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1. Amazon drives deeper into cars with new Alexa partners, Echo Auto expansion
Amazon just announced partnerships with Lamborghini and Rivian, new auto-specific skills for its Alexa voice assistant, a market expansion for its Echo Auto device and a plan to bring its latest Fire TV edition into future BMW and Fiat Chrysler vehicles.
This is part of a larger push into automotive for Amazon, which previously made a direct investment into EV startup Rivian. In addition, General Motors has said it’s adding Amazon Alexa to the infotainment systems of its Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles in the first half of 2020.
2. A look back at 10 years of CES
CES is all about “the future,” and we’ll be here this week covering all the big stories and themes. But what about the past? In the spirit of 2020 hindsight (sorry), here are some of the most notable headlines and trends of the last 10 years.
3. HTC had a terrible 2019
HTC reported revenue of 10,015 million TWD ($333 million) in 2019, down 57.8% from the 23,741 million TWD ($789 million) it posted in 2018, and a whopping 87% below the more than $2 billion it grossed in 2017.
4. Roku TV adds more brand partners plus a new ‘Roku TV Ready’ program
The new program will allow consumer electronics companies to label themselves as “Roku TV Ready” so consumers know the products have been tested and certified to work with Roku TV. That means the devices will be easy to set up, and will include on-screen access to sound setting and volume control with one remote.
5. BigID bags another $50M round as data privacy laws proliferate
It’s only been four months since BigID announced a $50 million Series C. Investors seem to be excited about BigID’s mission to understand and manage a company’s data in the context of increasing privacy regulation.
6. CrowdStrike’s CEO on how to IPO, direct listings and what’s ahead for SaaS startups
A few days before Christmas, TechCrunch caught up with CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to chat about his company’s public offering, direct listings and his expectations for the 2020 IPO market. (Extra Crunch membership required.)
7. This week’s TechCrunch podcasts
The team at Equity discussed the big controversies from the end of 2019 and also kicked off a new, shorter podcast called Equity Mondays. And over at Original Content, we ran down our top five streaming shows and movies from the past year.
