Techmeme: Kraken acquires non-custodial staking platform Staked and claims it's “one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date”, but doesn't disclose a price (Jamie Crawley/CoinDesk)

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December 22, 2021, 1:30 AM

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Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:

Jack Dorsey sparks uproar by tweeting “You don't own ‘web3.’ ...VCs and their LPs do. It will never escape their incentives. It's ultimately a centralized entity” — Fresh off relinquishing the chief executive reins of Twitter Inc., Bitcoin enthusiast Jack Dorsey …

Source: @jack. More: Slate, The Verge, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, Decrypt, TNW, PYMNTS.com, Bankless Times, CryptoSlate, Engadget, Livemint, KnowTechie, BGR India, Crypto Briefing, and India Today

Tweets: @elonmusk, @jack, @jack, @joemccann, @balajis, @jack, @balajis, @antoniogm, @pt, @kelseyhightower, @jack, @mdudas, @balajis, @packym, @erikvoorhees, @jack, @cdixon, @kevinsekniqi, @mdudas, @karlbode, @adamscochran, @howardlindzon, @gaberivera, @slightlylate, @lopp, @antoniogm, @jack, @ourielohayon, @thestalwart, @cdharrison, @pitdesi, @getongab, @nadertheory, @nikitabier, @samecwilliams, @thestalwart, @mutedialog, @pierce, @backlon, @jason, @grady_booch, @kelseyhightower, @terenceleejx, @joemccann, @jakeudell, @thestalwart, @thestalwart, @balajis, @iamdcinvestor, @trungtphan, @shonaghosh, @taha_zafar12, @liamspradlin, @cdixon, @punk6529, @asvanevik, @olivierjanss, @olivierjanss, @bigblackjacobin, @ashleevance, @arthurb, @jacklipstone, @levie, @vladsavov, @silvermanjacob, @cdixon, @anildash, @mdudas, and @kelseyhightower

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Amid COVID-19 concerns, Meta, Amazon, Ring, and Twitter cancel in-person CES plans, while T-Mobile and AMD plan a limited presence, as others monitor conditions — - Google, HTC, Samsung and Sony still currently plan to go — Host of CES conference remains steadfast in moving forward

More: T-Mobile, The Verge, CNET, Reuters, New York Post, BGR India, Ad Age, Adweek, Samsung Newsroom, TmoNews, and Light Reading

Tweets: @mikesievert, @epro, @markgurman, @bdsams, and @caro_milanesi

Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:

Kraken acquires non-custodial staking platform Staked and claims it's “one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date”, but doesn't disclose a price — The crypto exchange referred to the deal as “one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date” but did not disclose the amount paid.

More: Business Wire, Kraken Blog, Crypto Briefing, City A.M., Bankless Times, SiliconANGLE, Blockworks, Cointelegraph, The Block, and CryptoNinjas

Tweets: @jespow, @cointelegraph, @asvanevik, @mayazi, @brianchoffman, and @krakenfx

Mehul Srivastava / Financial Times:

Sources describe how a 2019 NSO deal to sell Pegasus services to Uganda, followed by US diplomats being hacked in Uganda using Pegasus, led to NSO's decline — For years, the Israeli spyware maker thrived through scandal. Then, US diplomats in Uganda got hacked by Pegasus

More: iThinkDifferent, BGR, The Electronic Intifada, and Daring Fireball

Tweets: @leshaque, @qataharraymond, and @kizzabesigye1

The Cloudflare Blog:

TikTok.com was the most popular domain globally between August and December 2021, after passing Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon this year — Loading... Sofia Cardita — The years come and go, Internet traffic continues to grow (at least so far and with some ‘help’ from the pandemic) …

More: First Futurist, CNET, TechRadar, The Register, Gizmodo, Android Headlines, and Slashdot

Tweets: @b_fung, @flyfazfly, @epro, @evelyndouek, @rsbutner, @carnage4life, @ericxtang, and @cloudflare

Todd Spangler / Variety:

AT&T plans to sell its Xandr programmatic advertising marketplace to Microsoft; the deal would not include the ad sales business supporting DirecTV — Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed; the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory reviews.

More: PR Newswire, Wall Street Journal, AdExchanger, Microsoft Advertising, Digiday, The Information, Bloomberg, Marketing Dive, SiliconANGLE, GeekWire, Tech Xplore, MSPoweruser, Axios, Deadline, and TechRadar

Tweets: @aripap, @aaronwall, @aexm, @sarafischer, @msftadvertising, @xandr, @msftnews, @epro, and @ericjackson

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From Mediagazer

New York Times:

Memos: Will Lewis has stepped down as WaPo publisher and CEO; former Tumblr CEO Jeff D'Onofrio, who joined WaPo last June as CFO, is acting publisher and CEO

Hadas Gold / CNN:

Anthropic is running Super Bowl ads criticizing ads in chatbots, prompting a public response from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defending plans for ads in ChatGPT

C.J. Robinson / Columbia Journalism Review:

A look at the FOIA system, as right-wing media networks flood it with robo-requests, the number of FOIA agents stays flat, and states opt for higher fees

More News

Chris Welch / The Verge:

TCL resumes selling its Google TVs after recently pulling the entire lineup from Best Buy and rolling out software updates to fix performance issues

More: 9to5Google. Tweets: @chriswelch

The Information:

Sources: Bolt, which offers a one-click checkout service, is seeking to raise ~$400M at a $14B valuation, after raising $393M at an $11B valuation in October

Kimberly Chin / Wall Street Journal:

McDonald's is selling Dynamic Yield, a startup it acquired for $300M+ in 2019 that helps retailers offer personalized digital promotions, to Mastercard

More: PYMNTS.com, CNBC, Business Wire, Benzinga, The Times of Israel, Marketing Dive, PYMNTS.com, QSR magazine, Barron's Online, Globes Online, Restaurant Business, Finextra, CTech, and Bloomberg

Tweets: @mastercardnews, @jerrycap, and @martyswant

Andrew Hayward / Decrypt:

Render Network, a P2P network that offers remote rendering power for 3D visuals, raises $30M led by Multicoin Capital, bringing its total funding to $50M

More: The Block

Obey Manayiti / Financial Times:

Walmart, Target, and others deploy tools to track and block bots from snapping up products before Christmas amid a 73% rise in bot traffic between Oct. and Nov.

More: Insider, TechSpot, PYMNTS.com, and Wired

Tweets: @lindayueh and @financialtimes

Politico:

Sources detail Amazon's increasingly close relationship with the DOJ and FBI, as it tips off the agencies to investigate its employees and third-party sellers

Tweets: @birnbaum_e, @_jack_poulson, @realjunsonchan, @amy_k_nelson, @dlippman, @dlippman, @amy_k_nelson, @ali_lev, @dlippman, and @amy_k_nelson

Juro Osawa / The Information:

Sources: despite resigning as CEO and chair, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming remains as active as ever, focusing on long-term business opportunities and strategy

Tweets: @alexeheath, @sam_l_shead, @theinformation, and @juroosawa

Kyle Alspach / VentureBeat:

PlainID, which offers enterprise identity and access management tools, raises a $75M Series C led by Insight Partners, bringing its total funding to $100M

More: Globes Online, CTech, SiliconANGLE, Geektime, and SecurityWeek

Earlier Picks

Anna Heim / TechCrunch:

Tackle, which helps companies sell software on AWS, GCP, Azure, and Red Hat marketplaces, raises a $100M Series C led by Coatue and a16z at a $1.25B valuation

More: PR Newswire, Tackle, SiliconANGLE, VentureBeat, and Buffalo Business Journal. Tweets: @rseroter

Stephanie Chan / Sensor Tower Blog:

In 2021, 906 developers are projected to pass $1M annual revenue for the first time on Apple's App Store and Google Play, vs. 475 in 2016 and 1,003 in 2020

More: The Mac Observer, iMore, iThinkDifferent, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, and iPhone in Canada Blog. Tweets: @sensortower

Christine Hall / TechCrunch:

Next-day package delivery startup Veho raises a $125M Series A led by General Catalyst at a $1B valuation to grow from 14 to 50 US markets by the end of 2022

More: Series A, Crunchbase News, KFXP-TV, and Retail Technology …

Tweets: @techstars and @generalcatalyst

P.R. Venkat / Wall Street Journal:

China Mobile plans to raise up to nearly $8.8B in its Shanghai IPO, selling shares for around $9, about a year after being delisted from the NYSE

More: SiliconANGLE, Reuters, and Bloomberg

Sahar Massachi / MIT Technology Review:

A framework for fixing social media: apply lessons from physical cities, prevent fake accounts, improve corporate behavior, and listen to integrity workers

More: Yenta. Tweets: @roughtype, @bengoldsmith, @marklittlenews, @kara_dunford, @etbrooking, @samidh, @sayhar, @sayhar, @sayhar, @sayhar, @sayhar, @sayhar, @sayhar, and @sayhar

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:

The US DOJ charges five Russian nationals with hacking two SEC Filing Agents between January 2018 and September 2020, and using the stolen info for stock trades

More: Metacurity, U.S. Department of Justice, Security Affairs, BleepingComputer, CNN, Gizmodo, Dark Reading, Wall Street Journal, CyberScoop, and iTnews

Tweets: @fbi and @campuscodi

Brian Sozzi / Yahoo Finance:

Rocket Companies, a consumer finance-focused holding company, will pay $1.275B in cash to acquire personal finance app Truebill, which has 2.5M members

More: TechCrunch, Reuters, MarketWatch, Crain's Detroit Business, Technical.ly DC, Detroit Free Press, PYMNTS.com, FinLedger, Protocol, PR Newswire, and Crowdfund Insider

Tweets: @davidmarcus, @ekp, @yoda, @sarthakgh, and @gokulr

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:

Oracle will acquire electronic medical records company Cerner for $28.3B, or $95 per share, in an all-cash deal, its biggest acquisition yet