Facebook has already begun digging into the TV space with Facebook Watch, so what might the social media company’s next move in video be?
Jesse Redniss, Chief Innovation Officer of Turner’s TBS and TNT networks, predicts the company might buy Roku.
“Facebook has been trying to be getting into the video space for quite sometime now,” he told Cheddar in a recent interview. “When you look at Facebook’s track record of growth, the acquisition of Insta, WhatsApp, Oculus. In some ways, in order for them to really scale into a marketplace, it’ll make a lot of sense for them to buy one of the leaders in a marketplace they want to get into.”
Roku shares fell steeply Friday after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock, saying the streaming company is overvalued. Still, the company is trading well above its IPO price, and posted a 48 percent increase in active accounts in the third quarter, as well as a 58 percent increase in streaming hours.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/a-bold-prediction-on-why-facebook-would-acquire-roku).
The video streaming service added nearly 7 million subscribers in the third quarter, far better than forecast, and said it would add nearly another 10 million to round out the year.
A day after it launched as one of two official electric scooter providers in San Francisco, Skip CEO Sanjay Dastoor said the operation has been a smooth ride so far. Dastoor told Cheddar Tuesday the company has seen a "really positive, really happy response, not just from the riders, but from the city and from the non-riders as well.”
VRt Ventures, a virtual reality studio, has partnered with street artist Shepard Fairey for a first-of-its-kind VR application. As Fairey and VRt CEO Jacob Koo explain, a newly launched app allows users to experience Fairey's latest exhibition up close, the way they would at a gallery.
Paperspace wants to make artificial intelligence more accessible, according to its co-founder and CEO Dillon Erb. Erb told Cheddar Tuesday that artificial intelligence is still so new and complex that mainstream companies find the tech difficult to harness.
Facebook is developing a camera-equipped device, codenamed Ripley, that sits on top of a TV and features video calling along with entertainment services, according to sources. The company is also working an AR projector device and other far-flung projects like a brain-computer interface.
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Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates and went on to become one of the country's most prolific philanthropists and technologists, died Monday at 65.
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The Palm brand seems to be so valuable that people can’t help but resurrect it. The latest incarnation from the 26-year-old computing brand launched Monday in the form of a credit card-sized mobile device.
Jason Browne, chief investment strategist at Fund-X, said it's still unclear if the market's activity over the last few days is a normal correction or if the economy is headed into a bear market. The Dow Industrials closed out the week rising as much as 400 points Friday morning, giving back all those gains, before finishing the day up more than a percent.
