Techmeme
December 16, 2021, 6:10 AM

Top News

Reddit:
Reddit confidentially files its S-1 with the SEC for an IPO; the number of shares to be offered and the price range have yet to be determined  —  Reddit, Inc. today announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission …
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Reddit, home to 100K+ active communities visited by 50M+ people every day, has raised $1B+ over its lifetime and was most recently valued at $10B+ in August  —  Reddit announced on Wednesday that it had confidentially filed paperwork for an eventual public offering of its stock …
Project Zero:
A deep dive into an NSO zero-click iMessage exploit, captured in the wild by Citizen Lab and one of the most sophisticated Google's Project Zero has seen  —  We want to thank Citizen Lab for sharing a sample of the FORCEDENTRY exploit with us, and Apple's Security Engineering and Architecture …
Reuters:
Eighteen Democratic lawmakers ask the Treasury and State Departments for Magnitsky rights abuse sanctions on four spyware firms, including NSO and DarkMatter  —  A group of U.S. lawmakers is asking the Treasury Department and State Department to sanction Israeli spyware firm NSO Group and three …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Memo: Apple delays its return to corporate offices to a “date yet to be determined”, after previously setting a February 1 return date  —  - Company had planned to bring corporate workers back by Feb. 1  — Delay comes in response to rising Covid-19 cases, new variant
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple closes three retail stores in Miami, Annapolis, and Ottawa, Canada after a rise in employee COVID-19 cases and exposures  —  - Company is closing locations in Miami, Maryland and Ottawa  — Cases and exposure among Apple's employees spurred the move
Dan Primack / Axios:
Katie Haun is leaving Andreessen Horowitz to start a new firm focusing on crypto and Web3 startups; Haun's deals at a16z included OpenSea and Coinbase  —  Katie Haun, one of the world's most influential crypto venture capitalists, is leaving Andreessen Horowitz to form her own firm.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
IBM and Samsung say Vertical Transport Field Effect Transistors, an alternative to FinFET chip designs, can offer 2x performance, amid similar claims from Intel  —  The next big advance in chips is looking up  —  IBM and Samsung have announced their latest advance in semiconductor design …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon says it will reduce its Alexa skills commission from 30% to 20% for developers who earn less than $1M per year, starting in Q2 2022  —  Amazon is joining other tech giants by lowering its cut of developer revenue generated by voice apps, known as Alexa skills, which run on Amazon's smart speakers and other Alexa-powered devices.
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft and cybersecurity company Mandiant say state-backed hacking groups linked to China, Iran, North Korea, and Turkey are exploiting the Log4j flaw  —  Researchers call it one of the most dire cybersecurity threats to emerge in years and could enable devastating attacks
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Apple quietly removes all mentions of CSAM scanning on its Child Safety webpage, but says its plans have not changed since September when it delayed the feature  —  Apple has quietly nixed all mentions of CSAM from its Child Safety webpage, suggesting its controversial plan …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Hamburg-based Taxdoo, which offers API-based tools for e-commerce tax and accounting, raises a $64M Series B led by Tiger Global, bringing total funding to $84M  —  With e-commerce becoming increasingly globalized, a company called Taxdoo, which builds API-based tools to help e-commerce companies …
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
German startup financing service Re:cap, which helps convert ARR into non-dilutive investment, raises a $111.5M seed  —  Re:cap, a non-dilutive funding platform in a similar vein to Pipe.com and Capchase but based in Europe, has closed a Seed financing round of $111.5 million …
More: Tech.euTweets: @rafatThanks:@mikebutcher
Gillian Tan / Bloomberg:
Stocktwits, a social network used by traders and investors, raises $30M, source says at a $210M valuation, led by Alameda Research and says it has 1M MAUs  —  Stocktwits, a social-media platform used by day traders and other retail investors, raised $30 million in a funding round led by Alameda Research Ventures.
Henry Mance / Financial Times:
Interview with Nick Clegg, Meta's VP of global affairs, on moving from politics to Meta, the impact of Haugen's leaks, and the decision to ban Trump  —  Nick Clegg may be available in Berlin.  He has a slot in Paris.  He'll make time for lunch in Brussels.
Aditya Kalra / Reuters:
ShareChat, a social network offered in 15 Indian languages, raises a $266M Series G led by Alkeon Capital at a $3.7B valuation  —  Indian content-sharing platform ShareChat on Thursday said it had raised $266 million in fresh funding from U.S.-based Alkeon Capital and some existing investors, pushing its valuation to $3.7 billion.
Rest of World:
Internal report: employees at Wildlife Studios, a Brazilian mobile game maker valued at $3B, have repeatedly alleged gender wage imbalances and discrimination  —  The free-to-play gaming company valued at $3 billion has struggled with allegations of gender discrimination and unequal pay, according to a 2020 report.

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More News

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:

Earlier Picks

Kyle Alspach / VentureBeat:
Sankalp Phartiyal / Reuters:
Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss / Reuters:
Emily Birnbaum / Politico:
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: