By Tian DuBelko
We round up the trending stories every week so you can catch up on the top tech news. This week, three former Google workers filed a lawsuit against the technology giant, Patreon raised a ~$450M valuation to get artists paid, Alphabet is reportedly mulling a $1B investment in Lyft, and NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took its final plunge into Saturn.
Three women who used to work at Google have filed a lawsuit against the technology giant, alleging it pays women less than men for comparable work. The suit says Google is aware of the situation, but has not moved to fix it. This news comes as companies in Silicon Valley face growing scrutiny over gender relations.
With 50,000 creators and 1 million subscribers on board paying an average of $12 per month for early and exclusive looks at their content, Patreon is on track to pay out $150 million in 2017. Illustrators, comedians, game makers, and musicians use Patreon to let fans pay a monthly subscription fee for special access to their work. That means Patreon will only earn about $7.5 million this year despite doubling in size.
Alphabet appears to be discussing a $1 billion investment in Lyft in an effort led by CEO Larry Page. Lyft last raised $600 million at a $7.5 billion valuation in April, and this would be an interesting move for Google, which invested in Uber early in its life through its investment arm GV. Lyft announced that it had begun self-driving car development in earnest in July, saying it would ramp up hiring and had signed a lease for a big Palo Alto facility.
After traversing the solar system for almost 20 years and delivering a trove of valuable data and gorgeous photos of Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft plunged into the ringed planet’s atmosphere Friday on a mission of self-destruction. Its 20-year mission led to a huge number of discoveries, but the spacecraft burned up Friday in Saturn’s atmosphere in a planned end to its life.
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