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Technology

Jama Software to be acquired for $1.2B in significant exit for Portland-based company

Portland, Ore.-based Jama Software, makers of a product development platform, has agreed to be acquired by technology investment firm Francisco Partners in a $1.2 billion deal, the company announced Monday. The acquisition is “one of the largest software exits for Portland,” Madrona Managing Director Tim Porter said in a post on LinkedIn. Seattle-based Madrona first invested in Jama in 2013 and was part of a $200 million funding round in June 2018 that was led by Insight Partners. Founded in 2007 by Eric Winquist, Jama makes software used to build complex products and mission-critical systems, including projects with high levels… Read More

Vote for Startup CEO of the Year: These five leaders are taking their companies to new heights

The five finalists for Startup CEO of the Year at the GeekWire Awards are leading companies with big ambitions to improve food quality, develop better therapeutics, address mental health needs, and speed up cross-border e-commerce. They are: Valerie Daggett (above, bottom middle): The University of Washington bioengineering professor is the co-founder and CEO of AltPep, which is developing tests and treatments for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The 4-year-old company raised $52.9 million in a Series B round last year. AltPep won the Health Innovation of the Year award at last year’s GeekWire Awards. Carla Grandori (top left): The longtime biotech… Read More

Vote for Startup of the Year: Kevala, Overland AI, Pictory, Shipium, SingleFile

Amid a shaky venture capital market last year, there were still plenty of startups that gained momentum and reached new heights. That’s true for the five finalists up for the Startup of the Year category at the GeekWire Awards: Kevala, Overland AI, Pictory, Shipium, and SingleFile. To be eligible for consideration in this category, startups need to be no more than five years old in 2024. Last year’s winner was Arrived Homes, a Seattle startup that uses crowdfunding to help people purchase shares of rental properties. Submit your vote here or below and keep scrolling for descriptions of each finalist for Startup of… Read More

This Seattle investor went from Google to Africa to a big exit — and is back home investing in startups

Andrew Peterson’s interest in technology started in Seattle as a young computer lab associate at his elementary school, just as the internet was proliferating. Several decades later — after a stint with Google, a tech job in Tanzania, and a $825 million startup exit — Peterson finds himself back home, at the precipice of another big technology shift. The entrepreneur-turned-investor is leading Aviso Ventures, a venture capital fund founded last year that backs early stage enterprise and infrastructure software startups. In 2013, Peterson and his former Etsy colleague Nick Galbreath co-founded Signal Sciences, a cybersecurity company acquired by Fastly in 2020.… Read More

LinkedIn explores adding puzzle-based games to its feed

LinkedIn wants to add a little more fun to its feed. Posts on social media and a report from TechCrunch over the weekend revealed the Microsoft-owned platform may add several puzzle-based games to the overall LinkedIn experience, some of which are titled “Queens,” “Inference,” and “Crossclimb.” “We’re playing with adding puzzle-based games within the LinkedIn experience to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations,” a LinkedIn representative said in a statement. It’s not hard to see why someone at LinkedIn might’ve hit upon offering a few unique gaming experiences as a way to… Read More

The secret history of underground comics in Seattle, told by artists who were there

A panel of local artists and cartoonists came together at this year’s Emerald City Comic Con to discuss the history of Seattle’s underground comics scene, from its origins in the late 1980s to how it looks today. Author, journalist, and University of Washington professor Rob Salkowitz moderated a discussion that featured Megan Kelso, a Seattle-based artist; Kelly Froh, cartoonist and co-creator of the Short Run Comix Festival; and Eric Reynolds, co-publisher at the indie comics label Fantagraphics in Georgetown. Legendary Washington cartoonist Roberta Gregory and Mad Magazine’s Marc Palm were both originally scheduled to attend the panel, but were forced… Read More

Week in Review: Most popular stories on GeekWire for the week of March 10, 2024

See the technology stories that people were reading on GeekWire for the week of March 10, 2024.… Read More

Tech Moves: Former Amazon, Flexport exec Tim Collins joins Blue Origin as supply chain chief

Tim Collins, most recently an executive vice president at Flexport and a former top Amazon leader, announced Saturday that he’s joining Blue Origin as vice president of supply chain. Collins was executive vice president of global operations at logistics giant Flexport, following 1 1/2 years at Gopuff as SVP of operations. He spent more than 20 years at Amazon, including more than four years as VP of global operations. He also did a stint with Uber as VP of global community operations. Blue Origin, the Seattle-area space company founded by Jeff Bezos, last year hired former Amazon exec Dave Limp… Read More

Science and Technology | AP

Associated Press

US to investigate Texas fatal crash that may have involved Ford partially automated driving system

DETROIT (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a fatal crash in San Antonio, Texas, involving a Ford electric vehicle that may have been using a partially automated driving system. The agency said in a statement Friday that a team of investigators from its Office of Highway Safety will travel to Texas and […]
3 days ago
Associated Press

House passes a bill that could lead to a TikTok ban if Chinese owner refuses to sell

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app TikTok if its China-based owner doesn’t sell its stake, as lawmakers acted on concerns that the company’s current ownership structure is a national security threat. The bill, passed by a vote of 352-65, […]
6 days ago
Associated Press

US spearheads first UN resolution on artificial intelligence — aimed at ensuring world has access

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States is spearheading the first United Nations resolution on artificial intelligence, aimed at ensuring the new technology is “safe, secure and trustworthy” and that all countries, especially those in the developing world, have equal access. The draft General Assembly resolution aims to close the digital divide between countries and […]
7 days ago
FILE.- In this Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019, photo an iPhone displays the apps for Facebook and Messenger ...
Associated Press

For social platforms, the outage was short. But people’s stories vanished, and that’s no small thing

NEW YORK (AP) — Once upon a time, there was a brief outage on some social media platforms. It got fixed. The end. On the face of it, kind of a boring story. But the widespread attention given to the blanking of Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Messenger platforms on Tuesday suggests another, perhaps less […]
12 days ago
New TSA screening equipment at Harry Reid International Airport is displayed, Wednesday, March 6, 2...
Associated Press

Correction: Airport Self-Screening Prototype story

LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a story published March 6, 2024, about the debut of a prototype Transportation Security Administration self-screening system at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, The Associated Press erroneously reported the agency had plans to test it for use in other cities. TSA officials say they have no plans to […]
13 days ago
Associated Press

Ex-Google software engineer charged with stealing AI technology while working with Chinese companies

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former software engineer at Google has been charged with stealing artificial intelligence technology from the company while secretly working with two companies based in China, the Justice Department said Wednesday. Linwei Ding, a Chinese national, was arrested in Newark, California, on four counts of federal trade secret theft, each punishable by […]
13 days ago
FILE - Google's first datacenter in Germany is pictured during its inauguration in Hanau near Frank...
Associated Press

Europe’s Digital Markets Act is forcing tech giants to make changes. Here’s what that will look like

LONDON (AP) — Europeans scrolling their phones and computers this week will get new choices for default browsers and search engines, where to download iPhone apps and how their personal online data is used. They’re part of changes required under the Digital Markets Act, a set of European Union regulations that six tech companies classed […]
13 days ago
The all-new Dodge Charger SIXPACK H.O., shown here in a photo released by Stellantis, offers perfor...
Associated Press

Dodge muscle cars live on with new versions of the Charger powered by electricity or gasoline

DETROIT (AP) — America’s muscle car culture will live on as the country transitions to electric vehicles, but the gas-powered performance car will last for at least a few more years. Dodge on Tuesday unveiled two battery-powered versions of the Charger muscle car that will still roar like a big V8 engine without pollution from […]
14 days ago
FILE - The Treasury Department is seen near sunset in Washington, Jan. 18, 2023. The Treasury Depar...
Associated Press

US sanctions spyware company and executives who targeted American journalists, government officials

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department announced Tuesday it has sanctioned two people and a Greece-based commercial spyware company headed by a former Israeli military officer that developed, operated and distributed technology used to target U.S. government officials, journalists and policy experts. The sanctions target Intellexa Consortium, which the U.S. says has sold and distributed […]
14 days ago
FILE - Text from the ChatGPT page of the OpenAI website is shown in this photo, in New York, Feb. 2...
Associated Press

AI pervades everyday life with almost no oversight. States scramble to catch up

DENVER (AP) — While artificial intelligence made headlines with ChatGPT, behind the scenes, the technology has quietly pervaded everyday life — screening job resumes, rental apartment applications, and even determining medical care in some cases. While a number of AI systems have been found to discriminate, tipping the scales in favor of certain races, genders […]
14 days ago
Associated Press

Former Twitter executives sue Elon Musk over firings, seek more than $128 million in severance

Former senior executives of Twitter are suing Elon Musk and X Corp., saying they are entitled to a total of more than $128 million in unpaid severance payments. Twitter’s former CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, Chief Legal Counsel Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett claim in the lawsuit filed Monday that […]
14 days ago
Associated Press

Do AI video-generators dream of San Pedro? Madonna among early adopters of AI’s next wave

Whenever Madonna sings the 1980s hit “La Isla Bonita” on her concert tour, moving images of swirling, sunset-tinted clouds play on the giant arena screens behind her. To get that ethereal look, the pop legend embraced a still-uncharted branch of generative artificial intelligence – the text-to-video tool. Type some words — say, “surreal cloud sunset” […]
15 days ago
Gueva Ba sells used cell phones in Dakar's Colobane market Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Ba, who tried to...
Associated Press

In Senegal’s capital, Nicaragua is a hot ticket among travel agents as migrants try to reach US

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Gueva Ba tried to reach Europe by boat 11 times from Morocco, failing each attempt. Then, in 2023, the former welder heard about a new route to the United States by flying to Nicaragua and making the rest of the journey illegally by land to Mexico’s northern border. “In Senegal, it’s […]
17 days ago
FILE - Phill Cady holds a sign during a "Take Our Border Back" rally on Feb. 3, 2024, in Quemado, T...
Associated Press

Russian disinformation is about immigration. The real aim is to undercut Ukraine aid

WASHINGTON (AP) — For Vladimir Putin, victory in Ukraine may run through Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. In recent weeks, Russian state media and online accounts tied to the Kremlin have spread and amplified misleading and incendiary content about U.S. immigration and border security. The campaign seems crafted to stoke outrage and polarization before the 2024 […]
18 days ago
Associated Press

Some doorbell cameras sold on Amazon and other online sites have major security flaws, report says

NEW YORK (AP) — Some doorbell cameras sold by Amazon and other online retailers have security flaws that could allow bad actors to view footage from the devices or control them completely, according to an investigation published Thursday by Consumer Reports. Researchers from the product-review organization said they found major vulnerabilities in cameras manufactured by […]
19 days ago