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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From Mediagazer

Paul Glynn / BBC:

HarperCollins UK drops children's author and comedian David Walliams following allegations of inappropriate behavior toward young women

Ken Vogel / @kenvogel:

Politico ends its print edition after 19 years, as its early reliance on print ad revenue fades and its audience relies more on digital platforms

Nicholas Henriquez / New Yorker:

The New Yorker has digitized its full archive covering 100 years, including covers and adding upgraded search capabilities; subscribers get unlimited access

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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