Asia/Pacific

Protocol flaw, exchange shutdown, and $2.7M heist prompt speculations about Bitcoin's end

With Bitcoin encountering a series of problems lately, including withdrawal halting of exchanges, a $2.7 million heist, and a flaw in the Bitcoin protocol, speculations abound that the Bitcoin is coming to an end soon.


Beijing-based PICOOC pushes to break $20M in its second funding round

Smart bathroom scale maker PICOOC is raising $20 million for its second institutional funding round. The company makes the smart body scale brand Latin, TechNode reported.

Japan's Rakuten purchases Viber for $900 million

Rakuten said it will purchase messaging application Viber for $900 million, marking the latest and largest acquisition of the biggest internet company in Japan, TechCrunch reported.

New York-based betaworks secures additional $10M in round led by Digital Garage

Betaworks, a New York-based media products maker and seed stage investor, has received additional funds amounting to $10 million in a round led by Digital Garage, TechCrunch reported.


Latest News

Giant Interactive Group, a shareholder in Alibaba Group Holding, is selling a stake in the e-commerce company for about $199 million. Giant Interactive's share sale values Alibaba at roughly $128 billion.
Joyme.com, a mobile game portal company based in Beijing, has received $21.5 million in funding in a round led by Fosun Venture Capital Investment and joined by existing investor BlueRun Ventures.
Governor Raghuram Rajan of the Reserve Bank of India has reiterated concerns about the stability and credibility of virtual currencies like the Bitcoin, TechCrunch reported.
State-backed fund Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ) entered an agreement to pick up a 20% stake in Kyoto-based robotic hand maker Squse Inc for JPY500 million ($4.9 million), according to three sources familiar with the matter.
Aboitiz Group, a conglomerate based in the Philippines, has exited completely from the shipping business by selling the interests it held in joint ventures with Norway-based Jebsen Group.
Corporate Executive Board or CEB has made its third acquisition in the talent management space by purchasing India-based talent analytics company Talent Neuron for anywhere from $10 million to $15 million, TechCrunch reported.
Russian tech investor Yuri Milner, together with Morgan Stanley chief John Mack, invested an undisclosed amount in Los Angeles, US-based cloud graphics firm Otoy to commercialize its suite cloud-based content creation tools.
Flappy Bird, the popular mobile game created by Vietnamese developer Dong Nguyen, proliferated in app stores and even on the Internet in the form of HTML5 games after the original game was pulled from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Of the 16 startups chosen by Microsoft Ventures for its Summer 2014 batch, six will be part of the Accelerator Plus program that targets more mature firms, TechCrunch reported.
Media and digital marketing firm Dentsu Aegis Network added China-based social creative firm Verawom for an undisclosed sum, in a deal that will integrate the latter into the Isobar China group.