Uber driver strike bears fruit — $150 million settlement completed
Uber drivers staged a strike on Wednesday to protest lack of benefits and lack of consideration as employees, as opposed to contractors. Today, Friday, Uber is expected to open one of the largest IPOs since Facebook and the company chose to settle claims by some 60,000 drivers before the offering. CNN
dis-rup-shun: Uber chose to take the high road here and act, well, un-Uberishly. On the eve of an IPO expected to value the company at $100 billion, its CEO decided that a settlement in the $150 million ballpark, mere pocket change, would be an important gesture to appease important stakeholders — drivers — and to continue to improve the company’s public image. Hail to the chief for making a prudent decision and acting less corporate than corporations far larger than Uber.
Do you know where your home electricity went?
Sense offers a home energy monitoring device which enables homeowners to see exactly how much power each of their devices and appliances consumes. The data collected from 4,000 households revealed that ‘always on’ devices use almost 25% of a home’s energy. By understanding which devices are using the most, and applying a smart switch, plug or circuit, significant lifetime savings can be achieved. UtilityDive
dis-rup-shun: Energy management has traditionally been more important to energy providers than consumers. Asking consumers to spend more than $30 a year to save energy has not been a successful business proposition for device companies or utilties. According to Crescent Electric, smart thermostats can save as much as 24% in annual expenses. As we know from many aspects of life, the first step of behavior modification is awareness. Sense and other energy disaggregation devices help consumers understand which devices are using the most energy and consider if they can be shut off during parts of the day.
Home automation favorite, Control4 purchased for $680 million
The all cash transaction by aquiring firm SnapAV, whose majority owner is private equity firm Hellman & Friedman, will pair two leaders in the home systems integrator market. Control4 has long succeed in offering a well designed home automation system that costs less than AMX and Crestron. Alexa fans may recall that Control4 recently hired Charlie Kindle, one of the Alexa team’s leader, away from Amazon. CEPro
dis-rup-shun: Hellman & Friedman purchased a majority of do-it-yourself home security company, SimpliSafe, last year. Private equity firms like the home automation space. Some other big deals include ADT’s purchase by Apollo for $6.9 billion three years ago, Vivint Security is held by Blackstone group, which purchased the home security company for $2 billion about seven years ago. The attaction is undoubtedly the fact that consumers are willing to pay RMR, recurring monthly revenues, for home security. Control4 and SnapAV, however, do not generate recurring revenues unless some sort of integration of SimpliSafe is in the works.
VW receives 100,000 orders for new electric car in first 24 hours
The ID.3 will sell for about $34,000 and is the size of its popular Golf model. The vehicle will deliver in mid 2020 and will officially debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The vehicles batteries will carry a 100,000 mile warranty. CNBC
dis-rup-shun: Volkswagen seems to be recovering from its auto emissions cheating scandal, and will regain its place as a trusted provider of German engineering for the mass market. Order volume suggests that there is pent up demand for electric cars, as VW follows Tesla, Ford, GM, Volvo, Audi, Mercedes and a handful of others into the EV market.