Earth's most powerful tool for detecting ripples in spacetime is getting a major upgrade.

An observatory in Japan is joining three giant detectors in Washington, Louisiana, and Italy to form a global network of high-powered observatories that study ripples in spacetime. The network will enhance a field of science born just four years ago, when the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) solved a 100-year-old mystery posed by Albert Einstein. 

In 1916, Einstein predicted that accelerating massive objects, like neutron stars or black holes, would create ripples or "waves" in the fabric of space and time. However, he didn't think these gravitational waves would ever be detected — they seemed too weak to pick up amid all the noise and vibrations on Earth. For 100 years, it seemed Einstein was right.

In the late 1990s, LIGO's machines in Washington and Louisiana were built as an attempt to pick up the signals Einstein thought we'd never detect. 

Finally, after 13 years of silence, LIGO detected its first gravitational waves in September 2015: signals from the merger of two black holes some 1.3 billion light-years away. The discovery opened an entirely new field of gravitational-wave astronomy and earned a Nobel Prize in Physics for three researchers who helped conceive of LIGO.

Since then, LIGO and its Italian companion Virgo have detected two other catastrophic collisions. After the black-hole merger, the observatories detected the merging of two neutron stars in October 2017, followed by what they believe was a black hole swallowing a neutron star in August. Altogether, the observatories have detected likely gravitational waves more than 30 times. 

Read more: An experiment that solved a 100-year-old mystery posed by Einstein is about to turn back on — and it's more powerful than ever

Now LIGO and Virgo are getting another partner: the Kamioka Gravitational-wave Detector (KAGRA) in Japan.

With the help of KAGRA, scientists expect to narrow down the location of massive collisions with three times more accuracy. That would make it much easier for telescopes on Earth to confirm the collision responsible for the waves the network picks up. Representatives from each observatory signed an agreement on Friday.

The KAGRA system is housed in a giant L-shaped tunnel located 200 meters underground, November 6, 2015 in Hida, Gifu, Japan. The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images

"The more detectors we have in the global gravitational-wave network, the more accurately we can localize the gravitational-wave signals on the sky, and the better we can determine the underlying nature of cataclysmic events that produced the signals," David Reitze, executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, said in a press release.

The new global network could ultimately detect 100 collisions per year, Vicky Kalogera, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University and LIGO, previously told Business Insider. 

How observatories detect gravitational waves

KAGRA will operate similarly to LIGO. The animation below, created by LIGO researchers, explains how that works.

Each L-shaped gravitational-wave detector consists of two 2.5-mile-long arms. The detector shoots out a laser beam and splits it in two. One of those split beams is sent down a 2.5-mile long tube while the other goes down an identical, perpendicular tube.

 

The beams bounce off mirrors and converge back near the beam splitter. The light waves return at equal length and line up in such a way that they cancel each other out to the detector. 

But when a gravitational wave comes through, it warps spacetime — briefly making one tube longer and the other shorter. This rhythmic stretching-and-squeezing distortion continues until the wave passes. When that happens, the two waves of light don't wind up converging at equal lengths, so they don't neutralize each other. That leads the detector to record some flashes of light.

 

Measuring those changes in brightness thus allows physicists to measure and observe gravitational waves that pass through Earth.

Then once a signal is detected, astronomers alert telescopes around the globe to zero in on the cosmic event that likely triggered the waves.

"This has opened a new window to what we can detect in the universe," Imre Bartos, a physicist at Columbia University and LIGO, previously told Business Insider. "We can detect this — we can now see gravitational waves. But the real exciting things are what we discover with these gravitational waves."

KAGRA brings new approaches to noise problems

An illustration of the underground KAGRA gravitational-wave detector in Japan. ICRR, Univ. of Tokyo/LIGO Lab/Caltech/MIT/Virgo Collaboration

KAGRA is expected to come online in December. It will start out slow, operating at levels not sensitive enough to detect gravitational waves. After scientists fine-tune its instruments, they expect it to fully join the hunt sometime in 2020. 

By making the global gravitational-wave detection network more robust, KAGRA will improve its accuracy.

In the 2017 merger of two neutron stars, scientists traced the event's location to a patch of sky 30 square degrees in size — that's less than 0.1 percent of the sky. But with KAGRA's help, researchers expect to narrow that kind of estimate down even more, to just 10 square degrees. That will give telescopes a much more specific location in which to search for the wave-triggering event.

The observatory will also use new approaches to make it less prone to false detections.

Because LIGO and Virgo are extraordinarily sensitive — when a wave passes by, the arms' length changes by less than 1/10,000th of the width of a proton particle — they can easily be disturbed by the vibration of trucks driving on nearby roads or a slight breeze. Even the microscopic movements of atoms in the detector's mirrors can mimic the signal of a gravitational wave.

A LIGO mirror in Livingston, Louisiana. LIGO/MIT

That's why LIGO has two locations and works with Virgo: If they all detect a signal at exactly the same time, that's likely a gravitational wave passing through Earth.

KAGRA will lend yet another instrument to help verify those detections, and it will operate underground to be better insulated from the interference of wind, Earth's rumbles, and passing trucks.

It will also be the first detector to cryogenically chill its mirrors — the practice of using liquefied gas to achieve temperatures below minus 150 degrees Celsius ( minus 238 degrees Fahrenheit) — to reduce noise from the mirrors' own atoms. (Atoms are always vibrating — the energy of that vibration is what we call heat. So cryogenics will cool the material enough that the molecules almost stop vibrating.)

"These features could supply a very important direction for the future of gravitational-wave detectors with much higher sensitivities," Takaaki Kajita, a principal investigator with the KAGRA project who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize, said in the release.

Yet another observatory, LIGO India, is expected to join the global gravitational-wave network in 2025.

Original author: Morgan McFall-Johnsen and Dave Mosher

Few smartphones impress me as much as those from OnePlus, and the OnePlus 7T made sure I keep feeling that way. The $600 OnePlus 7T really makes you wonder why other smartphones with similar specs and features cost so much. The performance is infallible, the triple-lens camera is great, the battery life is solid, and it charges absurdly quickly — and it looks pretty good, too!The only compromise you'd have to consider is a lack of wireless charging and no official "IP" water resistance ratings. The next best phone with those features is the $700 iPhone 11, and the $750 Galaxy S10e. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As someone who uses the latest and greatest smartphones from companies like Apple, Samsung, and LG every year, you could argue that I'm a little jaded.

Most new smartphones are great, and they come with cool new features sometimes. But the element of surprise and wonder of a new device is unfortunately mostly lost on me. I grab a box containing a $1,000 smartphone from the Business Insider mail room as if it was a pizza delivery — there's slight excitement for the contents, but it's commonplace and not incredibly special.

Lo, the perils of being a tech reporter.

But twice a year, new phones from OnePlus reignite that missing sense of excitement in a new smartphone. The excited question I ask myself whenever a new OnePlus phone comes out is: "How can this company possibly top the previous phone while keeping it at an attainable price?"

In early 2019, it was the OnePlus 7 Pro. Now, towards the end of 2019, it's the OnePlus 7T. 

Well, they've done it again. Not necessarily with crazy features or things that absolutely no other phone can do; it's that the OnePlus 7T is so good and such a good price.

Here's how OnePlus and the OnePlus 7T continues to surprise me while my drawer is full of the top smartphones from the biggest tech companies:

Original author: Antonio Villas-Boas

Juniper Networks CEO Rami Rahim was a Stanford graduate engineering student when he joined the networking giant as its 32nd employee. This was at the height of the dot-com boom, although some people in his life thought it was a bad idea. He witnessed the rise of Juniper as a "small little upstart" challenging Cisco, the "incumbent that was very big and very well-established," that eventually became a major player in the networking gear market.Today, Rahim is leading Juniper through a difficult transition. The rise of cloud computing has disrupted the enterprise tech market and Juniper is exploring new market opportunities as this trend continues to evolve. Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Joining an unknown startup was not unusual in 1997, at the height of the dot-com boom. But when Rami Rahim accepted an offer to be the 32nd employee  at a "small little upstart" called Juniper Networks, he said some people thought it was a bad idea.

Juniper was building new networking equipment with which it planned to challenge  Cisco, the Silicon Valley giant Rahim described as "an incumbent that was very big and very well-established."

"Let's just say people coached me against trying to take on this intense competition," Rahim told Business Insider. But he joined Juniper anyway. "It was a leap of faith."

That leap of faith paid off. Juniper turned out to be one of the most successful startups of the dot-com era. The networking company also became Rahim's professional home for the next 22 years, as he built his careers. Five years ago, employee number 32 officially became its fourth chief executive.

Today, Rahim is leading Juniper through another tricky transition — one that likely involves another leap of faith.

The company sells networking gear; the plumbing that connects a computing network within an organization and externally to the internet.

It's a tougher market these days than it used to be. With the rise of the cloud, businesses, including major corporations, are now able to set up and maintain networks in web-based platforms run by the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google. This has allowed them to scale back or even abandon their private data centers, which means dramatically less demand for the hardware from companies like Juniper or Cisco. 

'Juniper is in a difficult spot'

Networking has also become a more competitive space, and one in which Juniper has lost share recently.

In the first quarter of 2018, Juniper was number 4 with 10.4% share in the $3.6 billion market for routers, which are used to connect a network to other networks, according to IDC. It was number 7 with 2.4% share in the $6.8 billion switch market for gear used to connect devices within a network. Both markets are dominated by Cisco, even as Juniper is slugging it out with other players, including Huawei and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. 

"My sense is that Juniper is in a difficult spot," IDC President Crawford Del Prete told Business Insider. 

Beyond the rise of cloud computing, networking gear makers also have had to grapple with the trend called software-defined networking, or SDN. This model allows businesses to use software to squeeze more performance and features out of even cheaper, commodity hardware, making it unnecessary for many to buy pricey, specialized networking gear. This trend is "lowering the margins in the network equipment space, even for service providers, Juniper's core customer set."

"This means that Juniper needs to lower costs in order to compete while at the same time offer value added services to customers – which means heavily investing in R&D," he said. Juniper also has a "more limited set of products" which means it doesn't have the scale of a rival like Cisco.

"My sense is that the company has been trying hard to move into higher value segments as the core networking market becomes more competitive," he said.

Focusing on a big inflection point in networking

Juniper is focused on what Rahim says is "a big inflection point" in networking, which is largely rooted in newer trends in cloud computing. 

One is the hybrid cloud, in which businesses set up some of their infrastructure on a public cloud platform like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, while maintaining some of their network on their own servers and data centers. Another is multi-cloud, which, as the name suggests, involves using multiple of those cloud platforms.

For these models to work, companies need to build networks that straddle different platforms, plus private data centers. "The problem is that's easy to say but much harder to do," Rahim said. 

That's that new market opportunity Juniper is focused on as it develops products aimed at the solving challenges posed by a multi-platform world. The company has struggled with revenue declines as it focused on a new strategy based on new products. Juniper has been reporting revenue declines since late 2017. In June, the company posted second quarter revenue of $1.1 billion, down 8% from the year-ago quarter.

But his team is focused on the long game, Rahim said.

"It is very important for us to play a disruptive game even if in the short term it disrupts us," he said. "From a share standpoint it might appear that Juniper  is losing share because share is measured on a revenue basis, but the more important underlying trend is we're retaining our relevance."

In March, Juniper bought Mist Systems, an AI-powered networking gear maker, for $405 million. Gartner says buying Mist strengthens Juniper's position in wireless local area networking where it had previously relied on partnerships. Mist is considered a top vendor in the space — but that particular market is still dominated by Cisco's Meraki, which was itself a key acquisition, too.

He joined Juniper by accident

As CEO, Rahim can draw many lessons from his own experience as a Juniper pioneer. He was born in Lebanon and grew up in Canada where he became "enamored by technology" in the 1980s. He was a Stanford engineering graduate student during the dot-com boom of the 1990s.

He came across Juniper by accident. A recruiter called him as a reference check for his Stanford roommate who was being considered for a job at the startup. Rahim ended up being hired too.

It was a gamble for another reason. "Back then, Juniper was in stealth mode so they didn't really share that much about what they were doing," Rahim said. "They couldn't share that much, especially with a college grad who they didn't really trust that much."

Eventually, he found out Juniper's game plan: build "a brand new core router from scratch" and challenge Cisco.

"When I say from scratch, it was really from scratch," Rahim said. Building a new product wasn't the only problem. Juniper also had to convince customers to try it out -- which isn't easy, Rahim said. "At the end of the day, nobody is going to bet on an upstart in a way that says, 'I'm going to rip out my existing core network and put an entirely new network."

But enough customers did Juniper's first product, the M40 router, that it became a big hit at a time when companies were struggling to cope with intensifying network traffic from the newly unleashed World Wide Web. 

"Even the most conservative buyers in the world back then were dealing with an insane amount of traffic growth and had no choice but to bet on an upstart that was trying to enter the market," Rahim said. "Quite frankly, our timing was very good."

He lived through the dot-com boom and bust

But the dot-com boom subsequently turned into a bust. That turned out to be Rahim's first major experience with market cycles which he quickly learned can be sudden and dramatic.

"There have certainly been ups and downs in my career here at Juniper," he said. "We went through the dot-com boom, then survived the dot-com bust that destroyed many companies in the valley and elsewhere."

Rahim has witnessed even more ups and downs over the past two decades, as the tech industry went through more dramatic changes. As CEO, he is also navigating the impact of the US-China trade conflict and broader economic uncertainties. There are many factors, Rahim said, that he and his team simply do not control.

"I approach with a certain amount of paranoia everything that we do," he said. "Ultimately our success will depend on our capabilities, our own execution as well as the appetite of our customers to consume."

But it's clear that Juniper will have to chart a new course and make new bold bets like the ones it took and made it successful two decades ago.

"What made us successful in the past was not going to be the thing that makes us successful in the future because of the changes that are happening around us in the industry," he said.

Got a tip about Juniper or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter @benpimentel. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Benjamin Pimentel

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that the company isn't interested in making a motorcycle.But the incipient electric motorcycle industry in the US could use some help — and Tesla would be a welcome addition to the team.Motorcycle sales in the US have been stagnant, and newer, younger riders aren't taking up the passion, so the market needs something to spur it.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that the all-electric car maker is totally, completely uninterested in building a motorcycle. 

He points to his own youthful experiences as a rider, including at least one incident when he claimed he was nearly killed at the tender age of 17 in a close-miss accident. The lucky break clearly affected him; he's declared that Tesla, the world's best-known and most successful electric-vehicle company, would never do an electric two-wheeler.

Missed opportunity, if you ask me (I won't argue with Musk's background because motorcycles are a lot more dangerous than cars, but most riders are aware of that and have accepted the risks). Motorcycle sales declined substantially before and after the Great Recession and haven't shown signs of recovering any sort of upward trajectory. For roughly the past 10 years, half a million bikes had been sold annually in the US.

That plateau, combined with an aging demographic for brands such as Harley-Davidson, has led to widespread speculation that the motorcycle industry could be entering a period of slow, structural decline. The only long-term solution to that problem is to get younger riders interested in throwing a leg. 

I think there are five ways to speed up that solution — and critically, I think Tesla is what the market needs to rebound. Here's why:

Original author: Matthew DeBord

Snapchat users can now share on the platform what they're listening to on Spotify.With the new integration, taking a song, playlist, artist, or album from Spotify will turn it into a widget on Snapchat that is clickable and easy to share.Here's how you can use the newest integration to share your favorite music with your Snapchat friends, add a soundtrack to the Snaps you send, and listen to the music that your friends post.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Snapchat has finally added Spotify into its platform, playing catch-up more than a year after Instagram added a feature making it even easier to share music from the streaming giant.

Since the beginning of September, Snapchat has been rolling out a new integration onto its platform that makes it easier to share with friends the songs, playlists, or podcasts you've been listening to. Music is a key player in the world of social media — just look at the popularity of streaming services and music-based apps like TikTok — and Snapchat has finally taken some notice.

Instagram integrated music into Stories — which ironically, it copied from Snapchat — well over a year ago, and users have taken advantage of it to share their favorite songs or what track symbolizes their current mood. With Snapchat, the new Spotify integration works with not only songs, but playlists, podcasts, artists, and albums.

Here's how to use the Spotify widget to share what you're listening to with your friends on Snapchat:

Original author: Paige Leskin

The Disrupt conference in San Francisco, organized by Tech Crunch, is a longstanding showcase for cutting-edge startups and products. But the star of this year's show was not a buzzy new app for swapping selfies or a new cloud platform; it was an arcane process for companies to sell their stock to the public. 

The so-called direct listing was inescapable during the three-day conference, debated on stage by venture capital investors and founders, and discussed in the halls by the software developers, journalists and other guests.

With the conference taking place just days after WeWork shelved its highly-anticipated initial public offering, the focus on going public — a celebrated milestone in the startup world — was not entirely surprising. And in the wake of a string of disappointing IPOs this year, from Uber and Lyft to Peloton, there was a palpable need among the guests to commiserate about the state of affairs, prognosticate about the future and find someone, or something, to blame.

Some VCs at the event were quick to point the finger at financial institutions like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs — these banks overhyped companies like Uber and Lyft, they argued, running up private valuations so much ahead of the IPOs that there was nowhere for them to go on the public markets but down. 

For many of the VC investors on hand, the remedy was simple: a direct listing, that sidesteps the traditional, banker-controlled IPO process.

"As someone who invests in companies that are upending the status quo, there is something innately appealing about a financial vehicle, an instrument, that is upending how things have been done for a long time," said Spark Capital's Megan Quinn, during a panel.

Audience at an earlier Disrupt conference REUTERS/Kate Munsch

"Rather than having underwriters, lineup investors set the price themselves, you just let the market have at it and come what may," Quinn said.

In all, direct listings were discussed in at least three major panels throughout the first two days of the Disrupt conference. 

In a direct listing, a company simply lists its shares on a public exchange and the stock begins trading. Unlike in an IPO, there is no bank underwriting the offering, setting a price and selling it to institutional shareholders. The startup does not actually raise any money in a direct listing, but its employees and early investors can sell their shares right away. 

While not an option for every startup, GV's David Krane explained that a direct listing is an appealing option for startups and investors hoping to bypass the traditional IPO process with those big banks

It doesn't hurt to be able to exercise your options on the first day, either, he added.

Several investors told Business Insider that Slack's direct listing in June helped prove the strategy a reliable option for a wider range of private companies than previously thought.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield Richard Drew/Associated Press

Still, in a panel with Slack cofounder Cal Henderson and Spark Capital's Quinn, the pair reiterated that a direct listing is best for a startup that doesn't need an influx of cash that normally comes with a traditional IPO, and so would not work for a company like WeWork, which is facing a cash crunch.

The discussions at the Disrupt conference are the latest signs of a shifting landscape in Silicon Valley, after years of skyrocketing private market valuations that produced hundreds of "unicorns" — the glittering startups valued at $1 billion or more in the private markets. 

On Tuesday, a dozen VC firms organized a private summit with guest speakers such as the author Michael Lewis to discuss direct listings and other IPO alternatives.

For the entrepreneurs and techies who convened at the Disrupt conference, the fixation on the direct listing underscored the eternal optimism that runs through Silicon Valley. The biggest IPOs are flopping, but there's an explanation and a solution. 

And as long as VCs are still writing checks, for many startups at the event, there was no reason to panic.

Original author: Megan Hernbroth

The women-focused Refinery29 is being acquired by Vice Media for mostly stock, ending its 15-year run as an independent digital-media company.Refinery29 bootstrapped for eight years, then raised $133 million from investors, including Turner and Scripps, and became a pioneering progressive voice for women, only to face the possibility of running out of money this year.Its story is part of a consolidation trend that's sweeping digital media and a cautionary tale about the risks of being advertising-dependent.Here's the inside story of its trajectory and disappointing exit.Click here for more Prime stories.

Once a quarter, Justin Stefano and Philippe von Borries would gather Refinery29's staff to celebrate victories and share the goals of their women's lifestyle media company.

At one of these meetings a few years ago, they introduced a spaceship as a metaphor for the company. Each part of the ship represented a portion of the business that helped it soar. Employees got stickers of astronauts and stars. 

While the symbolism was clear — this was a soaring company shooting for the stars — the reality was different.

By 2017, Refinery29 had already had at least one round of layoffs. More would soon follow as the company cast about for a new revenue stream. Digital advertising had sustained the company up until then, but it was getting harder to win business against tech giants like Facebook and Google.

By 2019, people with direct knowledge of the company's finances said Refinery29 was running out of money. In the spring, Refinery29 raised $8 million in the form of debt. This past week, it found a savior in the much bigger Vice Media, which agreed to acquire Refinery29 for mostly stock.

It's an uneasy marriage. Refinery29 presents itself as the voice of female empowerment. It was early in publishing stories celebrating body positivity and ethnic diversity. Vice Media has a mostly male audience and is known for its edgy content, and it has historically fought a reputation that suggests its culture is hostile toward women. 

Read more: Read the memo Refinery29 leaders sent to staff about Vice Media buying the company

Both publications are losing money. Media is consolidating, and there are few buyers willing to pay cash for such companies, particularly when they've been valued at hundreds of millions and billions of dollars by venture capitalists. The theory is that slapping together two unprofitable companies can help both live to see another day by cutting overlapping costs and having a bigger, broader audience that makes the remaining entity more attractive to advertisers.

"If this [merger] means Refinery29 can keep going, let's try it," one Refinery29 employee said.

Refinery29 execs declined to comment for this story. But Business Insider spoke with numerous current and former employees and other people close to the company who described the rise and disappointing exit of Refinery29.

They described it as a publisher that became one of too many midsize options for readers and advertisers, and struggled to stand out to both readers and advertisers on social platforms. 

The founders were accidental publishers

Co-CEOs Justin Stefano and Philippe von Borries were media outsiders and accidental fashion publishers when, in their early 20s, they left their jobs in law and politics, respectively, to start the company.

They created Refinery29 in 2005, along with Piera Gelardi and Christene Barberich. Living in Brooklyn, New York, they saw Refinery29 as a way to spotlight the up-and-coming designers and creative types surrounding them, like Steven Alan and Rag & Bone.

The "29" referred to the 29 most interesting brands and designers of the time.

Initially trying to appeal to men as well as women, they ended up focusing on fashion companies and boutiques because those benefited the most from Refinery's exposure, and women, who responded the most to their stories. They made money via advertising and providing a digital storefront for those companies.

Venture-backed digital-media companies often get a bad rap for expanding too quickly, fueled by millions in funding and cheap Facebook traffic. Refinery was different in a couple ways. As first-time entrepreneurs, the founders bootstrapped the company for eight years, until 2013, when they raised $4.2 million from First Round Capital, Floodgate, Lerer Ventures, and Hearst.

Read more: Vice Media shuffles leadership at its agency as another key exec heads for the exit

Also, Facebook hadn't yet become a major force for publisher distribution. Refinery29 built its audience around an email newsletter that they used to promote the fashion boutiques. The founders said the newsletter roots meant they had a deep connection with their audience. 

Combining commerce and content is hard, though, and the company eventually ditched that approach to focus on being an ad-supported publisher with click-to-buy links integrated into its articles. The company became overwhelmingly ad-driven.

Building a sustainable, ad-supported media company brought other challenges. Refinery29 had to scale up, which it did by expanding to other content categories, including news and sports. 

Refinery29 bootstrapped, then attracted big media investors

Along the way, the company started to attract more investment from traditional media companies that wanted the young audiences Refinery29 and other digital-media companies, like Vice Media and BuzzFeed, commanded. In 2015, Refinery29 raised its biggest round of financing to date, $50 million, led by Scripps Networks and WPP Ventures. Turner followed in 2016, leading a round of $45 million, which theoretically valued it at $500 million. 

Then-Turner President David Levy, who was a big champion of Refinery29, at the time cited its "highly coveted following of millennial-minded women, strong capabilities in digital products, event marketing, and content creation, as well as an attractive advertiser base." 

By 2019, Refinery29 had raised $133 million. It made around $100 million in revenue last year and was still growing, though not profitably.

Refinery29 was still a midsize media company, though. And its early advantage from email newsletters didn't last as social apps like Facebook and Snapchat took over how people engaged with media. 

So, like many other digital-media companies, Refinery29 started taking advantage of the cheap distribution Facebook offered. Writers were pushed to pump out lots of quick hits to feed the social news feed and, later, Google search. 

Refinery29's founders also wanted the site to be known as more than just a fashion destination. Around 2015, they started pushing into hard news under the direction of Kaelyn Forde, a news vet, but she soon left. They played up a 2015 interview with Hillary Clinton on the presidential campaign trail and pushed for awards. "They were obsessed with winning a Pulitzer," Susie Banikarim, a veteran journalist who interviewed for a senior editorial role there, said. 

Insiders spoke of aggressive publishing goals

The reality was somewhat different. Starting in 2015, Facebook was sending less and less traffic to publishers as it cut back on the articles it showed people in its news feed. In January 2017, Refinery29 was averaging 5.6 million interactions a month on Facebook, according to CrowdTangle; by this month, that figure was below half a million. Other digital publishers have seen similar trajectories.

To maintain traffic, staffers said they were told they had to bank one or two stories a day for each day they were on vacation. Stories on the net worth of famous people became a running joke because they would guarantee traffic.

"It felt like we were playing catchup with the whims of Facebook and Google," one veteran said. 

As Refinery29's online growth slowed, with 27 million monthly unique visitors in 2016 compared with 25 million a year earlier, its leadership tried to find new ways to make money off the audience. In 2015, the company launched 29Rooms, a made-for-Instagram series of galleries that made money from sponsorships and ticket sales, which would become a widely imitated template for others. It started to expand internationally.

But the big priority for publishers like Refinery29 to become sustainable was video. Facebook and other platforms, like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon, were emerging as new marketplaces for long-form video. With the $45 million in Turner-led funding in 2016, Refinery29 joined the industrywide shift. 

Jason Anderson, the founder of Quire, a strategic-advisory firm, was hired to advise Refinery29 on video. "They wanted to do something that felt like Condé Nast TV — shows around personality and lifestyle that would resonate with the Refinery29 woman," Anderson said. "Once you stop scaling, and you're under 50 million uniques, you have to figure out other things, like 29Rooms, and, 'How do we get the audience to touch us in different ways?'"

Video became only 7% of revenue

Newer investors who were from the media and ad world believed video was worth the bet and pushed ahead, over the hesitation of earlier investors on the board who were antsy to see a return and could see digital-media companies like Mashable and Mic starting to hit a wall. 

Anderson said Refinery29 leadership seemed distracted, though, and things didn't go according to plan. Other digital-media companies saw 15% of revenue from long-form video as a benchmark to strive for; by 2018, video was only 7% of Refinery29's revenue. Refinery was still largely ad-dependent, with 70% of revenue coming from advertising, down from 100% in 2016.

Refinery made headlines with its events, but the margins on that kind of business are slim. Refinery29 didn't try selling subscriptions, another way digital-media companies are trying to diversify revenue streams — some more successfully than others.

Part of the problem was that Turner still only owned 10% of the company, which limited its ability to push the video plan forward. People close to the company said Refinery29 also lost big allies when Levy and Turner CEO John Martin left Turner after its parent company, Warner, was acquired in mid-2018 by AT&T. The Turner investment was not just financial; the two companies were supposed to work together on content creation and development, as well as ad sales. In an ideal situation, Turner would've provided distribution for Refinery29 shows, and vice versa.

"Long-form linear video never became a huge part of Refinery's revenue," Anderson said. "The hard, grind-it-out execution didn't happen. This was one of the biggest opportunities the company had, and it just felt like there was so much going on."

Other signs of trouble were mounting. The company went through a fourth round of layoffs in fall 2018. Several senior sales executives, including Kate Hyatt and Ashley Miles, left this year. Employees noticed little things, like the quality of snacks seeming to diminish, and Refinery29 sat out this year's NewFronts, an annual digital-video-sales showcase put on for advertisers.  

Secret meetings stirred speculation

There were news reports over the summer that Refinery29 was in talks to sell to its fellow digital-media company Group Nine, then Vice, and leadership met in conference rooms with papers tacked up to cover the glass doors, stirring speculation of a deal. Still, leadership was tight lipped. Employees felt tense.

On Wednesday, the founders gathered staff to discuss the long-awaited Vice deal. The official line was optimistic: The company was excited to benefit from Vice's resources, and the deal would ensure the brand's continuation. Barberich appeared emotional in a meeting with the whole editorial staff. There were many questions about whether there would be layoffs and how much help Vice would really provide.

"I hope it means the company has a future," one attendee said.

That will depend on whether Vice and Refinery's combination offsets the consolidation of digital advertising. Advertisers are spending more of their dollars with fewer companies and favoring ad platforms that can ensure accountability and results, especially with a potential economic downturn coming, said Doug Rozen, the chief media officer at the digital agency 360i.

"To me, this is further evidence that a quick activation, no matter how cool, is just not sustainable," he said. "Sure it can drive headlines, but the question is: Can it drive enduring sales? I suspect brands will be shifting away these type of activations for greater accountability, especially with a potential economic downturn looming."

Original author: Lucia Moses

Once-buzzy digital media company Refinery29 is combining with Vice Media in a mostly stock sale.Business Insider talked to numerous current and former employees and other people close to the company about its rise and disappointing exit.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Justin Stefano and Philippe von Borries were media outsiders and first-time entrepreneurs when, in their early 20s, they left their jobs in law and politics, respectively, to start Refinery29 with Piera Gelardi and Christene Barberich.

The company ultimately became a progressive voice for women that was early in embracing body positivity and diversity. Its live events, 29Rooms, became a template for other made-for-Instagram experiences.

This past week, it came to a crashing end as an independent company with its mostly-stock sale to Vice Media.

Business Insider spoke to numerous current and former employees and other people close to the company, who described the rise and disappointing exit of Refinery29.

They describe it as a publisher that became one of too many mid-sized options for readers and advertisers, struggling to stand out to both readers and advertisers against social platforms.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Original author: Lucia Moses

ICE has reportedly been luring immigrants into sting operations with fake Facebook accounts. Associated Press/Nick Ut

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Friday.

WeWork is planning to lay off up to 25% of its employees, a source familiar with the matter told Business Insider. The cuts come as new CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham try to focus on WeWork's core business after a tumultuous lead-up to a shelved initial public offering.ICE is reportedly using fake Facebook accounts to track undocumented immigrants and lure them into sting operations. The practice seemingly violates Facebook's terms of service, but it's unclear whether the social media company is aware of ICE's fake profiles or is taking action against them.Europe's top court ruled that EU courts can order Facebook to take down illegal content worldwide. The case was brought by an Austrian politician after she demanded the removal of a defamatory Facebook post about herself.Palmer Luckey's military tech company Anduril is sending drone destroyers to conflict zones. The firm says its new "Interceptor" drone weighs about as much as a bowling ball and is capable of smashing other drones out of the sky.Palantir's tech was used by ICE in the controversial arrests of 680 people at a Mississippi chicken farm according to immigrants rights group Mijente. Mijente has been pounding the drums over Palantir's use by ICE, even as Palantir has insisted that its tech is used by a different group within ICE that is not responsible for deportations or family separations at the border.Attorney General William Barr will ask Facebook to delay its plans for a fully encrypted, auto-deleting messaging platform. In March 2019 Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was developing a new messaging platform that would feature end-to-end encryption and auto-delete messages after a certain amount of time.Instagram launched an app for instant messaging with people on your Close Friends list in an attempt to best Snapchat. The app, called Threads, acts as a dedicated standalone platform for communicating quicker and easier with the people users talk to most.Dockless scooter startup Bird raised $275 million in a Series D funding round pegging its valuation at $2.5 billion, TechCrunch reports. Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital was a returning investor for the series D round.Google CEO Sundar Pichai tried to appeal to conservatives by writing an op-ed in Fox Business News. This comes after 50 state attorney general announced last month they were launching a probe into Google.It was revealed Thursday that Google cofounder Sergey Brin has secretly been married to tech startup founder Nicole Shanahan since 2018. Brin, 46, and Shanahan, 34, have been dating since 2015, and have one child together who was born last year.

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Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hired a convicted felon with a shady past to investigate a British diver who is suing Musk for calling him a "pedo guy."Musk and Vernon Unsworth exchanged words during last year's rescue of a Thai soccer team who were stuck in a cave for 17 days. Unsworth filed a defamation suit against Musk in September 2018, alleging that his reputation was tarnished as a result of Musk's tweets and emails and is seeking damages of over $75,000.  Last month, court filings revealed that Musk hired a private investigator to dig up Unsworth's past after their tense exchange. According to BuzzFeed News, the man Musk hired is actually a convicted felon and scammer who was served 18 months in prison for stealing about $525,000 from his own company. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk hired a convicted felon with a shady past to investigate Vernon Unsworth, the British diver who was involved in last year's rescue of a soccer team and their coach from a cave in Thailand. Unsworth is suing Musk for calling him a "pedo" on Twitter.

The saga began in July 2018, as rescuers were carefully crafting a plan to extract 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach who had been trapped in a cave for 17 days with limited food and water. The mission called in experts from around the world, including Unsworth, who lived in Thailand and had detailed knowledge of the cave complex where the Thai boys were located. 

Musk traveled to Thailand in July and developed a "kid-sized submarine" to be utilized in the rescue. Unsworth dismissed the gesture as a "PR stunt," which set in motion the dispute between the diver and the Tesla executive. 

Musk in a tweet accused Unsworth of being a "pedo guy" in July 2018. He later apologized to Unsworth and deleted the tweet. In emails to Buzzfeed News in September 2018, Musk also called him a "child rapist" and accused him of moving to Chiang Rai for a "child bride who was about 12 years old." He added that he "f---ing hope[d]" Unsworth would sue him. 

Unsworth filed a defamation suit against Musk in September 2018, alleging that his reputation was tarnished as a result of Musk's tweets and emails, and he is seeking damages of over $75,000. 

Musk paid a private investigator $50,000 to dig up dirt on Unsworth 

Last month, court filings revealed that Musk hired a private investigator to dig up Unsworth's past after the exchange of words between them. Musk alleged that an aide hired a man named James Howard of the investigation firm Jupiter Military & Tactical Systems, to look into Unsworth. Musk said it was Jared Birchall, the president of Musk's family office, who relayed information to him from Howard about Unsworth's alleged relationship with an underage girl, a claim that has not been substantiated. 

Original author: Rosie Perper

The DC Universe streaming service is inviting fans to pitch original unscripted series.DC Universe announced the project at New York Comic Con on Thursday.The winner's pitch will be produced by creative agency Ideas United and launched on DC Universe.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The DC Universe streaming service promises to be the "ultimate DC membership" for fans and it's about to become more fan centric.

DC Universe, a hub for DC fans that includes original TV shows and a catalog of digital comics, announced at New York Comic Con on Thursday a new initiative called "DC You Unscripted." The service is partnering with creative agency Ideas United and has invited fans to pitch original unscripted series inspired by "all things DC." The winning submission will be produced and air on DC Universe.

READ MORE: WarnerMedia still plans to offer DC Universe as a standalone service as it prepares HBO Max for launch

The project is open for pitches from Thursday to November 18. Anyone in the US who is 18-years-old or over and a member of the Ideas United network can submit ideas. Those interested can register with Ideas United here and learn more about the the project at DCUunscripted.com.

"During the submission process, talent and fan enthusiasts alike will be able to submit their unscripted/reality video series ideas ranging from game shows to game play to hot food and hot takes," DC Universe said.

Those who pitched the top 10 entries will be able to meet industry professionals in Los Angeles. From there, the top three finalists will have their ideas produced by Ideas United and the overall winner's series will launch on DC Universe.

DC Universe launched last September and has since released four original series, with the adult animated series "Harley Quinn" and the live-action "Stargirl" on the docket. The second season of its first original, "Titans," debuted last month. "Doom Patrol" season two and "Young Justice: Outsiders" season four are also in the works. 

"Swamp Thing" is the only DC Universe original to be canceled so far. It was cut after one season, despite positive reviews and a big investment in the series. Speculation swirled after the cancellation that DC Universe would be folded into Warner Media's upcoming streaming service, HBO Max, but there are no immediate plans for that.

Original author: Travis Clark

Immigration activist group Mijente is about to publish a blog post accusing Palantir of supplying tech used in ICE's biggest workplace raid this summer.The group believes Palantir tech was used during the controversial raid on chicken processing plants where 680 immigrants were arrested.Mijente has been pounding the drums over Palantir's use by ICE, even as Palantir has insisted that its tech is used by a different group within ICE that is not responsible for deportations or family separations at the border.Mijente's pressure campaign appears to be having some success. Employees at Palantir have signed at least two letters asking management to adopt new policies concerning its ICE contracts. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Immigrant rights group Mijente has led the charge to stop Palantir, a $20 billion Silicon Valley tech firm, from selling its software to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Palantir is the big data software company founded by Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel. 

Mijente says that on Friday it will publish a blog post about Palantir technology being used by ICE agents as part of the largest US immigration raid in a decade. The raid, which occurred in August, targeted a Mississippi chicken processing plants and resulted in the arrests of 680 migrant workers.

That incident was controversial not just for its size — and the widely-circulated video of a crying 11-year-old girl whose father was detained — but because of its timing. It occurred hours before President Trump arrived in El Paso, Texas. He was visiting the city days after an anti-immigrant, white nationalist killed 22 people at a Walmart. 

Palantir has been providing ICE with software since 2014. ICE renewed its contract with Palantir in August, a contract that will run through 2020, Motherboard reported at the time. Palantir has repeatedly denied that its technology is being used by the part of ICE that handles family separations and deportations.

A spokesperson told the New York Times in December that its contracts support a different part of the agency:

"There are two major divisions of ICE with two distinct mandates: Homeland Security Investigations, or H.S.I., is responsible for cross-border criminal investigations. The other major directorate, Enforcement and Removal Operations, or E.R.O., is responsible for interior civil immigration enforcement, including deportation and detention of undocumented immigrants. We do not work for E.R.O."

Even so, back in 2017, the Intercept reported that Palantir tech was being used to assist ICE with tracking immigrants and deporting them.

Mijente believes that Palantir's tech assisted with the controversial August raid in Mississippi thanks to an affidavit from an HSI investigator requesting a search warrant for the raid.

In that affidavit, the investigator describes using the agency's "tipline" and a database system to find and identify immigrants believed to be working at the plant illegally. Mijente say it has documents that show the tipline is part of a special product that Palantir built for ICE.

Mijente has been using such evidence to call on other like-minded activists to pressure Palantir to drop their Ice contracts. As Business Insider's Rosalie Chan reported in August, this includes organizing protest marches at the company's Palo Alto, California headquarters. 

Mijente has also participated in protests of Amazon Web Services, the cloud service used by Palantir.

The protests are having an effect. Some employees have mixed feelings about the company's work with ICE. In August more than 60 Palantir employees signed a petition asking management to redirect profits from ICE contracts to a nonprofit charity, the Washington Post reported. And last year, over 200 employees reportedly signed a letter expressing their displeasure with the situation.

ICE is not Palantir's only contract with the federal government. It currently has over $160 million worth of contracts from multiple agencies including the DoD, Treasury and others.

In July, Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale described Palantir as "patriotic."

There had been some talk that Palantir might try for an IPO soon, though word is that it has paused that idea and is working on raising another round of private funding instead.

Palantir declined comment.

Original author: Julie Bort

On Saturday, Elon Musk showed off SpaceX's new details of the rocket company's planned super-heavy launch system called Starship.SpaceX posted a new animation to YouTube that shows the 39-story rocket launching from Boca Chica, Texas, where the company is developing the system — including a prototype called Starship Mark 1.The animation underscores SpaceX's interest in using Boca Chica as one of two bases of operations for Starship launches. Musk said launches could be as frequent as 1,000 times per year.However, SpaceX may face a down-to-Earth hurdle — a neighborhood called Boca Chica Village — before Starship missions can fly to the moon or Mars.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by tech mogul Elon Musk, has posted a new vision for launching Starship: a notional 39-story steel rocket system designed to help build moon bases and populate Mars.

On Monday, SpaceX uploaded a nearly two-minute-long video to YouTube that paints a futuristic portrait of how the company plans to get people into space on the cheap with Starship.

The video is technically unlisted on the video-sharing site, but it appeared on a new website that SpaceX created to promote Starship and its aspirational capabilities. Importantly, the clip details an aspirational base of operations for Starship: SpaceX's private but as-yet nascent launch site at Boca Chica, a relatively remote yet inhabited area at the southeastern tip of Texas.

You can watch the video using an embedded player below:

 

Read more: New documents reveal SpaceX's plans for launching Mars-rocket prototypes from South Texas

Musk debuted the video during a highly anticipated talk on Saturday at the launch site while he stood between two rockets: one from SpaceX's past, called Falcon 1, and a towering prototype, called Starship Mark 1, of its forthcoming rocket system.

"There are many troubles in the world, of course, and these are important, and we need to solve them. But we also need things that make us excited to be alive," Musk said on Saturday. "Becoming a space-faring civilization — being out there among the stars — this is one of the things that I know makes me be glad to be alive."

Before the animation was shown this weekend, it was unclear if and how SpaceX planned to expand its operations in South Texas to support operational Starship launches. But the video clearly shows expanded launch activities in South Texas, which Musk backed up with his own words.

"This is gonna sound totally nuts, but I think we want to try to reach orbit in less than six months," Musk said. "I think [it's] definitely possible that the first crewed mission on Starship could leave from Boca."

What SpaceX's new Starship launch sequence animation shows

An illustration of SpaceX's planned 39-story-tall Starship rocket system launching from Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX/YouTube

For years, Musk has said the key to making humans an interplanetary species able to settle Mars — the "ultimate goal" of SpaceX — is making spaceflight as affordable as possible.

Right now, even the Falcon-class rockets that SpaceX builds, despite having reusable fairings and 16-story boosters, are not fully reusable. With each flight, multimillion-dollar hardware crashes back to Earth or is lost to space. With all other rocket systems, no parts are saved at all.

Musk thinks Starship could be the first fully reusable launch system. If his vision pans out, SpaceX may need only pay for fuel, minor refurbishment, and the system's development costs, which he told Rachel Crane of CNN Business on Saturday may be about $2-3 billion — not $10 billion, as he said in September 2018. The cost of sending one pound of stuff into orbit may, as a result, drop 100- to 1,000-fold, Musk has previously said.

Read more: Elon Musk just revealed who's going to fly to the moon on SpaceX's new rocket ship

"The critical breakthrough that's needed for us to become a space-faring civilization is to make space travel like air travel," Musk said on Saturday.

SpaceX's new animation, though it doesn't contain many new basic details — Musk first detailed the core concept in 2016 — nonetheless illustrates the company's latest plans.

An illustration of SpaceX's planned Starship spaceship and Super Heavy booster separating above Earth during launch. SpaceX/YouTube

The Starship system would have two stages: a 164-foot-tall Starship spaceship, proper, and a roughly 223-foot-tall booster, called Super Heavy.

Each Super Heavy booster would use up to 37 car-size Raptor rocket engines to heave itself and a Starship on top toward space. Once high enough, the Starship — a crewed vehicle, a cargo-carrying spacecraft, or a fuel tanker variant — would detach and fire its six engines to reach orbit.

Meanwhile, the animation shows, the Super Heavy would plummet back to Earth, re-fire its engines, and land back on the concrete pad it launched from.

An illustration of SpaceX's planned Starship spaceships connecting in Earth orbit and transferring fuel. SpaceX/YouTube

Depleted of much of its fuel, the Starship would then await a second Starship launch to refill its tanks. The two spacecraft would connect end-to-end in space, perform a refilling operation, and then disconnect. The fueled-up Starship would then have enough fuel to blast on its way to deep space, perhaps a higher orbit, the moon, or even Mars.

Although the animation doesn't show this, it's presumed the mostly empty Starship would scream back to Earth, using a skin of heat-resistant tiles lining its belly to deflect and absorb the searing-hot plasma generated by returning to Earth at around 25 times the speed of sound. The Starship would then land near a Super Heavy, receive an inspection, get craned back onto the booster, and be fueled up with methane and oxygen for its next flight.

The video suggests SpaceX's and Earth's future in deep space

An illustration of SpaceX's planned 39-story-tall Starship rocket system at a launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX/YouTube

Musk has for months said SpaceX's plan is to build and launch Starship systems from two locations: Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Boca Chica, Texas.

"Both sites will make many Starships. This is a competition to see which location is most effective. Answer might be both," Musk tweeted in May.

During his nearly two-hour appearance on Saturday, Musk firmly asserted that notion.

"We are going to be building ships and boosters at both Boca and the Cape as fast as we can," he said. "It's going to be really nutty to see a bunch of these things. I mean, not just one, but a whole stack of them. And we're improving both the design and the manufacturing method exponentially."

An illustration of SpaceX's planned 39-story-tall Starship rocket system launching from Boca Chica, Texas. SpaceX/YouTube But the animation released by SpaceX, as well as other statements Musk made, suggest Boca Chica is seen as a likely base of operations for Starship.

Unlike the company's launch sites at Cape Canaveral, which are leased from NASA and the US Air Force, Boca Chica is privately owned — and has less red tape, no adjacent competitors (such as Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance), and has room for expansion.

When asked about plans for the site's future by Chris Davenport of The Washington Post, Musk said there will be "a lot more buildings and a lot more stuff — way more stuff than is currently here," including plants to produce liquid oxygen and methane using solar energy and carbon dioxide from Earth's air.

Musk said a single Starship site, if the vehicle is launched at its maximum rate, could see three of four launches a day — or more than 1,000 launches a year.

SpaceX is trying to buy out Boca Chica Village 

A prototype of SpaceX's Starship vehicle is pictured behind a home in Boca Chica Village, Texas, on September 28, 2019. SpaceX is attempting to buy out the residents of this community in order to expand spaceflight activities. Loren Elliott/Getty Images

SpaceX first gained permission to build out a commercial spaceport in Boca Chica area in July 2014. It has since radically revised that plan, with tweaks approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, though it has encountered some hurdles along the way.

One of them is Boca Chica Village. As first reported by Business Insider, SpaceX — citing safety issues and increasing disruptions — recently offered to privately buy out the owners of about 35 residences amid its spaceport in a small neighborhood. Though SpaceX has offered three times an appraised value, many of the residents (most of whom are retiree-age) have told Business Insider they do not plan to accept the offer.

"I don't see any fundamental obstacles. We are working with the residents of Boca Chica Village because we think oh, it's time, it's going to be quite disruptive to their — to living in Boca Chica Village. Because it'll end up needing to get cleared for safety a lot of times," Musk said Saturday, in response to a question that Jeff Foust of Space News asked. "I think the actual danger to Boca Chica Village is low but is not tiny. So therefore, we want super-tiny risk. Probably over time, better to buy out the villagers."

Read more: Elon Musk is building SpaceX's Mars rockets in a tiny Texas hamlet. But getting them off the ground there may be harder than he imagined.

It's unclear if villagers are barreling toward a standoff with SpaceX over their properties. Not-yet-published reporting by Business Insider suggests the company may let residents who don't mind the disruptions to stay for now.

However, the Cameron County Spaceport Development Corporation, which was created to support SpaceX, does have eminent domain authority and can, with the vote of local commissioners, initiate a condemnation process. (SpaceX previously declined to comment on the matter.)

"I'm sure that authority was put in place for a reason. I'd be willing to explore it," Nicholas Serafy Jr., the chairperson of the corporation, previously told Business Insider. "I wouldn't say it's been an elephant in the room, but it may become an elephant in the room."

This story has been updated.

Original author: Dave Mosher

Law enforcement officials have arrested six men on charges of working for a drug delivery service that is linked to the death of Colin Kroll, the cofounder of HQ Trivia and Vine who died of an overdose at 34.The New York delivery service, known as Mike's Candyshop, allegedly took orders by phone and distributed heroin and cocaine.Kroll was found unresponsive in his Manhattan apartment and pronounced dead on December 16, 2018. Officials have not publicly named him as the victim associated with the service.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Police have arrested six members on suspicion of being part of a drug delivery service that sold heroin and cocaine to Colin Kroll, the 34-year-old cofounder of HQ Trivia and Vine who died of an overdose last year.

There is at least one overdose death linked to the organization, and though the United States attorney's office has not released a name, an official with knowledge of the case told The New York Times that the victim was Kroll. The entrepreneur was found unresponsive in his Manhattan apartment and pronounced dead on December 16.

Kroll was known for his role in creating two of the most viral apps of the last decade, HQ Trivia and Vine. He previously worked at Yahoo.

A spokesperson for HQ Trivia did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Read more: The career of Colin Kroll, the cofounder of Vine and HQ Trivia, who has died at age 34

The drug delivery service, known as Mike's Candyshop, enabled customers to place an order by phone and arranged for a courier to make the delivery within hours, according to a release from the United States attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.

"This illicit enterprise allegedly allowed people to order heroin and cocaine to their doorstep simply by calling the business phone number with the same convenience as if they were ordering a pizza," Peter C. Fitzhugh, the special agent in charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations, said in a statement.

The six men were charged with conspiring to distribute heroin and cocaine, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. There were no charges related to the death.

The press release described a victim who died of an overdose in Manhattan, where police found empty vials like the ones distributed by Mike's Candyshop. The victim's cell phone had text messages showing that they ordered drugs from the drug trafficking group.

Original author: Melia Russell

WeWork is planning to lay off between 10 and 25% of its workforce, a source familiar with the situation told Business Insider. The cuts come as new CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham try to focus on WeWork's core business after a tumultuous lead-up to a shelved initial public offering.To read our investigation into WeWork's wild culture, click here.

WeWork is planning massive layoffs that will number in the thousands as the new leaders of the embattled shared-space company look to focus on its core business and reduce costs, a source familiar with the matter said. 

WeWork executives haven't yet finalized the specific cuts, but the numbers will be "in the thousands" — though less than the 3,000 to 5,000 layoffs that had been laid out in earlier media reports, the source said. 

WeWork has about 12,500 employees, so a cut of 1,000 to 3,000 people would be about 10 to 25% of its staff.  

Bloomberg reported earlier on Thursday that WeWork had announced layoffs to staff but did not provide a number. 

Read more: Sex, tequila, and a tiger: Employees inside Adam Neumann's WeWork talk about the nonstop party to attain a $100 billion dream and the messy reality that tanked it 

Job cuts have been rumored for weeks as cofounder Adam Neumann stepped down and new co-CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham stepped in to replace the unconventional leader. 

Minson and Gunningham are also looking to sell some of the companies WeWork purchased in recent years, as well as the Gulfstream G650 the company bought last year for $60 million. WeWork is also considering slowing its expansion in China, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

The company expanded rapidly in recent years, counting more than 500 locations globally this year from just over 100 in 2017. The growth was fueled by billions in venture-capital investments, most notably from the Japanese investor SoftBank.

On Monday, the new CEOs said they would shelve its initial public offering, though they said in a statement that being a public company was still the goal.

Read more: How WeWork spiraled from a $47 billion valuation to talk of bankruptcy in just 6 weeks 

Minson and Gunningham said in a statement: "We have decided to postpone our IPO to focus on our core business, the fundamentals of which remain strong. We are as committed as ever to serving our members, enterprise customers, landlord partners, employees and shareholders. We have every intention to operate WeWork as a public company and look forward to revisiting the public equity markets in the future."

Have a WeWork tip? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 768-1627 using a non-work phone, email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Twitter DM at @MeghanEMorris. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Original author: Meghan Morris and Becky Peterson

Square is rolling out its full payment-processing platform to all CBD sellers in the US, the company announced on Thursday.

The company is opening up its platform to CBD sellers after it conducted a three-month "invite-only" beta program, which started in May, for a small group of CBD startups, Business Insider previously reported. 

"We're just really excited to be able to offer this solution to a historically underserved industry that's faced so many challenges and interruptions to their businesses," Sivan Whiteley, Square's general counsel, said at a press event at the cleverly named Manhattan, New York, CBD shop Come Back Daily. 

CBD sellers can apply to use Square's platform like any other merchant, Whiteley said. Part of Square's challenge is doing due diligence on each merchant — because the CBD industry is so new, there's no way to automate that process, so it requires "a lot of eyeballs," Whiteley said. 

Read more: CBD companies were courted hard by a unit of US Bank — but they got ghosted despite having a 100% legal business

Payment processors, in short, handle credit- and debit-card transactions on behalf of companies that sell their products online. They take a fee for each transaction. A new booming industry like CBD could provide a windfall for Square, since most other large payment platforms do not accept CBD companies.

Square is pushing into an industry in which there are not many ways for young companies to safely process payments, Whiteley said. Elavon, US Bank's payment-processing subsidiary, pulled out of the CBD industry in May over what the company said was the lack of clarity around CBD's legality in the US, Business Insider previously reported. 

Hemp-derived CBD — containing less than 0.3% THC, the chemical responsible for the "high" associated with marijuana — was legalized in December through the Farm Bill. Each state has its own rules guiding the industry, however. 

Because of the complexity of the CBD industry, Whiteley said launching Square's service to CBD merchants took an effort across the company's sales, risk, product, and compliance teams. 

"We had to understand the general legal and regulatory landscape," Whiteley said, which involved conducting "enhanced due diligence" on CBD sellers compared with merchants in other industries.

Once Square put together a program on its due-diligence process, Whiteley had to "shop it around" to its payment partners — credit-card companies — to make sure that "everyone was on board."

Once Square got everything aligned, they rolled out the closed beta program in March. 

"That was an interesting experience because we saw how much demand there was outside of the beta for credit card processing," Whiteley said. 

A worker adds CBD oil to a drink at a coffee shop. Associated Press

For CBD merchants, Square's entrance into the industry will smooth over a lot of the headaches they faced while trying to build their businesses. 

Despite selling what's ostensibly a legal product, most online CBD sellers have been forced to turn to high-risk payment processors that are often based overseas and charge exorbitantly high fees. 

These payment processors charge fees upward of 10% per transaction and often hold the funds for weeks, CBD sellers previously told Business Insider, whereas most noncannabis-related e-commerce businesses are charged in the 3% range, and the funds are dispersed immediately.

Read more: Square has started working with a select group of CBD startups while other payments rivals shy away from the trendy substance

Apart from the higher fees, companies that use overseas payment processors are sometimes forced to set up companies abroad, and customers' credit cards often get flagged, adding an additional headache for entrepreneurs, CBD sellers previously told Business Insider.

Square, for its part, is charging 3.9% plus a 10 cent fee for each in-store credit-card transaction, and 4.2% plus a 30 cent fee for online transactions. While higher than other e-commerce businesses, Whiteley said this price reflected the added due diligence Square must conduct to onboard new CBD sellers.

As part of the rollout, Square will also provide payroll and inventory-management services to CBD sellers. On that front, Square has some competition. 

Shopify rolled out its online platform for CBD sellers in September, though payments are contracted out to a third-party processor. 

Payment processing is just one of the myriad ways that CBD sellers — startups in an ostensibly legal industry — face specific challenges. Business Insider previously reported that CBD startups are banned from running paid promotions on Facebook and other large tech platforms. 

Original author: Jeremy Berke

Attorney General William Barr and the US Justice Department will issue an open letter asking Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to delay the company's plans for a fully encrypted messaging service, according to a draft of the letter obtained by Ryan Mac and Joseph Bernstein of BuzzFeed News.In March 2019 Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was developing a new messaging platform that would feature end-to-end encryption and auto-delete messages after a certain amount of time.End-to-end encryption could make it more difficult for law enforcement and tech companies to access messages during criminal investigations, but Zuckerberg says the new platform would improve privacy and security.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Attorney General William Barr and the US Justice Department will issue an open letter asking Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to delay the company's plans for a fully encrypted messaging service, based on a draft of the letter obtained by Ryan Mac and Joseph Bernstein of BuzzFeed News.

In March Zuckerberg announced plans to build a messaging platform that would provide end-to-end encryption and allow users to communicate across Facebook Messenger, What's App, and Instagram. In a blog post Zuckerberg said the new platform would be built to provide more privacy and security for users, with features like auto-deleting messages and secure data storage.

However, the Justice Department claims that these security enhancements could make it harder for law enforcement to investigate criminal cases. End-to-end encryption could make it more difficult for authorities and tech companies to access message logs for specific users involved in an investigation. An open letter asking Facebook to delay its messaging platform is expected to be released on October 4.

"Security enhancements to the virtual world should not make us more vulnerable in the physical world," the Justice Department letter obtained by BuzzFeed reads. "Companies should not deliberately design their systems to preclude any form of access to content, even for preventing or investigating the most serious crimes."

Read more: Mark Zuckerberg says he's ready to 'go to the mat' with federal regulators over threats to break up Facebook

Zuckerberg appears to have anticipated some pushback from law enforcement, according to comments he made in a July internal meetings in July that was recently leaked. In those meeting, Zuckerberg addressed the calls for Facebook's break-up and increased tech regulation from politicians like Elizabeth Warren.

"I actually wouldn't be surprised if we end up having similar engagements like this on other socially important things that we're trying to move, like our big push to get towards more encryption across our messaging apps. That will, over time, be very sensitive when we get closer to rolling it out," Zuckerberg said, according to a transcript published by The Verge.

He continued, "Law enforcement, obviously, is not going to be psyched about that. But we think it's the right thing to protect people's privacy more, so we'll go defend that when the time is right. But I think that there will be more things like this, and this is a lot of what being public — trying to make our case publicly and engaging in a more consultative approach — what that looks like."

Facebook and the Justice Department did not immediately return Business Insider's requests for comment. 

Original author: Kevin Webb

Digital entertainment startup Whistle, which is known for its sports programming, is buying Elisabeth Murdoch's mobile-content studio, Vertical Networks, to double down on lifestyle and entertainment brands that can be monetized across platforms.After the acquisition, Whistle will look to build on Vertical Networks properties like Brother with new revenue streams, such as brand partnership deals, merchandising, or consumer products.The deal comes after Whistle acquired digital studio, New Form, in January to beef up its lifestyle and entertainment production.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

As more media companies look to diversify their revenue and content offerings, digital-entertainment startup Whistle — which has been known mainly for sports programming — is buying Elisabeth Murdoch's mobile-content studio, Vertical Networks, to double down on lifestyle and entertainment brands that can be monetized across platforms.

Vertical Networks, founded by Murdoch in 2016, is best known for Snapchat shows, like "Phone Swap," and its popular Discover channel, Brother. Vertical Networks, a purveyor of mobile video, also counts Snap as one of its investors. 

Whistle creates and distributes content across digital platforms from YouTube and Snapchat to the soon-to-launch Quibi. Much of its programming has been tied to sports and features inspiring young athletes. 

Through the pact with Vertical Networks, Whistle aims to expand in lifestyle and entertainment, and monetize its properties in more ways. 

It will look to build bigger brands out of Vertical Networks properties, like Brother, an irreverent media brand for young men, with new revenue streams such as brand partnerships, merchandising, or consumer products. It's done that with some of its own shows, including  "No Days Off," which generates ad dollars on platforms like YouTube and Snapchat, and makes money from merch.

"We think this rounds out the content offering that we're able to bring to market, both for the audience and then ultimately for ways in which we're able to monetize that content," Michael Cohen, president of Whistle, told Business Insider.

The agreement comes at a time when more digital media companies are combining in an effort to become profitable. Just this week, Vice Media announced that it would acquire Refinery29. New York Magazine also sold to Vox Media earlier this month.

Digital media companies have also been looking to diversify their revenue and find new ways to scale in today's fragmented viewing environment.

Former Vertical Networks CEO Jesus Chavez, who joined the company from Mitú last year and was an exec at Univision, will not be joining Whistle. Jordan Hill, a finance and operations exec at Vertical Networks, will oversee the company as senior vice president and general manager, and report to Cohen.

The deal with Vertical Networks deepens Whistle's ties to Snapchat, which Whistle has 12 shows on. On top of adopting Vertical Networks' slate of Snapchat shows, Snap will become an investor in Whistle, as part of the all-stock transaction.

Murdoch will also take a stake in Whistle. Her exit from Vertical Networks follows the announcement of her new production and development company, Sisters, with Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone. 

Vertical Networks is Whistle's second acquisition of 2019. It bought digital entertainment studio, New Form, in January, to beef up its production of lifestyle and entertainment content, Variety reported. The pact brought in investors like Discovery, ITV, Ron Howard, and Brian Grazer, among others.

"Those [deals] help us open up more doors; help us move our business plan a lot faster," Cohen said. "Continuing to partner with the companies that have absolutely amazing investors that see our vision and are excited about it is something we're excited for in the future."

Whistle wouldn't disclose the value of the latest deal.

It has raised more than $100 million in funding to date. Cohen said Whistle is on track to double its revenue year-over-year in 2019 to more than $60 million, including the acquisition of New Form. Whistle is not currently profitable.

Original author: Ashley Rodriguez

Google cofounder Sergey Brin has reportedly been married since 2018 to his girlfriend of more than three years.

The girlfriend, legal tech founder Nicole Shanahan, revealed they have been married since last year at a recent event to celebrate the opening of a research center for fertility and reproductive health, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported. Shanahan, 34, and Brin, 46, have a baby girl together who was born late last year, according to Page Six.

The couple has been linked together since 2015, when they were seen together at the star-studded wedding for a dating app CEO in Jamaica. That's the same year that Brin and 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki finalized their divorce after eight years of marriage.

Shanahan's team declined to comment on the matter, while representatives for Brin have not responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

Shanahan is the founder of legal tech company ClearAccessIP and the Bia-Echo Foundation, whose key investment areas include reproductive health. Shanahan recently helped to fund the to launch of research center focused on women's fertility and reproductive health, and also donated $7.4 million for grants for research into female reproductive aging.

At a lunch last week celebrating the new center's launch, Shanahan shared about her own struggling trying to conceive with Brin, who she said she married in 2018, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported. Studies have shown the difficulties and risks of getting pregnant after age 35.

Fortunately, Shanahan was able to get pregnant. It's not clear when the couple's child was born, but Shanahan was visibly pregnant at an event in November 2018.

Brin's child with Shanahan is his third. Brin has two children with Wojcicki, his ex-wife. Brin and Wojcicki first got married in 2007, but split in 2013 (although their divorce wasn't legally finalized until 2015).

Brin then reportedly started dating a Google employee named Amanda Rosenberg, who was also in a relationship with another high-level Google executive at the same time. Vanity Fair reported that before Brin and Wojcicki split, Wojcicki had discovered messages between her husband and Rosenberg that "caused her to feel alarm."

Brin and Shanahan's first public appearance as a couple didn't come until the Met Ball in May 2016, when the two reportedly carpooled together to the event with Wojcicki and her boyfriend at the time, baseball player Alex Rodriguez.

Original author: Paige Leskin

Netflix has ramped up its original productions in recent years with over 100 scripted series currently streaming. But only a handful of those have received the coveted 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic score.

They include the animated comedies "Big Mouth" and "Tuca and Bertie," the latter of which Netflix canceled after one season this year. "Big Mouth" season three debuts on Friday.

They also include "Master of None," which has been on hiatus since its second season debuted in 2017 but hasn't officially been canceled by Netflix.

We rounded up the six Netflix original shows that have received a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic score (we excluded reality, anime, and children's shows). This doesn't necessarily mean they are the most beloved shows that Netflix has to offer, but those who did watch and write about them were positive.

"The Order," for instance, has 100% but only based on five reviews. Other shows, like Netflix's recent drama "Unbelievable," failed to reach that top score (it has a 97%) but many more people reviewed the show.

Below are six Netflix original TV shows with 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes:

Original author: Travis Clark