A Tech Company Once Valued At $1 Billion Is About To Sell For $15 Million

Ailing e-commerce site Fab is reportedly in talks to be acquired by PCH International for $15 million.

TechCrunch reports that Fab's contractual agreements are in the early stages with PCH, an Irish company that sells product development supply chain management services.

The $15 million price tag is a low selling price for Fab, which was previously valued at over a billion dollars in July 2013 when it raised $150 million in funding. Fab declined to comment on this story.

Speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in October, Fab founder Jason Goldberg said that "e-commerce is a b**ch," before explaining that Fab was burning through $14 million every month.

Fab has tried to turn itself around in recent years. It launched a new business, Hem, which lets people design and order furniture online. It also underwent several rounds of layoffs, reducing the number of staff from 750 to 185 employees.

Goldberg seemed to suggest last month that Fab was not up for sale, instead hinting at the company's future. "We have years and years of cash left," he said, "I didn't start it to sell it, I started it to build a great e-commerce business."

Chumby's smart alarm clock relaunches with 1,000 apps

Remember Chumby? You probably haven't heard much about the snuggly tiny computer/smart alarm clock since its makers' company disbanded, but now it's back from its semi-retired state. Its current owner, Blue Octy LLC, just announced that it's relaunching Chumby's full service (it went offline in 2013), which comes with 1,000 apps and faster, more efficient performance. The device, for those who haven't heard of it before, first launched in mid-2000s, way before everyone has a smartphone to take the place of many other gadgets, and was meant as a high-tech alternative to the bedside clock radio. It's one of those things people used to call "internet-connected devices" and could display Facebook, Twitter and RSS feeds, even video streams.

Unfortunately, the device needs to connect to the Chumby network to function. So, when its original creator (Chumby Industries Inc.) went out of business last year, Blue Octy launched a limited service that lets owners use the device as an alarm clock and a music player, at least. This development gives them the power to make the gadget more useful, though it obviously won't be free. It'll cost $3 per month to restore Chumby to its former glory -- after all, the company needs money to keep the service running.

Nokia Unveils 'Z Launcher' for Android 4.1 or Higher Devices

A Nokia division not owned by Microsoft on Thursday introduced a new Android launcher app called Z Launcher. The Z Launcher app is a limited pre-beta release right now, and is only available via the Z Launcher website, and not via Google Play.

The Nokia Z Launcher app is compatible with smartphones running Android 4.1 or higher, and is not optimised for Android tablets. At present, Nokia is testing the Z Launcher on the Google Nexus 5, Samsung Galaxy S III , Galaxy S4 , and Galaxy S5 . In order to download the launcher app, users will have to sign up with their Google account first. 

The Nokia Z Launcher is named after one of its key features that lets user write a letter in order to search for anything directly from the launcher screen. Nokia calls it 'Scribble', a feature that can search anything on the phone "in as little as one second." With Scribble, users just need to draw the first letter of the search and it finds the related app, contact or task.

When the Z Launcher will be installed, users will see the time, date and one upcoming calendar event at the top of the home screen. Just like other launchers, with a tap on time will open Android's clock app and tapping the calendar event will open the Calendar app. Other than that rest of the screen is acquired by few apps, contacts and web pages.

"We're releasing the first version of Z Launcher with a limited number of downloads initially, to see how it works and learn from your feedback. In the next few months we'll provide updates on new versions, features and availability", noted Brook Eaton, Lead Product Manager on Z Launcher's blog.

The Z Launcher app is an independent project by Nokia, free of Microsoft. The company is no longer a cellphone maker as it sold its devices and services business to Microsoft handset for EUR 5.44 billion.

Skype 5.1 For iPhoneAnnounced

Skype continues to improve on their iOS offerings by rolling out Skype 5.1 for iPhone (which is a 44MB download), where it will introduce a slew of new features and improvements, where among them include a new press and hold action so that users are able to do away with conversations from recent chats – pretty nifty for those “empty” chats, no? Apart from that, you are also able to perform an edit on a chat message. Sneaky! Apart from that, one is able to tap the “add favorites” link in order to easily fill up your favorites screen with those whom you happen come into contact the most. 

The People list is now capable of matching the desktop better, since there is a spanking new “Skype” filter, while the “online” filter will be able to include users set to online, away and do not disturb. 

These filter settings can be saved too, of course. Microsoft’s Skype intends to continue rolling out additional features to the app, and when the time comes, they will roll them out in order to deliver maximum benefit to the masses. 

Interestingly enough, it was just slightly more than last week that Skype introduced Skype 5.0 for iOS , so it is refreshing to see how fast the next update came about.

Google could be teasing arrival of Android 5.0 – maybe

Android 2.0 made its debut in 2009. Both Android 3.0 and 4.0 surfaced in 2011. And ever since, we’ve been wondering when we might see Google move things forward to Android 5.0. But despite rumor after rumor over the years, we’ve been seeing 4.x release after 4.x release. Google I/O’s just a couple weeks away; is there any chance that 5.0 might be on the menu? We’re asking ourselves that question again this afternoon, after checking out what just might be an effort by Google to tease the new release’s launch.

These images up top were posted to Twitter by Google’s official account yesterday afternoon, showing how Google Now can bring users the latest World Cup scores. That’s well and good, but we’re interested in what’s going on with the clock in these pics. As you can clearly see up on the status bar, it’s set precisely to 5:00.

We often look to renders like these to drop clues about upcoming launches – maybe the date in a leaked press shot corresponds with the manufacturer’s plans to introduce a new handset. Google’s made a habit out of using the time in such images to represent Android version numbers: we’ve seen 4:40, 4:30 and so forth on recent Nexus models – the 5, 7, and 10 all currently show 4:40 in their Play Store listings.

If this were 5:03 or something (or the 9:50 used in some other renders Google published yesterday) we might be able to dismiss it as just a random time of no consequence, but precisely 5:00 sure would fit with Google’s pattern of referencing Android builds.

For the moment this is all just a theory, but we’ve got to admit it sounds decently plausible; maybe we are just weeks away from getting the scoop on Android 5.0.

Source: Google (Twitter)
Via: Droid Life

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