometime in 2025, drew praise from California governor Gavin Newsom and the California News Publishers Association (CNPA), a nonprofit trade association representing California newspapers.

“The deal not only provides funding to support hundreds of new journalists but helps rebuild a robust and dynamic California press corps for years to come, reinforcing the vital role of journalism in our democracy,” Newsom said in a statement. CNPA called the agreement “a first step toward what we hope will become a comprehensive program to sustain local news in the long term.”

Others were skeptical it’s a slam dunk.

Senate president pro tempore Mike McGuire questioned legislative support for California’s share of the deal. And Senator Glazer called it “completely inadequate,” noting that Google is the sole tech company participating. (OpenAI is contributing technology, but not any money.)

“There is a stark absence in this announcement of any support for journalism from Meta and Amazon,” Glazer said in a release. “These platforms have captured the intimate data from Californians without paying for it. Their use of that data in advertising is the harm to news outlets that this agreement should mitigate.”

Glazer also suggests Google is paying less than its fair share — and at least one study supports his argument. Researchers at Columbia, the University of Houston, and consulting firm the Brattle Group estimate that Google owes U.S. publishers 50% of the value added to their platforms by news, which they peg at between $10 billion and $12 billion in revenue sharing annually.

Declining revenue

The past six months have been brutal for the news sector.

The industry could be on track to shed 10,000 jobs this year, per Fast Company. That’d be an improvement from last year, which saw over 21,400 journalism jobs eliminated — but it’s hardly a sunshiney outlook.

California has had a particularly rough go of it. According to a 2023 Northwestern Medill School of Journalism report, the state has lost one-third of its publishers and 68% of its journalists since 2005. The Los Angeles Times, the largest metro daily newspaper in California (and the U.S.), cut more than 20% of its newsroom in January — one of the largest cuts in the paper’s 142-year history.

What’s causing the decline? Many factors, from slow-growing ad budgets to inflation (which has harmed subscription growth). The struggle to find a sustainable business model hasn’t been helped by Big Tech, either, whose search and feed algorithm changes — and AI-generated overviews — have reduced publisher traffic.

Pundits argue that tech has also trained people to expect free content — close to half of Americans get their news from social media (despite frequent inaccuracies) — and captured an increasing share of ad dollars at the expense of publishers. Approximately 60% of global ad spend is now funneled toward Big Tech companies, including Google and Meta; one study found that broadcasters lose nearly $2 billion in ad revenue annually to Google’s and Meta’s platforms.

Tech companies have historically played hardball when faced with efforts to fund journalism through fees levied on their platforms.

In opposition to Wicks’ bill, Google said it was considering temporarily blocking news websites from some California users’ search results. Abroad, the company fought bills in Australia and Canada that would’ve forced it to compensate publishers — in 2021 threatening to leave Australia if the government’s proposed legislation went through. After France implemented an EU law to grant publishers the right to charge for aggregation of their content, Google said that it would remove snippets from Google Search. And in Spain, which passed a similar law in 2014, Google shut down Google News altogether.

Google has since made arrangements with publishers in those countries through the aforementioned Google News Showcase, its program launched in 2020 that pays selected outlets on Google’s own terms. At last count, Google had around 180 publications in the program; the company claims it’s committed over $1 billion to journalism since 2020.

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X shareholders as of June 2023 included funds tied to Bill Ackman, Binance, and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

A court order recently forced Elon Musk’s X to reveal its full list of shareholders, as of June 2023, to the public.

Many of the recognizable tech industry names had already been reported as backers of Musk’s effort to buy the social media company then known as Twitter and take it private, inculding VC firms Andreessen Horowitz, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Sequoia Capital, as well as Oracle founder Larry Ellison and crypto company Binance.

Less widely known was the involvement of Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is apparently an investor through Sean Combs Capital (his investment was previously reported by the Daily Mail). Bill Ackman, the activist investor who recently made headlines with his campaign against activism at Ivy League schools, is also a shareholder through the Pershing Square Foundation. So is 8VC, the VC firm co-founded by Palantir’s Joe Lonsdale, which has reported ties to Russian oligarchs.

Some of the listed shareholders were investors in Twitter before Musk’s takeover. For example, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud reportedly rolled over their Twitter shares into stakes in what’s now X.

The court filing containing the list of shareholders is dated June 9, 2023, but it was unsealed this week in response to a motion from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press on behalf of independent journalist Jacob Silverman.

In a blog post publishing the full list of investors, Silverman acknowledged that many of Musk’s backers were already known, and that the list doesn’t include ownership amounts. Still, he said it’s “a great starting point for journalists, researchers, regulators, activists, and anyone else who wants to know what’s going on behind the scenes of this important company.”

Read the full list here.

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