Snapchat settles with McCallie grad
Apple may have captured the public's attention this week with the introduction of its new iPhone and watch, but another tech company more quietly announced it had settled a lingering dispute with McCallie School graduate Reggie Brown.
Snapchat, the photo messaging application started by Brown and fellow Stanford University students Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy in 2011, allows users to take photos, videos and text and send them to a controlled list of recipients for a limited amount of time. The Venice, Calif.-based company is now valued at $10 billion, making Spiegal, 24, and Murphy, 26, both billionares. Brown claimed he came up with the initial idea for an app known as Picaboo. But in a lawsuit against the other company founders, Brown said he was shut out of the riches.
Brown, a Columbia, S.C., native who graduated from McCallie School in 2008, sought more than $1 billion. Terms of the settlement were not announced.
Global sales up for Volkswagen
Volkswagen sales worldwide grew 5.6 percent in the first eight months of the year on increasing strength in Europe and a continued surge in China. However, sales in the U.S., South America and Russia were a drag on the overall number of 6.52 million vehicles.
Through August, the overall European market saw a 6.9 percent hike in sales in the first eight months, while China was up 16.5 percent. U.S. sales fell 4.8 percent in the period.