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Microsoft Gets Closer to Open-Source With Databricks Investment

By
Kevin McLaughlin
· · Source: The Information

Databricks, a startup that is building a business around a type of open-source data processing software called Apache Spark, announced Microsoft as a new investor for its $250 million Series E funding round. It’s not clear how much Microsoft is contributing to the round, which values Databricks at $2.75 billion. More importantly, the deal reflects Microsoft’s strategy for competing with cloud...

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Clockwise from top left: Julie Bornstein, Esther Crawford, Mark Hammond, Max Cutler, Kağan Sümer. Photos via Julie Bernstein, Robert Cowherd, Microsoft, Wikimedia and Kağan Sümer.
Call them acqui-fires. Several founders who took positions at the bigger tech companies that bought their startups recently lost their jobs when layoffs rolled through Silicon Valley. That means managers and engineers who also have the entrepreneurial bug are now on the market. Twitter’s most recent round of job cuts included at least four such founders, including the entrepreneurs behind...
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