TechFlash: $27M in new funding for Md. firm; Virtual reality's next step

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Message Systems lands $27 million in funding The round brings the total raised to $65 million. The company also announced that it has separately secured an $8 million line of credit from Hercules for "working capital purposes," according to a statement. On the next step for virtual reality, it’s all in the hands Dayna Grayson, partner at Chevy Chase-based New Enterprise Associates and director at Herndon-based APX Labs, says that the next stage for the technology will likely be in the services arena, for the simple reason that it provides hands-free assistance to workers. Ciena hires former MicroStrategy marketing chief Marcus Starke joins Ciena after less than a year at MicroStrategy. He'll help the telecom company market its on-demand and cloud-based products. Greater Washington is home to some of the best-paid STEM workers Sure, the Washington area is anecdotally strong in STEM. But some salary numbers back it up. Snapchat raising half a billion dollars at a valuation up to $19 billion It’s been just 15 months since Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel infamously turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook. Bloomberg now reports the Venice, California startup could be worth three times that. Why is Expedia pouring cash into airline booking business? Expedia executives say there's not a whole lot of profit to find in the airline booking space, but the company is expanding there to try to cross promote other offerings. Zillow slashes jobs as $2.5 billion Trulia acquisition closes ​Zillow will slash about 350 jobs, primarily in San Francisco and Bellevue, Wash., as it closes its $2.5 billion acquisition of rival real estate website Trulia. Mattel teams with Google to update the View-Master Mattel Inc. and Google Inc. are bringing back Mattel's retro View-Master toy with a 21st century twist. National Technology News 5 best-funded startups in high-flying drone business Apple Watch to debut with fewer health features than initially planned Report: Apple may be developing electric car MIT artificial intelligence expert talks past, present, future of machine learning Paul Allen's mammoth Stratolaunch aircraft nearly half completed Reddit acting CEO seeks $16M in discrimination suit against Kleiner Perkins

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