Techmeme: Sources: SoftBank has invested $500M+ into Credit Suisse supply-chain finance funds that then made big bets on the debt of struggling SoftBank-backed startups (Financial Times)

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June 15, 2020, 7:45 AM

Top News

Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: at its current pace, Quibi will sign up fewer than 2M paying subscribers by the end of its first year, well under its original target of 7.4M — Two veteran executives with contrasting styles are launching Quibi, an on-the-go streaming service, during a pandemic

Amanda Meade / The Guardian:

In response to Australian regulator, Facebook says it will not pay for shared news links and that not having them at all would not significantly impact business — Social media giant rejects ACCC proposal, saying it could cut out news completely without any significant impact on its business

More: Asia Times, ZDNet, The Age, ABC, Facebook, Geek News Central, MediaNama, AdNews, and Facebook

Tweets: @benwhitelaw, @harrisonjames, @pandemic_times, @therealpbarry, @transatlantic, @avtarramsingh, @donie, @moonalice, @wrightadam, @matthewstoller, @deaneckles, @chetfaliszek, @donie, @jason_kint, and @chrizap

See also Mediagazer

Financial Times:

Sources: SoftBank has invested $500M+ into Credit Suisse supply-chain finance funds that then made big bets on the debt of struggling SoftBank-backed startups — Japanese conglomerate engages in circular flow of financing to Vision Fund start-ups — SoftBank has quietly poured more than $500m …

More: Fortune. Tweets: @sameer_singh17, @sarthakgh, @spignal, @mattzeitlin, @birdyword, @bondhack, @peter_tl, @fascinatorfun, and @bjmbraun

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

GitHub CEO says company is working to replace the name “master” for the default version of source code repositories with a more neutral term — GitHub getting on board legitimizes movement aimed at removing racially-charged language from software.

More: The Next Web and Telegraph

Tweets: @jaromil, @partisangirl, @ryan, @tonynorthrup, @danielctull, @kevingiszewski, @__anoop, @fascinated, @chrismessina, @nsthorat, @satyan, @mor10, @alolita, @xpasky, @twostraws, and @notdan

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

ByteDance says it's shutting down two of its apps in India, Vigo Lite and Vigo Video, the latter of which reportedly had 4M MAUs, urging users to move to TikTok — Chinese internet giant ByteDance has announced plans to discontinue two of its apps in India, its biggest overseas market, and urged users to move to TikTok.

More: Entrackr, Fossbytes, Hindustan Times, Fortune, The Next Web, Outlook India Magazine, MediaNama, and TechNode

Tweets: @sub8u and @medianama

Nathan Baschez / Divinations:

Apple's efforts in health amount to a new OS, a bottleneck that all healthcare players, from providers to device makers, must integrate with to get distribution — Apple is building an operating system for health — This essay was co-authored by Rob Litterst and Nathan Baschez

More: Philip Elmer‑DeWitt. Tweets: @shivsharma_5, @smalera, @sarthakgh, @gavinsbaker, @kartikhelps, @gavinsbaker, @bpm140, @gotwalt, @brendanjshort, @nbashaw, and @taylormajewski

Wall Street Journal:

PayPal, Square, others make some businesses wait for weeks to access funds, to protect themselves against the rise of disputed transactions during the pandemic — More people are demanding refunds for things bought before the pandemic. PayPal, Square and others are trying to protect themselves …

More: PYMNTS.com. Tweets: @wsjmarkets and @mdudas

David Ingram / NBC News:

US efforts to deploy COVID-19 contact tracing apps have fallen flat, as most states retreat from earlier interest and the few with an app struggle with adoption — At a briefing this week, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy touted his state's efforts to trace the spread of the coronavirus …

More: Business Insider, Slashdot, and Telegraph

Tweets: @ohthatflo, @johnroa, @steve_glazer, @callumj, @aaronpholmes, @ldrogen, @chrissyfarr, @nbcnews, @hughlangley, @ballerinax, @hypervisible, @david_ingram, @cfarivar, @nbcnightlynews, and @privacydigest

Crystal Tse / Bloomberg:

Boston-based Duck Creek Technologies, a software provider for insurers, raises $230M ahead of a planned IPO — - Investors include Kayne Anderson Rudnick, Whale Rock Capital — Insurance software maker announced filing last year for IPO — Duck Creek Technologies …

Brian Fung / CNN:

As Microsoft and Amazon push for federal regulation of facial recognition, an overview of related local laws that have been passed and tech lobbying efforts — How facial recognition went from bad TV to Big Brother — (CNN)In a matter of days, there was a sea change with one of the most cutting-edge …

More: Fast Company

FinSMEs:

Boston-based Appfire, which has over 60 apps used by enterprises to enhance collaboration tools like Atlassian's Jira and Confluence, raises $49M — Appfire, a Boston, MA-based provider of apps for software development teams, raised $49M in strategic funding. — Silversmith Capital Partners made the investment.

More: PitchBook, Law360, and Appfire

Jack Bandy / Mac O’Clock:

Research comparing curation by humans and algorithms on Apple News shows that human editors chose more diverse sources, more evenly, and less “soft news” — Over one hundred million people use Apple News every month. Our study showed key differences in the stories that editors and algorithms curate for those people.

More: INMA and AAAI

Tweets: @sachinrekhi, @inmaorg, @ndiakopoulos, @noupside, and @inmaorg

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From Mediagazer

Gary Baum / The Hollywood Reporter:

A look at the first “case” brought before Objection, which aims to use AI to evaluate news stories, and a Q&A with Objection's founder; the site is now dark

Marah Eakin / Current:

Fred Rogers Productions launches a Mister Rogers' Neighborhood YouTube channel, curating content based on monthly themes and focusing on reach over monetization

Daniel Arkin / NBC News:

Gene Shalit, a longtime film critic for NBC's Today who was with the show from 1970 until his retirement in 2010, dies at 100

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More News

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Vietnam-based Propzy, a real estate marketplace that also helps with financing, insurance, more, raises $25M Series A led by Gaw Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia

Fudge_0001 / reddit:

Thoughts on Mac's transition to ARM, which started with the T1 chip and may soon enter the third of four stages with a new 12" MacBook

More: Ubergizmo, MacRumors, Tom's Guide, iMore, CNET, and Pocketnow

Tweets: @stevesi, @wongmjane, @gernot, @dsilverman, @_inside, @jonst0kes, @layoutsubviews, @briannawu, @stevesi, and @stroughtonsmith

Google Support:

Google apologizes for a glitch that made a picture of Winston Churchill disappear from his Knowledge Graph entry

More: 9to5Google, INSIDER, Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Scottish Sun, RTÉ, and Reclaim The Net

Tweets: @searchliaison, @searchliaison, @bjh80, @tomhfh, @mrjamesob, and @alexvtunzelmann

Stephen Harrison / Slate:

“Neutral point of view” is a core principle of Wikipedia but racial justice protests are sparking debates among contributors on what neutrality actually means

Tweets: @brianlzw, @rhyslindmark, @futuretensenow, @iethics, and @wikimedia

FinSMEs:

Squire Technologies, an NYC-based provider of barbershop management software, raises $34M Series B led by CRV, bringing its total raised to $46.2M

More: Electronic Payments …, Buffalo Business Journal, and PR Newswire

Robert P. Baird / New Yorker:

How a philanthropic COVID-19 testing effort by Utah tech companies like Nomi Health and Domo became a commercial enterprise, despite questions about performance

Tweets: @kimgoodwin, @wilbanks, @newsvulcan, @clinchemdoc, @glenmillsabc4, @allergyphd, @normanswan, @statmandue, @mcjennejohn, @garonsen, @billylea, @newyorker, @newyorker, @scottjbecker, @bobbybaird, @michaelluo, and @nebraskamegan

Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:

In leaked letters, House Judiciary asks Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, and Facebook to say by Sunday whether their CEOs will testify in antitrust hearings in July

More: MediaNama, Engadget, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iMore, AppleInsider, and Patently Apple

Tweets: @chrismessina, @s8mb, and @margarethmcgill

Earlier Picks

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:

Filing: Tencent took a 1.6% stake in Warner Music Group for $200M in Warner's IPO in separate transactions by two Tencent subsidiaries; shares now worth ~$250M

More: Billboard, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg, Variety, and Music Business Worldwide. Tweets: @somospostpc

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

PE firm TPG to invest $600M in Reliance Jio Platforms for a 0.93% stake in the company and L Catterton to invest $250M for a 0.39% stake

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:

At launch, Facebook News had very few stories on politics, many New York Times links, and coverage overlapped little with the most popular articles on Facebook

Tweets: @niemanreports, @mattnavarra, and @laurahazardowen

Biz Carson / Protocol:

Q&A with Chris Best, CEO of Substack: the company has seen revenue increase 60% and readership and writership double in the first three months of the pandemic

Tweets: @aaronwall, @perryhewitt, @bizcarson, @sarthakgh, and @substackinc

Sean Burch / The Wrap:

HBO says it will be shutting down its HBO Go streaming app on July 31, following the recent launch of HBO Max; HBO Now will be rebranded as just HBO

More: 9to5Mac, Redmond Pie, Slashdot, and Tubefilter

Tweets: @natjarv, @amyalkon, @mccanner, @jessesingal, @rhhackett, @jackpmoore, @billsimmons, @ditzkoff, @maskedscheduler, @azalben, @moryan, @brianmcc, @profgalloway, @mmasnick, @reckless, @kimzetter, and @karlbode

CNN:

Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan respond to Chan Zuckerberg Initiative scientists who wrote a letter on Trump, say they are “disgusted” by Trump's protest remarks

More: Gizmodo Australia, Al Jazeera, The Wire, Reuters, Mercury News, Newser, Variety, and Input

Tweets: @teddyschleifer, @willmcavoyacn, @danielzklein, @anitam86, @sruhle, @karaswisher, @anandwrites, @neeratanden, @slpng_giants, and @jasonsynaptic