investment

Man Forgets About Buying $27 of Bitcoin, Is Now Worth About $1 Million

Four years ago, Oslo-man Christopher Koch’s girlfriend scoffed at his purchase of $27-worth of Bitcoin. Chances are she was singing a decidedly different tune last April, when Koch checked back in on his investment and found out it was worth $886,000. And over a cool million today. Back in 2009, Koch was working on a…

Is It Smarter To Invest In Silicon Valley Or Hollywood?

If there’s one thing I know about Gizmodo readers and staff, it’s that we all have a bunch of excess money that’s stressing us out. What should we do with it? Where should we invest it? Tough questions. But even if the whole tech startup vs. blockbuster investing question doesn’t quite apply to you it’s…

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Intel is throwing a cool $100 million towards “perceptual” computing technologies like voice and gesture control. The future might be here sooner than we thought.

Samsung Just Gave Sharp $110 Million to Guarantee LCD Supply

Sharp has just announced that it’s getting a $110 million shot in the arm from Samsung. In turn, that will help guarantee Sammy as many LCD panels as it can use. The sum actually buys Samsung a three percent stake in Sharp—which sounds small but in fact makes it the biggest shareholder that isn’t a…

How Roku Could Beat Apple to Finally Cracking TV

The Roku is a hell of a media streamer: its only real competitor is the Apple TV, but it costs half as much. No brainer. And when News Corp and British Sky Broadcasting pony up $45 million to help Roku win the streaming race, the possibilities start to seem limitless. https://gizmodo.com/roku-2-same-old-but-still-good-same-old-5827779 Announcing the investment this…

Beats By Dr. Dre Audio Coming to HTC Handsets This Fall (Updated)

HTC may announce Thursday it’s going to spend $500M to acquire a 51% stake in Beats Electronics, the company behind Beats By Dr. Dre. Beats will operate independently and its audio technology will land in HTC’s handsets. [CNET and AllThingsD] http://gizmodo.com/5794310/beats-by-dr-dre-get-a-chrome-paintjob-and-1000-price-tag Update: And here’s HTC’s press release confirming the partnership and new phones coming this…

Is the Tech World Falling Out of Love With Obama?

Obama dominated the tech angle of the ’08 election with his smartphone packing social media swagger (his opponent not knowing how to use a computer helped too). But The Economist says some in the tech business now feel abandoned. It seems most of the beef is a result of Silicon Valley types not getting what…

Dual-Screen Kno Tablet To Be Available by Year’s End

Does the lure of playing with “the most powerful tablet anyone has ever made” tempt you? How about those dual 14.1-inch touchscreens? (That’s a combined might of 28.2-inches!) Kno has received $46m investment, with an end-of-year launch already penciled-in. https://gizmodo.com/kno-dual-screen-tablet-sincerely-hopes-size-matters-5553810 After being shown off at the D8 event in June, we were bowled over by…

Google Quietly Invests Over $100 Million in Zynga, Readying Google Games

Whoa. TechCrunch reports that Google has invested between $100 and $200 million in Zynga, the social gaming behemoth behind Farmville, Mafia Wars, and others, in preparation for the launch of Google Games later this year. TechCrunch’s “multiple sources” say that Google itself, not its venture capital division Google Ventures, has invested between $100 and $200…

Plastic Logic Que Still Delayed, But Could I Interest You in Plastic Logic?

The promising-but-pricey Plastic Logic Que was enticing when first announced, but extensive delays have made it less appealing. Still, major Plastic Logic investor Herrman Hauser selflessly thinks now would be the perfect time for someone to buy the company. UPDATED: The fact that Hauser would see a “multiple” on his portion of the $200 million…

Helio just got a hot beef injection in the form of $270 million from SK Telecom, which means the cellphone provider should be around for a couple years at least, allaying any fears you may have about jumping on board. [CNN]