Techmeme
December 1, 2020, 10:23 PM

Top News

TechCrunch:
Salesforce announces it's buying Slack in a $27.7B deal  —  Salesforce, the CRM powerhouse that recently surpassed $20 billion in annual revenue, announced today it is wading deeper into enterprise social by acquiring Slack in a $27.7 billion megadeal.  —  Every worker at every company needs …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Slack reports Q3 revenue of $234.5M, up 39% YoY, added 12K net new paid customers, up 140% YoY, has over 520K connected endpoints on Slack Connect, up 240% YoY  —  The acquisition sets up a showdown with Microsoft and its Teams platform over the future of collaboration and digital work.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
AWS unveils its new custom ML training chip Trainium with support for TensorFlow, PyTorch, and MXNet, coming 2021; AWS claims it outperforms rival cloud chips  —  At its annual re:Invent developer conference, AWS today announced the launch of AWS Trainium, the company's next-gen custom chip dedicated …
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
BBC:
Facebook's Oversight Board details its first six cases, from 20K submitted, opens them to public comment, and announces the appointment of five more trustees  —  Facebook's Oversight Board has chosen its first batch of cases to review.  —  All involve decisions originally made by the platform to remove user content.
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Libra Association changes its name to the Diem Association, distancing itself from Facebook, plans to launch the “Diem dollar” when the new entity is licensed  —  The Libra Association put together by Facebook last year is rebranding in further efforts to distance itself …
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Google Maps rolls out a new community feed section within Explore tab, featuring posts from local experts, food and drink merchants, and publishers you follow  —  Google is introducing a new community feed to Maps that the company says will help keep you informed of all the latest developments in your city …
CNBC:
Amazon says 2020's holiday shopping season has been its biggest ever, with independent sellers reaching $4.8B+ in worldwide sales over the weekend, up 60% YoY  —  - Amazon has announced that this year's holiday shopping season has been the biggest in its history.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft will remove user names from Productivity Score feature after a privacy backlash, says Microsoft 365 will only aggregate data at the organization level  —  Microsoft says it will make changes in its new Productivity Score feature, including removing the ability for companies to see data …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
HPE announces it will relocate its headquarters from San Jose, CA, to Houston, TX, that it's constructing a new campus there, and no layoffs come with the move  —  - Hewlett Packard Enterprise is relocating its headquarters to Houston, Texas.  — The company is currently constructing a new campus.
Reuters:
Sources: Samsung may discontinue Galaxy Note next year, reflecting the sharp drop in demand for high-end smartphones due to the pandemic  —  SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd may discontinue its premium Galaxy Note phone next year, sources with knowledge of the matter said …
Shara Tibken / CNET:
The Citizen Lab:
Report details the use of telecom snooping tools provided by Circles, an NSO Group affiliate, by 25 nations, some of which have a history of human rights abuses  —  Summary & Key Findings  — Circles is a surveillance firm that reportedly exploits weaknesses in the global mobile phone system …

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Jon Porter / The Verge:
Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal: