Techmeme
June 24, 2021, 8:35 AM

Top News

John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:
After debate, House committee approves five major antitrust bills, including regulations on user data portability and acquisitions of competitors  —  Tech companies to take the battle over the proposed new regulations and oversight to the House floor and Senate
Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:
In a new report, Apple says letting iOS users sideload apps would undermine privacy protections, complicate parental controls, and potentially expose user data  —  Company says allowing users to download software onto their iPhones without using the App Store jeopardizes protections
Politico:
Lillian Rizzo / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Peacock had fewer than 10M paid subs as of May; Comcast is considering a deal with ViacomCBS or acquiring Roku as it seeks to become a streaming giant  —  The broadband and cable company, which owns NBCUniversal, sticks with its marriage of content and delivery, though AT&T has reversed course
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Google and Jio Platforms announce JioPhone Next, an affordable phone powered by an optimized version of Android; phone will debut in India on September 10  —  Jio Platforms, run by India's richest man (Mukesh Ambani), and Google on Thursday unveiled the JioPhone Next, an affordable Android smartphone …
Simon Clark / Wall Street Journal:
Visa buys Sweden-based Tink, which offers open banking APIs used by more than 3,400 banks and financial institutions in Europe, for €1.8B  —  Tink would give Visa a foothold in open banking, which connects consumers to multiple financial institutions  —  Visa Inc. agreed to pay …
Reuters:
John McAfee has died in a Spanish jail cell by suicide according to his lawyer, hours after news that he would be extradited to face federal charges in the US  —  Antivirus creator John McAfee, 75, was found dead in his prison cell in Barcelona after the Spanish high court had authorised …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram says it will test mixing suggested posts throughout primary feeds, even above posts from people users follow, and adds new controls  —  A priority on algorithm-chosen content  —  Instagram says reception to its “suggested posts” feature has been so positive that it's launching a new test …
Bloomberg:
Two South African brothers who founded crypto investment firm Africrypt vanished with ~69,000 bitcoins, worth $3.6B+, after informing clients of an alleged hack  —  - Lawyers hired by investors piece together funds' disappearance  — Africrypt loss would rank among biggest-ever crypto heists
David Cox / Wired UK:
DeepMind partners with Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative, after its AlphaFold AI had considerable success in finding new treatments for sleeping sickness  —  In 2020, DeepMind solved one of biology's biggest challenges.  Now it's working on using its AI to find drugs to target neglected diseases
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Anna Kramer / Protocol:
Profile of Twitter's Machine Learning, Ethics, Transparency, and Accountability team, as Responsible ML becomes one of the company's top priorities in 2021  —  Machine learning engineer Ari Font was worried about the future of Twitter's algorithms.  It was mid-2020, and the leader …
Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
Apple launches App Store search ads in China, five years after launching in the US  —  After launching five years ago in the United States, Apple's search advertising service finally arrived in mainland China this week.  —  The feature, called Apple Search Ads, lets developers bid …
More: 9to5Mac
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Filing: Wise, previously TransferWise, plans to go public on the London Stock Exchange via a direct listing in early July, reportedly at a $6B-$7B valuation  —  Following Wise's announcement earlier this month that it planned to go public by way of a direct listing on the LSE …
Bloomberg:
Data infrastructure software maker Confluent raises $828M in its US IPO at a valuation of about $9B; Confluent was last valued at $4.5B last year  —  Data infrastructure software maker Confluent Inc. raised $828 million in its U.S. initial public offering, pricing its shares above a marketed range.

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More News

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Wall Street Journal:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: