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February 3, 2021, 7:00 PM
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| Ben Thompson / Stratechery: |
Jeff Bezos departs as perhaps the best CEO in tech history, having created three huge businesses: Amazon.com, AWS, and Amazon's marketplace/fulfillment services — It's the refunds that blow my mind. — You may be surprised to know that, despite the fact I live in Taiwan, I have an Amazon Prime account.
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On my Om, The Verge, Michael Tsai, Daring Fireball, Business Insider, CNBC, and KnowTechie
Tweets: @cagan, @om, @ntaylor963, @mathewi, @dylanbyers, @ahmed, and @stratechery
| Brad Stone / Bloomberg: |
Jeff Bezos's surprise resignation feels natural and even inevitable; the walls of his highly compartmentalized empire have been crumbling for some time — Jeff Bezos has a formulation about one-way doors and two-way doors—decisions that are irreversible and permanent and those that can always be unwound.
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CNBC, PYMNTS.com, TechRepublic, Tech Xplore, New York Times, The Verge, The Economic Times, Business Insider, BBC, Financial Times, Data Driven Investor, and Axios
Tweets: @histoftech, @business, @josh_wingrove, @retogregori, and @dylanbyers
| CNBC: |
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VICE, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Axios, Slate, Reuters, Washington Post, Politico, Vox, Forbes, South China Morning Post, Fast Company, Business Insider, coinspeaker.com, USA Today, Amazon Chronicles, BGR India, and Protocol
| BuzzFeed News: |
Facebook says it will try to protect posts that criticized Myanmar's military and its coup and will remove content that praises or supports the coup — After failing to stem the hate speech and misinformation that fueled a genocide in Myanmar, Facebook now says it plans … | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Myanmar's new military government has ordered local telecoms to temporarily block Facebook and its family of apps within the country — Myanmar's new military government has ordered local telecom firms to temporarily block Facebook in the Southeast Asian nation days after the military seized power in the country in a military coup.
More:
Engadget and Reuters
Tweets: @hninyadanazaw, @accessnow, @ajamubaraka, @rmac18, @rmac18, @asteris, @kevincchang, @tzemingdynasty, @hninyadanazaw, and @rmac18
| Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal: |
SolarWinds CEO says hackers had breached the company's Office 365 email system for at least nine months starting December 2019 — Investigators still don't know how the company was breached in attack that will cost millions — The newly appointed chief executive of SolarWinds Corp …
More:
Trustwave, Reuters, Axios, Bloomberg, CyberScoop, Washington Post, Orange Matter, Nextgov, Threatpost, Wired, The Hill, SecurityWeek, OnMSFT.com, Security Affairs, Cybereason, The Hacker News, AppleInsider, SC Media, BleepingComputer, Forbes, NBC News, CNET, infosecurity-magazine.com, Dark Reading, and CRN
| Sara Fischer / Axios: |
TikTok will prompt users to seek credible information if they try to share videos flagged as misleading, and disincentivize creators from uploading such content — TikTok will begin asking users to seek credible information about a topic if they try to share a video that carries …
More:
TikTok, CNN, The Verge, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, KnowTechie, Pocketnow, and CyberScoop
Tweets: @tiktokcomms and @sarafischer
| Bloomberg: |
Report: Apple plans $3.6B investment in Kia, with a deal on Feb. 17, and aims to start making cars in Georgia, US in 2024, with initial target of 100K cars/year — - Local media report says deal may be signed later this month — Hyundai last month confirmed then backed away from Apple talks
Source:
gongA.com. More:
AppleInsider, MacDailyNews, MakeUseOf, PYMNTS.com, Reuters, MacRumors, Redmond Pie, TechSpot, Apple Must, PCMag, iDownloadBlog.com, BGR, iPhone in Canada Blog, Light Reading, KnowTechie, TechRadar, Cult of Mac, iMore, Fortune, Tom's Guide, and Mashable
Tweets: @carnage4life, @sam_l_shead, @imkialikethecar, @twitandrewking, @brianroemmele, and @mpelletiercio
| Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: |
Box says it has acquired Dutch cloud-based e-signature startup SignRequest for $55M and plans to launch Box Sign in summer 2021 — Cloud storage and collaboration giant Box has announced plans to acquire SignRequest, a cloud-based electronic signature (e-signature) startup based in the Netherlands, in a deal worth $55 million.
More:
TechCrunch, Box Blog, Tech.eu, SiliconANGLE, Business Wire, ZDNet, and Business Insider
| Bloomberg: |
In an email to staff on February 1, Andy Jassy reaffirmed his commitment to making video games, following a scathing Bloomberg profile of Amazon Game Studios — One day before he was named the next chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., Andy Jassy reaffirmed his commitment to making video games …
More:
Engadget, PC Gamer, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and Kotaku Australia
Tweets: @jasonschreier, @jasonschreier, and @mattmday
| Sam Byford / The Verge: |
Sony says it shipped 4.5M PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, and reports revenue of $8.4B in Q3, up 40% YoY, operating profit of $763.3M, up 50% — A similar figure to the PS4 launch — Sony shipped 4.5 million PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, as revealed by information published alongside …
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Ars Technica, Engadget, Reuters, SlashGear, Nikkei Asia, Dot Esports, 9to5Toys, Android Headlines, Wall Street Journal, Trusted Reviews, VentureBeat, CNET, Tom's Hardware, TechSpot, Thurrott, Laptop Mag, CNBC, PCMag, TechPowerUp, KnowTechie, and Financial Times
Tweets: @tomwarren and @vikingsizegamer
| Marc Andreessen / Andreessen Horowitz: |
a16z names Sriram Krishnan as its newest GP, after roles at Facebook, Snap, Twitter; Krishnan has been consulting for nine months on an a16z “community project” — Welcome, Sriram Krishnan, our newest general partner, to Andreessen Horowitz! — Sriram is a well-known …
More:
TechCrunch. Tweets: @sriramk, @pmarca, @austen, @vijaypande, @rrhoover, @sriramk, @hkanji, @thekenyeung, @alexeheath, @mylesudland, @jyarow, @andrewchen, @sriramk, @thekenyeung, @benedictevans, @amir, @hunterwalk, and @sarthakgh
| Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal: |
Spotify reports Q4 results: 345M MAUs, up 27% YoY, as paying subscribers grew to 155M, up 24% YoY, topping expectations; revenue was up 17% YoY to €2.17B — But streaming giant offers conservative outlook for the current year as new sign-ups could ebb
More:
Spotify, Spotify, The Verge, Variety, 9to5Mac, Axios, phonearena.com, Deadline, TechSpot, RAIN News, Engadget, and Bloomberg
Tweets: @kerrymflynn and @dylanbyers
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: Jack Ma's Ant Group has reached an agreement with Chinese regulators to turn Ant into a financial holding company, subject to bank capital requirements — - Ma's fintech giant will become a financial holding company — Ant is still exploring a potential IPO, but timeline unclear
More:
PYMNTS.com, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, Financial Times, and Tech in Asia
Tweets: @luluyilun and @glennluk
| Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News: |
India's IT ministry orders Twitter to block the recently restored accounts of dissidents and The Caravan magazine, or Twitter staff could face fines or jail — India's government has threatened to punish employees at Twitter with fines and jail terms of up to seven years for restoring hundreds … | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
More:
Wall Street Journal, The Economic Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, NDTV.com, Reuters, and Variety
Tweets: @meghavishwanath and @accessnow
| Reuters: |
Microsoft says it supports Australia's proposed new laws forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news content and it would be “willing to live by these rules” — (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it fully supported proposed new laws in Australia that would force internet giants Google … | Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge: |
Google rolls out an update for Android TV with a refreshed UI that is similar to Google TV on Chromecast — A fresh look for Google's (other) smart TV software — Google is rolling out a new update for Android TV that gives its smart TV OS a fresh new look — one that's almost identical … | Brian Flood / Fox Business: |
In an internal memo, John Matze says he has been terminated as Parler's CEO by its board of directors — “The future of Parler is no longer in my hands,” Matze wrote — EXCLUSIVE - Parler has terminated CEO John Matze, according to a memo Matze sent to staffers that has been obtained by Fox News.| Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: |
Google and its partner SubCom say the Dunant subsea cable between US and France is now operational; the 4,000-mile cable can carry 250 terabits/second — Google's second fully privately owned subsea cable is now open for business. The announcement comes shortly after the company recorded … | Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware: |
Report: in Q4 2020, Intel clawed back QoQ desktop PC and notebook CPU market share from AMD for the first time in 3 years amid AMD's ongoing supply chain issues — The Mercury Research CPU market share results are in for the fourth quarter of 2020, with the headline news being that Intel … | Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch: |
Wine recommendation and marketplace app Vivino raises $155M Series D led by Sweden's Kinnevik, bringing its total raised to $221M, and says it now has 50M users — If you're at all interested in wine, chances are you've turned to Vivino at least a few times for recommendations.
More:
The Spoon, PYMNTS.com, StreetInsider.com, Bloomberg, and FinSMEs
Tweets: @westmansanna and @mdudas
| Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.vc: |
Apple's iOS is inhibiting the growth of the future internet but regulators can remedy that by forcing Apple into competition in app distribution and payments — Chapter One: The Creation of Today's Internet and the Needs of Tomorrow's — One of the neat things about the internet is who created it, why, and how.
More:
nwn.blogs.com. Tweets: @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @michaelbatnick, @dkthomp, @benedictevans, @zoescaman, @akruglov, @ricardobsalinas, @pierskicks, @dsilverman, @timsweeneyepic, @ctothejones, @micapital2, @lucas_shaw, @valuations_, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, and @ballmatthew
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Instagram confirms it is working on an early prototype of Vertical Instagram Stories, which are presented in a TikTok-like scrolling fashion — Instagram is developing a new feature that could give its app more of a TikTok-like feel: Vertical Instagram Stories.
More:
Instagram, The Verge, Gizmodo, Business Insider, 9to5Mac, Mashable, Social Media Today, iPhone Hacks, and phonearena.com
Tweets: @alex193a, @mattnavarra, and @crerrity
| Natalia Drozdiak / Bloomberg: |
Biden's administration signals it is open to a deal on taxing US tech companies globally, after EU-Trump clashes, as OECD plans an agreement by summer — Hey all, it's Natalia. Tech giants including Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. could soon be hit with higher taxes around …
Tweets: @glynmoody and @economics
| Bloomberg: |
Online payments service Payoneer, which counts Airbnb and Amazon as clients, agrees to go public via SPAC at a $3.3B valuation — - Payment firm used by Airbnb, Amazon to merge with FTAC Olympus — Company is profitable, expects $432 million in revenue in 2021
More:
Finextra, MarketWatch, Reuters, Business Insider, Globes Online, and PYMNTS.com
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Touchcast, which builds tools to help companies create and run virtual events, raises $55M Series A led by Accenture Ventures — Events — when they haven't been cancelled altogether in the last 12 months due to the global health pandemic — have gone virtual and online …
More:
PYMNTS.com, PR Newswire, and SiliconANGLE
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Rescale, which offers “infrastructure-as-a-service” tools for scientific and engineering simulations, raises $50M Series C, bringing total raised to $100M+ — Rescale, a San Francisco, California-based startup developing a software platform and hardware infrastructure for scientific …
More:
FinSMEs
| Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: |
Online grocery delivery service Good Eggs raises $100M led by Glade Brook Capital Partners — Grocery delivery startup Good Eggs is announcing that it has raised $100 million in new funding, and that it's planning to launch in Southern California in either the summer or fall of this year.
More:
GlobeNewswire, San Francisco Business Journal, BloombergQuint, and PYMNTS.com
Tweets: @mattrosoff, @foodtechconnect, and @autumncapital
| Wallace Witkowski / MarketWatch: |
Qualcomm reports Q1 revenue of $8.24B, up 62% YoY but below $8.27B est., with net income of $2.46B, up 165% YoY; stock down 6%+ after hours — Revenue comes in just shy of expectations, while profit and outlook exceed projections — Qualcomm Inc. shares dropped in the extended session Wednesday …
More:
ZDNet, TheStreet, CNBC, and Qualcomm Investor Relations
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