Techmeme: StubHub says it has furloughed some employees, citing the pandemic's impact on live events; source: ~450 staff on unpaid leave, 67% of its N. American workforce (ESPN)

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Sources: Apple is weighing a delay of the launch of the iPhone 12 by months over fears of low sales and supply chain constraints amid the coronavirus pandemic — US tech giant assesses coronavirus impact on global demand — PALO ALTO/TAIPEI — Apple is preparing the ground to possibly delay …

Andy / TorrentFreak:

AMD confirms in Dec. 2019 someone claimed to have files related to its current and future graphics products and posted them online; the files have been removed — Graphics cards are big business and AMD is one of the leading brands with an estimated 32% share of the discrete desktop market.

More: The Verge, Engadget, Thurrott, The Daily Dot, IGN, Tom's Hardware, TrueAchievements, Wccftech, TechRadar.com, Neowin, TechSpot, SlashGear, Windows Central, and GitHub

Biz Carson / Protocol:

Several former TripActions employees say ~100 staff members were fired en masse during a Zoom call, without being told the reason behind the meeting beforehand — Hundreds of tech employees are getting laid off amid the coronavirus outbreak — but now it's all happening over Zoom.

Tweets: @pluginfud, @edbott, @issielapowsky, @moorehn, @djadequate, @issielapowsky, @ahmed, @chrisparry, and @caseynewton

Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:

Reports: amid the pandemic, TripActions, Zeus Living, and Sonder have laid off one third or more of their staff; TripActions and Sonder are each valued at $1B+

More: The Information, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Business Journal, Blind, Fortune, Axios, TechCrunch, and Protocol

Tweets: @bizcarson and @crunchbasenews

Andrew Webster / The Verge:

Epic Games launches Epic Games Publishing, says it will cover up to 100% of development costs while game creators retain 100% of IP and full creative control — ‘The publishing model we always wanted’ — Fortnite maker Epic Games is getting into publishing in a big way.

More: Ars Technica, Cision, VentureBeat, Wccftech, GameSpot, Polygon, and USgamer.net

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Fast, which is building platform-agnostic login and checkout services for e-commerce, raises $20M Series A led by Stripe — Early this morning, Fast, a startup building platform-agnostic login and checkout services, announced that Stripe has led a $20 million investment into its business.

More: The Irish Times, FinSMEs, PYMNTS.com, and Crowdfund Insider. Tweets: @julien. Thanks:@dstickler_01

Sam Byford / The Verge:

Preview of Huawei's P40 flagship, which doesn't include any Google services: the hardware is really terrific but is not enough to overcome Google's absence — A preview of what you can expect with the new P40 flagship — Tomorrow Huawei will launch its latest flagship phones, the P40 series, at an event to be streamed online.

More: Android Authority, VentureBeat, Android Police, CNET, Digital Trends, 9to5Google, TechCrunch, Engadget, KnowTechie, 9to5Google, CNET, Android Police, and Pocketnow

Tweets: @greengart and @_vancajun

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

A self-reporting COVID-19 symptom app developed by Boston-based startup Zoe had 750k downloads in 24 hours in the UK; Zoe is working to bring the app to the US — One of the big challenges (among many) with the coronavirus pandemic is that overwhelmed health services do not always know how best …

More: 9to5Mac, EURACTIV.com, iPhone Hacks, Pocket-lint, Neowin, and VentureBeat. Thanks:@ingridlunden

Airbnb Newsroom:

Airbnb says it wants to provide free or subsidized housing to 100K healthcare professionals, relief workers, and first responders around the world — - New global initiative will provide free or subsidized housing for healthcare professionals, relief workers, and first responders, typically closer to where they are working

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @bchesky

David Carnoy / CNET:

Qualcomm introduces ultra-low power Bluetooth audio SoCs for wireless earbuds, with support for hybrid active noise cancellation and voice assistants — Qualcomm introduced two new Bluetooth audio systems-on-a-chip that will power upgraded true wireless headphones hitting stores in the coming months.

More: The Irish Times, Digital Trends, International Business Times, Qualcomm, The Verge, XDA Developers, SlashGear, and Engadget. Tweets: @brianroemmele

CNBC:

33 US state AGs call on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Walmart, and Craigslist to take proactive measures to prevent price gouging on products related to COVID-19 — - A group of 33 attorneys general from U.S. states and territories called on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Walmart and Craigslist …

More: Forbes, State of California, Arkansas Attorney General, Office of the Vermont …, Montana Department of Justice, Utah Attorney General, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @paattorneygen, @agkarlracine, and @utahag

Jon Porter / The Verge:

Dell updates its Mobile Connect app to support iPhone screen mirroring, controlling the keyboard and mouse, and sharing photo and video files — Dell Mobile Connect now supports screen-mirroring — If you're an iPhone user with a modern Dell computer, you can now mirror your phone's screen …

More: LaptopMag, Dell USA, iPhone in Canada Blog, Patently Apple, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, and AppleInsider

Reuters:

Counterpoint: global smartphone sales fell 14% in February as the coronavirus spread in China; China saw sales drop 38% YoY in February — SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Global smartphone sales tumbled 14% in February as the coronavirus spread in China and overseas, Counterpoint Research said on Thursday …

More: MacDailyNews and Gizchina

Ally Marotti / Chicago Tribune:

Groupon says CEO Rich Williams and COO Steve Krenzer “no longer” in their roles, but continue to work at Groupon; N. America business head appointed interim CEO — Groupon CEO Rich Williams is out. — The move comes about a month after the Chicago-based deals site reported …

More: Business Wire, Wall Street Journal, PYMNTS.com, TechCrunch, and MarketWatch

Tweets: @allymarotti and @danprimack

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:

WHO partners with Facebook, Microsoft, and other tech companies on #BuildforCOVID19 hackathon to develop software tackling COVID-19 challenges, starting Mar. 26 — - The World Health Organization has partnered with Facebook, Microsoft and several other tech companies for a hackathon to promote …

More: CNBC, Forbes, KrASIA, Devpost, ZDNet, Amrit Shenava's Newsletter, Android Central, ProgrammableWeb.com, Input, SiliconANGLE, Newsroom | TikTok, Business Insider, TechSpot, The Star Online, Tom's Hardware, BetaNews, CNET, Pandaily, Silicon Republic, coinspeaker.com, PR Newswire, and Seeking Alpha

Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg. Tweets: @stevekovach, @hacksterio, @drtedros, @dustinpenner25, @fbplatform, @dantley, @robleathern, @michaelmontano, @boztank, and @mosseri. Thanks:@sal19

Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:

Plastiq, which lets consumers and SMBs use credit cards to pay for anything, raises $75M Series D round led by B Capital Group, bringing total raised to $140M+ — When Eliot Buchanan tried to use his credit card to pay his Harvard tuition bill, the payment was rejected because the university said it doesn't accept credit.

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