Your Weekend Tech Digest: Seattle moves up rankings as a U.S. tech market, Lyft launches its own self-driving division

By Tian DuBelko

We round up the trending stories every week so you can catch up on the top tech news. This week, Seattle became the 2nd best tech market in the US, tech-driven real estate firm Redfin set terms for its IPO price on the NASDAQ, Microsoft Azure saw incredibly fourth quarter profits, and Lyft launched its own self-driving division. Get your weekly recap here, then head over to our blog for more stories.

Seattle becomes the 2nd best U.S. city for tech

Silicon Valley should watch its back because Seattle is hot on its tail for the title of the top tech market in the nation. In a new report from CBRE, a real estate services company, Seattle passed Washingon D.C. for the 2nd best tech city in the U.S. The report evaluates factors like population trends, education levels, and the number of tech employees in its rankings. One key reason for Seattle’s surge- its youth-trending population has become highly involved in tech fields.

Redfin sets its initial public offering (IPO)

Seattle-based, tech-powered residential real estate firm Redfin moved closer to its proposed IPO for its debut on the NASDAQ stock exchange. According to a filing with the SEC, Redfin plans to sell 9.23 million shared between $12 and $14 per share. One interesting aspect of this story is how Redfin has pushed to position itself as a tech-oriented company, in an effort to command a higher opening IPO. Redfin generated over $250 million in revenue last year in helping 75,000 people buy homes.

Microsoft’s cloud business sees a fantastic quarter return

Microsoft announced that its Azure cloud service grew 97 percent during the company’s fourth fiscal quarter. According to Amy Hood, chief financial officer, said it was a particularly good quarter for renewals of Azure services. The company also signed its highest number of multimillion dollar deals for Azure services during this time. Safe to say, Microsoft exceeded financial analysts’ expectations for the quarter.

Lyft will develop its own autonomous driving technology

It looks like Uber will have some competition in the self-driving department. Lyft, a similar ride-hailing service, announced that it was launching its own self-driving division to develop autonomous vehicle technology. The company just signed a lease for a 50,000-square-foot-space in a Palo Alto facility for building and testing, and Lyft also expects to bring in hundreds of hires for this new division. Self-driving cars look to be the future, but they could be here even sooner than we think.

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