#7 Drone startup raises $16 million

Once again, there was drone-related news this week. On Tuesday, Tech Crunch reports that Boeing HorizonX, the venture arm of Boeing, led a $16 million round in drone startup Matternet. 

According to Tech Crunch, Matternet first started testing its drone delivery system in Switzerland in 2015. Last month, it was chosen (among others) by the Federal Aviation Administration to be a part of its Unmanned Aircraft System Pilot Program.


#6 The end of an era

Tuesday was a big day for General Electric (GE). After 111 years, the American conglomerate left the Dow Jones. The company is being replaced by Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), CNN Money reports.

The latter is a big - growing - drug store chain worth $66 billion and, according to the same CNN Money article, analysts expect its earnings per share to increase at a rate of 12% for the next couple of years.


#5 Uber keeps London licence

On Tuesday, there was good news for Uber Technologies Inc. The company won a probationary licence to operate in London, Reuters reports. The new licence is only for a 15-month period however during which Uber will have to prove it has truly changed. 


#4 Expensive cup of coffee

On Thursday, Venezuela hit another sad milestone. The price of one cup of coffee reached 1 million Bolivars (29 cents), Bloomberg Reports. Two years ago, when Bloomberg launched its Cafe Con Leche Index, one coffee cost only 450 bolivars.

Today’s price is the equivalent of almost one-fifth of the monthly minimum wage in Venezuela - and, according to the same Bloomberg article, shows the excruciating effects of how the government's money-printing policies are pulling the country deeper into poverty.     


#3 A rocky ride

Brand new Dow Jones company Walgreens was in for a rocky ride in its first week as a member of the index. On Thursday, the news broke about Amazon buying online pharmacy startup PillPack, causing the shares of Walgreens, CVS Health and Rite Aid to tumble.

According to CNBC, PillPack has the license to ship prescriptions in 49 states and booked over $100 million in revenue last year. And even though Amazon’s move is not much more than a declaration of intent yet, drugstore shares plunged quite a bit on Thursday as you can see in the Tweet below.


#2 Gas is up

Natural gas prices are up for the first time in two years, Bloomberg reports on Thursday. The reasons behind this rise? The increasing cost of crude and a stronger-than-expected demand for liquefied natural gas, according to the same Bloomberg article. 

An interesting fact by the way: natural gas is on its way to turn into a renewable-energy source thanks to the development of green-gas-technologies.


#1 Line opens a cryptocurrency exchange

Line, the biggest messaging service in Japan, is going to venture into the world of cryptocurrencies. On Thursday, the company announced that it will launch its own cryptocurrency exchange called BITBOX in July, CNN reports.

According to the same CNN article, the new exchange will be exclusively for crypto-to-crypto trading, support about 30 different coins (among which Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin) and the platform will be available in 15 languages.    

More about Line’s announcement in the Bloomberg video below:


Voila, that’s the last week of June captured in Tweets. As always, we’ll continue to track Twitter and bring you the top financial micro-messages from the web. See you back here next Friday.

Source: www.scoopnest.com.