The Week In Tech: "More Ridiculous Funding Announcements, Oculus Rift Comes in 2016 and More"

From re/code:

A number of tech’s most well-known names were attached to big funding rounds, and Facebook’s highly-touted VR acquisition Oculus announced it has a product on the way for 2016. Here are the headlines that powered Re/code this week:

1. 2014 was a banner year for venture capitalists raising money, and 2015 looks to be the same for those who want to spend it. Uber’s reportedly working on raising another $1.5 billion at a $50 billion valuation. Pinterest added another $186 million to give it a total of $553 million for its Series G round alone. The business-to-business software startup Zenefits raised a whopping $500 million, and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin raised $275 million for his lending company Affirm. Oh, and the Chinese drone maker DJI raised $75 million from Accel Partners alone.
2. After days of frenzied speculation, a report says Microsoft isn’t interested in taking over Salesforce after all. That’s good news for Salesforce, for whom the best deal is no deal at all.
3. In a post on Facebook, COO Sheryl Sandberg left her first public comments since the tragic passing of her husband Dave Goldberg. She wrote, ““Even in these last few days of completely unexpected hell — the darkest and saddest moments of my life — I know how lucky I have been.” GoPro executive Zander Lurie was announced as the interim CEO for the company Goldberg led, SurveyMonkey.
4. Apple’s music streaming service, when it launches later this year, will include original content programming, free samples and a paid subscription not dissimilar from Spotify Premium. Also big: Users will be able to upload some of their music online, like Google Play or SoundCloud.
5. Google lost out on precious Mountain View real estate to LinkedIn, and it revamped Google+ to work and look a lot more like Pinterest. The company’s next move to keep its search business dominant is to get into food delivery, and Google wasn’t the only American company in the crosshairs of European regulators this week (Hint: It was Uber)....

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