Techmeme
February 25, 2021, 10:15 AM

Top News

Alex Leary / Wall Street Journal:
Biden signs an EO mandating a 100-day review of supply chains, including for semiconductors and rare-earth metals, amid chip shortages  —  The president signed an executive order with the aim of eventually increasing domestic production of critical materials
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Tech retailer Fry's Electronics announces it will cease operations effective immediately, blames industry changes and the pandemic  —  Your best buys are no longer at Fry's, guaranteed  —  Fry's Electronics, one of the last big brick-and-mortar electronics store chains in the United States …
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
ViacomCBS says Paramount+ will cost $5/month with ads and $10/month without ads; the ad tier will be available in June while the ad-free tier starts on March 4  —  ViacomCBS has a ‘mountain of content’ on the way to streaming, including a ‘Halo’ series and ‘Beavis and Butthead.’
Daniel Van Boom / CNET:
Australia passes news bargaining code that will require digital platforms like Google and Facebook to pay local media outlets and publishers for their content  —  Australia on Wednesday passed a new media law that had generated noisy pushback from internet giants Google and Facebook …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India issues tougher rules for tech firms and streaming services like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Netflix over resolving user complaints and more  —  India announced sweeping rules to regulate social media firms, streaming services, and digital news outlets, joining a handful of other nations …
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Amazon is sending postal mail to warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama urging them to “VOTE NO” on unionization, and has also pushed anti-union ads on Twitch  —  A mysterious new USPS mailbox has appeared on Amazon property amid a historic union drive in Bessemer, Alabama.
Bloomberg:
FCC reveals that for its 5G licenses auction, Verizon spent the most of any carrier with $45.5B, followed by AT&T with $23.4B, and T-Mobile with $9.3B  —  - AT&T is second at $23 billion in bids, followed by T-Mobile  — FCC releases results of so-called C-band airwaves sale
Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
GameStop shares closed up nearly 104% on Wednesday, halting twice for volatility; GameStop said on Tuesday its CFO will resign  —  - GameStop announced Tuesday that its chief financial officer Jim Bell will resign on March 26.  — Sources familiar with the matter told Business Insider …
Rafael Frankel / About Facebook:
Facebook says it is banning all Myanmar military and military-controlled entities from Facebook and Instagram, and ads from military-linked commercial entities  —  Myanmar military banned from Facebook and Instagram with immediate effect.  —  Today, we are banning the remaining Myanmar military …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Sorare, an ethereum-powered marketplace for creating and trading football NFTs, raises $50M Series A led by Benchmark  —  Quick Take  — NFT marketplace Sorare has raised $50 million in Series A.  — The round was led by Benchmark, with participation from Accel, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian …
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
Optimism, which plans to help scale the Ethereum blockchain with a Layer 2 protocol, raises $25M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz  —  Optimism, a startup focused on the scalability of the Ethereum blockchain network, has raised a $25 million Series A funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Otter.ai, which offers an AI-based transcription service, raises $50M Series B, including $10M in convertible notes, led by Spectrum Equity  —  AI transcription startup Otter.ai today announced it has raised $50 million in a series B round that includes $10 million in convertible notes and was led by Spectrum Equity.
More: TechCrunch
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Nvidia beats with Q4 revenue of $5B vs. $4.8B expected, up 61% YoY, data center revenue of $1.9B, up 97% YoY, and gaming revenue of $2.5B, up 67% YoY  —  The GPU maker beat Q4 market expectations with record sales in its two key areas of business.  —  Nvidia on Wednesday published fourth …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Armorblox, which protects enterprise communications using AI, raises $30M Series B led by Next47, bringing its total raised to $46.5M  —  Armorblox, a cybersecurity startup using natural language understanding to protect enterprise communications, today announced that it raised $30 million in series B venture capital funding.
Rachel Lerman / Washington Post:
Sources: Parler investor Rebekah Mercer, who controlled 2 of 3 board seats in early February, is increasingly exerting control since the founding CEO's exit  —  Mercer, whose family also invested in right-wing news site Breitbart, controls two of the three board seats at the company
More: Fortune

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Enhancements to Zoho Writer's automation flow designer: New PDF operations, password protection, and more  —  Once we rolled out the automation flow designer in Zoho Writer's merge templates …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:15 AM ET, February 25, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
ProPublica:

Earlier Picks

Taylor Lyles / The Verge:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Sean Hollister / The Verge: