Techmeme
December 2, 2018, 7:00 AM

Top News

The Information:
Sources: Uber has recently held talks about possible acquisitions with scooter startups Bird and Lime  —  Uber has held talks recently with electric scooter rental startup Bird to acquire the company in what could be a multibillion-dollar deal, said several people briefed on the discussions.
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Since Satya Nadella became CEO, Microsoft has almost tripled its market cap to $850B+, and on Friday it replaced Apple as the world's most valuable company  —  Just a few years ago, Microsoft was seen as a lumbering has-been of the technology world.  —  It was big and still quite profitable …
Nick Summers / Engadget:
Profile of Chronicle: a startup incubated at Google X that uses AI and VirusTotal, with experience from Bigtable and MapReduce, to counter cybersecurity threats  —  Fifteen years ago, cybersecurity could be boiled down to a simple strategy: Secure the perimeter.
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:
Apple approves Indian telecom regulator's “TRAI DND - Do Not Disturb” app that lets users block unwanted phone calls and text messages, avoiding iPhone ban  —  Fed up with years of waiting for Apple to implement anti-spam measures for iPhones, India's telecom regulator TRAI threatened …
Simone Stolzoff / The Atlantic:
PitchBook: VCs invested ~$8B in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and Pakistan in first 10 months of 2018, 40% more than in all 2017  —  Entrepreneurs such as Sidra Qasim and Waqas Ali exemplify the increasing ease of accessing venture capital from the developing world.
Anna Escher / TechCrunch:
Brazil-based QuintoAndar, an online marketplace for long term rentals, raises $64M Series C led by General Atlantic, bringing the total funding raised to $95M  —  Anna Escher @https://www.twitter.com/annaescher / 8 hours  —  There's quite a bit wrong with real estate in Brazil, according to QuintoAndar founder and CEO Gabriel Braga.
More: AIM Group and Pulse 2.0
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
AT&T plans another, 3-tiered streaming service for Q4 2019 with a movie-focused entry level, a premium level with original programming, and a WarnerMedia bundle  —  AT&T may be ready to sell its stake in Hulu, the company revealed in an analyst presentation on Thursday.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram is launching a “Close Friends” list on iOS and Android to let users share Stories with a limited group of friends  —  They're Finstagram Stories  —  No one wants to post silly, racy, or vulnerable Stories if they're worried their boss, parents, and distant acquaintances are watching.

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