Welcome to "#SocialStocks," The Fly's weekly recap of Wall Street's reactions to social media stock news.
FACEBOOK ACQUIRES CTRL-LABS: On Monday, Facebook (FB) announced the acquisition of CTRL-labs, a New York startup that specializes in allowing humans to control computers using their brains. "They will be joining our Facebook Reality Labs team where we hope to build this kind of technology, at scale, and get it into consumer products faster," said Facebook VP of AR/VR Andrew "Boz" Bosworth in a post announcing the acquisition. He added, "The vision for this work is a wristband that lets people control their devices as a natural extension of movement. Here's how it'll work: You have neurons in your spinal cord that send electrical signals to your hand muscles telling them to move in specific ways such as to click a mouse or press a button. The wristband will decode those signals and translate them into a digital signal your device can understand, empowering you with control over your digital life. It captures your intention so you can share a photo with a friend using an imperceptible movement or just by, well, intending to.Technology like this has the potential to open up new creative possibilities and reimagine 19th century inventions in a 21st century world. This is how our interactions in VR and AR can one day look. It can change the way we connect." CNBC’s Salvador Rodriguez later reported that the social network acquired CTRL-labs for up to $1B, citing sources familiar with the matter.
PROJECT VOLDEMORT: On September 24, The Wall Street Journal’s Georgia Wells and Deepa Seetharaman reported that Facebook's competitors are talking to the FTC about the company's hardball tactics, some of which Snap (SNAP) compiled in a dossier called "Project Voldemort." Wells and Seetharaman cited people familiar with the matter in the report. The files in “Voldemort” chronicled Facebook's moves that threatened to undermine Snap's business, including discouraging popular account holders, or influencers, from referencing Snap on their Instagram accounts, the people said, adding that executives also suspected Instagram was preventing Snap content from trending on its app.
TWITTER’S GLOBAL PUBLIC POLICY VP TO DEPART: Colin Crowell, a VP at Twitter and the Head of Global Public Policy and Philanthropy said via Twitter: "8 years-it's been an extraordinary journey. Today, I'm sharing that I've made the decision to leave Twitter. It's been a joy to work here and to build an extraordinary team of immensely talented people across the globe."
PINTEREST PARTNERS WITH PERION NETWORK: On Monday, Perion Network (PERI) announced that MakeMeReach, its digital ad tech subsidiary, has "strengthened its powerful offering" with a new Pinterest (PINS) strategic relationship. "Our Pinterest partnership is something we have long desired. It is an essential step in giving our clients the tools and insights they need to fully derive value from their social and ad search budgets. We all recognize that consumer buying journeys are complex and interdependent, no longer attributable to a single ad impression. They can only be understood through a succession of cross-network complementary touchpoints. Our mission is to create an ecosystem where advertisers can understand the overall impact of their ads and can transcend silos. The addition of Pinterest is a further and critical silo breaker," said Pierre-Lou Dominjon, CEO of MakeMeReach.
Perion Network
+0.38 (+8.41%)
+0.06 (+0.22%)
+0.73 (+1.76%)
Snap
-0.23 (-1.35%)
Ticker changed to META
-0.49 (-0.27%)