Techmeme
January 5, 2021, 12:10 PM

Top News

Corin Faife / The Markup:
After Facebook turned on political advertising for the Georgia election, partisan content elbowed out traditional news sites in users' news feeds  —  Ahead of crucial senate runoffs, Facebook reversed its political ad ban, and the impact was visible on users' feeds
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
OCC says banks and savings associations can now run crypto nodes and use associated stablecoins for “permissible payment activities”  —  National banks and federal savings associations can use public blockchains and stablecoins for settlement, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency …
TechCrunch:
Twitter has acquired social podcasting app Breaker and its team will join Twitter to help build Twitter Spaces; Breaker app will shut down on January 15  —  Twitter has acquired social broadcasting app Breaker, the companies announced today via a combination of blog posts and tweets.
Saniya More / The Block:
Square says US FinCEN's proposed cryptocurrency regulation will inhibit widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies and hinder current law enforcement efforts  —  Square is the latest company to go public with its opposition to proposed rulemaking from the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Stephanie Chan / Sensor Tower Blog:
Global consumer spending in mobile apps reached a record $111B in 2020, up 30.2% YoY, of which $72.3B was spent on the App Store and $38.6B on the Play Store  —  2020 was a record-setting year for both mobile games and non-game apps, and consumer spending on Apple's App Store and Google Play soared …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Leak shows Microsoft is working on One Outlook, a version of its Outlook app that will merge existing mail and calendar apps for desktops; release goal is 2022  —  Designed to replace the built-in Windows 10 Mail app  —  Microsoft is testing a new Outlook app that will replace its built-in Mail and Calendar apps on Windows 10.
Rebecca Falconer / Axios:
NYSE says it no longer plans to delist China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, but will continue to evaluate applicability of an US EO to the companies  —  The New York Stock Exchange announced late Monday it no longer plans to delist three Chinese companies.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Qualcomm announces CEO Steve Mollenkopf is retiring and current president, Cristiano Amon, will take over on June 30  —  - Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf is retiring this year, the company just announced.  — The company has recently emerged from a thicket of challenges including business model scrutiny …
Yang Jie / Wall Street Journal:
Beijing high court rules Amazon can't use its AWS logo in China, as it belongs to a Chinese software company, and must pay compensation, a setback for Amazon  —  The AWS trademark belongs to a Chinese software services company, Beijing's high court rules  —  Amazon. com Inc. can't use …
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
A group of over 200 Google and Alphabet workers have announced their plan to form a union, open to both employees and contractors  —  A group of more than 200 Google and Alphabet workers have announced the formation of the Alphabet Workers Union, The New York Times first reported.
Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
Sources: Indonesia's Gojek is in advanced talks for a merger with local e-commerce giant PT Tokopedia; the combined entity would be valued over $18B  —  - The deal would combine Indonesia's two most valuable startups  — Discussions with Grab hit impasse over question of control

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More News

Matt Stoller / BIG:
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Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
New York Times: