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Thursday, April 16, 2020 • By Anthony Ha

Verizon makes a move into videoconferencing, Jeff Bezos discusses a plan to test Amazon employees for COVID-19 and Apple is reportedly working on new over-ear headphones.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for April 16, 2020.

Verizon is buying b2b videoconferencing firm BlueJeans

TechCrunch’s parent company is buying veteran videoconferencing platform BlueJeans Network — shelling out less than $500 million on the acquisition, according to the Wall Street Journal. (A Verizon spokeswoman confirmed that the price-tag is sub-$500 million but did not provide a more exact figure.)

“Customers will benefit from a BlueJeans enterprise-grade video experience on Verizon’s high-performance global networks,” the company said in a statement. “In addition, the platform will be deeply integrated into Verizon’s 5G product roadmap, providing secure and real-time engagement solutions for high growth areas such as telemedicine, distance learning and field service work.”

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Verizon is buying b2b videoconferencing firm BlueJeans image

Image Credits: David Ramos / Getty Images

Be there for your customers

Sponsored by Zendesk for Startups

Things are a little weird these days. But now, more than ever, it’s important to stay connected to your customers – and Zendesk is here to help with the Zendesk for Startups Program. Qualified startups get all of Zendesk, free for 6 months, along with expert advice and hands-on support to get up and running in no time.

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Bezos details Amazon’s COVID-19 testing plans in shareholder letter

Jeff Bezos dropped Amazon’s annual shareholder letter today, which includes more information on the Amazon-built testing labs that were announced last week. Bezos said the company is considering “regular testing of all Amazonians, including those showing no symptoms.”

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Apple said to be working on modular, high-end, noise-cancelling over-ear headphones

Bloomberg reports that Apple is developing its own competitors to popular over-ear noise-cancelling headphones like those made by Bose and Sony, but with similar technology to that used in the AirPod and AirPod Pro lines.

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Apple said to be working on modular, high-end, noise-cancelling over-ear headphones image

Unicorn layoffs keep piling up as the economy gets worse

Yesterday, news broke that a trio of well-known, heavily-backed unicorns — Carta, Zume and Opendoor — were cutting staff.

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Punitive liquidation preferences return to VC — don’t do it

VC Pascal Levensohn says that several of his current portfolio companies have recently proposed “emergency bridge” convertible note financings of between $5 million and $15 million, each featuring a painful feature for non-participants. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

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Punitive liquidation preferences return to VC — don’t do it image

Image Credits: cnsphotography / Getty Images

DoD Inspector General report finds everything was basically hunky-dory with JEDI cloud contract bid

While controversy has dogged the $10 billion, decade-long JEDI contract since its earliest days, a report by the Department of Defense’s Inspector General’s Office concluded that the contract procurement process was fair and legal.

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Google Play adds a ‘Teacher Approved’ section to its app store

All apps found in this section are vetted by a panel of reviewers, including more than 200 teachers across the U.S., and meet Google’s existing requirements (around government regulation and advertising) for its “Designed for Families” program.

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