Techmeme: By July, Chinese banks and trust companies had ~$230B in outstanding loans to users who borrowed via Alipay, a factor in new regulatory scrutiny of Ant Group (Wall Street Journal)

Top News

Sources: Apple is preparing new Apple Silicon-powered MacBook Pros, iMacs, and Mac Pros for as early as spring 2021; full Mac transition will finish in 2022 — - Company tests faster performing processors than Intel's best — Major graphics boost in the works for upcoming desktop Macs

Joyce Lee / Reuters:

LG says it has reorganized its mobile phone division, which has reported a loss for 22 consecutive quarters, to outsource low- and mid-range smartphones — SEOUL (Reuters) - LG Electronics said on Monday it had reorganised its mobile phone division to increase outsourcing of its low to mid-end smartphones …

More: Android Police, HotHardware.com News, Engadget, phonearena.com, SlashGear, Android Central, and Neowin

Maureen Farrell / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Airbnb plans to boost the proposed price range of its IPO to between $56 and $60 a share, which equates to a valuation of $39B to $42B, fully diluted — New price range for home-rental company's public debut equates to $39 billion to $42 billion, fully diluted

More: The Information, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Verge, CNBC, New York Post, coinspeaker.com, Tech Xplore, Crunchbase News, Fortune, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @wsj, @missgallo, @charlesforelle, @danacimilluca, @coryweinberg, @danprimack, and @cindygallop

Ron Miller / TechCrunch:

Tecton.ai raises $35M Series B co-led by a16z and Sequoia Capital as it releases its ML feature store, just a week after AWS debuted its Sagemaker Feature store — Tecton.ai, the startup founded by three former Uber engineers who wanted to bring the machine learning feature store idea to the masses …

More: California News Times and DevOps.com

Wall Street Journal:

By July, Chinese banks and trust companies had ~$230B in outstanding loans to users who borrowed via Alipay, a factor in new regulatory scrutiny of Ant Group — Partnering with the fintech giant has higher risks for smaller lenders, which are already on shaky ground

Tweets: @melt_dem, @melt_dem, @melt_dem, @robertalanward, @jchengwsj, and @jingyanghk

Financial Times:

Inside Disney's costly online push while its lucrative legacy businesses decline, as sources say the success of Disney+ diminished Disney's interest in Hulu — Media empire must sustain its costly online push while its lucrative legacy businesses decline — The Walt Disney Company …

More: The Streamable and Wccftech

Tweets: @annaknicolaou, @financialtimes, @sub8u, @rasmus_kleis, @pkafka, @annaknicolaou, and @ft

See also Mediagazer

Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World:

Facing a nationalist backlash in India, Xiaomi has rebranded itself as a local manufacturer, unlike other Chinese brands that retreated from the limelight — Facing a nationalist backlash in India, Xiaomi has rebranded itself as a local manufacturer. — • BANGALORE, INDIA

Tweets: @anupkaphle, @nilchristopher, @nilchristopher, and @restofworld

Annie Palmer / CNBC:

Filing: e-commerce marketplace Wish aims to raise $1.1B in its IPO at a $14.1B valuation, pricing shares at $22-$24; Wish was last valued at $11.2B in Aug. 2019 — - E-commerce marketplace Wish is aiming to raise roughly $1.1 billion in its upcoming initial public offering, giving it a valuation of up to $14.07 billion.

More: Reuters

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

NortonLifeLock says it has acquired Germany-based antivirus vendor Avira for $360M in cash, eight months after Avira was acquired for $180M by a PE firm — Only eight months after getting acquired for $180 million, Avira is changing hands again, for double the value: NortonLifeLock today announced …

More: Tech.eu, ZDNet, Business Wire, BleepingComputer, SecurityWeek, and Private Equity News. Tweets: @campuscodi

Emily Birnbaum / Protocol:

Profile of Phil Weiser, a law professor, antitrust expert, and Colorado's AG who is co-leading the bipartisan coalition of state AGs investigating Google — Washington's efforts to rein in Big Tech regularly devolve into circus sideshows, with ill-informed members of Congress more interested …

Tweets: @birnbaum_e

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Exclaimer, which helps businesses manage and disseminate email signatures with consistent footers across devices, raises £100M led by Insight Partners — Email signature management platform Exclaimer has raised £100 million ($133 million) in a round of funding led by Insight Partners.

More: PR Newswire. Tweets: @carnage4life

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Wonder, which enables smaller, more organic video-based interactions within a larger virtual conference, raises $11M led by EQT Ventures — A plethora of virtual event platforms have gained significant traction in a year marked by social distancing. And Germany's Wonder is another …

More: FinSMEs, Tech.eu, TechCrunch, and EU-Startups

Bloomberg:

London-based online payments company Paysafe says it will go public via SPAC at a ~$9B valuation; Blackstone and CVC acquired Paysafe for ~$4B in 2017 — A blank-check firm led by billionaire Bill Foley is nearing a deal to merge with Paysafe Group Ltd., a transaction that would take public …

More: Reuters, Business Wire, Financial Times, and PYMNTS.com

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