Playground Global, a Silicon Valley incubator, confirmed BuzzFeed's report that co-founder Andy Rubin quietly left earlier this year.
"Playground Global bought out my interests earlier this year when the noise around my divorce and departure from Google made it difficult to focus on the tasks at hand. Playground is still an investor in Essential and we’re continuing to innovate."
Why it matters: Facebook spent more than a year quietly working on the project, and rallied 27 organizations to tentatively agree to participate. However, the Libra Association has faced an avalanche of criticismand scrutiny from regulators worldwide, though it's done little more than publish its plans. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is set to testify on the topic in front of the House Financial Services Committee on Oct. 23.
Carmakers are going to great lengths to reposition their gas-electric hybrid models as sporty, premium or even high-performance — anything but the responsible choice for tree-huggers.
The big picture: With stricter fuel economy standards looming, and zero-emission electric cars still too pricey for most consumers, automakers need to fill the compliance gap by selling a lot more hybrids.
Apple's stock rose 1.35% Thursday, more than doubling gains by the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq and touching a 52-week high.
Driving the news: The strong gains came despite criticism of the company for pulling apps from its store in recent days to appease Chinese authorities.
Waze is best known for its navigation app, which crowdsources traffic information, but a few years ago it ventured into a new line of business when it rolled out a carpooling app. Today, the Google-owned company says its U.S. carpool users complete more than 550,000 rides per month, and will reach the 1 million mark by the end of the year.
What they're saying: "We’re not taking on Uber and Lyft," Waze co-founder and CEO Noam Bardin tells Axios. "We're focused on commutes 20 miles and up." Waze drivers also can't earn money beyond the cost of driving (per IRS guidance of $0.58 per mile).
Grammarly, the company behind the popular AI-powered writing assistant, has raised $90 million to provide more services for business writing. The company would not share its new valuation, but claims it's now a "unicorn" — a privately-held company worth over $1 billion.
Why it matters: That's a lot of money for an announcement without any new product launches, but Grammarly CEO Brad Hoover says the company doesn't face much competition, which could be attractive to investors.
Confronted with evidence of danger to police and citizens, Apple removed an app Wednesday night that "has been used in ways that endanger law enforcement and residents in Hong Kong," an Apple statement said.
Why it matters: With pro-democracy riots in their 18th week, the app — HKmap.live — has allowed users to track police movements, then target and ambush officers. Apple determined that those uses violate both App Store policy and Hong Kong law.
Hong Kong authorities, who had complained about the app, said it also was being used to victimize residents in areas where police weren’t present.
