Techmeme: Newly filed Google Ireland Holdings accounts show $75B+ in profits moved through the subsidiary in 2019, the last year Google used the “double Irish” tax scheme (Will Goodbody/RTÉ)

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April 18, 2021, 2:35 PM

Top News

Clubhouse:

Clubhouse has raised a Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz, with DST Global, Tiger Global, and Elad Gil participating — Since then we have grown faster than expected, as Clubhouse has expanded across hundreds of countries around the world. With millions of new users bouncing around the hallways …

More: The Information and Adweek

Fiona Kelliher / Mercury News:

Charles “Chuck” Geschke, who co-founded Adobe in 1982 with John Warnock and helped develop PDF technology, died on Friday at 81 — Charles “Chuck” Geschke, co-founder of the iconic Silicon Valley company Adobe Inc. and prominent cheerleader of downtown San Jose, died Friday at age 81.

More: Adobe Press Releases, The Verge, Engadget, Gizmodo, The Economic Times, BBC, Associated Press, Newser, Los Altos Town Crier, PetaPixel, Palo Alto Daily Post, Silicon Valley Business …, Daring Fireball, and Silicon Valley Business …

Tweets: @codeorg, @nbcbayarea, @ajay_bagga, @donal888, and @necn

Raphael Satter / Reuters:

US investigators probing a breach at Codecov, a software auditing company, that affected some of its 29K customers; the breach was in Jan. but detected in April — U.S. federal investigators are probing an intrusion at San Francisco-based software auditing company Codecov that affected …

More: Codecov, Ars Technica, BleepingComputer, The Verge, Gizmodo, Decipher, BankInfoSecurity, CyberScoop, and SC Media

Tweets: @flugazi and @ihadrami_

Will Goodbody / RTÉ:

Newly filed Google Ireland Holdings accounts show $75B+ in profits moved through the subsidiary in 2019, the last year Google used the “double Irish” tax scheme — Newly filed accounts show that over $75bn in profits moved through a subsidiary of Google that was incorporated in Ireland in 2019 …

More: The Irish Times. Tweets: @think_or_swim, @paulodonoghue93, @irishtimes, @mickpuck, @stuartdneilson, @peterjimbryant, @cian2me, @ecowarriorss, @smashdawg, @davegibney, @naomiohreally, @dolanedward, @wolfiechristl, @paulodonoghue93, @paddycosgrave, and @mattcarthy

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

A look back at the netbook explosion of the late 2000s and how iPads, Chromebooks, and appliance-like computers took the netbook's place — The sound of a slow processor screaming — There's an Apple event next week, and it's looking fairly likely that we'll see updated models of the iPad Pro and perhaps the iPad Mini.

More: The Verge, Yahoo Finance, MacRumors, and AppleInsider

Tweets: @reckless, @benkuchera, @sascha_p, @edzitron, @kilianvalkhof, @chronic, @starfire2258, @kane, @scottssoapbox, @joewintergreen, @martinsfp, @dsilverman, and @mmasnick

Todd Feathers / The Markup:

A look at lobbying efforts by Facebook, Apple, Google and others in Connecticut, Texas, and other US states crafting consumer privacy bills — The Markup found industry fingerprints on at least five bills around the country—weak laws, experts say, that are designed to preempt stronger protections

More: Hello World. Tweets: @pjrvs, @leoniehaimson, @cjcolclough, @themarkup, @eff, @joejerome, @wolfiechristl, @aclu_norcal, and @profcarroll

Cade Metz / New York Times:

A former alt-right YouTuber details how he tailored videos for the “echo chamber”, including focusing squarely on confrontations to drive views on YouTube — Focus on conflict. Feed the algorithm. Make sure whatever you produce reinforces a narrative. Don't worry if it is true.

Tweets: @nytimesbusiness, @markhurst, @jgreenblattadl, @frankpasquale, @nytmedia, @anthony, and @clearing_fog

Julie Zhu / Reuters:

Sources: Ant Group is exploring options for founder Jack Ma to divest his stake and give up control to appease Chinese regulators — Ant Group is exploring options for founder Jack Ma to divest his stake in the financial technology giant and give up control, as meetings with Chinese regulators signaled …

Tweets: @azeem, @richardturrin, @isaacstonefish, @niubi, and @niubi

Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal:

Roblox is working on content ratings for games and on ways to make parental controls easier to find and use, to address sexual content issues on its platform — Sexual role-play and ‘dating’ are common on the children's gaming platform; parental controls help make it a safer space

More: The Verge and Engadget

Tweets: @mukund and @wsj

Dina Temple-Raston / NPR:

Company officials, victims, experts, and intel officials discuss the SolarWinds hack, which successfully compromised ~100 companies and a dozen govt. agencies — “This release includes bug fixes, increased stability and performance improvements.” — The routine software update …

More: Bitcoin News and Channel Futures

Tweets: @shriramkmurthi, @mevstatieva, @hausofcait, @wandermiles, @adam_k_levin, @daytonpubpolicy, @nancynoco24, @nprdina, and @npr

Ira Boudway / Bloomberg:

How Aurora, now the owner of Uber's ATG, is moving to bring its self-driving tech to market via deals with Volvo in trucking, Uber and Toyota in taxis, more — On Feb. 11, about a month after closing on the acquisition of Uber's Advanced Technologies Group, or ATG, the self-driving-car startup Aurora held an all-hands meeting.

Tweets: @bw, @tweetermeyer, @iboudway, @mavolpi, and @greylockvc

Alex Konrad / Forbes:

Interview with Initialized Capital's Garry Tan on the firm's seed investment in Coinbase, Ohanian's departure, building a presence on social media, and more — Covering venture capital, software and startups — In March 2012, Garry Tan received an email from the founder of a new startup called Bitbank, Brian Armstrong.

Tweets: @garrytan, @joshelman, @howardlindzon, @gavinsbaker, @ricmac, @alexrkonrad, @initialized, @dafrankel, and @rsarver. Thanks:@alexrkonrad

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From Mediagazer

Michael Savage / The Guardian:

In response to its charter review, the BBC says “irreversible” trends threaten its survival, citing a “mismatch” between TV license rules and viewing habits

Naman Ramachandran / Variety:

ITV reports 2025 revenue up 1% YoY to £3.5B, ITV Studios revenue up 10% YoY to £2.13B, ITVX hit 16.5M MAUs and £540M in ad revenue, and confirms Sky talks

Tess Patton / The Wrap:

Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann says the company's new podcast division saw high mobile engagement in Q1, and video podcasts overindex on mobile vs. shows and film

More News

Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:

Big tech whistleblowers describe the severe emotional toll that standing up to gigantic companies takes and how it sets them on the path to advocacy

Rest of World:

Internet blackouts following a military coup have shut down swathes of the online economy in Myanmar, where internet penetration had surged to around 43%

Tweets: @restofworld, @restofworld, @peterguest, @emilyfishbein11, @p_annawitt, @baptist_simon, @tmclaughlin3, @nunulusan, @cengizyar, and @santhaishin

James Vincent / The Verge:

As the EU considers new regulations for AI, 60+ NGOs ask the EC to ban automatic gender recognition systems, which rely on outmoded understandings of gender

Tweets: @thedextriarchy, @mistydemeo, @accessnow, @cendemtech, @jjvincent, and @autistichoya

Shen Lu / Protocol:

How Weibo helps Chinese authorities quash the feminist movement by deleting activist accounts, while also profiting from their nationalist harassers

Tweets: @alex, @noahpinion, @grantwyeth, @johnhemmings2, @ninedragons2, @theasianfmnst, @theasianfmnst, @dwertime, and @letahong

Kristin Robinson / Variety:

As Spotify turns 15, a look at the ways in which it changed how people listen to music, like breaking down boundaries between genres through “mood playlists”

Tweets: @tommanatos, @claudiusboller, @firstcom_music, @mrjonburk, @wordsbykristin, @thatericalper, @artsjournalnews, @variety, @viticci, @ericswaggyswoop, and @riegerreport

Earlier Picks

Nikkei Asia:

Sources: at least four types of equipment vital to chip production are in short supply and lead times for wire bonding machines have grown to 10-12 months

Tweets: @chengtingfang, @nikkeiasia, @aschilling, and @jimhandc

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google is moving FeedBurner to a “more stable, modern infrastructure” later this year, but is shutting down email subscriptions and other non-core features

More: FeedBurner Help and TechCrunch. Tweets: @chrismessina

Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:

Outschool, a marketplace for online after-school classes, raises $75M Series C led by Coatue and Tiger Global at a $1.3B valuation, up from $320M in Sep. 2020

Tweets: @nataliapetrzela, @ljungman, @slp_edu, @ycombinator, and @km

Annie Palmer / CNBC:

Sources detail Amazon's tactics during the Alabama union campaign, including “captive audience meetings”, as workers explain why the union was unconvincing

More: Washington Post and New York Times

Tweets: @greenhousenyt, @jason, @gastropoda, @matthuber78, @mrianleslie, @casparshaller, @veenadubal, @dancharvey, @jbrous41, @edasante77, @dealbook, @halsinger, @foustband, @marcos_galperin, and @senwarren. Thanks:@mattrosoff

Jem Aswad / Variety:

Looking at payment per stream metrics for music streaming services can be misleading when considering artist pay, as many factors determine streaming royalties