Samsung’s Struggling Mobile Business Has A New Leader

As its smartphone sales continue to lag behind competitors, Samsung Electronics announced today that it will reshuffle the leadership of its mobile division. J.K. Shin will no longer be in control of its day-to-day operations and instead hand that responsibility over to Dongjin Koh.

Before the change, Shin held the double-barreled title of head and president of Samsung Electronic’s mobile business. The president title has been handed over to Koh, who helmed the development of the well-received Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5 series while serving as the head of Samsung Electronics’ mobile research and development department. Shin will stay on as head of mobile, which means he will focus on long-term strategy and potential growth opportunities, says Reuters.

Samsung has lost its edge in worldwide smartphone sales over the last two years. In China, an important growth market for manufacturers, sales of Samsung handsets have fallen behind Apple, Xiaomi, and Huawei.

Koh’s new appointment is part of a larger management change that started after Lee Jae Yong, the vice chairman of Samsung Group, began to assume more responsibilities after his father, Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun Hee, had a heart attack last year. In July, the younger Lee won a shareholder vote approving the $8 billion merger of two Samsung affiliate companies, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T, which in turn gave him more power over Samsung Electronics.

Samsung usually moves executives around to new positions once a year, based on their performance, but this is the first time Lee Jae Yong has made significant changes since taking the helms from his father.

Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates Join Forces To Invest in Clean Energy Technology

The founders of Facebook and Microsoft are teaming up to solve climate change. Mark Zuckerberg announced today that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have launched the Breakthrough Energy Coalition with Bill Gates to invest in zero-carbon energy technology around the world. The organization’s membership roster includes some of the most prolific names in technology, including Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, and Masayoshi Son.

The news was timed to coincide with the U.N. Climate Control Conference, which will take place in Paris this week. During the event, Gates and U.S. President Barack Obama are expected to unveil a significant new initiative called Mission Innovation, which will work with governments to double public investments in energy research over the next five years.

According to the Washington Post, the 19 countries that have already joined Mission Innovation will increase their annual spending on clean-energy research and development to $20 billion by 2020.

Mission Innovation and the Breakthrough Energy Coalition are separate programs, but will work closely together in countries that have committed to reducing carbon emissions.

On its website, the Breakthrough Energy Coalition explains that its goal is to cover gaps in government funding in countries by commercializing the most promising and scalable ideas to come out of public research institutions. It will take a flexible attitude toward investments, providing early-stage to Series A funding in several sectors, including electricity generation and storage, transportation, industrial use, agriculture, and energy system efficiency.

Machine Intelligence In The Real World

I’ve been laser-focused on machine intelligence in the past few years. I’ve talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs, researchers and investors about helping machines make us smarter.

In the months since I shared my landscape of machine intelligence companies, folks keep asking me what I think of them — as if they’re all doing more or less the same thing. (I’m guessing this is how people talked about “dot coms” in 1997.)

On average, people seem most concerned about how to interact with these technologies once they are out in the wild. This post will focus on how these companies go to market, not on the methods they use.

In an attempt to explain the differences between how these companies go to market, I found myself using (admittedly colorful) nicknames. It ended up being useful, so I took a moment to spell them out in more detail so, in case you run into one or need a handy way to describe yours, you have the vernacular.

The categories aren’t airtight — this is a complex space — but this framework helps our fund (which invests in companies that make work better) be more thoughtful about how we think about and interact with machine intelligence companies.

Facebook’s Internet.org Now Available Throughout India

Internet.org, Facebook’s initiative to provide free Internet services in developing countries, is now available to all Indians through the Free Basics app on Reliance Communication’s network. The project is meant to give people in emerging economies easy access to the Internet, but has been hit by a slew of criticism.

Reliance Communications is India’s fourth-largest telecom operator, with about 110 million subscribers as of June. According to its site, Free Basics will enable users to use Facebook and Facebook Messenger and access sites like Wikipedia, BBC News, Bing Search, Dictionary.com, and local news services.

Detractors say that by making a handful of services available on its platform, Internet.org gives preferential treatment to its partners, therefore violating the tenets of net neutrality.

In response, Facebook founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said Internet.orgwill focus on offering basic services for free (hence the branding of its app) and is not meant to limit access to other providers. The company has also taken steps to make joining Free Basics easier to join for developers and other potential partners.

This has done little to ameliorate critics who are concerned about the potential drawbacks of having a company as large and powerful as Facebook control what millions of new Internet users see.

In addition to India, Free Basics is available in 30 countries throughout Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

Friendship Poems

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship." 

Your friend is your needs answered. 

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. 

And he is your board and your fireside. 

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. 

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay." 

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; 

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed. 

When you part from your friend, you grieve not; 

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. 

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. 

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught. 

And let your best be for your friend. 

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also. 

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? 

Seek him always with hours to live. 

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. 

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. 

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. 

Microsoft Dynamics Corporate VP Bob Stutz Steps Down

In a stunner today, Microsoft Corporate VP Bob Stutz stepped down from his job running Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

MSDynamicsWorld broke the story, and Microsoft has confirmed the news in a statement.

Bob Stutz will be leaving Microsoft and will take a well-deserved break.  Over the past 3.5 years, Bob and his team have transformed Dynamics CRM from an industry challenger to a clear leader.  We thank Bob for his contributions and wish him the best in his next adventure

A memo with the news went out to employees today at 4 pm, and Jujhar Singh, who has been a key player on the team, will be taking over for Stutz. As for Singh, Microsoft had this to say in a statement:

Jujhar has been a key driver of innovation in our CRM business and was responsible for the product strategy and direction of the Dynamics CRM product line and incubating newly acquired companies.

Chris Kanaracus, who is managing editor and principal analyst at Constellation Research, says it’s too soon to say how the change will affect the overall direction of the program.

“I think it is difficult for anyone to predict just what Jujhar Singh will do, but the Dynamics Convergence conference is coming up in 3-4 months. Any major strategic plans and messaging changes are going to start happening right now,” he said.

According to his online bio, Stutz was “responsible for defining the long-term strategy and technology direction as well as the development and delivery of on-premises and cloud versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM worldwide.”

The move is a big blow to Microsoft as Stutz has been a key player in building the Dynamics CRM tool, R Ray Wang is who is founder at Constellation Research told TechCrunch.

“He’s been building a team that has kept Salesforce on its toes. They turned Dynamics CRM into a worthy competitor for SFDC,” Wang said.

Over the last couple of years, Microsoft has been making a concerted effort to build up the CRM tool and try to compete more strongly with Salesforce, SAP and Oracle in the CRM market. To that end, it has built a cloud and on-premises version of the software and has a major update coming out at the end of this quarter (soon).

In an move to give upgrade the update some sex appeal, the company is integrating it with Microsoft Delve, a tool designed to help surface information, a key feature for busy sales people. It’s also integrating with the voice command module, Cortana, to enable users to interact with the program using voice commands, and it’s designed to work with the Cortana Analytics suite announced earlier this year.

All of this is designed to push the CRM tool, where Microsoft has lagged in marketshare behind Salesforce, SAP and Oracle.

There is speculation about where Stutz will land next, with some people suggesting it could be at one of Microsoft’s CRM rivals, but we will have to wait and see on that point.

Tesla Hires Google VP Of Finance Jason Wheeler As New CFO

After earnings today, Tesla has made a couple of executive announcements. First, it has named a new CFO, Jason Wheeler.

Wheeler spent 13 years at Google as its VP of Finance and let its global finance function. He replaces Deepak Ahuja who announced his retirement early this year. Ahuja will stay on for a few months to help transition to Wheeler on November 30th.

Here’s what Wheeler had to say on joining:

Tesla has also hired Jon McNeill as President of Global Sales and Service. McNeill is the former CEO of Enservio. His arrival is a double-punch for finance, sales and service at the company.

It’s more than a notable hire, especially given all of the financial gymnastics that Google, and now Alphabet, has gone through this past year. It’s been an impressive, seemingly seamless, exercise. Moving parts? Tesla has them, so Wheeler will be plenty busy.

Rocket Internet-Backed Nestpick Raises $11M To Move Entire Rental Process Online

For years you’ve been able to find a room to rent online via classified sites such as Craigslist or more vertical offerings. But once you’ve found your prospective rental, the process quickly moves off-line. Nestpick — backed, though not founded, by Rocket Internet — wants to change this.

The Berlin-based startup is aiming to ‘digitise’ the entire rental process, including eliminating the need for in-person viewings. And to aid that mission, the company has raised $11 million in Series A funding. Investors is this round include Mangrove Capital Partners, Enern and, of course, Rocket Internet.

Nestpick says the new capital will be used to create a better experience for the landlords and tenants that used the site, which since launch has broadened its target market from international students and expats to just about anybody looking for a rental. It now counts local tenants as making up over 30 per cent of its customer base.

“Our typical customer books accommodation with us for 7 months and treats Nestpick as his preferred way of moving from then on because it’s convenient, and at least four times cheaper,” Nestpick founder Fabian Dudek tells TechCrunch. “Tenants can book with us and receive confirmation in less than 48 hours with one click instead of hundreds of e-mails, calls, and scheduling conflicts.”

In addition, Dudek says the startup is attracting landlords who are already renting to tenants for between three months and three years via classifieds, but know that the process could be made more efficient.

“Landlords are tired of spending 20-40 hours each time they rent out their properties despite receiving so many enquiries, and they hate losing months of rent from the transition between tenants,” he says.

“Our challenge is to seamlessly connect these two worlds – the old fashioned real estate market made up of landlords who are uncertain about new technology and the current generation of tenants that are all mobile-first, and use apps like Instagram, Tinder, and Spotify every day.”

Fraud is another problem Nestpick is aiming to solve. Dudek claims that 1 out of 3 home seekers encounter a scammer online and that renters typically contact an average of 15 agents or 50 landlords on multiple platforms in order to secure a single viewing.

“Instead of that process, imagine walking through a new neighborhood that you love in any country, and being able to book your next home straight from your phone entirely online,” he says.

That imaginative leap may still be a stretch too far for some — given landlord horror stories, would you really want to rent a room without seeing it in person first? — but early Nestpick data suggests the timing is right. True to Rocket Internet form, the site is already active in 35 cities across eight European countries and recently launched in Australia. The company says it has listed more than 21,000 homes and transacted over €16 million in rental income for landlords in the last year.