Techmeme
April 21, 2022, 12:50 PM

Top News

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Filing: Elon Musk says he has secured $46.5B in financing to acquire Twitter, including a $12.5B loan from Morgan Stanley, and will explore a tender offer  —  - Elon Musk is exploring whether to commence a tender offer for Twitter, according to a new securities filing.
Bloomberg:
Elon Musk's claimed commitment to free speech at Twitter follows years of stifling criticism at Tesla and SpaceX, including those trying to unionize  —  If Elon Musk is able to take over Twitter Inc., his biggest promise is to transform it into a platform for free speech with few restrictions …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Meta is reviewing whether Sheryl Sandberg pressured the Daily Mail in 2016 and 2019 into killing stories about her then-boyfriend Bobby Kotick  —  Social-media executive, who dated the Activision Blizzard CEO, was part of campaign to persuade the U.K. tabloid to shelve a potential article
Ryan Weeks / The Block:
Binance begins enforcing tougher KYC checks on Russian users with holdings exceeding €10,000, following further EU sanctions  —  Crypto exchange Binance is enforcing tougher Know Your Customer (KYC) checks for Russian users after the latest wave of European Union sanctions.
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
New York Times:
Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down CNN+ on April 30, just over one month after it launched  —  The new corporate owners of CNN are moving to end the new streaming service after a splashy debut.  —  Warner Bros. Discovery has decided to shut down CNN+, the ballyhooed streaming service …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon unveils Buy with Prime, which lets third-party merchants use Amazon's shipping and logistics network to fulfill orders on their own sites  —  - Buy with Prime enables third party retailers to take advantage of Amazon's vast shipping and fulfillment network for orders placed on their own site.
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
Sources: the EU is set to unveil the Digital Services Act, which bans targeting users based on religion, gender, and more, among other rules, on Friday  —  Digital Services Act lays out rules for technology groups to keep users safe online  —  The EU is poised to unveil a law on Friday …
Logan Plant / IGN:
Report: Sony is working on a PlayStation program to let select partners insert ads within free-to-play games, similar to a reported Microsoft effort for Xbox  —  Sony is reportedly planning its own program to insert ads into games.  —  After last week's report that Xbox is looking to include …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Spotify now lets all creators in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand upload video podcasts to through Anchor  —  After over a year of more limited tests  —  All creators in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand can now upload video podcasts to Spotify, the streaming service has announced.
Cobie:
A look at the evolution of crypto staking, from a useful tool to a quasi-Ponzi scheme, and how Yuga Labs is effectively paying people in ApeCoin to hold ApeCoin  —  Recently, I was contacted by a member of the board of ApeCoin, which is the BAYC token's equivalent of a board of directors I guess.
Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:
After conversations with regulators, Google announces a redesign of its cookie consent banner in Europe, including a “reject all” button, starting in France  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google said it's rolling out a new European-wide policy allowing users to more easily avoid being tracked on the internet via cookies.
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Instagram plans to tweak its ranking algorithm to highlight original content more and recommend accounts that aggregate and reshare other users' content less  —  Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced today that the company is going to tweak its ranking algorithm to highlight original content more on its platform.
New York Times:
70% of employees at an Atlanta Apple Store agree to hold a union election, making the Apple Store the first to file for a union election with the CWA  —  The petition for a union vote continues a trend of organizing at service-sector employers like Starbucks and Amazon.
Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News:
Seattle-based Convoy, which connects shippers and freight brokers to 400K+ trucks via its app, raises a $160M Series E and $100M in debt at a $3.8B valuation  —  The past couple of years exposed many flaws in the global and domestic supply chains—and investors have taken note that it is an industry ripe for disruption.

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Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Yogita Khatri / The Block: