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February 6, 2019, 1:35 PM
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| Peter Kafka / Recode: |
Spotify buys Gimlet Media, a podcast producer and network, sources say for ~$230M, and Anchor, which makes it easier for users to record and distribute podcasts — Daniel Ek says he wants to spend up to $500 million on acquisitions this year. — Spotify is a streaming music company that wants to become a podcast company, too.
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Spotify, Spotify, SiliconANGLE, New York Times, Engadget, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, The Verge, TechCrunch, Android Police, Telegraph, Anchor, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Nieman Lab, Forbes, CNBC, Pocket-lint, AdExchanger, Adweek, Fortune, The Wrap, RAIN News, CNET, CBS Chicago, iPhone in Canada Blog, iDownloadBlog.com, Axios, MSPoweruser, Music Week, MacStories, Music Business Worldwide, CNBC, Tom's Guide, Patently Apple, iPhone Hacks, Tubefilter, 9to5Mac, hypebot, and The Mac Observer
Tweets: @stevekovach, @pkafka, @caseynewton, @panzer, @joshelman, @lucas_shaw, @harrysiegel, @austindarbo, @eldsjal, @geoffwood, @markcwebster, @thestalwart, @ashleymayer, @anchor, @sallyshin, @jonfortt, and @tomgara
| Stuart Dredge / Music Ally: |
Spotify reports Q4 revenue of ~€1.5B, up 30% YoY, operating profit of €94M, says it has 207M MAUs, up 29% YoY, including 96M premium subscribers, up 36% YoY — Spotify has published its latest quarterly financial results, covering the final quarter of 2018.
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Spotify, The Guardian, Thurrott, TIME, Engadget, MacRumors, Music Ally, Reuters, VentureBeat, and VentureBeat
Tweets: @thestalwart and @pkafka
| Kara Swisher / Recode: |
Facebook's top global communications executive, Caryn Marooney, is leaving after eight years; Debbie Frost, Facebook's longest-serving PR exec, is also leaving — After a bruising year for the social media giant, longtime communications head Caryn Marooney is helping search for her replacement.| Motherboard: |
Inside the illicit world of “iCloud unlocking”, where cybercriminals trick iPhone owners or Apple staff into removing an iCloud account to resell the iPhone — In a novel melding of physical and cybercrime, hackers, thieves, and even independent repair companies are finding ways to “unlock iCloud” from iPhones.
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9to5Mac and iPhone Hacks
Tweets: @josephfcox, @josephfcox, @jason_koebler, @jason_koebler, @josephfcox, @jason_koebler, @josephfcox, @jason_koebler, and @josephfcox
| Apple: |
Angela Ahrendts to leave Apple in April after five years, as Apple names 30-year company veteran Deirdre O'Brien SVP of Retail + People reporting to Tim Cook — Angela Ahrendts Plans April Departure After Five Successful Years — CUPERTINO — Apple today announced that Deirdre O'Brien …
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Business Insider, 9to5Mac, Associated Press, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, Macworld, Business Insider, Android Authority, Reuters, New York Times, Observer, iDownloadBlog.com, TechCrunch, iPhone Hacks, Redmond Pie, Bloomberg, MacStories, Cult of Mac, Ars Technica, The Register, Apple Must, Gizmodo, PYMNTS.com, The Loop, CNN, Fast Company, MAC blog, Quartz, Silicon Valley Business …, ZDNet, Engadget, CNET, Telegraph, Fortune, VentureBeat, and MacRumors
Tweets: @tim_cook, @geoffreyfowler, @kifleswing, @caro_milanesi, @mikesilva, @markgurman, @markgurman, @jacknicas, @jacknicas, @kantrowitz, @markgurman, @mgsiegler, @mgsiegler, @lexnfx, @markgurman, @caro_milanesi, @gartenberg, @iryantldr, @jeffersongraham, @reneritchie, @backlon, @mgsiegler, and @neilcybart
| Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet: |
Microsoft says Build 2019 will take place from May 6 to May 8, with registration opening on February 27 — Registration for this year's Microsoft Build developers conference opens February 27. And Build, again, is going head-to-head with Google's I/O developer confab.
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Thurrott, The Verge, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Petri, Windows Central, Neowin, MSPoweruser, and OnMSFT.com
| Manish Singh / VentureBeat: |
WhatsApp says it bans about 2M fake or abusive accounts each month, 75% of them without manual intervention, 20% of them at the time of registration itself — WhatsApp today outlined how it is tackling abuse and spread of false information on its instant messaging platform as its largest market …
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CNET, CNN, Financial Times, Mashable, Reuters, 9to5Mac, Fortune, The Next Web, NDTV Gadgets 360, and iPhone in Canada Blog
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
On-demand e-scooter startup Lime raises $310M Series D, led by a16z, Bain Capital, Fidelity, GV, and IVP, at a $2.4B valuation — Confirming rumors that have been swirling for some time, on-demand electric scooter startup Lime today announced that it has closed a $310 million series D financing round led … | BuzzFeed News: |
A story of two hackers, both US citizens and former members of the UGNazi hacking group, who deceived and murdered one hacker's girlfriend in the Philippines — Tomi Masters was a 23-year-old from Indiana who moved to California with dreams of making it big in the cannabis business.
Tweets: @daveyalba, @buzzfeednews, @agoldmund, and @bernstein
| Angelica LaVito / CNBC: |
Meditation and sleep app Calm raises $88M Series B led by TPG Growth at a $1B valuation — - Calm has raised $88 million, valuing the meditation and sleep app at $1 billion, the company announced Wednesday. — Calm is the top grossing health and fitness app and 20th overall on iOS, according to App Annie.| Brian Feldman / New York Magazine: |
The rise on Instagram of “meme accounts” like @fuckjerry, which steal jokes, videos, and other content, is a platform failure Instagram refuses to acknowledge — The past few weeks have been rough for Elliot Tebele. Tebele is the morally compromised founder of Jerry Media …
Tweets: @nymag, @carnage4life, and @joshconstine
| Elizabeth Schulze / CNBC: |
SoftBank's Vision Fund says that it sold its entire stake in Nvidia, which was worth $3.63B on December 31, in January — Chipmaker Nvidia suffered another setback Wednesday after SoftBank's Vision Fund disclosed it had sold its entire stake, worth more than $3 billion, in the company in January.
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Financial Times, CNN, and TheStreet
| Joan E. Solsman / CNET: |
YouTube CEO says the number of channels with 1M+ subs nearly doubled and the number of creators who earned five or six figures grew 40%+ in the last year — In a post Tuesday about her goals for 2019, YouTube Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki touted several milestones Google's massive video site surpassed …
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YouTube Creator Blog, TechCrunch, TechSpot, Music Ally, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, and Business Insider
Tweets: @susanwojcicki, @ytcreators, and @stshank
| James Vincent / The Verge: |
Google says Gmail is now blocking an extra 100M spam messages each day by using TensorFlow-trained machine learning models — Google is using its machine learning platform, TensorFlow, to eke out additional gains — Google has recruited its in-house machine learning framework, TensorFlow …
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9to5Google, SiliconANGLE, and VentureBeat
| Julie Verhage / Bloomberg: |
Sources: no-fees mobile bank Chime is raising $300M at a $1.5B valuation, up from a $500M valuation in May 2018 — Chime, a financial technology startup that offers online banking services, is close to raising $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to two people familiar with the matter.Thanks:@seriouslyrick
| Ryan Felton / Consumer Reports: |
Survey of 110 hospitals and five agencies from 47 US cities: 1,500+ e-scooter-related injuries since late 2017; quick spread of e-scooters surprised some cities — A Consumer Reports investigation finds 1,500 e-scooter injuries across the country, and many hospitals still don't track them| Jaclyn Peiser / New York Times: |
Around 1/3 of the content published by Bloomberg News uses some form of automated tech, as more news outlets are employing AI for story recommendations and more — As reporters and editors find themselves the victims of layoffs at digital publishers and traditional newspaper chains alike …
Tweets: @thenextwoods, @geninnovate, and @howardfineman
| Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: |
Raisin, a European marketplace for savings and investment products, raises €100M Series D from existing investors including PayPal and Index Ventures — Raisin, the European fintech marketplace for savings and investment products, has raised €100 million ($114 million) …
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TechCrunch, Tech.eu, and FinSMEs
| Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: |
Snap reports Q4 revenue of $389.8M, up 36% YoY, DAUs of 186M in Q4'18 from 187M in Q4'17 and 186M in Q3'18, as Android design refresh rolls out — Snap, the parent of disappearing message app Snapchat, stemmed recent declines in users and beat revenue expectations in its fourth-quarter results …
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Digital Trends, Snap Inc., CNBC, Marketing Land, Wall Street Journal, Axios, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, New York Times, CNBC, PYMNTS.com, Social Media Today, Gizmodo, iPhone Hacks, AdExchanger, and TechCrunch
Tweets: @alexeheath, @alexeheath, @mdudas, @kurtwagner8, @alexeheath, @joshconstine, @jank0, and @carnage4life
| Michal Lev-Ram / Fortune: |
Facebook says employee bonuses will be based on Zuckerberg's 2019 goals, such as progress on social issues facing the company, rather than growth and engagement — Facebook's nearly 36,000 employees are about to be judged on a whole new metric: The company's ability to tackle problems … | Janko Roettgers / Variety: |
Podcast platform Himalaya, which offers mobile apps that let listeners tip creators, raises $100M and aims to add exclusives and paid content to its app — San Francisco-based podcasting startup Himalaya has raised $100 million in funding to establish itself as a new force in the podcast distribution space.
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