Techmeme
January 10, 2022, 3:40 PM

Top News

Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
Take-Two will acquire Zynga for $12.7B, or $9.86 per share, a 64% premium on Zynga's January 7 closing price; Take-Two develops GTA, Red Dead, and other titles  —  Deal would be about a 64% premium to Zynga's Friday closing stock price  —  Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. agreed …
Moxie Marlinspike / Signal Blog:
Signal CEO Moxie Marlinspike steps down; WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton will act as the interim CEO as the search for a permanent replacement begins  —  It's a new year, and I've decided it's a good time to replace myself as the CEO of Signal.  —  I have now been working on Signal for almost a decade.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Report: European carriers voice opposition to Apple's Private Relay in open letter, as T-Mobile and others begin blocking the VPN-like service, even in the US  —  Earlier today, a report indicated that some European carriers were blocking the Private Relay feature introduced by Apple with iOS 15.
Geoff Ralston / Y Combinator:
YC announces a new standard deal: a $125K investment for 7% of the startup and a further $375K at terms founders can negotiate with future investors  —  We have a new standard deal at Y Combinator.  When a company is accepted into the YC batch program, we now invest a total of $500,000.
Bloomberg:
Profile of Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, worth an estimated $96B, as the company generated an estimated $20B+ in revenue in 2021  —  The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix draws princes, movie stars and world-famous athletes every year to party on Yas Island, the entertainment hub about 30 minutes from the center of downtown.
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Court documents show Google ran a campaign from 2018 to 2020 to “convince” staff that “unions suck”; Google refuses a judge's order to produce more documents  —  New court documents reveal how Google ran its anti-union campaign, ‘Project Vivian,’ between late 2018 and early 2020.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple shares 2021 highlights: developers made $260B+ via the App Store since its debut, up from $200B+ YoY, US and Canadian consumers used 30M tickets in Wallet  —  Apple today highlighted the continued growth and expansion of its services in 2021, including the App Store, Apple Music …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Honor debuts Magic V, its first foldable phone, with 7.9" inner and 6.45" outer displays, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and up to 12GB of RAM, coming to China for ~$1,570  —  Releasing in China soon  —  Former Huawei sub-brand Honor has just announced its first foldable smartphone …
Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal:
Per LinkedIn profiles and former employees, in the past year ~100 people have left Microsoft's AR group that makes HoloLens and employs 1,500+; 40+ joined Meta  —  Around 100 people on the team developing Microsoft's HoloLens augmented-reality headsets have left, mostly to Facebook parent Meta
The Guardian:
EU data watchdog orders Europol to delete much of a vast trove of personal data it obtained unlawfully; internal documents show Europol has at least 4PB of data  —  EU police body accused of unlawfully holding information and aspiring to become an NSA-style mass surveillance agency
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Paul Kiernan / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the SEC is preparing to force more transparency from large private companies, including increasing disclosures and tightening investor qualifications  —  ‘Unicorn’ firms have a huge impact and ‘absolutely no visibility’ for regulators, says SEC Commissioner Allison Lee
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
A roundup of computer monitors launched at CES 2022, with some featuring “smart” functions, mini-LED displays, higher refresh rates, new form factors, and more  —  Turning the page from a fairly boring 2021  —  CES had a pretty good year, and that extends to computer monitors …

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Earlier Picks

Simon Parkin / The Guardian:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer: