Uber reportedly in talks to raise $500M for $12B valuation

Uber

On-demand car service Uber is apparently shifting gears on its financing ambitions.

The 4-year-old company, whose app allows customers to request rides in private cars, is in discussions with a group of fund managers to raise about $500 million, financing that would give the startup a valuation of about $12 billion, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Investors are expected to make commitments by the end of this week, the Journal reported, with deal closure coming by the end of the quarter.

CNET has contacted Uber for comment and will update this report when we learn more.

Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Uber was in talks with private equity investors on financing that would give it a valuation of about $10 billion, although it was suggested that the size and value of the possible funding could change.It appears one of Uber's recent hires could be leading the charge for this reported new round of funding. According to Bloomberg, Uber hired Cameron Poetzscher from Goldman Sachs Group in March to be in charge of its corporate development.

A $12 billion valuation would be triple the current value of the company. Last August, Uber racked up roughly $350 million in funding, which gave it a $3.5 billion valuation. Such funding would make the company one of the most valuable venture-backed startups and allow it to pull ahead of rival on-demand car service Lyft, which announced in April that it had raised $250 million in Series D funding.

Despite earlier roadblocks from government regulators and taxi commissions, Uber appears to now be on a roll, with a presence in 115 cities worldwide. The company also has snagged deals with PayPal andthe NFL.

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Apple said to be in talks to buy Beats Electronics for $3.2B

Sarah Tew/CNET

Apple is reportedly in talks to acquire Beats Electronics, the high-end-headphone maker co-founded by hip-hop artist Dr. Dre, in a deal worth $3.2 billion, according to the Financial Times.

The deal could be announced as early as next week, the report says, but has yet to be finalized and could still fail to materialize pending discussions between the two companies.

Beyond its line of bass-boosting ear pieces, Beats has also broken into the competitive market for subscription streaming-services, with a mobile offering that, unlike Apple's iTunes and iTunes Radio, offers ad-free, on-demand music listening for about $10 per month. If the deal goes through, Apple will acquire the subscription business alongside Beats' hardware division, with the Beats management team reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the FT adds.

Beats declined to comment for this story. CNET has also contacted Apple and will update this story when we hear back.

While Apple has long had a favorable relationship with Beats -- the Dre-branded headphone line is featured prominently in both its physical Apple stores and the accessory section of its online store -- the crux of the deal may prove to be Beats Music.

Beats' streaming service could become a central part of Apple's music strategy, following the launch of its online radio service, iTunes Radio, last year. Beats Music debuted with a powerful billing and marketing partnership with AT&T and it has reportedly been growing quickly. Though the company has yet to disclose hard and fast subscriber numbers, industry estimates peg the total at about 200,000.

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Visions of a larger iPhone 6 are stunning

Designers have been working up their fantasies for how the next iPhone may look. Take a look at two awesome concepts.

The iPhone 5S on the left, with Ciccarese's conception of larger iPhone 6 models.Ciccarese Design

The rumors that the iPhone 6 is finally growing up have stirred Apple fans with design chops to action.

Italian designer Federico Ciccarese has shown us his visions of a possible future iWatch or an iPhone Air in the past, and this week he got in touch again to share with us how he conceives of a bigger iPhone 6with both 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens.

You can click through the gallery below of images created by Ciccarese, and also scroll to the bottom of this post for a separate video conception of the next iPhone. Ciccarese said he created his renderings based off reports of a 4.7-inch iPhone with a 750x1,338-pixel resolution and a 5.5-inch version with an 878x1,568 display.

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Sidewall displays the next frontier in Apple iPhone design?

A recently granted patent application describes a method by which Apple would place OLED or other flexible displays around the sides of a mobile device.

Will you see a display here in a future iPhone? CNET

Apple's iPhones and other devices might eventually feature technology that would extend their screens around the sides of the devices, if a newly granted patent is any indication.

Dubbed "Electronic devices with sidewall displays," the patent, granted to Apple by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Tuesday, describes how flexible displays, including OLEDs, can be placed on the sides of a screen to create a wraparound display experience.

According to the patent, the sidewalls would allow for expanded interactivity with the mobile software. Apple envisions the sidewalls being used for extra buttons and freeing up space on the front-panel display for standard activities. A wide range of gadgets could be suitable for "a flexible display having bent edges visible along an edge of the device," the patent says, including "a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a somewhat smaller device such as a wrist-watch device, pendant device, or other wearable or miniature device, a cellular telephone, a media player, etc."

Apple, like most other big companies, constantly files for patents related to technologies its staff is developing. In many cases, the technologies never make their way to devices, so no one should expectthe sidewall feature to be coming to an iPhone, iPad, or smartwatch. On the other hand, don't be surprised if a sidewall display does eventually show up.

The feature is feasible now because of advances in flexible displays. Technologies like OLED allow for companies to contort a screen to fit a particular shape, which could allow for new device designs. Among the new devices getting some curvature into their displays, to one degree or another, are the Samsung Galaxy Round and the LG G Flex.

CNET has contacted Apple for comment on the patent. We will update this story when we have more information.

(Via AppleInsider)

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