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Techmeme
February 28, 2019, 9:30 AM
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Top News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
FTC settles with Musical.ly, now TikTok, for $5.7M, over the app's violation of US child privacy laws; TikTok's app updates with a new UX for users under 13  —  A significant FTC ruling issued today will see video app TikTok fined $5.7 million for violating U.S. children's privacy laws …
Roland Li / San Francisco Chronicle:
In a letter to the CA government, Apple confirms that 190 employees, including 124 engineers, will be laid off from its self-driving car division on April 16  —  Apple will lay off 190 employees in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale in its self-driving car division, the company said.
The Seattle Times:
Though Seattle repealed its “head tax”, Amazon says it won't use the 722K sq. ft. in Rainier Square tower it had leased, which would have housed up to 5K staff  —  The lease was one of the biggest in Seattle history — enough space to hold at least 3,500 employees and perhaps up to 5,000.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
Equipment from Cellebrite, popular with law enforcement for hacking into iOS/Android devices, is selling for $100-$1,000 on eBay; new units usually cost $6,000  —  When eBay merchant Mr. Balaj was looking through a pile of hi-fi junk at an auction in the U.K., he came across an odd-looking device.
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Figure, which uses blockchain tech to provide home equity loans, raises $65M; founded over a year ago by ex-SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, Figure has raised $120M total  —  Figure, a 13-month-old, San Francisco-based company that says it uses blockchain technology to provide home equity loans online …
Chris Velazco / Engadget:
Motorola confirms it is working on a foldable smartphone; it will likely be a revival of the Razr brand that will launch this summer  —  By now, it's not much of a secret that Motorola is working on a folding phone of its own: A patent for such a device surfaced late last year …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud survey of enterprises and SMBs: Azure adoption grew from 45% to 52%, reaching 85% of AWS adoption, up from 70% last year  —  The RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud Report from Flexera highlights how enterprises are spending more on cloud computing …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Coinhive, an in-browser Monero miner known for cryptojacking, says it will shut down on March 8, citing the crypto crash and a recent Monero hard fork  —  Coinhive wanted to be an alternative to classic banner ads but it became malware after constant abuse.
Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Square reports Q4 adjusted revenue of $464M, up 64% YoY, 15M Cash App MAUs in Dec. 2018, up from 7M YoY, issues weak Q1 guidance; stock down 6%+ after hours  —  - Payment company Square reported fourth-quarter results that beat analysts' expectations for earnings and revenue on Wednesday.
Bloomberg:
Chinese used-car trading platform Chehaoduo Group is raising $1.5B from SoftBank Vision Fund at a $9B+ valuation  —  - The investment valued Chehaoduo Group at over $9 billion  — The startup intends to spend the money on technology and AI  —  SoftBank Vision Fund is investing $1.5 billion …
More: FinSMEs and TechCrunch
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Paris-based Mirakl, which provides an API-backed ecommerce marketplace for B2C and B2B verticals, raises $70M Series C led by Bain Capital  —  Mirakl, a Paris-based software company that develops ecommerce solutions for corporate and retail clients, isn't shy about throwing its weight around …
More: TechCrunch and FinSMEs

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:30 AM ET, February 28, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

New York Times:
Sources: the White House directed FBI Director Kash Patel to personally oversee the probe into NYT reporting about Air Force One, before subpoenas were issued

The Guardian:
Christopher Nolan says there's a “disdain” for AI, the idea that it “replaces” human creativity is “nonsense”, and he expects it to be useful in “imaging tools”

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Lionsgate's Michael crosses $1B at the global box office, its first film to reach the milestone, per Rentrak, reviving Hollywood's last major independent studio

More News

Maya Kosoff / OneZero:
While Amazon's board has become more diverse, as of January, 44 of 48 execs in Amazon's upper ranks were reportedly men and zero VPs were African-American
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Review of Shadow Ghost, a $140 streaming game console made by French startup Blade, which runs a $35/month cloud gaming service that now has ~65,000 subscribers
Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic:
Crowdtangle data: a small number of Facebook Pages created 46% of the top 10,000 posts for or against vaccines, with 20% generated by seven anti-vax Pages

Earlier Picks

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook policy doc shows it wants up to a 30% cut of Fan Subscriptions, vs Patreon's 5%, and to reserve right to offer free trials with no creator compensation
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
FTC announces a new task force to monitor competition in “technology-related sectors” and says that it will look into previous mergers
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