Techmeme: Study: among 44 tech startups that completed a SPAC deal from the start of 2020 through April 2021, their share prices had fallen 12.6% on average by May 17 (Heather Somerville/Wall Street Journal)

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May 24, 2021, 10:45 AM

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Nick Statt / Protocol:

Ahead of Monday's closing arguments in the Apple vs Epic trial, a closer look at the judge's pointed questioning of Cook that touched on the lack of competition — Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the Epic v. Apple antitrust trial, saved her best for last.

More: The Verge, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, CNET, and RCR Wireless News

Tweets: @protocol, @jeremiahlee, @nickstatt, @nickstatt, @protocol, @nickstatt, @keleftheriou, @nickstatt, @jacobwolf, @stephennellis, @stephennellis, @stephennellis, @markgurman, @reckless, @carnage4life, and @reckless

Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal:

Study: among 44 tech startups that completed a SPAC deal from the start of 2020 through April 2021, their share prices had fallen 12.6% on average by May 17 — Entrepreneurs are increasingly wary about the money-raising tool after watching peers' stocks slide and investors balk

More: Silicon Valley Business … and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @wsj, @julianklymochko, @laurenshirsch, @mayazi, @gunjanjs, and @m_delamerced

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Indian startup Zeta, which helps banks launch fintech products, raises $250M Series C led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a valuation of $1.45B — Zeta, a startup that helps banks and fintech firms launch products, is the newest to attain the coveted unicorn status after closing a new financing round.

More: The Economic Times, Entrackr, The Economic Times, Finextra, Bloomberg, Inc42 Media, and Tech in Asia

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

Google's partnership with Samsung to merge Wear OS with Samsung's Tizen comes after years of Google failing to build a cohesive wearables strategy — Third time might not be the charm — Once again, Google is hitting the reset button, combining with Samsung's Tizen wearable operating system …

Tweets: @ericliptonnyt, @jarango, and @killedbygoogle

Ken Norton / Bring the Donuts Newsletter:

Q&A with Michael Siliski, a business lead at Stripe, on product culture, how written long-form documents facilitate the flow of information at Stripe, and more — Go deep, move fast, and build multi-decade abstractions — This is the next part of my ongoing series about product culture.

More: Protocol. Tweets: @aneel, @patrickc, @quamen, @amix3k, @david_perell, @paulg, @sarthakgh, and @carnage4life

John McCormick / Wall Street Journal:

How Pinterest's neural network curates pins for users, pairing them with tailored ads on their search results, drawing 480M people to the site in Q1, up 30% YoY — Using neural networks, the site is able to find images—and ads—that will catch the consumer's eye

Tweets: @glenngabe and @psb_dc

Olivia Solon / NBC News:

Pro-Palestinian activist campaign targets Facebook's app store ratings via 1-star reviews; Facebook's internal chats show Apple declined to remove the reviews — Pro-Palestinian activists are running a coordinated campaign to downgrade Facebook's app review ratings to protest …

More: The Verge, AppleInsider, New York Post, Insider, MUO, Middle East Eye, and Engadget

Tweets: @hamadrajpvt, @craigkellymp, @osgaweesh, @hamadrajpvt, @sajeeralam, @middleeasteye, @marwasf, @hamadrajpvt, @nazihfares, @matteomoschella, @dats, @oliviasolon, and @bzamayo

Sneha Shah / The Economic Times:

PitchBook: Indian startups raised $7.8B from Jan. to Apr 2021, ~70% of $12.1B raised in 2020; average funding size is $25.21M in 2021, up from $14.94M in 2020 — Startup funding party continues amid second wave of Covid-19 — Risk investors continue to pump in record funds …

More: KrASIA and MediaNama

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:

Kuaishou, ByteDance's main rival, reports Q1 revenue of $2.65B, up 37% YoY, and a net loss of $8.9B, as it delved deeper into online commerce and advertising — - Advertising and e-commerce helped juice quarterly revenue — Kuaishou offers investors a taste of China's hot video market

More: PR Newswire and Tech in Asia

David J. Lynch / Washington Post:

A look at the greater role automation is playing in the US, with labor shortages driving greater adoption since the start of the pandemic — From warehouses to oil fields, artificial intelligence, robots and advanced software are leaving a mark — The United States today is producing roughly …

Tweets: @mckinsey_mgi, @washingtonpost, and @davidjlynch

Wall Street Journal:

Ethiopia picks a consortium backed with US foreign aid and led by Vodafone over a China-backed group to build a multi-billion dollar 5G-capable network — A U.S.-backed consortium beat a Chinese-backed one for a multibillion-dollar contract to build Ethiopia's 5G-capable network

More: Techpoint Africa, Telecoms.com, and Slashdot

Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:

Over 500 AI researchers are working on a project to build an open-source large language model that will be used to conduct research independent of any company — Hundreds of scientists around the world are working together to understand one of the most powerful emerging technologies before it's too late.

Tweets: @jon_severs, @lucianabenotti, @techreview, @_karenhao, @phalcon7, @ict4peace, @techreview, @techreview, @mor10, @glichfield, and @quantamagazine

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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.

From Mediagazer

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Stephen Colbert says CBS lawyers blocked an interview with Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico, citing the FCC's equal time guidance for TV talk shows

Financial Times:

WBD tells Paramount to make its “best and final offer” within seven days, or get out of the way of Netflix's agreed $83B deal; Netflix granted a weeklong waiver

Lachlan Cartwright / Breaker:

Anderson Cooper is leaving 60 Minutes after almost 20 years; sources say he has decided to pass on a renewal offer with CBS

More News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Invoca, which provides call tracking and conversational analytics services, buys DialogTech, which helps marketers analyze inbound calls, source says for $100M

Thanks:@dstickler_01

Ryan Weeks / The Block:

Solidus Labs, which develops monitoring and compliance tools for identifying market manipulation in crypto, raises $20M Series A

More: CoinDesk

Jane Lanhee Lee / Reuters:

South Korea-based Riiid, which offers an AI-based tutor that gives real-time progress evaluations for students, raises $175M from SoftBank Vision Fund 2

More: TechCrunch

Shoko Oda / Bloomberg:

Japan's leading matchmaking app Omiai was hacked in April, exposing personal information, including photo IDs, of 1.7M+ users; no credit card info was leaked

More: TechRadar, Japan Times, and Tech Xplore. Tweets: @staronline

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:

London-based Faculty, an applied AI startup which helps companies adopt AI into their businesses, raises £30M from the Apax Digital Fund

More: Silicon Canals. Thanks:@mikebutcher

Gilad Edelman / Wired:

A look at CaliberAI, a company that develops a tool for detecting potentially libelous claims, which may be particularly valuable for short-staffed newsrooms

More: govtech.com. Tweets: @juliahlna, @juliahlna, @juliahlna, @gadgetlab, @juliahlna, @trinityresinnov, @ei_theusa, @aricohn, and @caliberai

Earlier Picks

Steve Lohr / New York Times:

Profile of Paul Romer, once tech's favorite economist and now a critic, who has championed state taxes on the digital ads sold by Facebook and Google

Tweets: @ramaswmysridhar, @carnage4life, @nytimestech, @anabmap, @charlesmok, @stevesi, @1br0wn, @hoofnagle, @hobnobmobile, @jason_kint, @andrewdessler, @claudferraz, @paulmromer, @jessefelder, @jomicheii, @staceynycdc, @nytimestech, and @naomioreskes

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Twitch launches a category for “Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches” streams, letting creators continue to stream them while letting advertisers and viewers avoid them

Aditya Kalra / Reuters:

India's information technology ministry asks social media companies to take down any content that refers to an “Indian variant” of the coronavirus

More: Protocol, MediaNama, Gizmodo, The Verge, The Guardian, and Insider

Tweets: @shashitharoor, @stevesi, @nixxin, @nixxin, @karen_rebelo, @nixxin, @nixxin, @nixxin, @nixxin, @nixxin, and @pranavdixit

Patrick O'Rourke / MobileSyrup:

Q&A with Apple VP Tim Twerdahl, who says the new Siri Remote doesn't need AirTag's UWB tech because it is too thick to get lost in couch cushions

More: USA Today, MUO, Daily Express, iPhone in Canada Blog, iThinkDifferent, Engadget, Amazon.com, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac, Redmond Pie, CNN, Tom's Guide, and Pocketnow

Tweets: @thomashawk, @stevekovach, @imhassan, @dsilverman, @markgurman, @mcelhearn, @stevemoser, @bzamayo, @patrick_orourke, and @ijustine

José Adorno / 9to5Mac:

Apple says HomePod and HomePod mini will receive a software update in the future to natively support Apple Music Lossless

More: Engadget, Digital Trends, The Mac Observer, Apple Support, The Overspill, iMore, Ubergizmo, Mashable, Digital Trends, TechSpot, The Verge, TechRadar, MSPoweruser, Neowin, iThinkDifferent, iMore, and MacRumors

Tweets: @marcoarment, @viticci, @viticci, @mehnitesh2, @viticci, @samifathi_, @stevemoser, @film_girl, @micahsingleton, @onejarednewman, @parrots, @rsgnl, @rsgnl, @davemark, @tanmays, @bzamayo, @journeydan, and @r3dash