Techmeme
July 8, 2021, 7:00 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Book excerpt shows how Zuckerberg and Sandberg's partnership deteriorated during the Trump era, as Zuckerberg increasingly made the biggest policy decisions  —  The company they built is wildly successful.  But her Washington wisdom didn't hold up, and neither did their close working relationship.
CNBC:
Instacart hires Fidji Simo, the head of Facebook's app and one of the highest-ranking female executives at Facebook, as its new CEO starting August 2  —  - Simo will succeed Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta on Aug. 2, and Mehta will transition to executive chairman of the board.
Wilson White / The Keyword:
Google says antitrust suit by 37 AGs is meritless as it ignores competition from Apple's App Store, Android's openness for competing app stores, app sideloading  —  We built Android to create more choices in mobile technology.  Today, anyone, including our competitors …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
AG suit alleges Google tried to “preemptively quash” Samsung's Galaxy app store by offering to pay Samsung, stopping OEMs from offering other stores, and more  —  ‘Competition in app distribution is a virus to be eliminated’  —  Google used anticompetitive practices in an attempt to …
Leah Nylen / Politico:
Zack Seward / CoinDesk:
Crypto financial services company Circle says it is going public via a SPAC merger at a $4.5B valuation  —  The deal values Circle at $4.5 billion.  —  Circle is going public in a deal that values the crypto financial services firm at $4.5 billion, the firm said Thursday.
Sascha Segan / PCMag:
Qualcomm and Asus partner to launch the “Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders”, a $1,499 handset with Snapdragon 888, a glowing Snapdragon logo, and more  —  The Asus-made phone will showcase features that Qualcomm has been promoting but hasn't added to other prominent devices in the US.
Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
How a years-long cybercrime investigation by FBI, Russia, and Ukraine was undone by corruption, rivalry, and stonewalling, resulting in the hackers going free  —  Russia and Ukraine promised to cooperate and help catch the world's most successful hackers.  But things didn't quite go to plan.
Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
A look at Peacock as it enters its second year, considers expansion abroad, and tries to grow paid subscriptions; sources: 20% of Peacock's 14M MAUs pay for it  —  Inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York last month, NBC executives revealed their long-awaited plan to use the Olympics to supercharge their streaming service, Peacock.
Richard Nieva / CNET:
Anger grows among some Google staff about “hypocritical” remote work decisions and transfers as senior exec Urs Hölzle announces plans to work from New Zealand  —  As Google employees around the world make plans for post-pandemic work at the tech giant, Laura de Vesine won't be among them.
FinSMEs:
Instawork, a marketplace that connects hourly workers with employers, raises $60M Series C led by Craft Ventures, bringing its total raised to $100M  —  Instawork, a San Francisco, CA-based digital marketplace connecting local businesses with qualified professionals across the U.S., raised $60m in Series C financing.
Hanna Hoikkala / Bloomberg:
A look at Sweden-based Embracer Group, which oversees 69 game development studios and has become Europe's most valuable game developer following an M&A spree  —  - Embracer's stock jumped more than 30-fold since 2016 debut  — Analyst asks where growth will come from when M&A runs dry
Isabelle Lee / Insider:
Visa partners with 50+ crypto firms, including Coinbase, to let users convert and spend crypto and says $1B+ was spent via crypto-linked Visa cards in H1  —  - Visa is partnering with over 50 crypto companies to allow clients to spend digital currencies.  — This means clients can buy …
CNBC:
Donald Trump sues Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as Zuckerberg, Dorsey, and Pichai, claiming the companies have violated his First Amendment rights  —  - Former President Donald Trump announced he is suing Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as their respective CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai.
Bonnie Kristian / The Week:

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Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes:

Earlier Picks

Fu Ting / Associated Press:
Nishant Sharma / BloombergQuint:
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch: