Note: Techmeme is hiring part-time editors. Apply here or tell a friend!
Techmeme
January 31, 2022, 7:45 PM

Top News

Brendan Sinclair / GamesIndustry.biz:
Sony Interactive Entertainment announces it is buying Bungie, which makes Destiny and other games, for $3.6B; Bungie will become an independent subsidiary  —  Destiny studio will remain multiplatform, able “to self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play”
The New York Times Company:
The New York Times acquires Wordle, the simple word game that has amassed “millions of daily players”, for “an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”  —  Wordle, Josh Wardle's stimulating and wildly popular daily word game, is joining The New York Times's portfolio of original …
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Ryan Breslow, co-founder of one-click checkout startup Bolt, steps down as CEO and becomes executive chairman, after his tweets bashing YC and Stripe went viral  —  Ryan Breslow, who founded the “one-click” checkout tech company Bolt as a Stanford student and dropped out of college to build it …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Meta rolls out updated 3D avatars across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram Stories in the US, Canada, and Mexico  —  It's a step toward the company's concept of the metaverse  —  Facebook parent company Meta is introducing 3D avatars to Instagram Stories and direct messages and updating …
New York Times:
Current and former Meta employees say the company's metaverse moves have caused disruption and uncertainty, as some feel funneled towards AR and VR initiatives  —  Shifting a 68,000-person social networking company toward the theoretical metaverse has caused internal disruption and uncertainty.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Joe Rogan posts a video to Instagram defending booking contentious guests, apologizes to Spotify for the backlash, and says he may book more “experts”  —  'I'm very sorry that this is happening to them.'  —  Joe Rogan has issued a response to the ongoing controversy …
Daniel Ek / Spotify:
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Crypto exchange FTX raises a $400M Series C from SoftBank, Paradigm, Tiger Global, and others at a $32B valuation, up from $25B in October 2021  —  The frothy venture capital market continues to buoy the empire of billionaire trader and entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried.
Wall Street Journal:
Antenna: Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, and others struggle to retain US subscribers who joined to watch a hit show; some subscribers only stay for a few months  —  Roughly half of U.S. viewers who joined right after ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ were gone in six months, data show
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Silvergate Bank confirms it's purchasing the Diem Association's IP and other assets, issuing $132M in stock and paying an additional $50M in cash for the deal  —  The Diem Association is shutting down.  —  Silvergate Bank confirmed Monday that it's purchasing the technology and other assets from Diem …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Phantom, a Solana wallet similar to Ethereum's MetaMask, raises a $109M Series B at a $1.2B valuation, debuts an iOS app, and promises Ethereum support in 2022  —  Quick Take  — Phantom has raised $109 million in Series B funding and is now a unicorn.  — The Solana wallet is looking …
Samuel Stolton / Politico:
Doc: the US is pressing EU officials to revise the Digital Markets Act to focus less on tech giants and ensure that the act covers tech firms outside of the US  —  The United States is pressing the EU to revise rules targeting digital giants to make them focus less on American companies …
Bloomberg:
Gay dating service Grindr removed its app from Apple's App Store in China, citing difficulties keeping it in compliance with the country's privacy law  —  Operators of the Grindr gay-dating service in China removed the app from Apple Inc.'s App Store, citing difficulties keeping it in compliance …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
Warp:
The #1 Coding Agent  —  #1 on Terminal-Bench.  71% on SWE-bench Verified.  Trusted by 600K+ devs.  Try the top agentic dev tool for $1 for 1st month with code TECHMEME.
Zoho:
Boost technician productivity on the go with the Zoho FSM mobile app  —  Life on the move: Inside a technician's daily workflowIn field service, unpredictability is part of the job.  One moment, a technician is on schedule.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Tech Brew Ride Home:
Meta's Smart Headware Push
Tech news headlines every day. 15 minutes and you're up to date. From Tech Brew, Morning Brew's tech hub.
Subscribe to Tech Brew Ride Home.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How the head of Obsidian went from superfan to CEO
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Grit:
Building High-Impact Sales Teams | Dan Lee and Nooks
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why ChatGPT will be the next big growth channel (and how to capitalize on it) | Brian Balfour (Reforge)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Can The Web Survive Generative AI? -- With Matthew Prince
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
GPT-5 Backlash + Perplexity C.E.O. Aravind Srinivas on the Browser Wars + Hot Mess Express
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:45 PM ET, January 31, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Ryan Weeks / The Block:

Earlier Picks