TechWire rewind: Top stories of 2019; record holiday spending; startup funding rounds

As Monday morning rolls in, we’re providing TechWire readers with a quick recap of the past week’s news headlines.

Last week, we took a look back at the most notable stories of 2019 — check out the series here and here.

Other hot news for December 23-27 included: Holiday sales gained 5.1% to over $850 billion this year; Morrisville biopharma company Liquidia entered into a common stock purchase agreement for $22.4 million; and, in a Q&A, Duke’s first DARPA program manager, Jeffrey Krolik, shared his experience in the position.

Several North Carolina startups announced funding rounds last week, including: Raleigh-based Aniluxx Biotechnology ($200,000), Durham-based NeuroTronik ($119,000), Asheville-based Ecobot ($1 million) and Chapel Hill-based REIN.

Check out TechWire’s comprehensive resource package for Triangle startups.

And, some national news: Stock markets hit record levels, with the Nasdaq surpassing the 9,000 mark for the first time; Google and Facebook fell out of Glassdoor’s annual “best places to work” rankings; a new whitepaper from ABI Research outlined the top tech trends to watch in 2020; read the story behind the Operation NORAD Santa tracker.

Keeping with our Monday tradition, here’s a look back at 36 local, state and national headlines as reported by WRAL TechWire last week: