Facebook to acquire CTRL-Labs

Facebook Inc. agreed to acquired CTRL-Labs, a technology startup that is building software to let people control a digital avatar using only their thoughts. The world’s largest social network is paying between $500 million and $1 billion.

The closely held four-year-old start-up, which has dozens of employees and has raised tens of millions in venture capital, uses a bracelet to measure neuron activity in a subject’s arm to determine movement that person is thinking about, even if they aren’t physically moving. That neuron activity is then translated into movement on a digital screen.

Technology like CTRL-Labs’s may someday be a crucial part of products like augmented reality glasses, where a user might want to control a computer without the need for buttons or a keyboard.

Facebook has been pushing deeper into augmented reality technology, including the development of a hands-free pair of AR glasses. In 2017, it announced a “brain-computer interface" that could someday let people turn their thoughts into actual text on a screen by monitoring signals in the brain. The CTRL-Labs technology is attempting to solve a similar problem.

Shopify acquires 6 River Systems

Shopify, the shopping technology developer that’s quickly becoming the anti-Amazon, has taken another step up the sales supply chain with its $450 Million acquisition of the warehouse automation and management technology developer, 6 River Systems.

The acquisition will serve to boost efficiencies among Shopify’s Fulfilment Network service, which launched in June. The acquisition gives Shopify access to the robotics experts who helped develop Amazon’s own robotics business when they were at Kiva Systems (before Amazon acquired that company).

Shopify’s fulfillment canters span California, Georgia, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The network, which is only available in early access, supports merchants that ship between 10 and 10,000 packages per day. The company hopes to eventually support between 3 and 30,000 packages per day. The 6 River Systems acquisition looks like an attempt to speed up that growth.

6 River Systems is best known for its Chuck autonomous vehicles that can move packages in warehouses. Indeed, Shopify believes that adding the robots to its fulfillment network “will increase the speed and reliability of warehouse operations by empowering on-site associates with daily tasks, including inventory replenishment, picking, sorting, and packing.”

Oyo acquires Data Science firm Danamica

Oyo Hotels & Homes has acquired Danamica, a Copenhagen based data science company with machine learning and business intelligence capabilities specialized in dynamic pricing. This acquisition is inline with OYO's continued commitment to its global vacation rentals business through strategic investments in technology products, processes, and people.

Danamica, which was founded in 2016, has built machine-learning tools and “business intelligence capabilities” to specialize in dynamic pricing of rental properties. The firm’s algorithm analyzes 144,000 data points every hour and makes 60 million price changes every day with a prediction accuracy of 97% to help hotels boost their revenue.

Oyo, which is the largest hotel chain in India, is rapidly expanding in other countries. It has already established a presence in 80 countries. About half of its 1 million rooms are in China. The company has also acquired multiple portfolios such as @Leisure Group and Innov8 coworking to expand its branded offerings

OYO, launched in 2013 has a portfolio of 23,000 hotels and 125,000 vacation homes globally present in over 800 cities in 80 countries, including the U.S., Europe, U.K., India, Malaysia, Middle East, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan.