The ticket sales and distribution company Ticketmaster has agreed to pay a $10 million fine to resolve charges of hacking the computer systems of a rival online ticketing service. The company is paying the fine to settle and avoid prosecution for a five-count charge encompassing computer intrusion and fraud offenses, a statement from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) indicates. The fine originates from allegations of Ticketmaster gaining illegal access to the systems and inner workings of one of its rivals, CrowdSurge (which had merged with a similar company named Songkick and later took up its name). The US Justice Department indicted Ticketmaster for accessing CrowdSurge's computers using stolen passwords in order to get access to proprietary information, and also sifting out for restricted CrowdSurge webpages to gain access to proprietary information on its customers and then working to poach them. CrowdSurge was an online ticketing seller that focused on presale tickets and
A very big new acquisition has happened in the tech industry, with Okta (NASDAQ: OKTA), the publicly-traded cloud identity and access management software provider, announcing an agreement to buy Auth0, a fellow cloud identity software provider, for a price of $6.5 billion to be paid all with shares. A $6.5 billion exit for Auth0 marks a major win for the startup scene in Seattle, the tech hub where Auth0 is based and also a major win for the company's backers and investors. Auth0 last raised venture funding last year in July with a $120 million Series F round that valued the company at $1.9 billion. Now, it's about to sell for more than triple that amount. Auth0 has raised more than $330 million in total venture funding, with investors including the likes of Salesforce Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Telstra Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and DTCP. Salesforce Ventures led Auth0's most recent $120 million Series F round. With its acquisition of a fellow cloud identity a