Daily Pulse: SpaceX Lands an Orbital Rocket Back on Earth, Google and Ford May Join Forces, Why Tech Companies Don't IPO

It's a new first in the space race. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched into space, released its second stage in orbit and returned to Earth to land vertical at the expected spot, at 8.29 pm last night in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The historic feat means that launching satellites or scientific missions could become much cheaper – a rocket would no longer be a one-use piece of technology – and space no longer treated as a landfill. Yes, we talked about something similar last month when Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk bickered over who had vertically landed a rocket first. These were sub-orbital flights for space tourists. This is much harder and commercially much more meaningful. 

Google Cars could be Fords. Automotive News reports that the two companies are discussing an alliance in self-driving cars: Google would provide the tech, Ford the auto know-how. AN's Richard Truett and Gabe Nelson note that Ford's former CEO Alan Mulally joined the Google Board the second he retired from the automaker, and that Google's new CEO of driverless cars spent 14 years at Ford. An announcement could be made at CES in January. 

An embarrassment of riches. Mergers had a huge year, my colleague John C Abell wrote yesterday. IPOs, not so much. There were about half as many US tech IPOs in 2015 as the year before, and they raised barely more than a quarter of the 2014 proceeds. The main reason is that private funding is on fire, according to an EY report spotted by re/code. Why bother with the complications of an IPO when venture capitalists are falling over themselves to hand you millions? 

Apple is speaking out against the UK surveillance law. The Investigatory Powers bill being considered in Westminster would give law-enforcement unprecedented powers against potential terrorists but also raises major privacy concerns. It would for instance allow government agencies to inspect the Web-browsing history of UK citizens and weaken the encryption companies like Apple use to protect users' communications. 

“A key left under the doormat would not just be there for the good guys. The bad guys would find it too.”

Apple in a brief to UK lawmakers

Wall Street is considering keeping track of misbehaving bankers. Bloomberg calls it the naughty list: the industry is discussing keeping a private database of bankers who acted against their company's code of conduct for hiring managers to consult before making an offer. Unless such violations incur legal proceedings, they're invisible in regular background checks. Interesting idea, but is it cynical to assume the list could just as well be used to retaliate against whistleblowers? 

Gas is cheaper than the milk in your morning coffee. That used to be the case pretty consistently, to be fair, until the mid-2000s, when prices went up. With the recent downfall, gas is back in its rightful (?) place. At this point, the only cheaper liquid is water. Until when? The WSJ had fun with the math. 

Photo: A long exposure of the launch, re-entry and landing burns of SpaceX rocket Falcon 9, on Dec 21, 2015, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Photo provided by SpaceX. 

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What you may have missed — and really should read:

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