Apple buys ‘majority’ of Intel’s smartphone business for US$1 billion

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Apple is moving forward with its plans of developing its own cellular hardware with its latest acquisition. The company is buying the “majority” of Intel’s smartphone modem business for US$1 billion. It’ll see Apple taking on 2,200 Intel employees, intellectual property, and leases. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year if regulators approve of the handover, that is.

In the smartphone chipset market, Intel won’t be completely out of the game. But it’ll scale back. And its focus on 5G will be in areas where it “most closely aligns” with what its customers want. The focus would be on customers like network operators, cloud service providers, and equipment manufacturers. The company will also work on developing modems for computers, Internet of Things devices, and self-driving cars.

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Apple acquires self-driving car startup Drive.ai

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Apple’s latest purchase can be considered more as an acqui-hire. The company just bought Mountain View-based autonomous driving startup Drive.ai. They’ve hired dozens of the company’s engineers and Drive.ai has ceased all operations throughout the last few weeks. Rumours of Apple buying Drive.ai was going around earlier this month, suggesting that the company wanted to boost the development of its own self-driving vehicle system. And from the looks of it, Apple is looking at the company so it could bring in its employees.

Drive.ai was founded back in 2015 by a group of Stanford University students who wanted to introduce a self-driving shuttle service in select cities in Texas. But the company ran into problems and sought out a buyer, which we now know is Apple. Axios didn’t say how much Apple bought Drive.ai for, but the company took on the new hires into its engineering and product design divisions. The move confirms that Apple is still working on its Apple Car project, despite laying off 190 employees from its self-driving car division as part of a restructuring effort.

Airbnb acquires HotelTonight

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Airbnb makes its biggest acquisition yet as it moves to increase hotel listings on its site. The company has agreed to buy HotelTonight, a provider of last-minute, boutique options for a night’s stay. It does so ahead of an eventual initial public offering. Airbnb hasn’t disclosed the financial terms of the deal, but according to a person “familiar with the matter” said its price is close to HotelTonight’s last private valuation, which is at US$463 million. Airbnb’s last big purchase was Luxury Retreats, which it bought for $300 million.

The move has Airbnb encroaching further into the hotel industry and puts them into the position of being what Bloomberg calls the Amazon for travel or a “one-stop-shop for holiday-goers.” HotelTonight’s app and site will continue to operate independently of Airbnb. But the company might integrate its listings on its site in the future. And once the acquisition is complete, HotelTonight’s founder will report to Airbnb’s President of Homes, Greg Greeley.

Apple acquires AI voice startup PullString

Apple just acquired San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup called PullString, which helps other companies create conversational voice apps. PullString is known within the industry for creating the software backbone for voice systems behind popular toys (like Mattel's talking Hello Barbie doll). But the company has also helped companies build skills and apps for Amazon's Alexa platform and Google Assistant. It isn't clear what Apple will gain from the deal. But from the looks of it, the most obvious one is to help Siri catch up with its competition. PullString was founded back in 2011 by former Pixar employees. Its CEO Oren Jacob was Pixar's chief technology officer for a time.

Source: The Verge