SoftBank is making a $32 billion bet that computer chips will take over your life | Recode Daily: July 18, 2016

The Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank is buying the British chip design company ARM for $32 billion. ARM's chips are in some of the most popular smartphones, including the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy. SoftBank's purchase is a bet that those chips are going to find their way into far more devices than just phones.
[Dan Frommer | Recode]

Google had a team working on a standalone virtual reality headset, but it has since scrapped those plans, suggesting that it's instead focusing its VR resources on stuff centered around the smartphone. But Engadget reports that the company is still working on a separate device that blends virtual and augmented reality.
[Mark Bergen | Recode]

Yahoo presents what could be its last earnings report as a standalone company today, since Verizon and other would-be buyers are making their final bids for the company. Inside Yahoo, the question is how long Marissa Mayer hangs out as CEO after the bids come in; one theory is that she takes off immediately.
[Kara Swisher | Recode]

Rocket is a multibillion dollar German tech firm that creates startups to copy other startups' business models, and then pushes them out in different countries. Just a couple years ago Rocket was the darling of Germany's tech sector, but the firm's 100 copycat companies aren't doing very well, which analysts take to be a sign of problems with startups worldwide.
[Stu Woo and Friedrich Geiger | The Wall Street Journal]

On the new Recode Decode podcast, Kara Swisher talks with Peloton CTO Yony Feng about the company's $2,000 cycling machines, why they're worth the money and whether you'll soon be taking spin classes in virtual reality.
[Eric Johnson | Recode]

The Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland this week. The schedule and speaker lineup sounds like a catastrophe of ex-child actors and people named Trump. Cleveland police officers are worried about all the people who will be legally carrying firearms in the open. It's going to be the ultimate TV news event.
[Yamiche Alcindor and Alan Rappeport | The New York Times]