Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News
Techmeme
May 18, 2022, 8:25 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

Brian Stelter / CNN:
Twitter's board says “Mr. Musk agreed to a transaction at $54.20 per share” and that it intends to “close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement”  —  Who wants to own Twitter?  Maybe Elon Musk doesn't.  Sure, maybe he is causing chaos to extract a lower price …
Bloomberg:
Sources: despite Elon Musk's tweets, his team, Twitter, and banks are preparing the documents needed to close the purchase, including the 139-page SEC filing
Edwin Chan / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk says his Twitter takeover “cannot move forward” until the CEO proves bots are <5% of users, since his offer was based on “SEC filings being accurate”
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Amazon refreshes its Fire 7 tablet with USB-C charging, better battery life, and a 30% faster processor, and raises the price from $50 to $60, coming June 29  —  And faster internals  —  Amazon is updating its small and inexpensive Fire 7 tablet for the first time in three years …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Report: subscribers who have been with Netflix for over three years made up 13% of cancellations in Q1 2022; Netflix hit 3.6M total cancellations last quarter  —  Users subscribed to Netflix for more than three years represented 13 percent of total cancellations
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Following years of complaints, TikTok announces its first crediting tools, letting creators link back to the videos of other creators and trend originators  —  TikTok is finally going to let users of the short-form app properly give credit where credit is due.
New York Times:
A profile of Do Kwon, the trash-talking founder of Terraform Labs, which raised $200M+ to build LUNA and UST; investors cashed out early, but traders lost big  —  Do Kwon, a South Korean entrepreneur, hyped the Luna and TerraUSD cryptocurrencies.  Their failures have devastated some traders …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
In response to rivals' complaints, Microsoft begins relaxing its cloud licensing rules in Europe, which made running its software on other clouds more expensive  —  Microsoft is undoing in Europe some of the restrictive cloud-licensing policies it first announced in 2019 which made running …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
New York accuses Amazon of discriminating against pregnant workers and those with disabilities; the state seeks civil fines and an end to discriminatory conduct  —  - New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced a state agency has filed a complaint against Amazon, alleging it discriminates …
Financial Times:
Filing: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund bought a 5% stake in Nintendo worth $2.98B; the PIF disclosed 5%+ stakes in Nexon and Capcom in February 2022  —  Sovereign wealth fund has already bought into Japan's Capcom and Nexon  —  Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has acquired …
Bloomberg:
Four Democratic senators ask the FTC to investigate whether ID.me illegally misled consumers and government agencies about its use of facial recognition tech  —  A group of Democratic senators has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether identity verification company ID …
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Acer refreshes the Swift 3 laptop, starting at $900 with a 14" OLED display, 12th Gen Intel Core H-series CPUs, and claimed 10-hour battery life, coming in July  —  A new 14-inch OLED for $899.99  —  It wasn't too long ago that the phrase “OLED laptop” implied a luxury product.
Sam Rutherford / Engadget:
Acer unveils the 10.1" Chromebook Tab 510, starting at $400 in July, and the 14" Chromebook Spin 714 with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7, starting at $750 in August
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
New York AG plans to investigate social media platforms “used to stream, promote, or plan” the Buffalo attack, including Twitch, Discord, 4chan, and 8chan  —  - New York Attorney General Letitia James will investigate social media companies in connection to the apparently racially motivated attack …
Financial Times:
China's top economic official meets with dozens of tech execs and experts and pledges “support” for Chinese tech companies amid a deepening economic slump  —  Beijing's top economic official holds meetings with executives and industry experts  —  China's top economic official met dozens …
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Tencent misses estimates with ~$20.1B in Q1 revenue, up 0.1% YoY, as net income dropped 51% YoY to ~$3.5B; Tencent has lost ~$500B in value since its 2021 peak

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data  —  Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics.  Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
Zoho Projects Infinity: Build your projects, your way  —  Embrace an upgraded project management platform—one that adapts to your workflows, and not the other way around.  Say hello to our newest version: Zoho Projects Infinity.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Cheeky Pint:
 The history and future of AI at Google, with Sundar Pichai
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Big Technology Podcast:
 More OpenAI Executive Drama, Is Siri Seriously Broken?, Meta's Elusive Next Hit
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.
Grit:
 How Kevin Mandia Built the Most Trusted Name in Cybersecurity
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
 Head of Growth (Anthropic): "Claude is growing itself at this point" | Amol Avasare
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.
Hard Fork:
 The Future of Addictive Design + Going Deep at DeepMind + HatGPT
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
 Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:25 PM ET, May 18, 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.

From Mediagazer

April Roach / CNBC:
Bill Ackman's Pershing Square proposes to acquire Amsterdam-listed Universal Music Group for €56B in cash and stock, form a merged company, and list on the NYSE

George Grylls / The Times:
A profile of Aaron Rupar, who manages a social media news operation monitoring Trump across 12 TV channels simultaneously, supported by a $50/year Substack

New York Times:
Journalist Shelly Kittleson, abducted in Iraq by an Iranian-aligned militia, has been freed after a week in captivity, per the militia and two Iraqi officials

More News

Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Texas asks SCOTUS to keep the state's social media law in effect; AG Ken Paxton argues that social media platforms should be regulated as common carriers
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
CoinGecko: after Tether briefly lost its dollar peg, leading to $8.5B+ in redemptions, Circle's USDC circulation rose by ~$3.4B and Binance USD gained $1.2B
Wall Street Journal:
Google's Russian subsidiary plans to file for bankruptcy, saying it cannot pay employees, suppliers, and vendors after authorities seized its local bank account
Tomio Geron / Protocol:
Plaid announces two Automated Clearing House transfer products, risk analysis and identify verification, putting the company in direct competition with Stripe

Earlier Picks

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Netflix cuts 150 jobs out of 11K across departments in a new round of layoffs, mostly in the US, as the company reins in costs amid slowing revenue growth
Bloomberg:
Research: despite banning crypto mining, China's global bitcoin hashrate share grew to 21.1% from September 2021 to January 2022, suggesting more covert mining
Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
Celebrities face intensifying criticism for hyping crypto without highlighting the risks after this month's sell-off, as Crypto.com and FTX reduce ad spending
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Ian Goodfellow, Apple's former director of machine learning who left over the company's strict return-to-office policy, is joining Alphabet's DeepMind
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter