Techmeme
May 4, 2021, 4:05 PM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Twitter buys Scroll, the $5/month service that removes ads from partner news sites; Scroll's Nuzzel email service will shut down on May 6  —  The Nuzzel email service is winding down and the future of Scroll is uncertain  —  Twitter's acquisition spree continues today with Scroll …
Sarah McBride / Bloomberg:
Justin Zhu, former Iterable CEO ousted for taking LSD before a meeting, on his disputes with key investors and the challenges of being Chinese in Silicon Valley  —  Justin Zhu, chief executive officer of digital marketing startup Iterable Inc., was walking down Broadway in San Francisco …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Basecamp employees detail an all-hands that led to resignations, including the head of strategy, who questioned the existence of white supremacy at the company  —  I.  —  At 8AM PT on Friday, a bleary-eyed Basecamp CEO Jason Fried gathered his remote workforce together on Zoom to apologize.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
On Day Two of the Apple vs Epic trial, Sweeney said he would have taken an exclusive App Store deal, Apple recounted Epic's praise of Apple's Metal API, more  —  The Apple vs. Epic trial continued today, with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney testifying and facing cross-examination from Apple's layers.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Reuters:
Sources: TSMC is planning to build up to five more chipmaking facilities in Arizona, beyond the one currently planned  —  TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) is planning to build several more chipmaking factories in the U.S. state of Arizona beyond the one currently planned …
Stephen Shankland / CNET:
Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch:
A look at Atlanta's emergence as a tech startup hub, bolstered by the diverse entrepreneurial talent coming from regional colleges like Georgia Tech  —  Over the past five years, the Southeastern region, led by Atlanta, has gone from being “one of the best kept secrets” in tech …
Rupert Neate / The Guardian:
Filing: Amazon had sales of €44B in Europe in 2020, but reported a €1.2B loss and therefore paid no corporate tax  —  Despite lockdown surge the firm's Luxembourg unit made a €1.2bn loss and therefore paid zero corporation tax  —  Fresh questions have been raised …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Acronis, which provides data backup and protection services, raises $250M at a $2.5B+ valuation led by CVC  —  As cybersecurity continues to grow in profile amid an increasingly complex and dangerous landscape of malicious activity, a cyber security vendor that specializes in “all-in-one” …
Jane Lee / Reuters:
Kajabi, which helps people monetize expertise through websites, online classes, newsletters, and podcasts, raises $550M led by Tiger Global at a $2B+ valuation  —  Kajabi, an e-commerce platform that serves knowledge-based businesses, said on Tuesday it raised $550 million in its latest round …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Persona, which helps businesses customize their identity verification process, raises $50M Series B led by Index Ventures  —  The identity verification space has been heating up for a while and the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated demand with more people transacting online.
Reuters:
Apple hires ex-Google AI scientist Samy Bengio, who left last month after colleagues' firings; sources say Bengio will lead a new AI unit under John Giannandrea  —  Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said on Monday it has hired former distinguished Google (GOOGL.O) scientist Samy Bengio …
Kate Clark / The Information:
PitchBook: the number of “inside rounds”, where only previous investors participate, rose to over 1,000 in 2020 with $30B invested, up 15% from 2019  —  Venture capitalists may be getting too comfortable with marking up their own portfolios.  —  The number of inside rounds …

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Earlier Picks

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
CNN: