Techmeme
February 1, 2022, 11:00 AM

Top News

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 …
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”
David McLaughlin / Bloomberg:
Source: the FTC, not the DOJ, is reviewing Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition and will focus on potential harm to rivals  —  The U.S. antitrust review of Microsoft Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will be handled by the Federal Trade Commission …
Maximiliano Firtman / firt.dev:
iOS 15.4 beta code shows Apple is working on support for Safari push notifications for web-based apps  —  iOS 15.4 beta has finally added icon support in the manifest, Web Push, AR, and VR experiments.  —  Twitter @firt About Newsletter  —  About 8 min reading time
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India proposes a 30% tax on income from the transfer of crypto, NFTs, and other digital assets and will launch a digital rupee in the next financial year  —  India on Tuesday proposed launching digital rupee in within a year and a 30% tax on income from transfer of virtual digital assets …
John Hendel / Politico:
Nonprofit suicide chat service Crisis Text Line ends its data sharing relationship with for-profit spinoff Loris.ai and asks the company to delete existing data  —  The nonprofit mental-health hotline Crisis Text Line ended its data-sharing relationship with a for-profit spinoff Monday …
Taylor Lyles / IGN:
Discord starts letting US PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 users link their PSN accounts and display game activity; support for more countries is coming soon  —  Support will roll out first to US users, though.  —  PlayStation owners will able to connect their accounts to Discord starting today …
Tom Krisher / Associated Press:
Docs: Tesla will issue an OTA update to its FSD software that let vehicles roll through stop signs without coming to a halt, affecting around 54,000 vehicles  —  DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their “Full Self-Driving” software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt.
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 …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Metronome, which helps SaaS companies charge on a usage basis using its APIs, raises a $30M Series A led by a16z  —  As more software companies shift to more flexible pricing models based on consumption, many are choosing to charge customers on a per-use, or usage, basis.
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Lunchbox, which offers restaurants tools for ordering, managing apps, and other tech, raises a $50M Series B led by Coatue after a $20M Series A in October 2020  —  It's not a secret that the restaurant industry was a late adopter of technology, a move that unfortunately left many restaurants unprepared …
More: FinSMEs
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Silvergate Bank confirms it is purchasing the Diem Association's tech and other assets by issuing $132M in stock and paying $50M in cash; Diem is shutting down  —  The Diem Association is shutting down.  —  Silvergate Bank confirmed Monday that it's purchasing the technology and other assets from Diem …
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Metafy, a marketplace for video game coaching, raises a $25M Series A led by Tiger Global and Seven Seven Six, following a $8.65M seed in 2021  —  Metafy, a startup that operates a marketplace for video game coaching, announced this morning that it has closed a $25 million Series A. Tiger Global …
Wall Street Journal:
Indian politician Rahul Gandhi writes to Twitter's CEO alleging it has been unwittingly complicit in a government campaign to limit new followers to his account  —  Politician writes to Twitter CEO to complain about curbs he blames on India's government, highlighting how New Delhi polices U.S. social media companies
Ann-Marie Alcántara / Wall Street Journal:
Pinterest adds an augmented reality tool for furniture to its mobile app, letting users see how 20K products from retail partners would look in their homes  —  The new tool expands on its existing technology used for beauty products  —  Pinterest Inc. is introducing a new augmented reality tool …
More: Engadget and The VergeThanks:@malliegator
Dan Taylor / Tech.eu:
Finnish startup MariaDB raises a $104M Series D and plans for an IPO on the NYSE via a SPAC merger  —  Finland's MariaDB has closed a $104 million Series D private placement round and announced its intention to become a publicly-traded entity on the New York Stock Exchange via a merger …
Source: Business Wire

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Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:
Sam Byford / The Verge: