#i wrote 500+ more damn words emphasizing that

[justthatspiffy]

i can't stop writing essays about my friend's shitty plays!!

[bookoformon]

3 Nephi 18, Part 1. "Sacrament."

Jesus institutes the sacrament among the Nephites—They are commanded to pray always in His name—Those who eat His flesh and drink His blood unworthily are damned—The disciples are given power to confer the Holy Ghost. About A.D. 34, "Glared".

The Gath, the Wine Press is the symbol of what presses man to be civil and forces the animal out of him. If we do not till, plant, tend, harvest, press, bottle and ferment we are nothing but cave people in three piece suits with $700 phones looking for modern ways to beat on each other.

The Sacrament of the Wine and Challah is ancient it began in the Torah around 600-500 BCE, when the Torah started to come into its final format. The Book of Genesis was finished in 250 BCE, and the Torah as we know it was drafted by the Prophet Maimonedes in the 12th century, but throughout this time, bread and wine, two products that require all of mankind's cooperation to produce a few meager portions for the rest have always been the symbol of our civilized heritage and our future.

Jesus institutes the sacrament of the Wine and Challah again in Roman times, and the Prophet that wrote the Book of Mormon emphasizes it here:

1 And it came to pass that Jesus commanded his disciples that they should bring forth some bread and wine unto him.

2 And while they were gone for bread and wine, he commanded the multitude that they should sit themselves down upon the earth.

3 And when the disciples had come with bread and wine, he took of the bread and brake and blessed it; and he gave unto the disciples and commanded that they should eat.

4 And when they had eaten and were filled, he commanded that they should give unto the multitude.

5 And when the multitude had eaten and were filled, he said unto the disciples: Behold there shall one be ordained among you, and to him will I give power that he shall break bread and bless it and give it unto the people of my church, unto all those who shall believe and be baptized in my name.

6 And this shall ye always observe to do, even as I have done, even as I have broken bread and blessed it and given it unto you.

7 And this shall ye do in remembrance of my body, which I have shown unto you. And it shall be a testimony unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you.

8 And it came to pass that when he said these words, he commanded his disciples that they should take of the wine of the cup and drink of it, and that they should also give unto the multitude that they might drink of it.

9 And it came to pass that they did so, and did drink of it and were filled; and they gave unto the multitude, and they did drink, and they were filled.

10 And when the disciples had done this, Jesus said unto them: Blessed are ye for this thing which ye have done, for this is fulfilling my commandments, and this doth witness unto the Father that ye are willing to do that which I have commanded you.

11 And this shall ye always do to those who repent and are baptized in my name; and ye shall do it in remembrance of my blood, which I have shed for you, that ye may witness unto the Father that ye do always remember me. And if ye do always remember me ye shall have my Spirit to be with you.

12 And I give unto you a commandment that ye shall do these things. And if ye shall always do these things blessed are ye, for ye are built upon my rock.

13 But whoso among you shall do more or less than these are not built upon my rock, but are built upon a sandy foundation; and when the rain descends, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and beat upon them, they shall fall, and the gates of hell are ready open to receive them.

14 Therefore blessed are ye if ye shall keep my commandments, which the Father hath commanded me that I should give unto you.

15 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always, lest ye be tempted by the devil, and ye be led away captive by him.

16 And as I have prayed among you even so shall ye pray in my church, among my people who do repent and are baptized in my name. Behold I am the light; I have set an example for you.

To shed blood through the pressing of the grape is to imbibe the happiness that is meant to come parallel with the observance of Shabbat. To shed blood for the purposes of being unhappy or for the sake of violence is forbidden.

To bake bread is to cultivate the mind and body and make them fit. The making of wine and bread as I mentioned is not easy. Neither is the making of a man, but together, if we pay attention to the meaning of the Sacrament, we might be able to do it again someday.

There is no such thing as a Christ or any Sacrament during a time when there entire world is warring again, getting all politicky about being useful and helpful in the preservation of the happiness of this world.

Until the wars and corruption are stopped it is logical to do something about these things first to prove one remembers the Christ and His Teachings over any other priority.

[pomegranate-belle]

I'm having like massive fucking difficulties picking a mere 500 words from MK1-END, so I kinda want to just give you the entire section beginning 'The elevator is locked, and there’s no way out. They’re all going to die.' and ending 'What’s happening around her, around them, fades away, but she can feel soothing heat and sadness and an ache in their chest,' and let you decide how much from that you want to do, and how.

Oh boy, I have a feeling this is gonna get long but… Oh welllmao

Ok, so… This first part is sort of the first time we’reseeing into the main ZTD cast – like, before that there’s sections that shiftaway from Kyle and Maria, but they’re short and they’re still tangential to thejourney those two are taking. But it’s way, way more exciting to have Kyle-Mariashow up from a different point of view than theirs. Also I might have some CSexperience but I know -5 about hacking, I am admitting that now, that wasdefinitely part of the reason the narrative shifted away from them at thatspecific moment lol

After that, it kind of devolves into Delta, and Delta’sthought process. I’m gonna be honest with you I wasn’t really… Convinced bywhat he says in ZTD and I think that ended up reflecting here. I think I kepthis arguments relatively in line with the ones he makes in the game, but I hadthe others, Maria especially, cut in with my objections to his logic. The wholestory is about Kyle and Maria working together, sharing their strength back andforth to save their families, but when they argue against Delta in unison, thatwas the one thing I really wanted them to connect on. The idea that they’d hadtheir worlds manipulated by him and that instead of just acquiescing they wererejecting his right to do that.  

It’s sort of the climax of the story, I think. In the sensethat it’s a culmination of their shared strength and their determination tochange the timeline they’ve been put into. But the part immediately after:

“You’re lying,”Maria realizes slowly.

Her lips are numb,and she doesn’t quite know the meaning of what she’s seen, but it’s there.Something, huge, something he’s not telling them. She thinks it must be aboutLeft, but she’s never been able to learn enough about him or about Free theSoul to be able to determine now what Delta’s motives truly are.

That was actually one of the first parts of the story Iwrote. And it really reflected my own views when I reached the ZTD True End forthe first time. We never got the backstory about FtS that we were promised, soeven though I was absolutely certain Delta was lying to us, there wasn’t enoughcontext to figure out why or about what.

And then we return to the gun. It’s er… Well, I guess wecould call it Chekov’s Gun, couldn’t we… I tried not to draw direct attentionto it, but the question of ‘where’s the gun, who’s holding it, where is itpointed’ was on my mind the entire scene inside the Test Facility. Which ofcourse leads to the gun ending up in Diana’s hands. Sort of a mirror to themoment in the game where we put her in a similar situation as Delta does here.I always knew I wanted it to be her. Eric is the gun-happy nutbar, but Dianaand Delta’s relationship is too interesting not to try and play with like that.

Maria jumping into Delta’s body was also something I wantedto explore kind of from the beginning. Just because we the player (or in thecase of this fic’s canon, Maria herself) were inside Delta’s PoV the wholetime. The thought of going back to it knowingly, even though she didn’t wantto, was interesting. And the truth is that the part about him not letting go ofher… My brain was absolutely 100% on that scene near the end of Anastasia lmaosorry Delta you are Rasputin now.

And then, after all the drama, I had to insert a littlelevity. Thus the “oh no she’s hot” exchange, which was an enormous amount offun to write. And it was a good transition into the Phi/Maria from the prompts.They (obviously) don’t interact in canon, so it was tough to try and find adynamic for them and a way to parse the attraction so that it wouldn’t read astoo sudden and unrealistic. With ? being Maria, I had a lot more leeway withthat, since she ended up getting to know everyone from VLR really well bydefault. But I mean, being the big fucking romance dork I am, I had to do the Lady-and-the-Tramp-esquebit where they touch hands.

I added in my own little headcanon about ZTD Dr. Klim – I’msure if you look at my old ZE posts it’s there somewhere – being the youngSigma from VLR. I was very proud of that bit because time loops always N

I couldn’t resist Carlos scolding Maria for the cuss words,probably because that stupid “Language!!” gag from AoU was on my brain. I alsocouldn’t resist namedropping Dio because I just gd love that garbage clone.What a fucking tool.

The exchange afterwards between Dr. Klim and Diana was atough one. Not in the sense that it was difficult to imagine the exchange, butin that I wasn’t really sure how to resolve it. Of course Dr. Klim was havingthe same problem, so maybe that’s why it worked out in the end. I think Idefinitely drew on a lot of Doctor Who related angst for that exchange.Everything from the Journey’s End exchange to that phone call in Deep Breath.The idea that the version of the person that you love is gone and a strangerthat is also paradoxically him is taking his place is one that’s pretty uniquebut it fits in ZE and in Doctor Who, thanks to the power of time travel.

This part here:

He takes a moment,breathes. Flexes the fingers that are and are not his own. The way he looksdown, aside, is one Maria knows intimately because Kyle recognizes it as hisown – a nervous tic to hide his fear of rejection.

Is one I added one one of my later passes, I think. But I’mreally proud of it. There are definitely ways in which Kyle and Sigma aresimilar and I think that this sort of emotional fragility is one of them. Ireally liked the thought of expressing that similarity through a gestureinstead of words.

Originally, I wasn’t going to have Kyle express a desire toleave so soon. But after the scene between Dr. Klim and Diana, this sort ofsinking feeling hit me. Or Kyle? Both of us I guess. Because it’s true he doesn’treally belong in 2028. He could, maybe, eventually… But then it hit me that hestill had unfinished business in 2074. And maybe that was always in the back ofmy head, that need for a resolution with Luna, just because she’s so near anddear to my heart. And the reason that Kyle begins to see her differently isbecause he sees her through Maria’s eyes, so in that way she’s helping him onelast time.

Their exchange about meeting again, I’m sure I’ve admittedto this before somewhere, is absolutely based on the “End: Lost in the Waves” FEFates DLC. That, in addition to the epilogue, was added on my second or thirdpass through the fic. Originally it ended with Phi and Maria holding hands, butI wanted to see Kyle again, so changes were made.

In the same way that I wanted to hint to a Kyle-Lunaresolution, I knew I had to start mending the ties between Sigma and Kyle,which is what his exchange is all about. I can’t remember who it was that madethat comic about Sigma getting attached to his clones but they kept dying andeventually he cut himself off from them but I think that played a lot into howI conceptualized their relationship. Now that their mission is done, there’snothing holding them back, there’s no longer a wall between them. And Kyle wasnever sure if that was really the problem, or if Sigma just truly didn’t care,so that reassurance is really important to him.

And of course I couldn’t have Kyle leave without talking toDiana. But in addition to having no idea what they would say to one another, Ialso wanted to expand a little bubble of privacy to them. Playing with the waythe body-sharing works was part of it too, because I think up until that pointthe only one who’d leaned back out of control far enough to mute the outside worldwas Kyle. I wanted to see it from Maria’s perspective too, and emphasize thatat their core – emotionally – they’re still connected no matter how far theylean apart.

I guess that’s all of it lmao wow.. I hope that didn’t soundtoo pretentious, I’m sure I got a little long-winded but look….. I revised thatfic like ten times before I posted it and it’s really one of my most polishedworks and I am So Damn Proud of it!

[un-enfant-immature]

Startups Weekly: Why Lyft’s $2.2B IPO wasn’t “crazy land” or “nuts”

Lyft completed its long-awaited IPO this week, trading 21 percent higher Friday than its initial offering price of $72 per share. It closed its first day of trading at about $78 per share, up roughly 9 percent.

I spoke to IPO guru Brian Hamilton, the CEO of banking software company Sageworks, about Lyft’s offering to get a sense of how Wall Street views the buzzworthy tech unicorn. As I wrote earlier this week, Wall Street doesn’t seem to care about profitability, prioritizing growth instead. Lyft is definitely growing, quickly, and working hard to shrink its losses. Hamilton said the price per share was reasonable, and, given Lyft’s positive cash flows, he seemed confident the company will fare well on the Nasdaq this year.

He was especially clear about one thing: Lyft’s offering is nothing like Snap’s. “The camera company,” if you remember, had posted only $404.5 million in revenue ahead of its IPO, which valued it at $23.8 billion: “It’s not crazy land; it’s not nuts; it’s not Twitter, it’s not Snap; it’s reasonable actually, I’m surprised,” Hamilton told TechCrunch. “I’ve seen some of these tech companies go for much higher valuations [and] those companies commanded much higher sales multiples.”

Ultimately, Lyft commanded an 11x revenue multiple, on par with what we expect from Uber next month. Lyft could have priced higher given demand, though my Equity co-host Alex Wilhelm argued against that prospect on this special episode, where we discuss Lyft’s first day of trading.

Hamilton, like Alex and I, also emphasized the benefit of beating Uber to the public markets and debuting on the stock exchange at peak bull market: “The markets are hot, people want to put their money somewhere,” he said. “Even the people that have been on the fence want [Lyft stock].”

Here’s what else happened this week.

Uber is buying…

…Careem, its Middle Eastern counterpart. Uber will pay a whopping $3.1 billion to acquire the seven-year-old company. The deal had been rumored for months and is expected to close in Q1 2020, pending applicable regulatory approvals.

Airbnb’s road to IPO

Airbnb announced this week that it has checked in half-a-billion guests to its 6 million global participating properties. Damn. It’s also closing in on some of the larger hospitality industry incumbents like Hilton and Marriott. This paints a nice picture for a company that is more than ready to IPO and is surely preparing its pitch to public market investors. No word yet on when Airbnb will file, but it’s looking like it’s still several months out.

Deal of the week

I promised myself I wouldn’t write Casper and unicorn in the same sentence, but it seems inevitable at this point. The mattress startup raised a $100 million Series D this week at a valuation of $1.1 billion and became the newest entry to the unicorn club. Target — which once tried to acquire Casper — NEA, IVP and Norwest Venture Partners participated in the round. Casper has previously raised $240 million in equity funding from celebrity investors Leonardo DiCaprio and 50 Cent, as well as institutional investors, including Lerer Hippeau.

Startup capital

Restaurant manager Toast raises $250M at $2.7B valuation Airwallex raises $100M at a valuation north of $1B Vlocity nabs $60M Series C on $1B valuation Lola.com raises $37M to take on SAP  Boundless gets $7.8M to help immigrants navigate the green card process

Venture $$$

Jon Sakoda, a former partner at the esteemed venture capital firm NEA, has taken the wraps off his new, Cisco-backed fund, called Decibel. Sakoda can’t disclose the precise size of the fund yet, but he told TechCrunch he’s working very collaboratively with Cisco, including its corporate venture arm, Cisco Investments. Plus, 500 Startups has raised $33 million for its Middle Eastern-focused fund, 500 Falcons.

Extra Crunch

This week’s recommended read for our Extra Crunch subscribers: What’s the cost of buying users from Facebook and 13 other ad networks? Subscribe to EC here.

Podcast M&A

Spotify is making good on its promise to spend millions on podcast M&A, following its purchases of Gimlet and Anchor for $340 million. This week, the music streaming giant announced that it had acquired a small podcasting studio called Parcast, known best for true-crime and other factual serials in genres like mystery, science fiction and history.

Meet Evan Spiegel’s sister, Caroline

She spoke to TechCrunch about her first big project. Called Quinn, Caroline plans to launch a website dedicated to sexy text and audio on April 13th. She describes Quinn as “a much less gross, more fun Pornhub for women.” Read TechCrunch’s Josh Constine’s full interview with Caroline here.

#Equitypod

If you enjoy this newsletter, be sure to check out TechCrunch’s venture-focused podcast, Equity. In this week’s episode, available here, TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos, Crunchbase News’ Alex Wilhelm and I chat about Wall Street’s appetite for unicorns, Casper’s big round and more. Then, in a special Equity Shot, we discuss Lyft’s first day trading on the Nasdaq.

Want more TechCrunch newsletters? Sign up here.

[moatmagic4-blog]

Bears are Having Fun. Fans Should, Too.

Greetings, Bears fans. It’s been awhile.

I started a new job at the beginning of the month, which is exciting and all that, but not nearly as exciting as the Bears being 8-3 with a (semi) comfortable lead in the NFC North as we head into the final stretch of the regular season!

My last blog post emphasized the importance of the three straight divisional games the Bears have just completed. At the time, I wrote that if the Bears were able to go 2-1 in that stretch, it’d be a huge boon for their chances to make the playoffs for the first time since 2010.

I thought it’d be hard, but doable. More than anything I thought it’d give us a clear idea of who this team is and what they are capable of achieving in 2018. My exact words:

It’s already clear this Bears team is different from what we’ve gotten used to watching in seasons past. Just how different remains to be seen. Check back with me after Thanksgiving.

Well, it’s after Thanksgiving. I’m 5 lbs heavier and 500% (not a math major) more confident that the Chicago Bears are a damn good football team. Not only good, but extremely fun to watch, in part because you can tell how much the players are enjoying themselves.

And why shouldn’t they? Most teams in the NFL are mediocre, some straight up suck, and handful of teams are actually good. The Bears have been mediocre to awful for years now, so this season has been an absolute revelation as a fan, and frankly if you’re not enjoying yourself I’m not sure what could possibly make you happy.

Does that mean the Bears don’t have their flaws? Of course not! I can find things to complain about. I don’t like that the Bears sometimes struggle to close out games, and are outscored in the second half. I wish they had an effective running game.

BUT THEY ARE 8-3, GUYS! At the beginning of the season I figured I’d be pleased with 8-8. Why spend my time bitching about what’s not working when so much about this team is so damn awesome?

I have no idea what’s going to happen the rest of the season. I *expect* the Bears to be at least 10-6 by the season’s end, and in the playoffs, but who knows? Philly fans probably thought last year was just the beginning, and now the Eagles likely won’t even make the playoffs. I’m sure Carolina fans thought they were in store for years of dominance after they went 15-1 and made the Super Bowl in 2015. They’ve managed to make it to one Wild Card game (and lose it) since then.

I’m not saying any of this to dampen the hopes that this Bears team isn’t just good in 2018, but will be good for years to come. That’s something I fully believe. But sports are fickle, and so many things are completely out of a team’s control. In my opinion, that’s all the more reason to celebrate the Bears right now. Being a sports fan often means you’re in store for a lot of heartbreak, so take a minute to savor it when things are going well.

Related

Source: https://dabearsblog.com/2018/the-bears-are-having-fun-fans-should-too

[toomanysinks]

Startups Weekly: Why Lyft’s $2.2B IPO wasn’t “crazy land” or “nuts”

Lyft completed its long-awaited IPO this week, trading 21 percent higher Friday than its initial offering price of $72 per share. It closed its first day of trading at about $78 per share, up roughly 9 percent.

I spoke to IPO guru Brian Hamilton, the CEO of banking software company Sageworks, about Lyft’s offering to get a sense of how Wall Street views the buzzworthy tech unicorn. As I wrote earlier this week, Wall Street doesn’t seem to care about profitability, prioritizing growth instead. Lyft is definitely growing, quickly, and working hard to shrink its losses. Hamilton said the price per share was reasonable, and, given Lyft’s positive cash flows, he seemed confident the company will fare well on the Nasdaq this year.

He was especially clear about one thing: Lyft’s offering is nothing like Snap’s. “The camera company,” if you remember, had posted only $404.5 million in revenue ahead of its IPO, which valued it at $23.8 billion: “It’s not crazy land; it’s not nuts; it’s not Twitter, it’s not Snap; it’s reasonable actually, I’m surprised,” Hamilton told TechCrunch. “I’ve seen some of these tech companies go for much higher valuations [and] those companies commanded much higher sales multiples.”

Ultimately, Lyft commanded an 11x revenue multiple, on par with what we expect from Uber next month. Lyft could have priced higher given demand, though my Equity co-host Alex Wilhelm argued against that prospect on this special episode, where we discuss Lyft’s first day of trading.

Hamilton, like Alex and I, also emphasized the benefit of beating Uber to the public markets and debuting on the stock exchange at peak bull market: “The markets are hot, people want to put their money somewhere,” he said. “Even the people that have been on the fence want [Lyft stock].”

Here’s what else happened this week.

Uber is buying…

…Careem, its Middle Eastern counterpart. Uber will pay a whopping $3.1 billion to acquire the seven-year-old company. The deal had been rumored for months and is expected to close in Q1 2020, pending applicable regulatory approvals.

Airbnb’s road to IPO

Airbnb announced this week that it has checked in half-a-billion guests to its 6 million global participating properties. Damn. It’s also closing in on some of the larger hospitality industry incumbents like Hilton and Marriott. This paints a nice picture for a company that is more than ready to IPO and is surely preparing its pitch to public market investors. No word yet on when Airbnb will file, but it’s looking like it’s still several months out.

Deal of the week

I promised myself I wouldn’t write Casper and unicorn in the same sentence, but it seems inevitable at this point. The mattress startup raised a $100 million Series D this week at a valuation of $1.1 billion and became the newest entry to the unicorn club. Target — which once tried to acquire Casper — NEA, IVP and Norwest Venture Partners participated in the round. Casper has previously raised $240 million in equity funding from celebrity investors Leonardo DiCaprio and 50 Cent, as well as institutional investors, including Lerer Hippeau.

Startup capital

Restaurant manager Toast raises $250M at $2.7B valuation Airwallex raises $100M at a valuation north of $1B Vlocity nabs $60M Series C on $1B valuation Lola.com raises $37M to take on SAP  Boundless gets $7.8M to help immigrants navigate the green card process

Venture $$$

Jon Sakoda, a former partner at the esteemed venture capital firm NEA, has taken the wraps off his new, Cisco-backed fund, called Decibel. Sakoda can’t disclose the precise size of the fund yet, but he told TechCrunch he’s working very collaboratively with Cisco, including its corporate venture arm, Cisco Investments. Plus, 500 Startups has raised $33 million for its Middle Eastern-focused fund, 500 Falcons.

Extra Crunch

This week’s recommended read for our Extra Crunch subscribers: What’s the cost of buying users from Facebook and 13 other ad networks? Subscribe to EC here.

Podcast M&A

Spotify is making good on its promise to spend millions on podcast M&A, following its purchases of Gimlet and Anchor for $340 million. This week, the music streaming giant announced that it had acquired a small podcasting studio called Parcast, known best for true-crime and other factual serials in genres like mystery, science fiction and history.

Meet Evan Spiegel’s sister, Caroline

She spoke to TechCrunch about her first big project. Called Quinn, Caroline plans to launch a website dedicated to sexy text and audio on April 13th. She describes Quinn as “a much less gross, more fun Pornhub for women.” Read TechCrunch’s Josh Constine’s full interview with Caroline here.

#Equitypod

If you enjoy this newsletter, be sure to check out TechCrunch’s venture-focused podcast, Equity. In this week’s episode, available here, TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos, Crunchbase News’ Alex Wilhelm and I chat about Wall Street’s appetite for unicorns, Casper’s big round and more. Then, in a special Equity Shot, we discuss Lyft’s first day trading on the Nasdaq.

Want more TechCrunch newsletters? Sign up here.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/30/startups-weekly-why-lyfts-2-2b-ipo-wasnt-crazy-land-or-nuts/

[fmservers]

Startups Weekly: Why Lyft’s $2.2B IPO wasn’t “crazy land” or “nuts”

Lyft completed its long-awaited IPO this week, trading 21 percent higher Friday than its initial offering price of $72 per share. It closed its first day of trading at about $78 per share, up roughly 9 percent.

I spoke to IPO guru Brian Hamilton, the CEO of banking software company Sageworks, about Lyft’s offering to get a sense of how Wall Street views the buzzworthy tech unicorn. As I wrote earlier this week, Wall Street doesn’t seem to care about profitability, prioritizing growth instead. Lyft is definitely growing, quickly, and working hard to shrink its losses. Hamilton said the price per share was reasonable, and, given Lyft’s positive cash flows, he seemed confident the company will fare well on the Nasdaq this year.

He was especially clear about one thing: Lyft’s offering is nothing like Snap’s. “The camera company,” if you remember, had posted only $404.5 million in revenue ahead of its IPO, which valued it at $23.8 billion: “It’s not crazy land; it’s not nuts; it’s not Twitter, it’s not Snap; it’s reasonable actually, I’m surprised,” Hamilton told TechCrunch. “I’ve seen some of these tech companies go for much higher valuations [and] those companies commanded much higher sales multiples.”

Ultimately, Lyft commanded an 11x revenue multiple, on par with what we expect from Uber next month. Lyft could have priced higher given demand, though my Equity co-host Alex Wilhelm argued against that prospect on this special episode, where we discuss Lyft’s first day of trading.

Hamilton, like Alex and I, also emphasized the benefit of beating Uber to the public markets and debuting on the stock exchange at peak bull market: “The markets are hot, people want to put their money somewhere,” he said. “Even the people that have been on the fence want [Lyft stock].”

Here’s what else happened this week.

Uber is buying…

…Careem, its Middle Eastern counterpart. Uber will pay a whopping $3.1 billion to acquire the seven-year-old company. The deal had been rumored for months and is expected to close in Q1 2020, pending applicable regulatory approvals.

Airbnb’s road to IPO

Airbnb announced this week that it has checked in half-a-billion guests to its 6 million global participating properties. Damn. It’s also closing in on some of the larger hospitality industry incumbents like Hilton and Marriott. This paints a nice picture for a company that is more than ready to IPO and is surely preparing its pitch to public market investors. No word yet on when Airbnb will file, but it’s looking like it’s still several months out.

Deal of the week

I promised myself I wouldn’t write Casper and unicorn in the same sentence, but it seems inevitable at this point. The mattress startup raised a $100 million Series D this week at a valuation of $1.1 billion and became the newest entry to the unicorn club. Target — which once tried to acquire Casper — NEA, IVP and Norwest Venture Partners participated in the round. Casper has previously raised $240 million in equity funding from celebrity investors Leonardo DiCaprio and 50 Cent, as well as institutional investors, including Lerer Hippeau.

Startup capital

Restaurant manager Toast raises $250M at $2.7B valuation Airwallex raises $100M at a valuation north of $1B Vlocity nabs $60M Series C on $1B valuation Lola.com raises $37M to take on SAP  Boundless gets $7.8M to help immigrants navigate the green card process

Venture $$$

Jon Sakoda, a former partner at the esteemed venture capital firm NEA, has taken the wraps off his new, Cisco-backed fund, called Decibel. Sakoda can’t disclose the precise size of the fund yet, but he told TechCrunch he’s working very collaboratively with Cisco, including its corporate venture arm, Cisco Investments. Plus, 500 Startups has raised $33 million for its Middle Eastern-focused fund, 500 Falcons.

Extra Crunch

This week’s recommended read for our Extra Crunch subscribers: What’s the cost of buying users from Facebook and 13 other ad networks? Subscribe to EC here.

Podcast M&A

Spotify is making good on its promise to spend millions on podcast M&A, following its purchases of Gimlet and Anchor for $340 million. This week, the music streaming giant announced that it had acquired a small podcasting studio called Parcast, known best for true-crime and other factual serials in genres like mystery, science fiction and history.

Meet Evan Spiegel’s sister, Caroline

She spoke to TechCrunch about her first big project. Called Quinn, Caroline plans to launch a website dedicated to sexy text and audio on April 13th. She describes Quinn as “a much less gross, more fun Pornhub for women.” Read TechCrunch’s Josh Constine’s full interview with Caroline here.

#Equitypod

If you enjoy this newsletter, be sure to check out TechCrunch’s venture-focused podcast, Equity. In this week’s episode, available here, TechCrunch’s Connie Loizos, Crunchbase News’ Alex Wilhelm and I chat about Wall Street’s appetite for unicorns, Casper’s big round and more. Then, in a special Equity Shot, we discuss Lyft’s first day trading on the Nasdaq.

Want more TechCrunch newsletters? Sign up here.

Via Kate Clark https://techcrunch.com