Smartsheet agrees to $8.4B private equity deal | Microsoft reveals new citation feature for AI responses

Smartsheet going private again: The enterprise software giant announced Tuesday that it agreed to be acquired for $8.4 billion in a private equity deal. Smartsheet, founded out of a small house in Kirkland, Wash., in 2005, went public in 2018. We dug into our archives and recalled how a crucial pivot related to software design early in its journey helped Smartsheet find big success. Read more. Above: Smartsheet CEO Mark Mader at the GeekWire Awards in 2016, when the company won the “Next Tech Titan” award.

Under the AI hood: Microsoft announced a series of artificial intelligence security, privacy and transparency capabilities, including a new feature in its Copilot AI chatbot designed to give more visibility into the components of AI responses. Read more.

Paul Allen is still supporting Seattle arts. Nearly six years after the death of the Microsoft co-founder, his philanthropic legacy continues to impact culture in the city. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, led by his sister Jody Allen, announced Tuesday that it’s giving $9 million to a variety of nonprofit organizations in another bid to help reenergize the city’s core. Read more.

• Meanwhile, a newly discovered species of shark has been named for Paul Allen. The name Sphyrna alleni, for a hammerhead shark found in the waters off Belize, serves as a nod to Allen’s backing of the Global Finprint project and his shark conservation efforts. Read more.

OceanGate's former director of engineering said he quit the company, just months before the loss of the Titan sub and its crew, because financial worries were overshadowing safety concerns. Plus: The Coast Guard releases more video and a telling transcript. Read more.

The winning ideas at AI Tinkerers’ hackathon in Seattle include a personalized nutrition insights tool and AI that grades inbound sales leads. Read more.

Seattle-based freight fintech startup Outgo said it raised $15 million in a previously undisclosed investment round that included Jeff Bezos’ venture capital firm. Read more.

Amazon aiding Amazon: The Seattle tech giant is buying carbon removal credits that will protect a portion of the Brazilian rainforest. Read more. 

Hot Links:

• Amazon’s Rohit Prasad, one of the chief architects of Alexa, is leading the company’s efforts to catch up in the AI race. (The Wall Street Journal)

• What makes Costco so successful? Maveron co-founder Dan Levitan shares lessons learned from a day with the retail giant. (LinkedIn)

• Li-Chen Miller was at Microsoft when she purchased a pair of Meta's smart glasses in 2021. She sent a critique to the company about the device — and now she oversees products for Meta's wearables unit. (Bloomberg)

• AI promise or hype? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pitches all the ways artificial intelligence will improve humanity. (TechCrunch)