Techmeme
May 17, 2019, 6:15 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft announces Minecraft Earth, a real-world AR version of Minecraft, available in closed beta on iOS and Android this summer  —  Alex Kipman, Microsoft's HoloLens and Kinect creator, is always enthusiastic about the future of computing.  As he stands in front of me inside …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify to start testing Car Thing, a voice-controlled smart assistant device that connects to your car and phone over bluetooth, with some Premium users in US  —  To learn how people consume audio in their car  —  Spotify will begin publicly testing its first hardware today …
New York Times:
Profile of Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer, who admits AI alone may not be enough to deal with toxic content and chokes up when discussing the issue  —  Facebook has heralded artificial intelligence as a solution to its toxic content problems.  Mike Schroepfer, its chief technology officer, says it won't solve everything.
Arjun Panchadar / Reuters:
Hewlett Packard Enterprise to buy supercomputer maker Cray in a deal valued at $1.3B, or $35 per share, which represents a premium of 17.4% to Cray's last close  —  (Reuters) - Supercomputer manufacturer Cray Inc said on Friday it would be bought by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co in a deal valued at about $1.30 billion, net of cash.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Sheryl Sandberg: there is concern in US “with the size and power of Chinese companies, and the realization that those companies are not going to be broken up”  —  KEY POINTS  — Sandberg said breaking up Facebook does not address the underlying issues people have with tech companies.
Bradley Tusk / Financial Times:
Key value of Uber was its relentless focus on innovation and promise to change the world, which the board forgot when replacing Kalanick, focusing on stability  —  When Uber hired Dara Khosrowshahi in 2017, the company board was solving the wrong problem.  —  The ride-hailing app …
Jonathan Hillman / Axios:
Trump's actions against Huawei limit its 5G tech in US, but Huawei continues to build or improve ~100 undersea cables; ~380 cables carry most international data  —  President Trump's executive order and the Commerce Department's “Entity List” create new challenges for Huawei's 5G wireless technology …
Financial Times:
Chloe Taylor / CNBC:
Deliveroo announces that Amazon is leading a $575M funding round for the UK-based food delivery service, bringing the total raised to $1.53B  —  KEY POINTS  — Deliveroo is a British company that allows users to order food deliveries from nearby restaurants using an app.
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Health at Scale, which wants to use AI to match patients to the right treatments from the right providers at the right time, raises $16M Series A  —  Health at Scale, a startup with founders who have both medical and engineering expertise, wants to bring machine learning to bear …
More: FinSMEs and PE Hub Blog
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft and Sony announce a strategic partnership to explore development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure for game and content-streaming services  —  An unusual partnership  —  Microsoft and Sony are announcing an unusual partnership today, allowing the two rivals to partner on cloud-based gaming services.
Michael Hytha / Bloomberg:
CDN provider Fastly closes up 50% on its first day of trading after raising $180M in its IPO and is now valued at about $2.2B  —  Software provider Fastly Inc. closed its trading debut Friday up 50% after raising $180 million in its U.S. initial public offering.
Sean Lyngaas / CyberScoop:
DOJ says that it has indicted 10 members of the criminal network that used the GozNym malware to attempt to steal an estimated $100M from 41,000+ victims  —  Law enforcement officials from the U.S. and some European allies say they have broken up a criminal network that used banking malware …

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Earlier Picks

Julian Chokkattu / Digital Trends:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Dan Seifert / The Verge: