‘Much closer to normal’: In his annual year-end blog post, Bill Gates predicts that the availability of COVID-19 vaccines will reach the scale necessary for global impact in the spring of 2021. "Although there will still need to be some restrictions (on big public gatherings, for example), the number of cases and deaths will start to go down a lot — at least in wealthy countries — and life will be much closer to normal than it is now," he writes. See more takeaways.
An unwelcome wedding guest? Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield is still riding the honeymoon high of his company’s planned $27.7 billion acquisition by Salesforce. So it’s a bit ironic in a collaboration-software-technology kind of way that rival Microsoft Teams could crash his actual wedding. Butterfield’s fiancee Jen Rubio, co-founder of luggage brand Away, tweeted about the virtual twist.
Peloton buying Precor for $420M: Riding the wave of at-home, tech-fueled fitness popularity during the pandemic, Peloton is looking toward commercial expansion with the acquisition of Woodinville, Wash.-based Precor, a 40-year-old industry leader in supplying equipment for clubs, hotels and fitness centers. Read more.
Heads up, game streamers: The COVID-19 relief bill has potential consequences for people who stream on services such as Amazon’s Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming. Here’s how.
Future of Food: Perhaps no industry has suffered more during the pandemic than restaurants. But during these challenging times, restaurant owners are adapting in new and creative ways. We explore the future of restaurants and grocery stores on a new episode of the podcast “2025: Tomorrow, Today,” produced by GeekWire Studios in partnership with Northern Trust.
Bloccelerate raises $12M fund: The Seattle-based venture capital firm will invest in 10-to-15 startups that sell blockchain technology to enterprise customers. Kate Mitselmakher, who launched Bloccelerate in 2018, said the pandemic has created a tailwind for blockchain applications as companies accelerate adoption of digital services. Read more.
Thanks for reading, wear a mask, and see all of our latest headlines below. — GeekWire managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com, GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, editor@geekwire.com, and Geek Life reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com.
