HubSpot announced this morning that it has acquired chatbot startup Motion AI. Motion AI launched in 2015 and offers an editor for building chatbots that work on websites, Facebook Messenger, SMS and Slack, no coding required. Even before the acquisition, the tool was already integrated into HubSpot Free CRM. The entire Motion AI team, including founder and CEO David Nelson, will be joining HubSpot. The companies also said they'll be sharing more details about the integration plans at HubSpot's Inbound event next week.

The transformation of BlackBerry from a bombed-out, loss-making smartphone maker to a new-look software firm appears to be working: the Canadian business has reported better-than-expected quarterly profits, boosting its shares by more than 12%. The company, which was famous for its tiny keyboard phones and in 2010 had more than a third of the US smartphone market, was almost driven to extinction by the iPhone. By 2016 it had less than 1% of the US market. Thousands of workers were laid off as losses mounted and the business eventually gave up making phone handsets and decided to reinvent itself as a software and services specialist selling to large corporations. In its profits update on Thursday the company said sales at its high-margin software unit had hit a record and the outlook for the rest of the year was robust, boosting investor confidence in its turnaround strategy.

Woking, United Kingdom and Bangalore, India - September 14, 2017: McLaren Technology Group and Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading global information technology, consulting, and business process services company, today announced that Wipro has become the official technology provider to McLaren Technology Group to help drive digitalisation across its businesses. Wipro will assist McLaren with achieving its recently defined IT strategy, focusing on providing next-generation differentiated IT services to its business divisions with an emphasis on agility and improved reliability. As part of this multi-year partnership, Wipro will leverage the Wipro HOLMES artificial intelligence platform and its next-generation managed services framework to offer flexibility and boost the productivity of McLaren's fast growing automotive and high-tech businesses. Craig Charlton, Chief Information Officer, McLaren Technology Group said, "We are passionate about delivering high performance digital solutions underpinned by robust SLAs across McLaren. Wipro, with its deep domain expertise and vast application services portfolio, will help us achieve excellence as well as drive innovation in Artificial Intelligence."

Nvidia's shares, valued at a low $23.3 in 2015, have since surged to hit a high of $190.10 on Monday, with at least four brokerages setting their price targets at $200 or above. Analysts have focused on the company's progress in artificial intelligence, in particular. "Our sense is management believes that investors still severely underestimates the impact of AI and the size of the potential market," Evercore analyst C J Muse wrote in a note on Friday after hosting Nvidia's management. Nvidia has been rapidly expanding into newer technologies including artificial intelligence, cloud computing and self-driving cars, away from designing graphics-processing chips for which the company was known for. Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Vivek Arya listed Nvidia a "top pick", basing his view "on (Nvidia's) underappreciated transformation from a traditional PC graphics vendor, into a supplier into high-end gaming, enterprise graphics, cloud, accelerated computing and automotive markets," according to Seeking Alpha.

Fintech startup YayPay has raised $5.3 million in funding led by QED Investors along with co-investors Birchmere and Fifth Third Capital, the direct equity investment subsidiary of Fifth Third Bancorp, with support from 500 Fintech Fund, Aspect Ventures, Gaingels, Techstars, and Zelkova. The funding will aid YayPay's drive to bring automation to the back-office finance operations of mid-sized enterprises. YayPay will use the funding to grow headcount, pursue product development, and increase sales activities. "With modern software powered by machine learning, we aim to turn finance teams into revenue heroes by giving them workflow tools that finally match in robustness those used by their sales and marketing departments. The funding puts YayPay at a major inflection point in which we can now recruit more great talent, roll out a full suite of intelligent order-to-cash automation software, and accelerate sales activities," said Anthony Venus, co-founder and CEO of YayPay.

Booking.com acquired a tiny software company called Evature, which is based in Tel Aviv and offers natural language and chatbot-related technologies for hotels, airlines, travel agencies, and airports. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal, but only a small sum was likely involved. The company is said to have raised $5 million in funding, and the deal has all the appearances of being an acqui-hire. A Booking.com spokesperson said that the company acquired Evature "to support research-and-development efforts generally, but also specifically in the area of deep learning and artificial intelligence. All of this is a part of Booking's ongoing dedication to testing new areas of technology innovation."

Genpact announced that it has acquired TandemSeven, a Boston-headquartered company that delivers customer and digital experience innovation consulting using design thinking at its core. TandemSeven's ability to design better customer experiences complements Genpact's digital capability aimed at transforming business processes end-to-end. Terms of the deal are not disclosed. As part of its ongoing strategy to drive both digital-led innovation and transformation along with digitally-enabled intelligent operations for its clients, Genpact is investing in leading technologies that are reimagining customer experiences and transforming the way companies across many industries compete. The acquisition of TandemSeven advances that strategy and extends Genpact's ability to help its clients provide a seamless experience from the front office all the way to the back office.

USA TODAY goes to the Apple hands on room to check out the iPhone X, 8 and 8 Plus and Apple Watch. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing talks about the new'True Depth Camera System' in the iPhone X that allows facial recognition. New theater named after its iconic co-founder. With its flying saucer-shaped campus Apple Park as a backdrop, Apple gave a glimpse of the future with iPhone X -- a shimmering, edge-to-edge glass model with OLED screen, facial recognition to unlock the phone, wireless charging and talking emojis. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Cloudera said today as part of its second-quarter earnings report that it is acquiring Fast Forward Labs, a startup that gives companies the latest information on how to apply machine learning and AI to their businesses, as well as consulting. The company's stock has weathered somewhat of a beating since it went public, though it was able to beat Wall Street's expectations today. But the more interesting news is the acquisition of Fast Forward Labs, a company that specializes in consulting with larger enterprises about emerging trends in machine learning that can help their businesses grow. Cloudera specializes in operating on top of open-source technology, looking to deliver an enterprise-grade product for larger organizations. "On the way, we built a profitable company with real impact on our clients' products and businesses. I'm proud of what we've accomplished," CEO and co-founder Hilary Mason said in a post announcing the acquisition.