<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Reuters/Rick Wilking </div></div></div>TGIF! Here are ten bits of tech news circling the Internet this morning.
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/live-googles-q3-earnings-2013-10">Google reported its third quarter earnings yesterday and beat Wall Street expectations.</a> It reported $14.98 billion gross revenue and the stock soared after hours.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-page-wont-be-doing-every-google-earnings-call-2013-10">Larry Page said the earnings call might his last for a while.</a> He has paralyzed vocal cords and something called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, so he needs to rest his voice. </li>
<li><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/17/nexus-5-16gb-349-play-store/">Oops! Google's Nexus 5 Android phone leaked.</a> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-nexus-5-leak-in-kitkat-video-2013-9">Again.</a> The smartphone hasn't been released yet, but it was accidentally listed on <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>'s Play Store for a brief period of time.</li>
<li><a href="http://buzzfeedminusgifs.tumblr.com/">There's a funny Tumblr blog that removes all of the GIFs from Buzzfeed's listicles</a>. Here's the start of one about mushrooms: "Mushrooms are empirically disgusting. They are the worm-iest of foods. Worms or mushrooms?? YOU CAN'T EVEN TELL."</li>
<li><a href="http://firstround.com/article/The-Secret-to-Making-Board-Meetings-Suck-Less">VC firm First Round Capital has presented a bunch of ways to make board meetings less terrible. </a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/17/4850256/silk-roads-main-competitor-shuts-down-indefinitely-black-market-reloaded">Silk Road's biggest competitor, Black Market Reloaded, has been shut down indefinitely.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/10/17/behind-the-vc-numbers-higher-prices-less-control/">There are five unexpected trends in venture capital happening right now.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57608036-37/7-things-to-expect-at-apples-special-event-next-week/">Apple is holding an event next week where it will likely announce a new iPad and Mac computers.</a> Here's what to expect.</li>
<li><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/couple-china-sells-daughter-iphone-075328377.html">A couple in China allegedly sold their daughter and used some of the money to buy an iPhone.</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitter-story-2013-10">There's another long-read out about Twitter's drama-filled history.</a> It's full of new details, throwback pictures, early <keyword id="6354616" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword> mockups, and shots of Jack Dorsey's nose ring.</li>
</ol>

10 Things You Need To Know This Morning In Tech

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Thursday.
1. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/afp-taiwan-pilot-hailed-as-a-hero-as-wreckage-scoured-2015-2">Taiwan rescuers are still searching for 12 missing people after a plane crashed</a> Wednesday shortly after take-off from Songshan airport in Taipei.
2.<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/greece-is-running-out-of-cash-2015-2"> Greece may run out of cash as early as March</a> as the new radical government refuses to except more bailout loans.
3. The <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/greek-stocks-equities-after-ecb-5-feb-2015-2015-2">European Central Bank said it would no longer accept Greek government bonds</a> as collateral for lending, sending Greek stocks tumbling.
4. Ross Ulbricht, the alleged mastermind behind the Silk Road drug marketplace, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/ross-ulbricht-convicted-of-running-silk-road-2015-2">was convicted Wednesday</a>.
5. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-ukrainian-president-calls-for-nato-states-to-provide-weapons-2015-2">Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he wants NATO states to send weapons</a> to his country, while the US considers whether to arm soldiers there.
6. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/05/science/ebola-drug-has-encouraging-early-results-and-questions-follow.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=photo-spot-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=0">drug favipiravir was successfully tested on patients with moderate levels of Ebola in their blood</a>, for the first time showing promising signs in treating the virus.
7. Major US health insurer Anthem said the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-health-insurer-anthem-hit-by-hackers-wsj-2015-2">personal information of roughly 80 million customers and employees was hacked</a>.
8. Major oil company <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-weatherford-to-cut-5000-jobs-as-it-fights-oil-slump-2015-2">Weatherford plans to cut 5,000 jobs - 9% of its workforce</a> - amid falling oil prices.
9.<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31144009"> UK Telecom company BT Group has agreed to buy mobile operator EE</a> for £12.5 billion ($18.98). 
10. A new biography of <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/afp-prince-charles-biography-reignites-readiness-debate-2015-2">Britain's Prince Charles questions whether he is fit to become king</a> given his "native insecurity" and that his household is rife with infighting.
And finally ...
<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/hannah-davis-sports-illustrated-swimsuit-cover-2015-2">24-year-old model Hannah Davis (aka Derek Jeter's girlfriend) landed the highly coveted cover of this year's Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition.</a>

The 10 most important things in the world right now

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Good morning! It's a cold and rainy start to the day in London. Here's the tech news you need to know today.
1.<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/blackberry-samsung-talks-2015-1"> Blackberry stock soared 29% yesterday after Reuters reported that Samsung was considering buying the company.</a> But after Blackberry denied the report, the stock was down 15% after hours.
2. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-at-work-launches-2015-1">Facebook has launched its "Facebook At Work" service.</a> Some companies are testing out the service that lets colleagues communicate using Facebook.
3. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ross-ulbricht-silk-road-trial-fall-guy-2015-1">Ross Ulbricht has admitted to creating online drug marketplace The Silk Road.</a> He's currently on trial in the US.
4. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-is-getting-destroyed-2015-1">Tesla stock was down 6% yesterday.</a> It follows Elon Musk's comments on Tuesday about a drop in sales in China.
5. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-drop-2015-1">The price of Bitcoin is crashing.</a> It went from $244 to $173 in one day.
6. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-shuts-down-scroogled-website-2015-1">It looks like Microsoft has killed off its anti-Google ad campaign "Scroogled."</a> The ads used to heavily mock Google.
7. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ship-your-enemies-glitter-founder-wants-you-to-stop-2015-1">The founder of "Ship Your Enemies Glitter" is begging people to stop using his site.</a> The site, which lets you send anyone glitter for $9.99, went viral yesterday.
8. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-radioshack-prepares-to-file-for-bankruptcy-wsj-2015-1">RadioShack is preparing to file for bankruptcy.</a> The retailer warned last year that this might happen.
9. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-wants-brands-to-spend-750000-on-dissapearing-ads-2015-1">Snapchat is asking brands to pay $750,000 a day to advertise in its app.</a> But some companies feel that the price is too high.
10. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-project-ara-modular-phone-puerto-rico-2015-1">Google is going to launch its modular smartphone, Project Ara, in Puerto Rico.</a> It's a test launch to see how consumers respond.

10 Things In Tech You Need To Know Today

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="Lisa Eadicicco" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54667c536bb3f7bc352a9af5-960/amazonfirescreenjpg.jpg"></a>Lisa Eadicicco</div></div>Amazon has expanded its line of Kindle tablets yet again with this year's version of the $379 Fire HDX 8.9. The device, which is the same size as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-nexus-9-tablet-review-specs-price-2014-11">Google's recent Nexus 9</a> and a bit smaller than the iPad Air, is one of the slimmest tablets you can buy.
As is the case with its previous HDX tablets, the online retail giant is pushing its new addition as an entertainment-focused device. And with it's gorgeous high-res display, it certainly has the hardware to pull it off.
After spending a week using Amazon's new tablet, here's what I came away with.
<h2>The Basics</h2>
The 2014 edition of Amazon's new tablet comes with a 2560x1600 resolution display just like its predecessor and the Nexus 9. There's an 8-megapixel camera on the back and 2GB of RAM, which the company claims will ensure graphics run smoothly.
In all honesty, there isn't too much that's different from last year's model. The new tablet comes with Amazon's new Firefly feature and runs on a new processor, but those are the only key differences.
<h2>How It Looks And Feels</h2>
Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX is undoubtedly one of the lightest tablets you can buy. In fact, it might be the lightest tablet at just 375 grams. By comparison, the Nexus 9 weighs 425 grams, the iPad Air 2 weighs 469 grams, and Sony's Xperia Z2 tablet weighs 439 grams. Granted, both Apple and Sony's tablets come with a larger screen than Amazon's Fire HDX, but it's still impressively slim. This makes it incredibly easy to use with one hand.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Lisa Eadicicco" title_caption="The back of the Kindle Fire HDX" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54667ecd69bedd886cbdaef5-960/amazonfireback-2.jpg"></a>Lisa EadiciccoThe back of the Kindle Fire HDX</div></div></div>
The back of Amazon's new tablet is made of a soft, slick material that's resistant to fingerprints, which is a plus. Both Google and Sony's tablet were quick to pick up smudges, so the tablets would look a little dirty after just a few minutes of use.
There's one design quirk that has always confused me when picking up an Amazon tablet. Both the power and volume buttons are located on the back, rather than along the side. I understand it probably wouldn't be possible to make the tablet super slim and light otherwise, but it always throws me off.
<h2>Using It</h2>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Lisa Eadicicco" title_caption="The Kindle Fire HDX has a great screen." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54667ca569beddf56abdaeef-960/amazonfirescreenjpg-1.jpg"></a>Lisa EadiciccoThe Kindle Fire HDX has a great screen.</div></div></div>
Like Amazon's other devices, the new Fire HDX runs on its Fire OS - a modified version of Android. Although it's technically based on Android, it doesn't look very much like the software you'd see on a Google or Samsung tablet.
The home screen consists of a carousel of app icons with a menu that sits across the top of the screen. The menu lets you browse different categories such as games, apps stored on your device, photos stored on the tablet, and more. Below the main carousel are a few icons for other options in the OS, such as Amazon's Silk Browser, the stock email app, the tablet's camera, calendar, and a few other choices.
The carousel layout is a refreshing - it's not the tired app grid layout you'll find on most other mobile devices.
The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 is a gorgeous, lightweight tablet, but it has its limitations. Although its an Android tablet, don't plan on using Gmail, Google Maps, or any other Google-made application on it. There's no access to the Google Play Store, which means if the app you're looking for isn't in Amazon's AppStore, you won't be able to use it. So, that means no YouTube, no Google Drive, and no Google Maps.
Remember, the Fire HDX 8.9 is built for entertainment. So if you frequently use Amazon Prime and love downloading movies, you'll probably enjoy Fire OS.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Lisa Eadicicco" title_caption="The new Kindle Fire HDX is super thin." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54667c4369bedd7860bdaef1-960/amazonfireside.jpg"></a>Lisa EadiciccoThe new Kindle Fire HDX is super thin.</div></div></div>
Like its predecessor, the new tablet comes with Amazon's Mayday feature, which is a service that connects you to a member of Amazon's support team.
Firefly is a newer Amazon feature that debuted on the Fire Phone last spring. Firefly allows you to use the device's camera to scan barcodes on objects, business cards, and email addresses. Once the tablet recognizes the object, it'll either provide a link to save that person's contact information or show a listing for that item in Amazon's online store.
Firefly works quickly and it's incredibly accurate. Within seconds of holding a business card in front of the tablet's camera, it pulled up that person's phone number. The software reacted equally as fast when I held up the box for an iPhone case in front of the Fire HDX's camera.
Still, Firefly seems better-suited for a phone than a tablet. Whipping out a large handheld to scan a business card feels awkward.
The new Fire HDX's screen is gorgeous, too. Whether you're doing some reading or watching Netflix, images and text really pop off the screen. It also seemed to be a bit brighter than the screen on the Nexus 9.
The Kindle Fire HDX's battery lasts quite long on a single charge. I was able to get two full days of usage out of the tablet before its battery completely drained. This included streaming a lot of Netflix, playing games like "Dead Trigger" often, and browsing the web.
<h2>Should You Buy It?</h2>
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image"><a title_source="Lisa Eadicicco" title_caption="The Kindle Fire HDX" class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54667cc8ecad04604c6c845f-960/amazonfirefrontjpg.jpg"></a>Lisa EadiciccoThe Kindle Fire HDX</div></div></div>
Amazon's recently released Kindle Fire HDX is an excellent tablet for reading and entertainment, especially if you use Amazon Prime a lot. It's super light - in fact it's one of the lightest tablets you can buy - and the screen is gorgeous too.
But, you'll have to be okay with giving up access to Google's gigantic app store. Amazon has it's own app store with more than 240,000 apps, although that's a relative small number compared to both Apple and Google's stores which offer about one million apps.
And, if you're used to using an Android tablet or an iPad, the software will seem a bit different on Amazon's Fire HDX.
If you don't really care about apps and just want a tablet for streaming Netflix, reading, checking email, and browsing the web, you'll be perfectly satisfied with the Fire HDX. Amazon has it's own app store with more than 240,000 apps, although that's a relative small number compared to both Apple and Google's stores which offer about one million apps.Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

Amazon's New Kindle Fire HDX Tablet Is Light And Gorgeous - But It Has Some Serious Limitations

The past weeks have seen a surprising meeting of minds between chairman of the US Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, the Bank of England, the Olympic-rowing and Zuckerberg-bothering Winklevoss twins, and the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/835843-virtual-currency-hearings.html" title="">US Department of Homeland Security</a>. The connection? All have decided it's time to take <keyword id="6354947" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bitcoin">Bitcoin</keyword> seriously.
Until now, what pundits called in a rolling-eye fashion "the new peer-to-peer cryptocurrency" had been seen just as a digital form of gold, with all the associated speculation, stake-claiming and even "mining"; perfect for the digital wild west of the internet, but no use for real transactions.
Bitcoins are mined by computers solving fiendishly hard mathematical problems. The "coin" doesn't exist physically: it is a virtual currency that exists only as a computer file. No one computer controls the currency. A network keeps track of all transactions made using Bitcoins but it doesn't know what they were used for - just the ID of the computer "wallet" they move from and to.
Right now the currency is tricky to use, both in terms of the technological nous required to actually acquire Bitcoins, and finding somewhere to spend them. To get them, you have to first set up a wallet, probably online at a site such as Blockchain.info, and then pay someone hard currency to get them to transfer the coins into that wallet.
A Bitcoin payment address is a short string of random characters, and if used carefully, it's possible to make transactions anonymously. That's what made it the currency of choice for sites such as the Silk Road and Black Market Reloaded, which let users buy drugs anonymously over the internet. It also makes it very hard to tax transactions, despite the best efforts of countries such as Germany, which in August declared that Bitcoin was "private money" in which transactions should be taxed as normal.
It doesn't have all the advantages of cash, though the fact you can't forge it is a definite plus: Bitcoin is "peer-to-peer" and every coin "spent" is authenticated with the network. Thus you can't spend the same coin in two different places. (But nor can you spend it without an internet connection.) You don't have to spend whole Bitcoins: each one can be split into 100m pieces (each known as a satoshi), and spent separately.
Although most people have now vaguely heard of Bitcoin, you're unlikely to find someone outside the tech community who really understands it in detail, let alone accepts it as payment. Nobody knows who invented it; its pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, hasn't come forward. He or she may not even be Japanese but certainly knows a lot about cryptography, economics and computing.
It was first presented in November 2008 <a href="http://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf" title="">in an academic paper shared with a cryptography mailing list</a>. It caught the attention of that community but took years to take off as a niche transaction tool. The first Bitcoin boom and bust came in 2011, and signalled that it had caught the attention of enough people for real money to get involved - but also posed the question of whether it could ever be more than a novelty.
The algorithm for mining Bitcoins means the number in circulation will never exceed 21m and this limit will be reached in around 2140. Already 57% of all Bitcoins have been created; by 2017, 75% will have been. If you tried to create a Bitcoin in 2141, every other computer on the network would reject it as fake because it would not have been made according to the rules of currency.
The number of companies taking Bitcoin payments is increasing from a small base, and a few payment processors such as Atlanta-based Bitpay are making real money from the currency. But it's difficult to get accurate numbers on conventional transactions, and it still seems that the most popular uses of Bitcoins are buying drugs in the shadier parts of the internet, as people did on the Silk Road website, and buying the currency in the hope that in a few weeks' time you will be able to sell it at a profit.
This is remarkable because there's no fundamental reason why Bitcoin should have any value at all. The only reason people are willing to pay money for the currency is because other people are willing to as well. (Try not to think about it too hard.) Now, though, sensible economists are saying that Bitcoin might become part of our future economy. That's quite a shift from October last year, when the European Central Bank said that Bitcoin was "characteristic of a Ponzi [pyramid] scheme". This month, the Chicago Federal Reserve <a href="http://www.chicagofed.org/digital_assets/publications/chicago_fed_letter/2013/cfldecember2013_317.pdf" title="">commented that the currency was "a remarkable conceptual and technical achievement</a>, which may well be used by existing financial institutions (which could issue their own bitcoins) or even by governments themselves".
It might not sound thrilling. But for a central banker, that's like yelling "BITCOIIINNNN!" from the rooftops. And Bernanke, in a carefully dull letter to the US Senate committee on Homeland Security, said that when it came to virtual currencies (read: Bitcoin), the US Federal Reserve had "ongoing initiatives" to "identify additional areas of … concern that require heightened attention by the banking organisations we supervise".
In other words, Bernanke is ready to make Bitcoin part of US currency regulation - the key step towards legitimacy.
Most reporting about Bitcoin until now has been of its extraordinary price ramp - from a low of $1 in 2011 to more than $900 earlier this month. That massive increase has sparked a classic speculative rush, with more and more people hoping to get a piece of the pie by buying and then selling Bitcoins. Others are investing thousands of pounds in custom "mining rigs", computers specially built to solve the mathematical problems necessary to confirm a Bitcoin transaction.
But bubbles can burst: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/oct/18/bitcoin-value-crash-cryptocurrency" title="">in 2011 it went from $33 to $1</a>. The day after hitting that $900 high, Bitcoin's value halved on MtGox, the biggest exchange. Then it rose again.
Speculative bubbles happen everywhere, though, from stock markets to Beanie Babies. All that's needed is enough people who think that they are the smart money, and that everyone else is sufficiently stupid to buy from them. But the Bitcoin bubbles tell us as much about the usefulness of the currency itself as the tulip mania of 17th century Holland did about flower-arranging.
History does provide some lessons. While the Dutch were selling single tulip bulbs for 10 times a craftsman's annual income, the British were panicking about their own economic crisis. The silver coinage that had been the basis of the national economy for centuries was rapidly becoming unfit for purpose: it was constrained in supply and too easy to forge. The economy was taking on the features of a modern capitalist state, and the currency simply couldn't catch up.
Describing the problem Britain faced then, David Birch, a consultant specialising in electronic transactions, says: "We had a problem in matching the nature of the economy to the nature of the money we used." Birch has been talking about electronic money for over two decades and is convinced that we find ourselves on the edge of the same shift that occurred 400 years ago.
The cause of that shift is the internet, because even though you might want to, you can't use cash - untraceable, no-fee-charged cash - online. Existing payment systems such as PayPal and credit cards demand a cut. So for individuals looking for a digital equivalent of cash - no middleman, quick, easy - Bitcoin looks pretty good.
In 1613, as people looked for a replacement for silver, Birch says, "we might have been saying 'the idea of tulip bulbs as an asset class looks pretty good, but this central bank nonsense will never catch on.' We knew we needed a change, but we couldn't tell which made sense." Back then, the currency crisis was solved with the introduction first of Isaac Newton's Royal Mint ("official" silver and gold) and later with the creation of the Bank of England ("official" paper money that could in theory be swapped for official silver or gold).
And now? Bitcoin offers unprecedented flexibility compared with what has gone before. "Some people in the mid-90s asked: 'Why do we need the web when we have AOL and CompuServe?'" says Mike Hearn, who works on the programs that underpin Bitcoin. "And so now people ask the same of Bitcoin. The web came to dominate because it was flexible and open, so anyone could take part, innovate and build interesting applications like YouTube, Facebook or Wikipedia, none of which would have ever happened on the AOL platform. I think the same will be true of Bitcoin."
For a small (but vocal) group in the US, Bitcoin represents the next best alternative to the gold standard, the 19th-century conception that money ought to be backed by precious metals rather than government printing presses and promises. This love of "hard money" is baked into Bitcoin itself, and is the reason why the owners who set computers to do the maths required to make the currency work are known as "miners", and is why the total supply of Bitcoin is capped.
And for Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the twins who sued Mark Zuckerberg (claiming he stole their idea for Facebook; the case was settled out of court), it's a handy vehicle for speculation. The two of them are setting up the "Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust", letting conventional investors gamble on the price of the currency.
Some of the hurdles left between Bitcoin and widespread adoption can be fixed. But until and unless Bitcoin develops a fully fledged banking system, some things that we take for granted with conventional money won't work.
Others are intrinsic to the currency. At some point in the early 22nd century, the last Bitcoin will be generated. Long before that, the creation of new coins will have dropped to near-zero. And through the next 100 or so years, it will follow an economic path laid out by "Nakomoto" in 2009 - a path that rejects the consensus view of modern economics that management by a central bank is beneficial. For some, that means Bitcoin can never achieve ubiquity. "Economies perform better when they have managed monetary policies," the Bank of England's chief cashier, Chris Salmon, said at an event to discuss Bitcoin last week. "As a result, it will never be more than an alternative [to state-backed money]." To macroeconomists, Bitcoin isn't scary because it enables crime, or eases tax dodging. It's scary because a world where it's used for all transactions is one where the ability of a central bank to guide the economy is destroyed, by design.
For Bitcoin developer Hearn, that's not a concern. "Bitcoin's monetary policy would only be relevant if it were to be adopted by an entire economy, which isn't going to happen any time soon."
Already, alternatives based on Bitcoin have sprung up: for instance, Litecoin speeds up transaction processing and Freicoin introduces measures to stop people hoarding their money, but both are essentially the same technology, "forked" from the original. There's even nothing to stop a nation state declaring its own version of Bitcoin as legal tender.
So even if the currency of the future looks like Bitcoin, it might end up being a distant successor of the pioneer. "Is the technology of Bitcoin a window into the future?" asks Birch. "Yes. Is Bitcoin itself? No."

This article originally appeared on <a>guardian.co.uk</a>

Is Bitcoin About To Change The World?

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="SilkRoad" title_caption="SilkRoad Technology founder Andrew " Flip="" Filipowski="" class="zoomin" href="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/52091215ecad04ed59000002-960/flip-flipowski-1.jpg"></a><a href="http://www.silkroadequity.com/FlipFilipowski.html">SilkRoad</a>SilkRoad Technology founder Andrew "Flip" Filipowski</div></div>If you've been curious about Silk Road, the illegal Internet market for drugs, maybe you tried to point your browser at SilkRoad.com.
You can't find <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-walkthrough-2013-3#then-youre-greeted-by-the-main-homepage-lets-browse-the-psychedelics-2">the Silk Road black market like that</a>, but you will find a perfectly legit company called SilkRoad. It offers a <keyword id="6393327" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Human-Resources">human resources</keyword> cloud app and competes with the likes of Workday, SuccessFactors and Taleo.
The company was founded in 2003 by <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Enterprise">enterprise</keyword> bigwig "Flip" Filipowski, best known as the founder and CEO of Platinum Technology which sold to Computer Associates in 1999 for $4 billion dollars.
Filipowski couldn't have known in 2003 that the name Silk Road would be usurped by the black market. But it doesn't look like the association has hurt the company any.
For instance, today, the company<a href="%20http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/silkroad-closes-16-million-in-growth-financing-led-by-foundation-capital-nasdaq-kipo-1819786.htm"> nabbed a $16 investment round,</a> lead by Foundation Capital with Intel Capital and others participating, bringing its total funding to $145 million.
And maybe having a similar name has helped it. The first stories about Silk Road, the drug marketplace, began circulating in 2011 (thanks to Gawker and NPR), but in early 2013, tech sites began covering the site more regularly.
Look at how the traffic at legit site SilkRoad.com leaped at the start of the year, according to Compete.com:
<div class="KonaFilter image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="Complete.com" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/52090c9fecad04fe4e000004-960/silkroad-traffic.png"></a><a href="https://siteanalytics.compete.com/silkroad.com/">Complete.com</a></div></div>
It's not the misdirected traffic that has this company flourishing. Its success comes from its leaders and the fact that it plays in a hot enterprise market filled with spectacular exits: Oracle bought Taleo for $1.2 billion; SAP bought SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion; Workday's stock is soaring from an opening IPO price of $48 to $74 (a $12.76 billion market cap).

The OTHER SilkRoad, Which Doesn't Sell Drugs, Has Now Raised $145 Million

<div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="SilkRoad" title_caption="SilkRoad Technology founder Andrew " Flip="" Filipowski="" class="zoomin" href="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/52091215ecad04ed59000002-960/flip-flipowski-1.jpg"></a><a href="http://www.silkroadequity.com/FlipFilipowski.html">SilkRoad</a>SilkRoad Technology founder Andrew "Flip" Filipowski</div></div>If you've been curious about Silk Road, the illegal Internet market for drugs, maybe you tried to point your browser at SilkRoad.com.
You can't find <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/silk-road-walkthrough-2013-3#then-youre-greeted-by-the-main-homepage-lets-browse-the-psychedelics-2">the Silk Road black market like that</a>, but you will find a perfectly legit company called SilkRoad. It offers a <keyword id="6393327" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Human-Resources">human resources</keyword> cloud app and competes with the likes of Workday, SuccessFactors and Taleo.
The company was founded in 2003 by <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Enterprise">enterprise</keyword> bigwig "Flip" Filipowski, best known as the founder and CEO of Platinum Technology which sold to Computer Associates in 1999 for $4 billion dollars.
Filipowski couldn't have known in 2003 that the name Silk Road would be usurped by the black market. But it doesn't look like the association has hurt the company any.
For instance, today, the company<a href="%20http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/silkroad-closes-16-million-in-growth-financing-led-by-foundation-capital-nasdaq-kipo-1819786.htm"> nabbed a $16 investment round,</a> lead by Foundation Capital with Intel Capital and others participating, bringing its total funding to $145 million.
And maybe having a similar name has helped it. The first stories about Silk Road, the drug marketplace, began circulating in 2011 (thanks to Gawker and NPR), but in early 2013, tech sites began covering the site more regularly.
Look at how the traffic at legit site SilkRoad.com leaped at the start of the year, according to Compete.com:
<div class="image-container click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="Complete.com" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/52090c9fecad04fe4e000004-960/silkroad-traffic.png"></a><a href="https://siteanalytics.compete.com/silkroad.com/">Complete.com</a></div></div>
It's not the misdirected traffic that has this company flourishing. Its success comes from its leaders and the fact that it plays in a hot enterprise market filled with spectacular exits: Oracle bought Taleo for $1.2 billion; SAP bought SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion; Workday's stock is soaring from an opening IPO price of $48 to $74 (a $12.76 billion market cap).

IPO gold rush: All but 4 IPOs in FY24 gave positive returns on listing

Realty firm <keyword id="2442424" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shriram-properties-ltd" source="Orion">Shriram Properties Ltd</keyword> on Tuesday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 19.59 crore for the quarter that ended September 30, 2022. The company, which is one of the leading realty firms in South India, had posted a net loss of Rs 23.27 crore in the year-ago period. Total income jumped nearly threefold to Rs 275.83 crore in the second quarter of the 2022-23 fiscal year, from Rs 94.23 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year, <keyword id="58899" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shriram-Properties" source="Orion">Shriram Properties</keyword> said in a regulatory filing. Murali M, Chairman and Managing Director of Shriram Properties, said: "We are encouraged by the strong operational and financial growth as well as sustained earnings growth momentum seen since listing. This is reassuring and demonstrates the strength of our team and the operating platform." He said the company would remain focused on profitable growth by leveraging the strong project pipeline and market opportunities. "Improving operating leverage and stabilised DM (development management) business model should add further strength. We believe we are on the right path to delivering superior shareholder value in the coming years," said Murli. Shriram Properties Ltd primarily focuses on the mid-market and affordable housing categories. Its key markets include Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata which together account for over 88 per cent of its development activities. The company has delivered 33 projects with a saleable area of 19.5 million square feet, mostly in the cities of Bengaluru and Chennai. It has a strong development pipeline comprising 54 projects with an aggregate development potential of 54 million square feet, as of September 30, 2022. Shriram Properties, which is part of the <keyword id="154665" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shriram-group" source="Orion">Shriram Group</keyword>, got listed on the stock exchanges in December last year. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sensex-nifty50-open-marginally-lower-tracking-mixed-cues-from-global-markets/articleshow/95524441.cms">Sensex, Nifty50 open marginally lower tracking mixed cues from global markets</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sai-silks-gets-sebi-nod-to-float-ipo-eyes-to-raise-up-to-rs-1200-crore/articleshow/95526795.cms">Sai Silks gets Sebi nod to float IPO; eyes to raise up to Rs 1,200 crore</a>

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The OTHER SilkRoad, Which Doesn't Sell Drugs, Has Now Raised $145 Million

Julie Bort

The OTHER SilkRoad, Which Doesn't Sell Drugs, Has Now Raised $145 Million

Julie Bort

IPO gold rush: All but 4 IPOs in FY24 gave positive returns on listing

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Shriram Properties Q2 profit at Rs 19.59 crore; revenue jumps nearly 3-fold to Rs 275.83 crore

PTI