(FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 4/1/15)
Amazon's Dash Button
Is Not a Joke
Amazon.com Inc. introduced a product on Tuesday so crazy some
thought that it was an early April Fools' joke. It's the Dash
Button, a plastic single-function controller the size of a pack of
gum. Each button bears a different brightly colored product logo.
Push the button, and soon that product arrives at the customer's
door.
In the video that accompanied Amazon's announcement, there are
Dash Buttons for Gatorade, Kraft mac and cheese, Gillette razors,
Cottonelle toilet paper, Clorox Wipes, Huggies diapers and Tide
detergent, and about a dozen other brands are also now partnered
with Amazon. The online retailer expects that you'll place the
buttons around your home -- in your pantry, on your washing machine
and even inside of your fridge.
Amazon Prime subscribers must request an invite into the
program. Users will set up the buttons, connecting them to a home
Wi-Fi network and assigning the specific products and the
quantities they'll want to receive with each click.
When the button is clicked, you get a smartphone notification,
and you can cancel that order within a half-hour.
"Some people will think buttons will be a silly idea, and it is
a silly idea to think we will have houses full of buttons," said
Kinley Pearsall, an Amazon spokeswoman. But, she argued, buttons
make sense for those things you regularly buy in set amounts.
-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
Etsy Targets $1.78
Billion Value in IPO
Etsy Inc. indicated its initial public offering could value the
online marketplace as high as $1.78 billion, as the company
prepared to start pitching its shares in a roadshow to investors on
Wednesday.
The company, which connects sellers and buyers of crafts and
vintage items, said it could raise more than $300 million in the
share sale, expected to happen in about two weeks. The funds would
be split between the company and current shareholders.
A $1.8 billion valuation would be just shy of 10 times Etsy's
2014 revenue, of $196 million. Etsy didn't turn a profit last
year.
Etsy set the estimated price range for its deal at $14 to $16 a
share. The price range is slightly below what the company estimated
its share price to be in January, $17 a share. Some companies have
set their IPO price below where they were valued privately,
sometimes in fundraising rounds or sales of employee shares. In
some cases, such as for Twitter Inc., the company has set a
conservative price range partly to give the stock room to rise
after it begins trading.
-- Lisa Beilfuss and Telis Demos
Andreessen Doubles
Down on Tanium
Venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is doubling down on one
of its biggest bets.
The benefactor isn't a buzzy new app, but a nerdy
computer-security company called Tanium that makes it easier for
corporate tech departments to see what software is running on
employees' computers. Customers include large banks, including J.P.
Morgan Chase.
Andreessen Horowitz, which invested $90 million in Tanium last
year, is putting in another $52 million, a person familiar with the
transaction said. The firm is the only outside investor in
Tanium.
The new investment values Tanium at $1.75 billion, the person
familiar with the matter said, nearly twice the $900 million at
which Andreessen valued the company last year.
Tanium seeks to fill an interesting niche in computer security.
It changes how computers talk to each other on a network. Instead
of all reporting to a central hub, like spokes, they talk to each
other in a chain.
Tanium says this setup allows for faster queries, meaning a
company can more quickly figure out which machines have a certain
piece of malicious code or which ones are running outdated versions
of Windows.
The company's software also lets customers push out updates to
individual computers.
-- Danny Yadron
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