Techmeme
August 9, 2017, 4:55 PM

Top News

Susan Wojcicki / Fortune:
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki defends firing of memo writer, says she's faced gender-based slights throughout her career  —  Yesterday, after reading the news, my daughter asked me a question.  “Mom, is it true that there are biological reasons why there are fewer women in tech and leadership?”
Ryan Nakashima / Associated Press:
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Andy Rubin's Essential Products raises $300M from Tencent, Amazon, and others, says Best Buy and Amazon will be its retail launch partners in the US  —  Startup founded by Google Android's creator has raised $300 million in funding; plans to release $699 titanium-encased smartphone
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Following Mobileye acquisition, Intel will build fleet of 100 fully autonomous (Level 4) cars to test in US, Israel, Europe; first cars coming by year's end  —  The chipmaker just closed its deal to buy auto-visual startup Mobileye  —  Fresh off its acquisition of auto-visual company Mobileye …
Tom Krazit / GeekWire:
AWS joins Cloud Native Computing Foundation, which hosts the Kubernetes project, as platinum member, and AWS' VP of cloud architecture strategy joins the board  —  Just weeks after Microsoft signaled its support for a key cloud computing industry foundation, Amazon Web Services has followed suit …
Wall Street Journal:
Ry Crist / CNET:
Anker unveils the $35 Eufy Genie, a small Alexa-enabled speaker that is $15 cheaper than the $50 Echo Dot; Bluetooth version coming soon for $40  —  The Genie is an Alexa-enabled smart speaker that'll sell for just $35.  It's the newest gadget in Anker's Eufy range of smart home products …
Jason Del Rey / Recode:
Sources: Birchbox has held acquisition talks with several retailers, including Walmart  —  The startup received a $15 million lifeline from investors in 2016.  —  Birchbox has recently been discussing a potential sale with several retailers, multiple sources told Recode.
Michelle Broder Van Dyke / BuzzFeed:
Airbnb starts deactivating accounts of some people booking rentals to attend “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA, citing community rules  —  The rally is set to take place in a Virginia park where earlier this year white supremacists gathered with torches to protest the removal of a Confederate statue.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Disney to end Netflix film distribution deal in 2019, will launch ESPN streaming service in 2018 and Disney streaming services in 2019  —  Disney will end its distribution deal with Netflix and launch its own streaming service, the company announced today.  It intends to launch the service in 2019.
The Walt Disney Company:

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Nikhil Pahwa / MediaNama: